What Is Talent?

I taught adult education advanced watercolor classes at one time. We would meet twice a week in a middle school science lab room. My students were three times plus older than Iwas. I was such a wet behind the ears teacher to them I'm sure. As it goes, I learned more from them than they from me. What was cool was that they'd sign up semester after semester and most of my core group stayed in tack unless there was a family emergency or trip or something.

We all got to know each other quite well. There was Joe who was such a good painter that he could teach the class. And his friend, Bill who painted and drew little postcard sketches each day that were just lovely studies and very precise because he was an engineer and payed attention to everything! There was Annette who had a son that now lived with her because he had brain damage from falling off a roof while working on a house. She came to class for stress relief. There was a few Moms with children in elementary and middle school that were great friends and my class was their night out from the family.

I taught them how to paint skies and trees and oceans and brooks. They taught me patience and trying. I taught them the color wheel, and as I listened to their chatting as they painted i learned that life is all the colors of the wheel and more!

There was one particular lady who tried so hard to get the watercolor technique down but she was just always tight and her watercolors didn't flow. She would get frustrated but she came back each week and each semester. One night I came in and I walked around the classroom and her watercolor was perfect. I remember saying, "Geraldine, your technique is great tonight! How did you do this?" And she replied, "I just went to be a few nights ago and got up the next day and it all just clicked in my brain and I could do it."

The students would sometimes say, I'm never going to learn to do this and I'd always encourage them to keep on trying as sometimes you have to practice. In the back of my head, I wondered though if some people just had talent and others would never have talent. What I learned from Geraldine was that if you have the passion to want something and you keep trying at it, then eventually you will get there.