I believe almost everyone who tells me they "can't paint" is wrong about that. It's usually less about ability or talent and more about permission they never gave themselves.
Creative or not creative, somewhere along the way, based on one drawing that didn't turn out the way we hoped, or a comparison to a kid down the row who could clearly "do it better," we believed we weren't good enough. But I don't think that's true for almost anyone.
Here's the part that actually convinces me art doesn't have a right or wrong answer: look at how much genuinely different work gets called good. Realism and messy abstract expressionism are both considered masterful by serious people.
Every major artist in history has been loved by some and dismissed by others, often at the same time, sometimes by the same critics who later changed their minds completely. If there were an objectively correct way to paint, that kind of disagreement couldn't exist. It exists constantly, at every level of the art world, which tells you something real: what you make doesn't have to satisfy some universal standard. It just has to be honest.
What actually separates the people who paint from the people who say they can't is almost never talent. It's whether they were willing to sit down, take a risk, go through something, and finish it, even when they aren't sure what they're doing. That takes courage, more than it takes any innate gift. Courage to create something.
That's actually freeing, once it lands. You're not trying to hit a target that everyone agrees on, because that target doesn't exist. You're trying to make something that's actually yours. Some people will love what you make. Some won't. Both can be true, and neither makes you wrong.
So if you've been telling yourself you're not the creative type, I'd gently push back on that story. I don't think it was ever really about ability. I think it was about permission to try. All it actually takes is the courage to sit down and try, whether that's picking up a brush on your own or coming to a painting workshop where I'll guide you through the process.
If you're interested in workshop dates, email me at: art@filipacabecinha.com.