A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I used to attend an art class. That class helped me at a time when I desperately needed it. As well as learning to paint, I also learned four important life lessons from the art teacher.
Life Lessons From My Art Teacher
I’ve had many hobbies in my life, most of which have been self-taught. Although I had always been creative, I had never considered taking up art. I didn’t actually believe I was artistic but I was to be proved wrong after enrolling in a local art class.
Going to the class was a massive step outside of my comfort zone. There’s nothing wrong with staying inside your comfort zone but, at that point in my life, I really needed to step outside of it.
My self-confidence was rock bottom. Actually, it was worse than that. It was non-existent. I didn’t believe in myself at all, I knocked myself down and I doubted myself constantly. Living with chronic pain or a chronic illness can do that to people.
After taking early retirement from work, I hardly saw anyone apart from my husband. I was probably lonely but, at that time, I didn’t recognise that. Loneliness creeps up sometimes and has a bigger impact on chronic pain or chronic illness patients than most people realise.
I’d never really had an outgoing personality but I turned into a bit of a recluse after retiring. I was only 28 but I was happy to hide away in the comfort of my own home. I think I’d almost forgotten how to converse with people. Therefore going to the class and meeting people was difficult initially. I can still remember that sickening feeling of anxiety when going to the first class.
It would have been easy to turn around and go home but I took a few deep breaths and walked through the door. I’m glad that I did because it was good for me. I got so much out of it. I learned how to paint and I made friends. But I also learned a few important life lessons from my art teacher. Those lessons will stay with me forever.
4 Life Lessons From My Art Teacher
Life Lesson 1 – Believe in Yourself
If I’m honest, at that time in my life, I thought I was a failure. I believed that I’d given in to my pain when I had taken early retirement. In reality, I had no choice. My pain wouldn’t allow me to work.
When I started attending the class, I had a terrible habit of saying, “I’m not good enough.” The art teacher told me I was but I wasn’t convinced. “You need to start believing in yourself,” he said on several occasions.
Other group members told me I was doing well and complimented my work. But I thought they were just being nice. I didn’t really believe that I was getting on well. Instead of accepting their compliments, I found faults and pointed them out.
The art teacher got fed up hearing me. “Stop knocking yourself down. You need to learn to accept a compliment. Believe in yourself.”
My self-confidence has a habit of wavering so I often have to remind myself of what he said.
Always believe in yourself – you are worthy of that.
Life Lesson 2 – Change Your Perspective
The first few weeks of the art class comprised of basic drawing lessons. I almost gave up. My straight lines veered off to the left, my circles were almost oval and my perspective was all over the place. However, I didn’t notice these mistakes until my art teacher pointed them out. He suggested looking at my drawings from a different angle. “Try a different perspective,” he said and turned my drawing pad around 180 degrees. When I looked, my mistakes were obvious and I was able to correct my work easily. He said that artists often do that because they can see things that they wouldn’t normally notice.
Life is the Same
Sometimes we need to look at life from another perspective too.
If we only look at life from one viewpoint, we might miss out on so much. We might only see disappointment on the path we’re on but from another perspective we might see that life’s not so bad. We might notice the things that we would normally miss. The small things…the things which can make our days feel better.
We might even see that the long straight road ahead isn’t the right path for us. If we look from another angle, we might see another path. A better path.
We don’t all think alike. That’s probably just as well but everything isn’t always black and white. So sometimes we should listen and try to understand someone else’s perspective. Or perhaps we should turn around 180 degrees to see life through their eyes.
Looking at life with a fresh perspective, can bring us acceptance instead of having those feelings of being a failure. We might find gratitude instead of anger. We might understand more and judge less. And, hopefully, we might feel happier and more at peace with ourselves.
Look at life from a different viewpoint by changing your perspective.
Life Lesson 3 – Value Yourself
A year after enrolling, I was able to show paintings in the class exhibition. I’d come a long way from that first day when I had walked through the classroom door in trepidation.
The difficult part now was putting a price tag on my paintings. I had no idea how to price them. How could I ask people to pay for my paintings? What were they worth, if anything at all? Were they even good enough to sell? My lovely art teacher must have heard me doubting myself because he came to the rescue again with another life lesson.
“Don’t undervalue yourself,” he said. “Never put too low a price on your paintings because you’ve put so much time, effort and energy into them. You’ve put yourself into them.” He explained that if you put on too low a price, people will walk past them thinking they’re not worth much.
Similarly, we need to value ourselves and believe that we are worthy. We are worthy of loving and being loved, worthy of being respected, worthy of success and worthy of being happy. If we don’t value ourselves, nobody else will.
If you undervalue yourself, other people will too.
Life Lesson 4 – Be Proud of Yourself
He told me this a few times, “Be proud of your achievements. Be proud of yourself.” Probably because of my lack of self-confidence, I found that difficult. How could I be proud of myself? I couldn’t see any achievements. I only saw flaws.
But then something changed.
At the exhibition, I was standing near the door as people were leaving when I overheard a conversation between two women. “My favourite painting was the one with the two black labradors,” one woman said to the other. That was my painting. She had picked one of my paintings as her favourite out of hundreds in the hall. Can you imagine how I felt? My excitement was overflowing. If I could have done a backflip, I would have.
That painting wasn’t for sale and takes pride of place in my living room. However, I did sell one at that exhibition. I had painted a scene with geese in front of a country cottage and an elderly couple decided to buy it. I think I almost did attempt to do that backflip! Nothing could take the smile off my face.
I had achieved what I had thought was unachievable. I had gone from believing I couldn’t paint to not only painting but actually selling a painting. So yes, I was proud of myself. Very proud.
Be proud of all achievements, big or small.
My Pain Got in the Way…Again
It had to happen. My pain got the better of me and I couldn’t cope with going to the art class every week. The teacher kindly offered to keep my place open so that I could attend when I was able to. He even said that I didn’t need to pay for the weeks I wasn’t able to be there. But his art class was his income and I knew he had a waiting list of people wanting to attend. It wouldn’t have been fair to him and I would have felt under pressure. Pressure means stress and stress is not good for pain, so it was better for me to give it up completely.
But his words have stuck with me. When I doubt myself, I sometimes look at my paintings and remember those important life lessons from my art teacher.
If you lack self-confidence or doubt yourself, I hope that you’ll also take those words on board.
Believe in yourself
Change your perspective
Value yourself
Be proud of yourself
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Has anyone given you important life lessons? What are they?
Oh wow. The labradors are excellent. My god, you should be proud. 🥰🤩
Thank you so much, Liz.
What a great idea for a blog post. It’s interesting, too, that you didn’t think you were artistic prior to the classes. It sounds like it was just what you needed when you signed up; getting out of your comfort zone, challenging yourself, boosting your confidence, knocking down some of the self-doubt, getting into a social environment.
I would find the failure part difficult. I’m not good at art and I would continually think how naff my stuff is and then it’s not enjoyable, it’s one big bundle of stress. I’ve not done anything for a few years now but I’d like to get back into it. To have someone else tell you to believe in yourself is one thing. Having that person get through to you, having an environment that cultivates the good vibes so that you start to realise it for yourself is what really counts. I’m sorry your self-confidence still wavers, which I can’t say surprises me. I may be off base here (but I’m not, because I’m always right 😉) but kind-hearted individuals, those who are empathetic and genuinely lovely are often the ones to doubt themselves, worry about upsetting others, feel they’re not good enough etc. I think it’s pretty mean that those good people can’t feel as good about themselves, but there’s the rub because that’s part of who they are, being awesome. I don’t know if that makes any sense or not, it’s just something I’m noticing lately. Anyway, hold on to what your art teacher taught you and to the good vibes you got from others in your class.
Taking a different perspective is something I’ve written about before. I’m pretty sure I have a draft that I did a single sentence on and didn’t get back to, so thanks for the reminder! It’s a powerful thing, if you can get the space to step back and see another perspective, the bigger picture, see through someone else’s eyes.
I’m not surprised those women at the exhibition favoured your painting. It really is incredibly good, and the dogs look so sweet and realistic. You’re very talented and I think you did amazingly well even going to that first class, because you could have more easily decided not to go.
Fantastic post, like a poignant pep talk that I imagine a lot of us need to read. I hope you can read through it yourself when you need the boost. xx
Thank you, Caz. Perhaps you have a point there. Some people have oodles of self-confidence, but others have so little. Mine really does still disappear at times. I’ve always struggled with it. I think I went to that class at the right time. It was more like a therapy session lol.
Please do write that post about changing perspective. I’m already looking forward to reading it!
Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment.
It’s great that you found this class and thank you for sharing the experience with us. Sometimes getting out of your comfort zone is just what we need. Your teacher sounds really positive too, which is great. Some of my best years were those at art school, being surrounded by creativity. Also, as you say, important for the social life and meeting friends. It’s way too long ago that I was part of this. Maybe some day I should join a class of some kind. As I get older and the time passes it’s harder to get back out there.
The art teacher was so positive and enthusiastic. He was an elderly man, self-taught and wanted to share his talents with other people. I echo what you said about it being harder to get back out there as you get older. I’m a lot older than you, and feel it would be too difficult now. I think the last couple of years have probably made my comfort zone of being in the house all the time even more comfortable. Perhaps once the country is safer, you could maybe get to a class again?
It really helps when somebody is enthusiastic and still has a passion for what they are teaching.
Yes I think out of the lockdowns came two types of people, those that want to get back on it and hated being restricted, and those, maybe like us, that found comfort in being cosy.
Yes, I like to join a class or study again at some point.
This is such a beautiful and well articulated post, with 4 lessons that are important for everyone to be reminded of, especially those with chronic illness. I completely agree with you, loneliness is something I really struggle with. Chronic illness can isolate you and make you feel inferior to others. That often leads to me avoiding doing things out of fear of failure or that I won’t be good enough in others eyes. Art is something I’ve always loved, my grandad taught me to draw but since he passed away I rarely do it as I don’t feel good enough on my own. I also love photography and often think about doing an art or photography class as a way of slowly reintegrating myself back into the world again. Your post has given me the nudge to look into it more. I’m so pleased the art classes benefitted you so much but so sorry to hear you’re no longer able to do them. I hope and pray you’re able to return to them soon. Take care. Lucy
Thank you so much, Lucy. I hope you can find a way back into enjoying art again. Fear of failure and lack of confidence can really stop us from doing so much, can’t they?
Great self-reflective and wise posts as always Liz. This was no different. Should you ever be interested, I’d love to interview you on this particular life lesson topic on my new podcast here: https://sicklessons.com/
No obligation or pressure of course! 🙂 And even if you back out at the final minute – no problem. Sending love!
Hi Sheryl, thank you so much.
Thank you for inviting me on to your podcast. (I think) I’d like to do that. I’ll send you a message.