Sam posing with just a sampling of her work.

Franklin assistant branch manager Samantha Damman has been making our locked-down world a little more colorful — by learning to paint since the COVID-19 pandemic hit America.

“When I first started, last March, I would go on YouTube and follow an artist’s instructions to make whatever painting they made,” Sam says. In fact, Shorelines featured some of her and daughter Layla’s early work last spring. “Now I look for different ideas on Google or try to come up with my own.”

The sketches for her NHL logo paintings took about four hours, Sam says. (Click to see a larger version.) The painting itself, which she’s holding in the photo above, took over 10 hours.

The first time she painted was at a “paint and wine” event about a year and a half ago, with two other North Shore Bank employees. “I thought for sure my painting would turn out horrible and was shocked it didn’t. Then, once COVID started, I realized I was going to die of boredom — or go crazy with a 6-year old — if I didn’t find something to do. My daughter loves art and painting, so I figured it was something we could do together,” she says.

Sam works in acrylic paint and estimates she spends over 20 hours a week painting. She paints a lot on her off days and says she used to paint more after work, but it was too easy to lose track of time and go to bed late. She guesses has put out over 50 paintings.

“At one point I had a whole wall filled up with them,” she says. “I gave most of those away to people on a ‘pay it forward’ Facebook page — I couldn’t believe how many people were actually interested in them! I am working on filling a wall again. However, my downstairs neighbor’s kids also love my paintings, making it hard to do — their wall will be full before mine!”

Want to share your hobby in Shorelines? Reach out at shorelines@northshorebank.com.