Making Each Day Count

When I took a break from work in 2018, I had more time for art. I took several classes: from oil pastel drawing, Minhwa (Korean painting), to acting. I also took a stab at watercolor painting. When I started going back to work in 2019 I joined acrylic painting workshops quite regularly, but unfortunately in the last couple of years, those had stopped. Now my art supplies remained tucked away, I don’t even remember where I stashed my painting canvases.

Recently I saw Craft MNL’s social media post offering a meditative abstract seascapes workshop, and the location was just a few blocks away from my city apartment. I took it as a sign and did not hesitate to sign up. I figured I have to start doing this, and being in a class will motivate me to do it once and for all. So last weekend I went and participated in the workshop led by Anna (her Instagram page here).

We started with an introduction of ourselves and shared of our intent as to why we joined the workshop. I said mine was to shift my focus to the present, as my mind is always filled with worries about work. I wanted to be in the moment, and from what I remember, painting always helped me with this. Anna then led us to a quick meditation. She then taught us basic acrylic techniques. I enjoyed practicing with the mixing of the colors and the different brush strokes. Before the main activity, we tried drawing our seascape outlines on small pieces of art paper. Afterwards, we had some pianono (Filipino version of a Swiss roll) snacks, to prep us for the main painting event.

It was my first time to paint a seascape, and I was thankful for Anna’s tips on how to make the waves look more realistic. I always admired those who could paint seascapes and the workshop taught me it was not as complicated as I thought it would be. While painting, my classmates and I compared notes and I’m amazed at the diverse expressions in everyone’s works.

Needless to say time flew by during that class, which is always the case when one is having fun. I was satisfied with how my simple work turned out to be – it was not yet complete but it was a good start. One thing that the class did is it inspired me to follow through with art once again. I hope one day soon I can get to polish up this seascape acrylic painting and finish it.