Painting a Mural

Something for my bucket list was to paint a mural. I had always hoped my first attempted at painting a mural would have come at a much younger age, however you take the opportunities when they arise. So, only months before my sixtieth year I painted my first ever mural.

To say I was slightly worried is an understatement, so many "what if's" went through my mind. The usual artist worries, "what if the painting is terrible? What if I can't get everything in perspective? What if I'm not as good as I thought? Only this time I had the...what if I can't physically do this? What if I'm too old? What if... what if... what if...?

Despite all these what if's I was determined to give it a go. Give it a go I did. I painted a sketch on three panels of small canvas first. Just so I had some idea of what I wanted to do and to also to see if the subject and theme fitted with what was wanted for the job. Having that sketch helped me to calm the what ifs, as I now had a direction. Then it was to work it out on to the actual wall and then to paint it. (You can see the process here.} As soon as I started painting all the what if's fell away. When painting brings joy and delight to your soul there is nothing to fear. Even if the outcome isn't what you hoped, there is always a joy in the act of creating and learning. With the mural as my son told me, if we don't like it we can just paint over it. So with that in mind I just painted and enjoyed every minute, especially when my granddaughter came and helped with some painting. So no matter your age, if there is an opportunity to give something a go, anything, even if it is outside your comfort zone then give it a try. You will be glad that you did. Now I look forward to painting other murals.