Canvas painting is not a field sport, so don’t use age as an excuse to talk ruefully about missing the boat. All it takes is passion and the humility to learn. So, stop counting your age and pick those brushes up.

 If you are passionate enough about something, time somehow creates itself for you. No matter how busy you get, never close those doors on a hobby.

Hard work, practice, constantly challenging yourself to improve are essential to excel in any field. But what is even more important is to start. And when you keep trying every week, you are bound to get better at it.

With the magic of YouTube, you can learn a technique in few days. But getting it right takes a lot longer. So patience is just as important as passion. Kick your easel in frustration or tear your canvas apart in anger for a painting gone wrong. But get back to make new mistakes. That is where the fun is.

Don’t aim for perfection. But aim to do one better than your previous work. ‘Perfection’ does not exist, and you will only be kicking yourself for falling short of your imaginary target. The idea of painting is to have fun.

They say practice makes perfect. It is true. When you keep practicing something over a period of time, your experience corrects all the little mistakes while your muscles react automatically, as if out of habit.

Don’t fret about your lack of imagination. Good art is good art. It does not matter where the creativity started. What matters is what ends up on the canvas.

Don’t feel compelled about having your signature style. Not having one can be your uniqueness. The idea is to enjoy and experiment. Ultimately, you will realise that you are more comfortable with one or two styles. And that becomes your signature. Allow it to happen, don’t force it.

When it comes to painting on canvas, I realised that less is more. Have one focal point. Human eyes are not designed to look at multiple objects with the same level of focus at the same time. Don’t try to show off all your skills in one painting.

Painting something too big or too small is never easy. Go for those experiments after you have gained sufficient confidence and proficiency. Ideally, any size between 12 and 18 Inch dimensions would be the right size, for me. You chose what works well for you.

Always ask yourself the question, when was the last time you did something for the first time. What’s the worst that could happen? Then, back yourself and give it a go. Making a crappy painting now and then is part of the process. The aim should be to reduce its frequency and not run away from it.

You will always find few flaws and areas to improve in your painting, 2 or 3 days after you finished it. So don’t rush to show off. Your eyes only see what your mind wants to see. So let the mind wander elsewhere for few days and allow the eyes to see the finished work. You will realise how unfinished it is.