I learned watercolor after losing the use of my right hand

Dear Delyara, A stroke weakened my right hand, the hand I had used for drawing since childhood. I stopped making art because attempts with the left hand looked clumsy and unfamiliar. An occupational therapist encouraged me to join a watercolor group where the instructor taped paper to the table and adapted brushes with thicker handles. At first, I painted only lines and washes. I hated everything I made. Then I began painting clouds because clouds did not require straight edges or precision. Today, one of my paintings was selected for the community-center exhibition. It shows a gray sky opening above a row of rooftops. The brushwork is uneven, and my old hand could have produced something more controlled. That is no longer the standard I use. My left hand is not a poor imitation of the right. It is a beginner carrying sixty years of looking. I signed the painting in the lower corner, slowly, with a name that now leans in another direction.