Share a hobby you’ve picked up recently — what got you into it?

A few weeks ago I met an old family friend at a McMillan coffee morning. She’s a fantastic artist.

Whilst we were chatting, she said something that really struck me.

She told me that she started getting into art at around the age of sixty. Yet if you saw her art, you’d think she’d been doing it all her life!

How many of us, I wondered, have the untapped potential within us to enjoy a new creative pursuit that we’ve never even tried? Or given up on? Or assumed we’d be no good at?

I loved drawing as a child and would spend hours trying to copy my favourite illustrations from my childhood books.

At fourteen I had to choose between art and music at GCSE, (what an impossible choice!) I chose music. No real regrets But I think in a subtle way, it was a defining moment. Suddenly, in my mind, I was no longer an artist. And my artistic pursuits kind of fell by the wayside.

Until my eldest daughter took up Art at GCSE. We bought her all the materials. Watercolours, acrylics, oil pastels, paintbrushes, sketching pencils.

And when she’d finished her studies, all that stuff was just sitting there unused.

And that seemed like such a waste.

So I started to dabble a bit here and there – with mixed results.

But bumping into my artist friend at the coffee morning really inspired me to pick up my pencils and try again. And again!

As a writer, I’m currently finding dabbling with art extremely therapeutic. I find having a go at something creative, outside of my normal skillset, is invaluable.

It teaches me to relax and be experimental. It reminds me to be playful and childlike and to not expect too much from myself.

I think with all creative pursuits we often get the best results when we simply let go and enjoy the process!

Thanks for reading.