Image via WikipediaI started painting about 4 years ago when my depression escalated to Agoraphobia. (Fear of open spaces.) I was only able to leave my home for very short periods of time and there were times I could not leave at all. Needless to say, I was bored to death, you can only watch so much television.

One night unable to sleep, I was watching PBS and Donna Dewberry was on doing a telethon to help raise funds for the station. She painted with such ease. It reminded me of Captain Bob from when I was a kid and also Bob Ross who painted with those big brushes. You know, you would just sit in front of the tv and watch him create this vision with those massive brushes, he was amazing. Captain Bob sketched usually with pencil and chalk. They were both something to see. But when I watched Donna Dewberry draw her cabbage rose, I immediately wanted to do that. Never having been very crafty I kind of chuckled to myself thinking that I could actually do it, but I did. My nights were filled with practice sheets trying to paint that rose. The beauty of her method is that she has developed a style to teach it and also a line of products that make it easier to do and make perfection closer than you can imagine, and the biggest thing is even when you make a mistake it is so easily and magically corrected with her method.

I began to paint on paper for practice, and began to tape her show so I would have a new lesson and a greater choice of designs. I took really quick trips to the craft store to pick up supplies and then I would just revel in the idea of creating something so special, that others would revere me the way they do her. But it was her method, so nothing I did was going to change that. That was the "EGO" raging in me. I even took some lessons with a certified "One Stroke" teacher, who became a friend. I began to think I would be able to earn money, so I created serving trays with matching stemware and found an amazing coating to fill them with. I even got creative and made tracings of sports logos. I created a lot of different projects, always with the idea that I could sell them, but that would mean leaving the house for long periods of time and displaying at places that were filled with people. I developed a brochure and tried to sell them by posting them in different places, to no avail. I tried the coops but they charged so much money to display your wares with them, it was like a catch 22. Eventually, maybe I would have made money, but the only thing I really got from that experience was the desire to run my own craft store and help others to display their wares. In time that will take place. In the meantime if you have not experienced Donna Dewberry and her One Stroke method, try this video and there are several more on you tube and on PBS channels. If you want some ideas on the kind of projects to make with this painting method, just contact me and I will send you some information. In the meantime here is Donna herself...tada..