“Happy little clouds”, Bob Ross says, as he so effortlessly, joyfully, creates a masterpiece. He makes it look so easy. I could do that. Out comes the canvas, the paints, the brushes, and the palette. Here we go. Okay, the background is done. Not bad. I could have blended the colours better, but it’s only the background, it doesn’t matter. My little clouds are somewhat happy. Bob Ross would be proud. Time for the mountains. That was harder than Bob was letting on. Alright, I won’t give up just yet. Tree time. How hard can it be? Oh dear. Let’s step back and look at the final product. Oh. Damn you, Bob. There’s a reason I only paint once every blue moon. I forgot that I’m not good at it. So, until I can once again convince myself I’m not half bad, the paints go back to the cupboard.
I cannot express how many times I have done this. I see one YouTube video or Pinterest post, and I have to give it a go, only to be disappointed every time. That’s the thing about being creative. I love to paint, to play the piano, to draw…but I’m not that great at any of these things. So, what does that mean? Most of the time nowadays, if I feel the urge to create, I feel I should direct it to the thing I think I am best at and plan to make a career out of – creative writing. And I love it, but I still want to paint. The urge won’t go away. So, why is it that every time I think of something to paint, I won’t do it anymore?
As children, we create so willingly. We are carefree. Everything we create is a masterpiece to our parents. Then you grow up, and you are told to choose something. A passion, a career, maybe these things are one and the same. There is so much pressure, both internally and externally to perfect one thing, to shape your life around one purpose. It becomes near impossible to find the time, or take pleasure from spending the time creating something that isn’t ‘good enough’.
Maybe, it all comes down to the ‘creative gene’. We are hardwired to be easily inspired, and we are desperate to experiment, but us creatives can also be the world’s best perfectionists, and that is our downfall. Perfectionism is our weakness, and thus it is the weakness of creativity. No one sat us down as children and said we can only create something if it’s going to be a masterpiece. Bob Ross would have congratulated any cloud we painted, happy or not. So why did we stop creating for the fun of it? Growing up should not shut down our ability to imagine and create freely and aimlessly. Creativity should not be determined by level of skill and ability.
Bob Ross makes painting look so, so, easy. Everyone makes their craft look easy. They have you thinking that you could easily do it too. But maybe that’s the whole point. To be inspired, to see the joy it gives the artist in painting ‘happy little clouds’, and to take that awe and that joyful, child-like energy, and just make something.
You do not have to be a master at anything. You have to let go of that desire to be perfect, and create because you want to. If it brings you joy, do it for that sole reason. Let the imaginative child in you run free. Creativity is not always about the thing you make, it’s about the way it makes you feel. Isn’t that why we look at paintings and listen to music? Explore to feel, and forget the rest.