Art and creativity involve expressing one’s feelings, emotions, and imagination through visual or performing arts. Creative people express their artistic side through dance and music performances or artistic endeavors like paintings and sculptures. Although every individual has an innate ability to think creatively and develop an object from imagination, most people are unaware of the tools and techniques required for portraying their thoughts in creative artwork. Many people spend significant time learning new skills or enhancing their expertise in a particular activity or endeavor. However, only a few can perfect their artistic skills because they lack determination, inspiration, and dedication. Although many teachers help students create paintings by teaching several techniques and styles, many students cannot paint effectively due to a lack of interest or commitment.
Teaching and helping people in a particular field requires excellent skills and vast experience. A teacher cannot teach or guide others without adequate knowledge and experience. Sherpas are also guides and teachers who help mountaineers through slippery slopes and dangerous summits due to their intricate knowledge of mountains. The Sherpas have vast experience in mountaineering because they climb mountains with multiple expeditions every year. Their extensive experience and expertise make sherpas the go-to people for foreign mountaineers who do not have adequate knowledge about mountains. Nominating or calling a person a sherpa in a particular field portrays that person’s experience and skills. Cinnamon Cooney is a sherpa of the acrylic painting field who teaches acrylic painting to her students with the Art Sherpa title.
Born in Aspen, Colorado, on July 1, 1970, Cooney completed her commercial and advertising art studies at Prairie View A&M University in 1998. She inherited her creativity and artistic skills from her mother, Ginger Cook, a painter who developed creative paintings at the family ranch in San Diego. Cooney started her professional career in 2013 after spending several years as a stay-at-home mom by creating the Art Sherpa YouTube channel. She has made over 1500 art instructional videos and 150 digital books for emerging painters and artists.
Teaching art is challenging because it involves assisting people in understanding the basics while highlighting how to master the skills and techniques required for producing creative masterpieces. However, people like Cinnamon Cooney help novice painters by offering step-by-step painting approaches and techniques. Cooney started the Art Sherpa channel to demonstrate how to paint and develop artistic creations. Cooney’s unique teaching method and philosophy helped the channel secure over 700,000 subscribers and over 70 million views on her videos. Her instructional videos help people learn to paint effectively without using exhaustive learning techniques. Cooney’s philosophy that anyone can learn how to paint regardless of creativity or skill appeals to the masses and helps them on their journey to become proficient painters or artists.
Cinnamon Cooney overcame numerous challenges in her life by using her art, including bullying, being a stay-at-home mom of three, and people’s criticism. She helps people overcome their challenges by teaching them how to use art to channel and manage their negativity. Her channel’s popularity and fame have increased significantly since its inception in 2013 and received the silver button in 2017 due to its phenomenal viewership and followers. Apart from teaching and guiding people how to paint, Cooney also created the Acrylic April program, a daily painting program consisting of 30 paintings in 30 days. She started the Acrylic April event involving live painting tutorials and videos on 30 different prompts throughout April. She showed how a painter could utilize skills, expertise, and experience to paint something according to a given prompt.
Cinnamon Cooney helps people climb the creativity and painting mountain by offering guidelines and support for maneuvering the slippery slopes of painting. She teaches painting through instructional videos, where she takes viewers through the step-by-step process of acrylic painting.
