Do you need to have natural talent to learn to paint?

There is a common assumption that most people take on learning to paint or draw. The assumption is that you must have a “natural talent” to be good at art. Let’s take a deeper look at this assumption and see if we can get to the truth of the matter.

If you walk into a room with a group of 3-5 year old children and you ask them “How many of you can draw?” most of the hands will go up. But, if you ask this same question to a room full of adults not many will raise their hands. What happened?

Our society does not put much weight on creativity in education. We are trained out of our creativity. We are taught that we must learn reading, writing, arithmetic and how to follow the rules but never taught how to think. Thinking is creative by nature. To arrive at an original thought you have to set aside the accepted rules and creatively question the norm.

I was talking with a friend of mine the other day. She was taking a painting class at the local college and her instructor said “Only people with natural talent can learn to be good painters and I can not teach talent”. Well, do you think this is true?

I firmly disagree with this assumption! Painting is a technical art and ANYONE can learn to paint well. All that is needed is a desire, clear instruction on the foundational elements of painting and practice. Now this being said, not everyone will be a professional artist! There is one addition element that is needed to go pro…PASSION!

Learning how to paint is simply learning how to think and question yourself on what you are observing (Critical Thinking Skills). When you have asked the appropriate questions and arrived at their answers, putting the correct color in the correct place is easy.

So if you find yourself believing that only the naturally talented children can learn to paint you might want to rethink your position.

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