Feeling a bit unaccomplished after going to gallery opening..

Could they not have brought one in to draw from?
My art teacher said I could draw recognisable horses, but unforunately that was all.

At school, in the 6th Form the Art teacher told us all to draw a chrysanthemum. I had never knowingly seen one.

Whatever gives you joy ; whatever your talent do it. Never mind your age. I am over eighty and just had my second book published. I would never have envisaged that when younger. So just do what you love in the way you love. Good luckCanadiangran

I was useless at art in school - the only subject I came bottom of the clss in. When we moved on to abstract tasks I moved to 5th in the class. I realised I couldn't draw things to look real but I had good imagination and a sense of colour. A few years ago I attended a class making fabric brooches. I was quite pleased with mine but was shocked when someone admired it and asked if I was an art teacher! I've found my niche creatively through sewing and card making. I sell at craft fairs and occasionally get asked to make something to order. I'm a member of a number of craft groups locally and we all learn and get inspiration from each other. One friend is a very talented stitcher and helps us when we struggle with things. She knows the names of all the techniques, recommends useful gadgets and has answers to most of our problems. The groups are friendly and sometimes we go along and just end up chatting and laughing together. Joining a like-minded group is great socially and you can learn as you go.

That sounds cool lucky girl. Do you have a photo?

I’ve started doing macrame

This is the quote from David Hockney that keeps me going........

"Don't think about making art, Just get it done. Let everyone else decide whether it's good or bad, whether they love or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art."

I have been having loads of fun working on Yupo . It is a synthetic paper - like very thin plastic. I use alcohol inks and watercolour inks on it and you can get some truly wonderful and satisfying effects - you do not have to just use brushes - you can tilt the paper and let the paint run or use an air thingy to guide the paint where you want it to go. And you can also use pure alcohol sprayed on to create effects.

It is very satisfying.

I think you’re being very hard on yourself OP and underestimate your obvious creativity. Creativity is in my blood but not in an in your face way. I read avidly (and a good novel encourages the reader to form impressions and create their own narrative,) garden, write for myself and love to curate my home.
Above all I find that in listening to music I create imaginary worlds and places that are mine alone.
Every day I’m being creative. It might just be in the way I cut flowers from the garden and arrange them in a carefully chosen vase but I do it for myself because it sustains me.
So just carry on as you are and don’t feel you have to compare yourself to others.

I'd say that whether or not you should devote an hour a day to learning to excel in something depends on what your aims are for it. Your friend's success was achieved by what her goal was as well as

Do you wish to become well-known in the art sphere, (even famous for your work), to earn a living from art, to become perfect in artistic techniques for your own satisfaction, to express your creativity in visible fact, to spend your non-working hours relaxing with colours and shapes?

For the first three you will have to work hard, and it may not all be pleasurable. To earn your living, you may have to create at someone else's command, when you are not feeling creative, otherwise you may starve in a garret. To become technically better is an open-ended project, and perfection is a subjective goal - what is the definitive definition of Art anyway? As for personal recognition and/or lasting fame, that is influenced as much by the times in which an artist lives and how their work resonates with people who see it in their own time or their own situation.

The definition of "to excell" is "to be better than anyone else". That means that to strive to excell is to be competitive, which means that almost everyone will fail. Ask yourself, are you regarding art as a kind of race, where if someone else is more accomplished than you, you feel you have failed?

If you don't aim at any of these outcomes, just your own satisfaction at what you produce and hang on your walls, and the pleasure of forgetting the stresses and disappointments of of the rest of your life, it could be a mistake to turn it into a chore.

I am artistically unaccomplished and I am completely unbothered by this fact.

People describing it as a hobby is annoying aswell 😂

So, the said friend reckons it's just a straightforward matter of perseverance and practising even for just one hour every day will make you "good" at your choice of hobby - eventually.
If there was a grain of truth in that nugget of wisdom then we would all be millionaire's and the JobCentre's would be able to close down.

Your friend just got lucky - stop using her success as a yardstick. And it's only commercial success. Plenty of impoverished artists, writers, craftspeople, etc, etc, who persevered and dedicated themselves to their efforts have gone to their graves with a broken bank balance.

I don't feel as you do Canadian Gran but don't let your age stop you from pursuing your interests,

is there something you would really like to do
Drive a humongous truck 😍

Canadiangran - you are still young - go for it !!

This is quite normal. I have a background in art and art based study snd people who have connections get on more, they may have more or less talent and this affects your confidence. IMO it’s as simple as that

Witzend

An hour a day is what I’ve been telling myself to do (piano practice) for around 10 years!
Most days after the first couple of years, it’s been zero.

So it’s hardly surprising that despite being ‘nearly ready’ a couple of times, I never did reach my goal of passing Grade 5.

Don’t feel bad, Witzend. I got up to, and passed, 8th grade in piano.
What have I done with it 60 years later? Nothing!!

I do think the hour a day idea is a very good one though.

CanadianGran You are very honest and I am glad because it makes me feel I am not the only one feeling a bit down in the dumps. Now that I am older, I realise just what the term "life's too short" means. I wish I had persevered like your friend, and realised that only with regular effort, practice and determination can I excel at something.

You should do whatever makes you happy. Especially at your age.

Happy Days

👍😻🌻

Get over it, don't do yourself down. All my friends are more academic than I, a few of them lack commons sense and can't do anything other than what was their work. I am a Jack of all trades - they turn to me occasionally for what I would think nothing of. I am content with my life although widowed 17 years ago.

Buy an easily portale camping table. Set it up somewhere peaceful in your home and put on it the craft of your choice, with the necessary tools, and have a chair near by. If you need a lamp there are portable craft lamps. then you can do it in free moments. Keep a journal with your activity date, thoughts,desires, intentions and progress points as they come up. good luck.

Don't compare yourself to others. We all have our own special gifts to share, whether it's a kind heart, a radiant smile or a witty mot.

My daughter is in her early 60s and has recently taken up, and enjoys, kayaking and wild swimming. In my 70s I was dabbling in a bit of creative writing then enjoyed writing a few quite well received poems. Suddenly I discovered open mic evenings and became a performance poet. For a decade now I have enjoyed meeting other poets and sharing work, on and off zoom. I wouldn’t have missed my ‘late budding’, if not ‘late flowering’, for anything, a great source of pleasure and a way to communicate with a wide variety of people.

Over recent years, my family have started giving me art equipment for Christmas and birthdays, because I used to draw and ain't and make birthday cards. There's nowhere in the house where I can work on Art, and it honestly would be such a faff getting myself organised!

I have always been fairly artistic and have always knitted and sewn. In the last year or two I have been going to a friend’s monthly craft group where I’ve tried all sorts of different things.

As well as the craft group I have been attending various study days and courses - stained glass, African quilting, mosaic and pottery. I have enjoyed all of them. In fact OH and I are thinking about continuing the pottery stuff. When we get back from holiday we will pick up the eight or nine objects we each made on the Potters Wheel!

A friend was never allowed to go to art College as a girl. When she retired she did an Arts Foundation course at a local college. She now belongs to an art group.