Back in the 80's, when I was. . . younger, I had a vivid dream in which I was watching cows grazing in a field. As I watched, one of the cows transformed into a line drawing.

I woke up with a very strong urge to DRAW like that. Now I was always the one in art class that had holes in my paper from all the erasing, lol. Could NOT draw. No talent, aptitude or desire for it, whatsoever.

Suddenly, I really wanted to draw. I bought an art tablet and started with simple shapes. Filled pages with them. Then I began to try to copy pictures in my children's books. I came across a book called "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" and there I learned to draw upside down. Felt the shift to another part of my brain I hadn't been using. Drawing became a passion with me and I began to do pretty well at copying other drawings. I did one of Norman Rockwell's and was happy with it.

Years later, I decided I wanted to add color to my drawings but didn't know what to use, what to do. I found a woman who was giving oil painting lessons in her home and signed up. I found out then that oil painting didn't have much to do with the detail drawing I had been doing, but I liked it anyway. So I began painting with oils. Once I learned the techniques I got pretty good at it. Good enough that when my boss let me hang my paintings in the office people offered me money for them.

Life happens. Life gets in the way. I stopped painting and drawing for a long time. Over a decade. Then I found a watercolor class at my local community center and signed up for it.

NOW I have something that I can do to add color to my drawing. Watercolor and drawing go well together. I'm stil rusty from the long hiatus, but I'm definitely back "into it".

So that's how I started my hobby and developed a passion for it. Even when I can't actually DO IT, I think of it, dream of it, and look at the type of art I love, every single day, on the internet. I've lately developed a passion just for color and am experimenting in ways to add or change the color in paintings.

If I could just develop a passion for digital cameras, lol, I could post my more recent work online. Have to work on that.

Karen