I'm now into week 3 of a 3-month online course called CVP, or the Creative Visionary Program, with American artist Nicholas Wilton. It's been an amazing experience for all kinds of reasons.First, it's fabulous to talk to other artists. It turns out I'm not the only one who overthinks everything. I'm not the only one who can be stung to tears by a small criticism. I'm not the only one who feels sick any time there is conflict. And I'm not the only one who thinks their work is never good enough. I can see now that being super sensitive is not a character flaw, but just something that comes with the territory. If I wasn't that way, I wouldn't want to paint - and I can't imagine not having that.It's also wonderful to be able to ask practical questions and get answers from people with way more experience than I have.As for the lessons - they have been fabulous so far. CVP is partly about the technical aspects of making a good painting, but it is also about much more than that. It's about finding your own unique creative voice and the lessons are so powerful that I feel as though fireworks are going off in my brain constantly. I've already reworked several failed or stalled paintings and I really like the results.(Although I expect I'll want to change them again as we move through the course!)This week we painted for the first time. The assignnment was to take two 12"x12" panels and just play. We were encouraged to use colours we don't generally use and to paint in a way we don't normally paint. We were not aiming for a finished painting - in fact just the opposite. We had to paint with no outcome in mind - to paint the way a young child paints.I was a little nervous about starting, but once I got going, I worked for over 4 hours and I was buzzing. I can't remember the last time I had that much fun. I used colours like orange and yellow that never normally show up in my work. I forgot about painting a subject and just applied paint. And I deliberately made shapes and lines that I wouldn't naturally make. It felt so good!The results are not finished paintings - and if you like my landscapes, you might think I've gone stark raving mad! - but I am thrilled. Because I didn't know I had this in me and I learned SO much. Plus, if painting can be that much fun, it doesn't even need to be profitable. It can always be a retreat from any other worries or problems.Here are two of the three I created over the last 2 days.I assume that in the coming weeks, as we talk more about composition, colour, values etc., we will return to these paintings and make changes to strengthen them, but I'm loathe to do that because they mean so much to me as they are. Maybe I'll keep one of them just as it is, as a reminder of the evening CVP gave me a new lease of painting life.Click here to read all my posts about CVP.Update: CVP is about to launch again in May 2020. The best news is that you can try it for free by taking a free workshop. There are a lot of people who give away free stuff in order to sell something bigger but this is different - you really do get tons of stuff for free whether or not you ever take the course. The free workshop is coming up soon (starts Feb 14th 2020) so sign up HERE to take advantage of free learning (and get a special invite to a private Facebook group I am running with my Art Juice co-host Alice Sheridan JUST for the duration of the workshop).