My favourite journal page created in Jane Davenport's I Heart Drawing class, using lots of different acrylic paints!

I think it is time to get out the 'good' glasses. You know, the ones reserved for 'company'. The ones we would use with the best plates after entertaining guests in the 'good lounge'. Why do we do this? If we have extra special things, why do we save them for other people? Are we saying these other people are of greater value than we accord ourselves? And, if we spent extra money on them, are we really getting value for it if they remain carefully stored most of the time and are brought out maybe only a few times a year? Doesn't seem likely.

And it's probably not just crockery and glass ware. What about that pair of designer shoes, still in the original shoe box, too special to be worn?

How about those deluxe pantry items... truffle oil, perhaps? Pomegranate molasses? Saffron? Those ingredients that languish on the shelf (probably until their expiry date) waiting for an important enough occasion. Like the big prime beef rib joint that seemed a good and festive idea but now strikes fear into your culinary heart. All you can think of is what a waste it would be to mess it up now. What pressure! No thanks.

The reason I started thinking about all this is that I notice I am doing the same sort of thing with art supplies. Tenuous distinctions are being drawn between different brands of acrylic paint. The superior artist quality ones are kept for special canvases and not intended for art journals. There is 'craft' quality paint for that. And children's quality paint kept for, well, the children obviously. Of course, I don't have every colour in every brand of paint. I found myself floundering and confused in the middle of my painting, recently. I realised the frustration arose because I wanted a particular colour in my art journal that I only had in my fancy (i.e. seldom utilised) canvas paint. Oo what to do, what to do? Well, that is ridiculous left-brain thinking for you.....

You can put the accountant in the studio, but can you put the studio in the accountant, she wonders....

So I am not going to do that anymore. Paint is now paint, in my house. I'm mixing it up in happy mixed media style. The good, the bad and the frightfully expensive. Anything goes. The best things happen when you paint like a child, I think. We deserve the joy of using our 'special' things. And if they are so precious that we can't bring ourselves to use them, we really shouldn't have bought them in the first place.