Making time
How to make time slow down and stop for a moment? I have the answer, but unfortunately, this doesn’t help me getting done everything. We can capture a moment in a painting, and we can capture the scene we are drawing or painting, thus, registering our feelings, emotions and impressions of time. I believe doing our best can be not enough sometimes, but that is the only result we are able to keep.
Well-organized workspace
My classroom just got a face-lift. There are so many flaws with easels which are sold at the art store that I had to finally get to the issue and design my own easels for classroom. They are extremely light and perfectly stable; nothing dances around, falls off or turns over. They allow painting when sitting and when standing. That took a while, and thanks to my husband and his skills, we have these easels working well now. I had to make also some smaller things like cardboard trays to organize the workspace better. Workspace has to be easily approachable and clean.
Limited art supplies
We shouldn’t try using the entire art store. I counted last night; we need 10 paint tubes at most. We can paint very well with just 8 or even 5 colors. That means we learn mixing up colors. We normally won’t be using 6 or more brushes during a few hours. Most often, we can perfectly paint acrylic with just one medium size flat brush. Watercolor requires 2 brushes, but not 10 either. I can understand why somebody tries to take everything to the class: it’s called just in case. The negative aspect of too many tools and supplies is that it causes confusion. Especially when somebody is starting out, they won’t even know what each brush does.
Practice, practice, practice
We had a fantastic group painting today. I have 3 hour painting sessions on Saturdays. We start on blank canvas and at the end of these 3 hours we usually have something to show for. I loved that nobody was disappointed because sometimes people imagine they can go within 3 hours from never painted before to mastering painting That does not happen, so, I am very happy with people who have reasonable expectations.
No fear and relaxed state of mind
Creation of art has to be fun and relaxing activity. When I hear people saying I am afraid, I am really wondering how so? I can imagine how one is afraid from a surgery, even dentist, test or a job interview which can change the entire life. What is the worst that can happen when we paint something not as we think we should? With acrylic, nothing at all. We will need a bit more paint and possibly time to start that particular spot from new. Most likely, that is why people who love taking risks have very good results. Once we get over the barrier we placed in front of ourselves, we are fine. I wouldn’t even call this courage. I’d rather call this: pleasure to experiment, take plunges into unknown and experience freedom.
Artistic freedom
Artistic freedom is like no other freedom and it is the most uplifting one. When somebody tells me there are very many rules in art, I’d like to disagree. There is no other person who can see and experience the reality in the same way we do. Why our imagination and creative potential should be then squeezed in some kind of frame of regulations? It shouldn’t. Any other freedom comes paired with duties and obligations. Artistic freedom of creative self-expression is a completely alone standing freedom. There are tips and tricks, and common sense how to get painting done faster, better, more efficiently. Art and creativity allow creating a new world every single time we take the brush or pencil in our hand.
My popular art classes
I believe, many people like my approach, so my art groups have grown a lot. My space is limited to 12 participants, but I prefer not more than 10 artists for acrylic class. Everybody starting out in art should not take it too seriously, but enjoy and have fun. You’ll find out over time how nicely everything falls in place. The above does not refer to people who make their living with art. That is a hard work, one of the hardest I know.