The No.1 Ladies: Paint-By-Numbers: Discovering Our Inner Picasso

An interested fellow I met not too long ago posed the question "tell me something about you that I don't know?" Before I could stop myself I blurted out "I am an accomplished paint-by-numberist!" This wasn't exactly what I think he wanted to know (his loss quite frankly) but I felt a certain sense of release in having just "outed" my hobby.

I took up paint-by-numbering years ago to pass some long winter evenings at home, and I highly recommend it. You can pick one up the next time you're in a craft shop or don't hesitate to grab if you spot an oldy but goody at a flea market. Even easier, check out the selection online at paintbynumberkits.com. Who's to say that we all cannot create artistic wonders with a little mixing, dabbing and stroking and A LOT of persistance! Be warned though, PBN's are not for the faint-of-heart and can take weeks, even months to complete and just when you think you're going blind...you might be.

I started with a series of flower compositions, which I still love doing, but every now and then I drift into outdoor scenes. One summer during a soggy week at the beach I did a PBN-A-Thon of cowboys with my sister Beth to see who could finish first. Beth won! Now, truth be told my sister is a bona fide artist who normally doesn't need a map and color guide to create her canvases but I've detected lately that she's doing some pretty fantastic PBN outdoor scenes to put up in her VT home. Now, that's crafty!!