For The Love Of Painting

Hi! My name is Diana Figueroa and I live and breath to paint. I have been creative all my life; mostly crafting and did a few pencil sketches when I was young. As the whim would hit me I would pick the pencil back up. But that was about it. Years would go by and there was no whim. November 2006 I was suffering depression and my daughter saw one of the sketches I had done and said I should start sketching again. So I did a sketch of my Shih Tzu "Pudge". It was pretty good. I traipsed off to the store and bought a cheap watercolor set, a pad of watercolor paper and a couple of brushes. This was the beginning of blessing and healing.

My first painting brought tears to my husbands eyes. It was beautiful. I painted a few more and then changed to oil paints. My first oil painting brought tears to my husbands eyes again....from laughter. It was hillarious! I was attempting a painting of Monet's garden. There were at least 8 layers of paint, 3 paintings on top of each other and probably the heaviest 9x12 paper canvas painting in history.

Being self taught and a perfectionist, I have had to learn to be patient and not critical of myself. I have also learned, when I am not happy with the way a painting is looking just walk away. When I come back the next day it usually is exactly what I was trying to achieve. If I had known this when I first started I would have been spared the heaviest 9x12 canvas paper Monet's garden and my husband's laughter.

But, I never give up. I'll never stop painting and I'll never stop thanking God for this creative gift and for the healing it has brought to me.