The Art in Emotions
Expressing yourself through a canvas
I had a fight with one of my good friends a few days ago. I was beyond furious for no reason at all. Sadly, I couldn’t find anyone on my campus willing to be my punching bag. I felt helpless and had to seek other options. Eventually, I did find a better way to vent out my anger: It was on a black chart paper.
Painting has been a medium of expressing oneself since ancient times. The jataka tales depicted on the Ajanta caves dated 2nd century BCE to the Madhubani paintings on the walls of homes in Bihar are exquisite examples of expressing oneself through art.
When I paint, it gives me a sense of freedom and solitude. It is like rerouting your emotions from you onto the canvas. I find it easier to express what I think and what I feel through colours rather than through words. The huge empty space before me helps me focus and allows me to experiment with colours and strokes.
Painting puts into picture what words don’t. What’s great about art is that you don’t need to be artistic to be an artist!
All you need is a few supplies! Steps to being a good artist:
- Let your imagination run wild.
- Do not restrict yourself. Think about your dreams. Think about how you would want the world to be. Think about what things you love and do and the things you wish to do. Think about what made your day today the way it was. Think about places you would love to visit. Think about what you are thinking. Think about how you are feeling.
- And put it all on the blank canvas before you!
The hundreds of shades you could make with the right proportions of red, blue and yellow are just amazing. From the monochromatic greys to the vivid shades of red and blue, all have their own significance. They give life to the picture that is your creation.
Colours always played an important role in my life. During my interview for admission to kindergartens, my teacher asked me to recognise the colour of an object. I cleared my interview with ‘flying colours’ because the object happened to be pink, the only colour I knew at that age. And ever since then, I and my colours have been good companions throughout.
- The blues to me are the cool waves of the ocean, or maybe the calm before the raging storm or perhaps the vastness of the sky.
- Red is for fierceness or anger, or the warmth of blood or fire.
- Orange and yellow are the most cheerful and brightest colours of all. The greens and the browns are not my kind of colours.
- Sometimes there is nothing better than white against black. It’s amazing how a sheet of white paper and a bit of charcoal or black paint can transform into your next masterpiece.
Choose the medium you like the best and you are comfortable working with. Oil pastels or dry pastels, water colours, acrylics or posters, pencils, charcoal, brushes, knives, sketch pens, or markers. Anything and everything looks good, once it’s on paper.
It’s okay if you don’t make the next Mona Lisa on your first try.
Love what you create, because it’s unique and it’s your own hard work!