1. They believe they don't know how to paint, or how to paint well enough.

2. They believe they don't know what to paint to make "art".

Human beings are born painters. As children, we all could paint. For the most part we enjoyed doing it. We confidently showed our works to others, and we never really gave it a whole lot of thought - put paints in front of us and we'd paint.

But at some point in our youth, we were made aware of an idea called "Art". We were exposed to paintings made by adults who had learned how to paint. We were taken to see marvelous examples of priceless works by famous old masters, hung in special buildings called art museums and galleries. The attitudes and language alone - never mind the paintings - spoke of the seriousness of art. Gone were the days of carefree creativity. At a young age we learned we weren't painters, and that if one day we were to be painters, we would first have to learn how. And we believed it.

What happened was we became victimized by the unfounded opinions about art that the grown-ups around us held. What's worse, as grown-ups ourselves, we continue to hold to many of these same opinions, and this means that today it is our own prejudices which keep us from painting:- and worse still, perhaps keep others around us from painting too.

While starting to paint again is a great first step, it is only half the battle. Throughout this course I will encourage you to believe that being a painter means nothing, and the paintings you produce mean nothing, if you are not experiencing the freedom of being yourself, and expressing this in your works. Realizing a sense of individual freedom through creativity should be your primary goal in painting, and you can start doing this with your next brush full of paint. A free-spirited painter is more of a treasure to this world than the greatest painting will ever be.

In this course, you will also receive a thorough grounding in the elements of painting - a thing which few painting courses actually teach - and this will be useful to you regardless of where your interests in art might lead.

Combine the desire to be yourself with the desire to express yourself in paint, and meaningful works will result. But, before any of this can happen, those nagging prejudices about what art is or isn't must be dispelled. The course will start by taking a fresh look at this thing called "art".