For the Love of Paint

January 4, 2025

I’ve always felt that love is the root of all art. It’s the emotion that drives everything—the passion that fuels the strokes of the brush, the colors that spill out onto the surface, the textures that emerge as if by magic. Love is the heartbeat of creation. You can see it in the way the artist pours their soul into each piece, how each line, curve, and detail expresses something personal, something deeply felt.

But there’s more to it than that. Love, in the context of painting, is not just about the final image. It’s about the process, the act of pouring oneself into the work. It’s about trust. Trusting the materials, trusting the medium, trusting the process. It’s about letting go of expectations and allowing the art to guide you, to tell you where it wants to go. Sometimes, I’ll start a painting not knowing what the outcome will be. And that’s okay because I know that love for the craft will carry me through.

Journey of Expression

Every canvas is an invitation, a space to tell a story. A story that might not always be obvious or linear, but a story nonetheless. When I sit down to paint, I don’t always know what I’m trying to say. In fact, sometimes, I don’t even know what I’m trying to express at first. But as I work, the message becomes clear, not as a pre-planned idea, but as a feeling that builds and emerges with each brushstroke. It’s like a conversation between myself and the canvas. At first, the conversation is quiet, tentative. As the layers of paint are applied, the dialogue becomes louder, clearer. Slowly, the rest starts to show itself.

There is a profound beauty in that unpredictability. Each piece, once finished, carries within it the marks of the process—the frustration, the joy, the mistakes, the triumphs. It’s like life itself, messy and chaotic at times, but always moving forward, always evolving. You start with a blank slate, and by the end, there’s something tangible, something real, something that says “I was here.”

Letting Go of Perfection

If there’s one thing painting has taught me, it’s to let go of the need for perfection. This is where love truly shines. Love is not about achieving a flawless outcome; it’s about embracing the beauty of imperfection. It’s about the moments when a color mixes in a way that was unexpected, or when the brushstroke doesn’t land exactly where you thought it would, but it feels right nonetheless. The best moments in painting often happen when you surrender to the process and let the artwork unfold as it will, rather than trying to control every detail.

The same goes for life. We often get caught up in striving for perfection, but sometimes the most meaningful things are born from moments that are anything but perfect. It’s the imperfections that make things real, that make them human. It’s the cracks in the surface, the smudges, the unexpected turns that make a painting—or a life—truly alive.

Love on the Canvas

When the painting is finished, when I step back and look at it, I can see the whole journey unfold before me. And in that moment, I realize that the rest—the “everything” that was uncertain in the beginning—was always there, just waiting to be discovered. It was in the brushstrokes, in the layers, in the unexpected outcomes. The painting holds everything that was in me during that time—my love for the craft, my struggles, my victories, my moments of doubt and triumph.

And isn’t that what we all want from life? To look back and see a record of who we were, what we felt, what we learned, and what we created? The painting becomes more than just a picture on the wall; it becomes a reflection of everything that went into it—my love for the process, my dedication to the art, and my willingness to let the journey unfold naturally.

Beauty of the Unspoken

The rest, as I said earlier, is right there on the canvas. And sometimes, the best part is what isn’t said, what isn’t visible to the naked eye. It’s the emotional undercurrent that runs beneath the surface, the feeling that can’t be fully captured by words or by images. It’s the quiet message that only the artist truly understands. When someone looks at a painting, they might see the colors, the shapes, the composition—but the true depth lies in what’s not so obvious. The rest of the story is felt rather than seen.

Art, at its core, is a language of the heart. It’s about conveying emotions, thoughts, and experiences that cannot always be put into words. And that’s why I love to paint—because on that canvas, the rest of me exists, even in the spaces between the strokes. There’s no need to explain, to justify, or to rationalize. The love is there, and the painting says everything that needs to be said.