Creative freedom and self-care
Creating art is a way of finding out if one is able to make creativity, drawing, sketching and painting part of their life and self-care. I recently received many positive comments about my art classes. Parents admitted that the art instruction which is available in our region (Ontario, Durham region) does not actually include learning how to draw or paint. They told that most art classes were rather craft classes which use glue, markers, inks, papers, mixed media and similar. There is a need for projects which involve real drawing, sketching and painting. I am adding to this creative freedom when we make our own choices.
Replacing device with brush and pencil
I have noticed the dramatically decreasing attention span and lack of focus due to the overuse of devices in the recent years. The inability to prioritize important things in our life is one more issue because there is too much of everything happening at once. While some people, who have no art creation experience, would assume that art entertainment events with cocktails and food are art classes, I am very sure they are not since such events don’t teach anybody anything. There are also misleading art instruction models. Most of them are designed to please the participants and to make them believe that they are gaining a lot.
Ready product versus process
Most people are interested only in the final products, and they have no interest or patience to learn about the process of getting to this final product. Indeed, we are seeing this frequently. Many venues offer art classes which are half-done product. They supply with paper or canvas with drawing on it, so that the student has to only apply paint on certain spots Most events are a few hours a single night or one day only because everybody is in a rush. Is it possible to master everything within such a small time frame? No, it isn’t. Brushing techniques alone take time to practice, not to mention that colors, values and composition matter. We always observe certain aspects of painting and we must be aware what these aspects are.
Meaningful art instruction
If we want to make art instruction meaningful again and if we want people to really fall in love with creativity and hand-made art, we have to go the long and more difficult way. We have to allow teens and adults, who want to learn, doing so. Having the final product or masterwork done in just a few hours is an illusion. Nevertheless, there are lots of people who believe in that. Final product or masterwork cannot be the only goal. What matters in this case is the journey, the multiple techniques and approaches, the enjoyable path to self-discovery, satisfaction and feeling of fulfillment. The key is understanding the main drawing and painting principles.
Progress of my recent project
The recent project was painting a simple barn while using expressive watercolor washes. Students learned how to blend red and green colors. For that, we require wet-in-wet approach since that eliminates muddy color. We used simple perspective drawing of buildings and fence.
A few layers are already applied, I start with abstract watercolor washes and define them as I go.
I keep adding layers and I have also worked more on fence posts.
The old country barn painting is almost done, just problems with picture-taking.
Mutual experience
I also wanted to make an art class which is hard to learn online: just because the content of this class rests on the presence and the interaction between me, group and everybody as an individual. Perspective is such subject for which understanding the principles is of extreme importance, or there is no perspective. While my photos were not perfect, the painting is correct.
The finished painting, Old country barn, 24 x 20 in or 61 x 51 cm watercolor painting on Saunders-Waterford cotton paper
Reason to be satisfied
Therefore, I am proud that my drawing, sketching and painting classes provide teens and adults with a meaningful art instruction. I make sure that students have tools to enjoy a creative freedom, and they are able to draw, sketch and paint anything they want and the way they would like to. I believe that is different and that works in favor of any student.
Please see also: https://inesepogagallery.com/2017/10/02/art-created-different-dimension/
And if you live in Ontario, you can apply for my art classes directly here: Art classes