Blank canvasses

I'm at the airport waiting for my flight. They said to be here early. My bag was checked in and I was through security in five minutes. My plane is leaving in an hour an a half.

So I'm sitting in one of the limited cafes drinking a very ordinary coffee, penning this. I've visited the L'Occitane shop already. I'm off to Adelaide. Fun!.

But I'm going to write about the wonderful experience I had last night.

Wren, one of the women I know from the Gunnas writer's retreat suggested coming to this art class a few weeks ago. I'd forgotten about this, but was thankfully reminded mid-week. Wren had us coordinating nibbles and drinks for the night.

CATA (Creative Art Therapy Australia) is a shop front based in Fairfield. The studio runs a franchised program called Frida's Sip and Paint, where they take rank novices through painting a canvas over two hours, supplying the canvas, the paint and a place where you can have a glass of wine (or in our case, a gin and tonic) and some nibblies and just relax. BYO booze and snacks.

They do a different painting depending on the night and an art teacher / therapist takes you through the process. An assistant is there to help with things like changing your water, some technique and making you feel like you're not an art numpty.

Wren, Kitty and I were going to work on a piece called Savannah Palms.

I used to love art at a kid. I still love being creative, even if it's being creative out of my comfort zone - and painting is not something I've done much of. But on arrival, we were greeted, seated and on we got with this process of painting a picture.

I loved every minute of this evening. Yes, Wren and Kitty are fabulous company, but what else would you expect from the Gunnas crew.

One of the things I discovered was my willingness to let go of my addiction to perfection. After a few months of working with absolute precision, it was great to think, "I'm not skilled at this, I don't know what I'm doing and I'm just going to enjoy the process."

We talked. We painted. We had a laugh. We investigated ourselves over the two and a half hours.

It was fabulous.

It's amazing what you can come up with when you break things down to build things up. Kitty, who does a bit of painting was very pleased with the process. I thought my woman was looking a bit like a Disney princess.

We were also told that we didn't need to follow all of the rules if we didn't want to - another challenge for somebody who tends to be an over-obliging, people-pleasing, obedient type.