Did you know Winston Churchill PAINTED?  (that’s his painting above).

 And then wrote a book about it?   (A great little read you can do  in an evening .)

It’s  really about the  need  for relief, rest and recovery; when  you deal with mental overstrain and worry…and for people who, over prolong periods bear exceptional  responsibilities and duties.  This little essay offers a wonderful new interest for anyone who wants to rest and refresh their analytical mentality on occasion.  Churchill suggests that  “it is no use saying to the tired ‘mental  muscles’”:  ‘I will give you a good rest,’ ‘I will go for a long walk,’   or ‘I will lie down and think of nothing.’. 

The mind keeps busy, weighing, measuring, and worrying just the same. 

The answer lies in change.

Churchill writes in this essay that he took up the hobby of oil painting because he wearied himself in the serious matters on the world stage and needed a restorative means of relaxing. He discovered that the art of oil painting 1) is relatively easy for a hobbyist to cultivate and 2) enriches the painter by giving him new eyes, letting him see even everyday things in a new way, and presents challenges to be studied carefully and then painted. 
He describes his first tentative  tiny brushstroke on a large, white, intimidating canvas.   Until a lady friend walked up, grabbed his brush, and walloped a large blob of paint on the “cowering canvas” with “audacity”. That move freed him. 

Churchill writes that once you start painting, things like the light on water, the changing clouds, and the hidden tones in rocks can preoccupy you for hours as you try to get exactly the right variations of  color and brush stroke. 
He concludes as he began, by commenting how refreshing this hobby is, and he recommends oil as the most forgiving medium for beginners. It really is a surprising discovery of a little book for anyone interested in personal development. 
As Churchill writes, "Whether you feel that your soul is pleased by the conception of contemplation of harmonies, or that your mind is stimulated by the aspect of magnificent problems, or whether you are content to find fun in trying to observe and depict the jolly things you see, the vistas of possibility are limited only by the shortness of life. Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb."

 By the way, if you’ve never painted and don’t know where to begin… drop me an email, I can help you get started. J

lyn@lynlasneski.com

http:/freedomthroughart.com (for my blog)

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Lyn Lasneski

PO Box 456

Depoe Bay, Or 97341

lyn@lynlasneski.com

http:/freedomthroughart.com (for my blog)

htttp:/twitter.com/lynlasneski

Posted via email from For the Love of Beauty and Adventure!

“A Spring-time Heart”

Creativity requires that we be young at heart.  My painting above symbolizes having a spring-time heart.

We are never too old to have one.  It means being willing to be a beginner and having fresh eyes.

Having a “beginner’s mind” everyday is key to genius-level creativity.  All of us have an opportunity to be a genius today.  Maybe it will happen, maybe it won’t.  But I can tell you that if you “try” to be a genius and think your way through a thing, it’s probably NOT going to happen. However you can play at it.   Join into the fun of it.  Something wonderful can happen, and it will be worth it no matter what, because art, creativity, and life is about the PROCESS.

“Happiness sneaks in through a door you didn’t know was open.” ~John Barrymore

 It takes courage to pursue something you love or have always wanted to try, and not let the result or what people say or think deter you.  Again, focusing on the process and not the product is the fun little secret.    It’s no use thinking about the distance between here and where you want to be.  I had a  71 year old man who came to me and asked me to teach him to fly (I’m a Certified Flight Instructor as well as artist.)  I thought he was too old, too slow,  smoked too much, and would keel over dead before he got his license.   (Shame on me.)  I taught him anyway, and he became one of my favorite students.  A year and half later, he was flying his own airplane and taking his wife and others up to their great enjoyment.

Don’t be too proud to look for a good instructor at whatever; someone patient, encouraging and a good match for your temperament.  It could save you lots of anguish.  Or ask some friends to join you.  Creativity  (simple or complex) can be fabulous therapy for whatever ails you: be it heart-break, pain, or just plain feeling old. 

Choose something enticing about which you have been procrastinating.  Imagine yourself actually doing it for a minute; then, for today, all you need is the grace to begin beginning.  Be willing to start  small.  

Act like Pooh Bear about it.  The years will fall from your face.  It’s a great wrinkle-reducer.

lyn@lynlasneski.com

http:/freedomthroughart.com (for my blog)

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Posted via email from For the Love of Beauty and Adventure!

Several years ago a group of artists (including me) toured through Europe, painting and “following in the footsteps of Vincent Van Gogh”.  It  was not without some interesting and humorous moments: 

Like when we first arrived in Brussels.  You have to begin knowing there was 11 of us traveling together in a van that held only 10; much less luggage, easels, and paint supplies.  So these we deftly piled high on top of the van, with ropes, plastic tarps and knots going every which way.  When we arrived at the classy, beautiful hotel waiting for us in Brussels, the gentlemen who came out to help us “get our luggage”; were quite taken aback and eyed us with suspicion.  Just then we glanced into the very large windows of the hotel and   our reflection gave us a clue to their concerns:  we saw something very comparable to the Beverly Hill-Billy’s newly arrived in the big city.  Only we were an odd-looking bunch of American artists newly arrived in the city of Brussels with all our peculiar artistic possessions tied helter-skelter nearly 3 feet higher than the top of the van!  We burst into laughter. 

Or the time when we were on the long trek from Belgium to Paris.  An accident held us up at one point, plus we had stopped to paint “en plein air” (French for painting on sight.) a view that left us breathless along the way.  It looked as if we weren’t going to make Paris until 2:00am.  At 9:00 pm, tired and hungry, somebody spied the friendly, familiar “yellow arches” of MacDonald’s along the way.  A welcome sight.  We poured out of the van, and into the restaurant at amazing speed for a tired group, and ordered immediately….   only they didn’t speak a word of English, and we didn’t speak a word of French.  No matter, we persisted in our English, insisting on such things as hamburgers “without mayo!”, etc.  They too were doing their best trying to tell us something in French.  We barely noticed the restaurant was empty of other customers, or that it was cleaned spotless.  The poor French girls finally gave in, took our orders and ushered us right back out the door, unlocking and locking it each time one of us had finished our order.  It was then we realized that they had probably been trying to tell us they were closed, while we were pressing the “no mayo” issue.  The poor things were shooing us out the door so as not to mess the freshly cleaned tables.

Then there was the exciting invitation to meet with Mr. Sennelier, the great grandfather of the Mr. Sennelier who once sold paint to Vincent Van Gogh out of the exact same tiny art store, “Sennelier Art Supply” (across from the Louvre in Paris) 130 years before!  We were led up a rickety, narrow, winding old staircase to a tiny, old office, with a desk nearly the size of the room. Papers, books, and jars of colorful pigment piled high everywhere.  We gathered round the desk, and were served champagne as Mr. Sennelier regaled us with stories and histories of art and artists. An awesome experience.

lyn@lynlasneski.com

http:/freedomthroughart.com (for my blog)

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Posted via email from For the Love of Beauty and Adventure!

Often when we’re lonely  and we’re struggling  to find a lover or partner, we can get in a hurry and settle.   Don’t settle.  Never settle.  You’ll regret it.

So what are some of the important issues to focus on?

1.    Find people who value you and treat you with respect.  Go where you are celebrated, not where you are tolerated. 

2.     Learn how to recognize toxic relationships and when to walk away.

3.    You need to find someone who can stir up the dream/destiny  inside of you.

Here are some difficult things  worth thinking about  realistically:  

     a.   Identify and accept the reality of the relationship.

b.  You can’t conquer that which you don’t confront and which you don’t identify.

c.  There are 4 kinds of relationship:  a relationship either adds to your life, subtracts, divides,  or multiplies “life”   in and around you.

d.     Some relationships are for a season.  They may be “boosters” at first, but you have to leave, because they hold you to a mentality or a past.  

e.      You become a product of what you hang around.

f.        People change, but not much.

g.       People change, but not much.

h.    You cannot force feed someone who is not hungry to eat. 

i.        Are you really willing to pay the price for a “work under construction”?

Be patient and wait.   (I know, I know, easy for me to say.)   But God has good things for  you.  He loves you.  He wants to bless you.  But you can never love someone else, until you love yourself.  (And you can’t really love yourself fully, until you know the deep, unconditional love of the One who created you.   Not wanting to sound religious,   it’s just true.  How many people really accept  themselves fully and lovingly?)  Trust God, trust  yourself, and don’t settle.

Do you get it?  DON’T SETTLE.

lyn@lynlasneski.com

http:/freedomthroughart.com (for my blog)

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Posted via email from Sex, Pleasure and Intimacy