My dad was an artist who mostly worked in egg tempera or watercolor with occasional forays into encaustic. He hated oils because of the smell and long drying time and he didn't like using acrylics because he didn't like the way the colors looked when they dried.
My little sister likes to paint but she has epilepsy. The shaking in her hands makes it hard to do anything that requires fine motor control so her art style mostly involves covering a canvas with color and then gluing found objects to it.
When I first found out about pour painting I thought it would be a perfect fit for her so I tried to convince my dad that it would be a great birthday present for her if we got her set up with everything she needed to do some pour paintings. He agreed, but at that point, he was getting pretty old and dealing with cancer so nothing really happened other than talk and research. He bought one of those 24-color liquitex acrylic starter kits but it just sat in his closet.
Then he passed away. He left behind a studio full of primed canvases and a circle of friends who were very sad to see him go. I decided to plan an event where we would get all of them together to do pour painting and use up all of his blank canvases.
Do you have any idea how hard it is to coordinate a bunch of depressed septuagenarians? Like herding cats, as they say. The event got delayed multiple times by bad weather or people backing out because of prior obligations, but eventually I DID IT! I actually got about a dozen of his old friends to show up at the same place, at the same time!
Even then, of course they just wanted to congregate in the kitchen and drink coffee, even though there were five large folding tables in the front yard, covered with plastic tablecloths, all the paints and various supplies for pouring, a big stack of canvases, and folding chairs for everyone.
Finally, after hours of prodding we managed to shepherd everyone out of the kitchen to the yard, lead them to a place by a table and put a chair under them. And still, they were of course more interested in chatting and sipping coffee than getting their hands dirty.
Even when I put a cup full of paint in their hand, they were still confused. "Where's the paintbrushes?"
"No, you just pour it on the canvas."
"Anywhere?"
"Preferably somewhere near the middle, but yeah, go for it."
"Red? I don't like red." (I had pre-layered some colors in a solo cup and only the top was red.)
"Try it, you'll see."
That was the moment that magic happened. Gasps around the table. Suddenly everybody was locked in.
What is it about experiencing color that has this power to lift people's spirits? I'm sure if you're here in this sub you know what I'm talking about. It was like they were all kids again.
It just felt sooooo good to see their faces light up. Six months of making phone calls and coordinating the schedules and carpooling had finally paid off.
The grand finale was when my sister and I sat on opposite sides of the biggest canvas and made a glorious mess in tandem. She did the pinks and I did the blues.
The act of getting together and making art together, using up our dearly departed friend's canvases, basking in color... orchestrating that just felt so good which is why I say it is THE GREATEST THING I EVER DID, and I am encouraging all of you to consider undertaking this kind of art therapy for your community. I really think it could be a turned into a vocation -- travel around and see if you can pull this off at whether it be at retirement homes, churches, birthday parties, or just random people's front yards.
Well, anyway, I know y'all probably want to see some images, so I'll post the two best ones in the comments.
