Retirement (from corporate life) is a great time to try new things, exercise new forms of creativity, and learn new techniques. For me, that is primarily in the form of acrylic painting. I love the time when I can get into that deep ‘flow zone’, focusing on applying paint to paper or canvas, and playing with how colors mix and appear when they lie next to each other.
I was never trained as an artist in high school or college, so I am still very much a learner. But that’s ok with me! I am creating beautiful things that I enjoy, my husband enjoys, and others enjoy. I am learning. I feel creative. I am not pressured by anyone to produce volume or deliver someone else’s definition of quality. On this page, you see five paintings I’ve created in 2024 alone. Three are my own designs. Two are based on YouTube videos by professional painters teaching a technique. Can you tell which is which? Do you care?
This is just one of the ways I am transforming me in my early retirement days. With possibly 20-30 years in this phase of life, I have time to enjoy, time to learn new things, time to smell the roses. How are you transforming yourself these days? Who’s ‘steering your boat’?
How do you flex your creative muscle? What are you focused on learning? How do you balance learning concepts and theories vs. visual/tangible/physical skills?
