PAINTING AS A PASTIME - Winston Churchill

I fully admit that I don't know nearly as much as I should about Winston Churchill.  I've seen clips of him in video footage of the war, and I've seen him as a character in historical dramas, but I'm not big on history, so he's generally passed me by.

But then I saw that Churchill wrote a series of essays about painting and that he himself did a fair amount of painting. Color me intrigued.

The book includes copies of a number of Churchill's paintings and what makes this essay 'work' is the fact that Churchill was a very talented artist! And ... his essay writing is rich, direct, and very engaging.

The premise of Churchill writing about his painting is that he has observed that people need hobbies (three, preferably) in order to de-stress and to avoid worrying themselves to death. Pursuing a hobby means that the brain is both rested from not thinking about what is stressful, as well as strengthened by focusing on something new or different.

While I really appreciated and agreed with Churchill's assessment for the need for the hobbies, the one thing that I was surprised didn't get more of a nod was the idea of art, specifically, being important as a means of stretching the creative side of the brain. I often find I just need to do some a little creative in order to feel less stressed.

The 'book' is maybe a half an hour's read - an hour if you spend time really looking at the artwork as well.

Looking for a good book? Painting as a Pastime by Winston S. Churchill is a meditative essay on the importance of having a hobby to get away from the stress of work.

4 stars

* * * * * *

Painting as a Pastime

author: Winston S. Churchill

publisher: RosettaBooks

Kindle Edition, 44 pages
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MURDLE VOLUME 1 - G. T. Karber

Image
 I enjoy puzzles of many different varieties. I had not heard of 'Murdle' before this but essentially this is a combination of the game of Clue and a Sherlock Holmes micro story. With suspects, possible murder weapons, potential locations, and/or motives plus some very brief hints, readers are meant to combine the logic of what's know with deductive reasoning to identify the killer (or killers?) in 100 different mystery word puzzles. I will admit right off the bat that I did not do all 100.  I didn't even do half of these, but I did so some random sampling through all the categories (Elementary, Occult Medium, Hard Boiled, and Impossible). I did not get any correct in the Impossible category (of course not ... they were impossible!) and only one correct in the Hard Boiled (of five). The Elementary puzzles were, as expected, pretty easy and the Hard Boiled only a little bit more difficult. Each mini mystery comes with a grid printed in the book to help the reader-detecti
Read more

VINYL RESTING PLACE - Olivia Blacke

Image
 Juni Jessup and her two sister, Tansy and Maggie, have gone into business together in their hometown of Cedar River, Texas, opening a combination record store and coffee shop. Vinyl LPs are making a comeback after all, despite critics thinking the medium was dead.  But speaking of 'dead' ... finding a dead body in the supply closet just as they are looking to have a grand opening is not part of the plan.  Juni's life gets more complicated when their uncle, Calvin, already a suspect in the murder, disappears. And the police officer leading the investigation is Juni's EX-boyfriend (who passive-aggressively keeps putting himself back into her life). Convinced that her uncle would never murder anyone, Juni sets out to prove his innocence - which isn't easy since he's making himself look guilty - because Calvin is family and family is EVERYthing to Juni. As readers of my blog know, I'm not a big fan of most cozy mysteries, but the setting caught my eye and my in
Read more

THE RAVEN THIEF - Gigi Pandian

Image
 With Tempest Raj now a member of the company, Secret Staircase Construction (a company who, as their title suggests, builds mystery-themed, secret rooms inside homes) has finished their first job. Their client now wants to celebrate to kick off her new beginning - new home and new life now that she's divorced from her cheating ex-husband, famous mystery author Corbin Colt. First up, a mock séance to remove any trace of Corbin from the property, led by Tempest's friend, Sanjay.   But during that séance, while all those gathered sat in a dark room holding hands, Corbin's dead body crashes the party, falling across the table in front of everyone. There were eight people in the room, and they were all holding hands, but all the evidence points to one of them being the murderer.  Suspicions point to Ash, Tempest's grandfather, because he was the only one with Corbin's blood on him. Of course, as a doctor, he was also the only one who checked on the body - wherein he acq
Read more