Hold the Worms

Often times – too often perhaps – I paint by the seat of my pants. I’ve got the idea in my head and trust enough that my mental image and experience will be enough to carry me through. This habit of working comes from years of standing at my easel focused on the task at hand. I rarely invite others to watch me work, therefore I rarely worry about my step-by-step procedure.

Me, evidently trying to get the words out...

One of the challenges of teaching a workshop is taking all the muscle memory, the habits and the gut feelings and putting them into a coherent format that another person can access. Workshop participants are usually not satisfied with grunts and long pauses.

Composition, color, value, rhythm, spacing…they’re all vital parts of a complicated whole, and challenging – at least for me – to put into paragraphs. In the college years these concepts would each be given weeks or semesters of time. Most workshops cover a weekend at best.

There’s also the issue of the students’ previous experience. In a class of, say, 20 students, there could be photo-realists, impressionists, weekend painters and dedicated lifers. How to leave room for their personal quirks and style, yet also balance that with information I can provide so they can further develop those quirks and deepen that personal style. My job, I believe, is to help them become better at what they do, not become better at what I do.

So I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how much and what to cram in to these two days of workshop I’ll be leading soon with a terrific bunch of artists in Valentine Ne. I’m doing somersaults to make sure I’ve got it right, or at least close. Color? Value? Composition? Good golly, lifetimes are given to understanding this stuff. Am I giving enough?

Yet it occurs to me that I’m not the only one who needs to prepare for class. While it is a fair question to ask, "What is the teacher going to teach?", there is another question that deserves to be asked, and that is, “What do you plan to learn?” 

Taking a workshop is not all about sitting in a safe nest, mouth wide open like a baby bird waiting to receive nourishment. Little bird, it’s your job to watch how others fly, and to flap your wings as hard as you can to leave your comfort zone and take off on your own. You get to exercise those muscles, take off with your new found knowledge and be willing to bounce off a few branches and land hard on the ground a few times before figuring out how to do it your way.  Mama bird gets to encourage, offer some helpful advice, and eat worms while baby bird works their tail feathers off.

So that's my lesson plan. Present, nudge, and push a little. Watch you fly to new heights. Hold the worms.

Hearts To You

Greetings Dear Reader,

I recently spent a challenging and delightful weekend in Valentine, Nebraska sharing a workshop with the Sand Painters Art Guild.

I say "sharing" because this group of dedicated artists already spends hours each month honing their life drawing and plein air skills. It's not like they needed teaching, especially.  My job was to simply demonstrate how I start a painting and convey clearly and concisely what I was doing and the why behind that. 

Yeah, that makes me laugh too. 

Those of you who have tried this exercise know how tricky it can be. Keeping track of shapes and colors while stringing words together in some semblance of language is challenging to say the least.

 

I think my first sentence was something about ... the thingy... and the delie-o ... whatchamathinger ...gahhhhh...

 

 

Once the words started flowing however, some terrific discussions ensued about color and brushstrokes, creating atmosphere and the challenge of values. I had to be on my toes with this group.

 

It's so easy when leading a workshop to inflict one's own style on everyone else. Do this, then this, then that and ... voila! The entire class ends up with an imitation Scarborough! Trust me, one of me in the world is plenty.

 



It seems infinitely more useful to share some basic concepts and at the same time, use those ideas so they can be understood in their proper context.  Cool colors recede, warm colors appear closer, texture and line can be used to help compose are all simple, yet powerful devices for painters to understand. 

 

Painting while verbalizing the why's and how's put those theories into action.

 

 

 

And then...

 

... their turn. 

 

The challenge for an instructor in my humble opinion is to get out of the way and empower each artist to figure things out for themselves. They'll (hopefully) keep painting long after I've scraped my palette clean and gone home. That's when the hard work begins, and the most exciting potential for discovery occurs.  

 

That is what the instructor's job should be. To honor the potential of each person in their class, and to find ways to encourage each individual's journey of discovery. 

 

Sand Painter's, it was a blast hanging out with you. Thank you for your attention, your bravery and your willingness to step up to a challenge. Now ... go paint something!