Reflections on Teaching Art

An overview of my approach to teaching artistic skills – with the hope of imparting the thrill I enjoy while creating.  Creating is a form of mediation that centers and calms me. I hope to share that.

Because my highest enjoyment is on the process versus the outcome, I do what I can to help keep students from judging their progress too harshly along the way, and simply learn to love creating. Then the outcome is not the goal.

Due to similar questions to this; "Do you think I will make significant progress in a week?"
I thought it might be helpful to note my ideas on creating, and developing artistic skills.

I think all people are capable of learning creative endeavors.  Even “non-artistic” people with no practice creating anything, might surprise themselves with what they can create when in a supportive situation.

As with any skill, though you may find quick tips and lots of teaching demos on-line, true mastery takes time and practice, and sometimes 10-20 years of working at something to get really good at it – which can seem daunting in the beginning.

Instead of aiming strictly for a goal, of being great at it, begin creating as a practice.  I try to find ways to engage students in the direction they are interested in going, as that helps them be willing to put time and effort in to doing art and continue to evolve in their abilities and skills. From there they can branch out and more comfortably experiment and expand their knowledge and expertise. Art students get better at their skills naturally, by doing it.

Everyone’s expectation of what their own artwork ought to look like is very different, and what looks like progress to a teacher’s keen eye, may not match a students desire to make “good” art based on what they have in mind to master, (typically in very little time.)

Some people are naturally experimental and at ease trying new things and they remain in a relaxed state of mind and others get really rigid and clam up as soon as they start, or imagine beginning. I try to help address whatever can be shifted to produce more enjoyment or fearless creating.

My approach and aim is to find out a students desires, talent, skill level so I know where we are beginning, and what sort of projects and direction might be most appreciated and helpful. Then I aim to simply get a student creating, learning, experimenting and enjoying it.

People who find joy in creating, will practice on their own without prodding. And those who practice an art or skill, naturally improve through trial and error, and continuing even when disappointed. I am available to help guide through any aspect that arises in the process. I welcome inquiries and comments on particular struggles or when a student encounters a feeling of being stumped or stuck on what to do next, battling the desire to quit, or ruin what they are creating... or how to overcome not accomplishing a desired look or feel to a piece of artwork.

When requested, I can offer suggestions for possible areas to adjust, and
how to work on it. Yet most of growing into a masterful creator is learning how to love and accept your whole self.  And sometimes an adjustment to posture or the mind... is all that is needed to restart a creative flow.
Here is a list of some aspects of creating that help an artist create freely.
Feel free to add your own known aspects to this list:

FIND OUT what is possible. Discover Art materials and how to use them
well, as they are intended, as well as inventing your own creative uses.
Try many different techniques in order to learn what is enjoyable so you have many ways of creating you can tap into at any time. This helps a student make practical decisions about which materials to use to efficiently design and produce particular projects they imagine or want to try, copy or mimic. Even if your main goal is to be inventive and unique in style, content or message; we learn a lot by copying other art (whether we like the image or not).
Breath is important and especially while learning a new challenge. People
often collapse or contract their breathing while concentrating. Breathe
more and deeper any time you can remind yourself. And pause the process as needed, in order to reset and restore posture to comfort as well as to support full lung expansion. Breating can also help release anxiety, or worry of not doing something well enough. Any attempt in creating is good enough as is. (Breathe).

Before starting an intense concentrated focus on drawing, taking a few
moments to breathe deep and shake out arms to release tension before, and often during a drawing session can help release expectations, or fear of failure – in order to be optimally curious and willing to discover. A few minutes of meditation help as well. These are good things to remember to do at least every hour, if not more often or as needed.

Begin a creative endeavor with deep breathing, a short meditation, and a
moment of being conscious of your initial intention. You might want to
even write it down. Marking a conscious intention can help align energies and shape what you do, and offers a good foundation to return to if your mind or
inclinations wander off track. You are also welcome to switch gears and follow a new direction and create something else unexpected... yet it is also good to notice and make conscious decisions about the shifts, as you may want to go back and revisit your initial intention.

Go inward and discover what matters to you that you would like to
communicate within a piece of art. When an artist knows clearly what is
important, it helps fuel the energy needed to created a powerful image.

Learn how to be gentle on yourself, and not let the inner critic get the better
of you. Inner critics are tenacious and persistent, and have a tendency to degrade
the energy it takes to create by hurling insulting commentary and
unpleasant internal messages.  Apparently it is not helpful to battle an
inner critic. (they are accustomed to being insensitive bullies, and we
are more likely to allow them to shut us down.) Instead, I suggest students
offer their inner critic a passenger seat behind them if an inner critic hangs around and wants to go along for the ride, yet best to not grant an inner critic the
driver’s seat - that is your seat! It helps to respond to your inner critics
comments with no attachment nor charge. Try saying; “Thanks for
sharing, now you sit over here.” (Offering your inner critic a side or back
seat, yet removing it from your seat.) Say to it, “You are free to watch, yet
not welcome to interrupt nor distract while I am working.”

Mostly what helps me create well is getting out of my head and into my
body. Letting my hand find its way versus trying too hard to keep my mind in
control of what my hand movements are. Often the body wisdom is deeper
and more accessible. Trust it. Learn to trust it.

Though pain can often lead people to create, I think that the path of lease
resistance is less troublesome, and helps people create more often then true suffering might arise. Though creating can really pull people through hard times, find better more inspiring reasons to create than saving creating as medicine, for when you are in pain, troubled, or struggling to find meaning.

Creating art requires getting out of your own way, and just diving in and
doing it. Each student must discover how to best to this.

What is not helpful is passing judgment too soon, or along the way before
something is complete as that can invite a flood of mental assessment from the left side of the brain or mind, that can reduce the energy required to finish projects.

Take a break and walk or breathe any time – as needed.
Better to note what impresses you about what you have created, “ I love the
colors”, “I like the movement in the paint strokes”, and what you want to
improve, “I want the tree to stand out more”. Check the feeling or mood it
communicates and decide to adjust it or not, “her expression needs to be
more contemplative, not just sad”.

Learning and practicing body coordination.
It is helpful when creating art, if one has finely tuned motor skills and good
manual dexterity. Coordination. Think of other activities as being
supportive practices to acquiring art coordination and do them as well.
Any movement practice, be it Yoga, Ballet, Aikido, Tennis, Ping-Pong,
Dancing, Tai Chi, Chi Gong, Playing musical instruments, mountain bike
riding, etc, is helping teach the body, how to attune and follow directions
from the what we see, in mind or imagination, from brain to body.

Establishing the willingness to practice, regardless of the results, helps.
In other words, having your willingness to practice be independent of
turning out desired results. Practicing even when we do not like the results
makes it a practice not dependent on the results. Love the process.

 Being decisive helps. Make a choice and move forward. It does not need
to be the right choice. There are many moments to re-correct, or adjust an
image to what makes better sense to your eye.
Just as riding a bike, in the beginning the corrections and over corrections may be quite apparent, and yet once someone gets a good feel for how to steer, they no longer see every minute adjustment in direction as a mistake to lament about. They simply naturally correct, and move on. Practice that while creating.

Lightly shrug and think, “Good news, bad news, who knows?” and get back to the process, which is like getting back on the bike and coasting for a bit until a clear direction presents itself.
Learning how to take good calculated risks in drawing, molding, blending,
sketching, and inventing an image takes some trial and error to develop.

 Confidence helps artists be decisive. Confidence comes over time as experienced is acquired. Yet, sometimes, accepting all marks and all images
as practice does take off some pressure the hope to do things magically
perfect from the get go. You do not need to produce masterpieces to be an
artist or create something wonderful.

 Tending to anything that helps it be fun, such as playing music you like,
helps you look forward to practicing, experimenting, and trying things.


To support the tasks and practice challenges, I recommend students acquire
a book as reference to opening the mind to seeing and and developing
hand-eye coordination of drawing what is seen, as this skill helps build
confidence and abilities that allow an artist to do many other aspects well.
The book is titled, "Drawing On The Right Side of the Brain"
Betty Edwards first published this book in 1979, when I was in junior college,
taking my first serious drawing, and design classes. I found it incredibly
helpful, as have many people since then. It has been revised a bunch of
times, once in 1989, and again in 1999, and a fourth addition came out in
2012. An older used version is fine. It may be possible to get a used addition
on amazon or e-bay, or in a used bookstore. It is generally a cherished
book by all who have used it.

https://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Right-Side-Brain-Definitive/dp/
1585429201

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show

/
627206.The_New_Drawing_on_the_Right_Side_of_the_Brain

These days, many people seek quick solutions and "hacks" to many challenges. People unaccustomed to drawing and painting may think there are tricks to get good at drawing or painting, faster than practicing themselves.

Other than weeks, months and years of practice, I doubt there are any significant short cuts even in quick tutorials on-line. I think it is fine to learn as much as you can where ever you find demos, as every aspect you learn of another’s skill and ability will help you develop your own. Yet, with any discipline, making time to practice leads to learning what works, what helps, and what hinders or impedes the satisfactory completion of any project.

Science and technological oriented people are often the ones who benefit the most from practicing art skills, because it is far more foreign to them, and it kicks a certain area of the brain’s function into gear in a way it may have not have previously engaged, in ways that will help many other areas of life.

However, if they are truly new to Art, is hard for them to grasp what creating is and how to improve, and they often want to hack the process and get there faster than anyone else. They rarely understand developing skills as an artist takes time to learn how to acutely observe, scrutinize, identify what they are looking at, and then how to develop “hand eye coordination” - which is attuning your hand movements to make marks as your eye sees them… as well as developing acute mind to hand skills… in order to create as your mind imagines the expression of the image which may be far from what it looks like in real life to your eye.

Another aspect of my orientation to Art, and Painting, is this perspective: (aside from my developing my skills and abilities, and confidence), my best work is some how associated with divine intervention … and often appears to be helped along by my allowing an energy to flow through me, that does not feel like the art came from me; an implication that the art is not of me, it passes through me from source to the page, all I do is open, receive it and let it manfiest.
More on this concept is clearly identified in Elizabeth Gilbert's

https://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86x-u-tz0MA

https://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_success_failure_and_the_drive_to_keep_creating

The skills to complete art help people create art, but the message or style content, or inclination to create, may originate from elsewhere or from thecosmic soup of another dimension we may not know much about, that is infinitely available to us, for the asking, for the allowing.

You could call that energy the all knowing… or God, or a divine energy that resides in us all.  And, you can request source to assist your work when you are creating simply by focusing in your mind, or speaking it out loud.


Using PrismaColor Pencils

One of my favorite techniques with PrismaColor Pencils, is drawing on darker tones of 100% cotton rag paper that has a texture in the paper of small curled fibers.

Here is a step by step outline of how I draw an image.

1) Locate an image, either from imagination, real life, a photo, a magazine image, or other.
2) Draw an outline in 2H pencil onto the final surface or material.
3) Begin shading in, (coloring in) the image with the colors you want in each area.
4) Create mass and volume to forms, adding high lights and shadows where appropriate
5) Build up the layers slowly... bit by bit.
6) Be firm with pressure but not too firm.
7) Keep pencils as sharp as needed for any particular area.
8) Blend in lots of layers of colors to create depth.
9) Remember to use white and lighter colors and notice the effects

Loading A Brush With Paint

Many painters paint with lots of paint, a heavily loaded brush.  I don’t typically paint that way.  I like more control for how much paint is applied at a time. And I often paint in translucent layers.

However when painting Plein Air, outside landscapes which are time limited – due to the sun moving across the sky.  I paint faster and tend have more paint on my brush and try to not fuss with where I decide to place it so there is a more fresh appearance to the marks and strokes.  Plein Air painting demands immediate decisiveness.

 
I also tend to get different color changes happening in single brush strokes loaded with bits of different colors on the brush at the same time, allowing them to mix slightly while on the canvas.  This technique in particular, makes paintings magical and exciting to my eye.  I do not "mix" as in stir the paint to blend it while the colors stream out of my brush. I let the brush marks be as they happen.

For this reason, even though I will mix colors on a pallet or container, I rarely ever mix a large batch of the same color paint. I tend to mix a few brush strokes worth of paint at a time if I am after a particular color.  I do not see the world in flat sections of color so I paint in variations and blends.  And I prefer the varied versions of color that flow out of a brush while painting. 

However when painting a large smooth sky on a mural, it does help to have sizable batches of particular colors to cover large areas and have on hand for further touching up.  And even then, that sky color is going to change from top to bottom; from a darker more red tone, purplish deep blue, high in the sky, to a faded light turquoise beige at the horizon.

I am not drawn to even flat unchanging colors, typically known as "graphic" blocks of flat unchanging color, such as in old poster art where printers had to make a whole new plate for each color and minimized the color options to keep the process simpler and the cost down.  I love the antique poster prints, because they had a lot of layering.  Yet posters later on. got simpler not more complex.  Painters are not limited to certain colors and we can mix colors to please our eyes as we see fit, so that is what I enjoy in painting. Seeing the painter's choices by seeing the brush strokes and the colors that happen more spontaneously.

While painting, I load a brush, 1/3 – 2/3’s full of paint.  It optimizes the capillary action that urges the paint to leave the brush.  I try to keep paint from building up and drying at the top end of the bristles where it is secured to the brush handle. 

 

There is a fine balance between manipulating the paint on the brush as it is put down, and moving, altering, or mixing with the paint on the painting.  I often dab the brush on the pallet before I put it on a painting.  This allows me to first check the flow (moisture and color), and second to remove some paint first in order to manage not putting on too much paint down at a time nor to have the liquid be in excess.  I also dab, to adjust where the paint is on the brush. I want the paint near the point end of the bristles when I want to lay it on the painting.  I want it further up the bristles if I am blending and do not want the full load to arrive on the painting all at once., especially if I want to manipulate what is already on the canvas before I let the paint on the brush join the paint on the painting.

I rinse the brush as needed to change colors, get rid of muddy colors, or to freshen up the moisture inside the bristles to keep the bristles pliable.  Drying paint will limit the flexibility or movement of the brush.  I frequently rinse a brush well, and dry off excess water (or solvent) before collecting more paint.

 
Due to capillary action, if a brush is too dry it will pull up paint or moisture off a painting into the brush, which is something to know about so you can use that when you want to, and don't have it happen when you do not want that effect. And it is good to know how to lift something if you want to remove paint or moisture.

While painting in acrylic paints, I use a clear matte or satin medium for blending.  It takes very little pigment to add color to a painting. And having a medium to extend the pigment versus water helps the paint bind well, and the paint with less pigment will remain the same consistency as paint versus becoming much too watery or thinned and runny.

Apply This Skill To Become A Better Artist.

Observation.

Beyond hand/eye coordination, and a desire to make art, one key technique in creating art, is Observation.  Paying attention.  Looking, seeing, looking again, and seeing – repeatedly, for hours on end. It requires a unique meditation type of patience.

This post is about representational art, which is one style of Art, and a great skill for artists to master.  When artists have this ability, they have a choice to use it or not. Without this ability artists are quite limited, and are often intimidated by the task and afraid they will get the details wrong.

The first step to accurately represent something in a drawing or painting, is first see it well.

Noticing, and observing is learning and recognizing, assimilating what is being looked at, and understanding the details of what defines it. 

Mapping out and placing representational details on a page or canvas to artistically recreate it, requires noticing features and reproducing those aspects, relative all other details, including spacial orientation and proportional composition.

Too many Art students learn to create without ever really paying attention to the item they are recreting, which leads to a serious disadvantage.

When I was in my last quarter of college before I graduated with a BFA, I took a Science Illustration class.  It was the single class that had far better artists in it than any of my other Art classes.

This class happened to be attended mostly by science majors, and only a handful of other artists.  You might think that the artists who had studied Art and painted for most of their lives would have out-shined the other students by a long shot.

However in this class it was the Science students' work that shown far better than the Art students' work. I noticed a remarkable thing: Science students' ability to pay attention; to observe, notice identifying features and then slowly meticulously document those details in marks on the page.  These skills are crucial in order to most accurately as possible represent a depicted item.

After watching Science students illustrate a botanical sample or a preserved racoon, I noticed very careful, deliberate, disciplined students accustomed to studying details, attentively observing what they saw. They were in no rush. 

Which led to me note a huge difference between Artists in my classes and the Science students.  Art Students seem to always be short on time, or in a frantic race to a finish, as if they were on to their next project shortly after the first one began.  

Artists I witnessed, looked at their reference item, briefly, sometimes only once for just a second to get an idea of what they saw, and then drew a lot, sometimes for fifteen to twenty minutes before looking up at the item again.  They tended to paint what they felt, or an impression of what they saw, without rechecking back to the reference item being drawn.  They carried on with their drawing or painting, from memory, and the image quickly became something either only loosely related to the item being drawn, or something else entirely. This lack of referencing the object being drawn, as a way of creating is prominent in Art Students.

In contrast, Science students frequently look to the thing they are drawing, always checking and rechecking the reference item for how it really looks, so they really get to know it, intimately; they study it all along.

So anytime you feel stuck, or unsure of whether you are representing the item you are depicting, stop, take a breath, slow down.  Look longer at what you are creating, just observe, study what you see. 

Observing will help you be more confident about what you see, which will help you make more confident marks, and give you more options to how you depict what you are creating. It is a perfect place to pause any time you feel stuck, simply see, relax, and carry-on.

Returning to Art

When my daughter Jevana, was a child, I noticed she had little or no interest in painting and drawing. I felt a little sad she did not share my passion for painting and creating, but I simply figured, she was more nerdy and left brain oriented, as she loved to read – constantly and she was a brilliant student.

A few times a year she attended street painting festivals with me. Mostly she watched and often slept when she got bored.  Occasionally, she would color in some areas, and occasionally went off to draw her own thing.  She began her own sponsored street paintings squares at age eight and did that once a year for ten years.

As a young teenager, she first began drawing profound cartoons, and then began painting in oils and water color. 

At fifteen years of age, she suddenly came into painting with a fierce passion.  I set up an area in the garage where she had a desk, an easel, a heater and time to focus and go inward all alone.
As a teenager painting became her saving grace.  Her paintings were raw, shocking and powerful, compelling and engaging.  She had no expectation of being a good artist, she simply did what she was driven to do – once she got into creating, we've had this passion in common for many years.  She was more curious than determined to make any of it "be" something.  That recipe worked well.  And her inner critic had not fully ripened, so she seemingly had no internal battles about discrepancies between what she had in mind and how it was turning out.

She focused a lot on the human figure and studied my anatomy books to get a feel for our human skeleton under our skin.  And within a short period of time, she submitted her artwork and won merit based full scholarships into two summer programs as well as a full scholarship to college in New York.

She is now in her early thirties and my daughter has rarely painted in the past six years. She has been a fully responsible working adult.  Lately her need to create has been calling her again like sirens on land, eager to entice her into the waves of creation... and she recently dove back into drawing and painting, and though productively producing beautiful works, she is also finding many stumbling blocks to freely enjoying her creative inclinations.

I feel very happy to hear she is re-employing her artistic skills and practices, as I know creating as a meditation and the self-righting effect it can have.  I have also missed seeing her work and sharing the joy about the images she creates.

The difficulty now, is she is no longer innocent to her abilities, and her expectations are elevated by a productive history, and her mind is interfering. She is struggling with letting what ever she is creating be enough, or good enough simply for having put time and energy into it.

This challenge of hers led me to think more about how to help someone get over the first hurdle: not giving into negative self talk... that KFUK radio station inside our heads can rob all inspiration from us if we let it play. 

Healing a broken heart and righting one's self in the world is a very different motivation than wanting to paint a beautiful painting for your wall, or accrue enough merit to get bills for school covered.  For her, when she was young, she did not care what came out of it. She simply had to create and spend that quiet time alone with herself and her feelings, once she had an incredible portfolio, it won her recognition.

My daughter wants to re-experience the freedom that being creative gave her when she was younger, and she is struggling a bit because her mind and inner critic voice is interfering with her enjoyment of the process.  Of course it is easy to suggest, ditch the inner critic.  But that is easier said then done.

Her challenge has led to me suddenly rethink what Art is for me and how I have gotten to where I am, as well as what creating is, in a bigger perspective and how to present what I want to impart to a student. I have nearly thirty years of street painting experience, being in a crowd making art. Making mistakes, or marks I did not like, or detracted from a painting, correcting them if I could, and moving on.  The fast pace of it forced me to continue, and being in a crowd, let me to be gentler on myself.

For me creating is making something out of nothing.  I get high from creating.  And that uplifted sensation is enough for me.  I learned to get over my big bad self.  It was not helping me do anything. Now, I often easily accept, or do not mind the outcome, even if it varies from my expectations or original intention.  That kind of outlook takes a lot of pressure off the process and the end result.

What carries the thrill, is the enjoyment of sitting and experimenting with paint and color to see where it goes, always keep a keen-eye lookout for something new and different, versus being heavily attached to the results being a certain way.

And for the record, No, I was not always able to get the results I liked or had in mind. Maybe even now, or possibly ever. But I learned to be OK with the results I do get, and see the beauty in what happened versus how I thought I wanted a painting or other creative project to turn out.

I have learned over time to enjoy the process, versus measure it all by the end result.  And when the end result represents a good time had, creating it, it is easier to appreciate the art – the art brings back a good memory.

I think all people have artistic talent and sensibilities. If their artistic talents are not active those talents are simply dormant, and unstirred. Those abilities can be brought out at any time, but they need to be coerced or invited to come out and be used.

People who improve artistically, are the people who practice creating and experiment freely.

So, I encourage you to practice.  Make time for it.  Even if it is a short period of time.  Make it a time of meditation. Give the gift of creating to yourself. Your temperament will be graced with a sense of peace – few other activities produce this as easily.

The people who practice creating more are the people who enjoy making art more.  So, enjoying it leads to doing it more, which leads to better skills and abilities which leads to better results, and hence more enjoyment.

It is a cycle.

However, the beginning of the cycle is not good results – it is enjoyment.

How does someone enjoy painting?

By being lighthearted about the process.

#1)  – by getting out of your own way.  Finding ways to tone down the inner critic, and let the youthful inner self explore and play.

#2) – minimize discomforts (such as temperature, hunger, thirst, )  so there is little to distract you when you are doing the serious work/play of creating a painting.

#3) – Be curious and playful.  Experiment. Try things. When you are quiet enough, an inner guidance will lead you to what to work on next.

You do not have to solve the painting in a second, you are a witness to its unfolding. Enjoy it!

I think the most prominent aspect of painting for me, is the peaceful feeling that comes when I paint.

Painting is a type of meditation, or study. It is a spiritual experience.

It is a practice of paying deep and intense attention to an image and the process of creating it and allowing for unexpected things to happen and evolve, then accepting it and moving forward from that point. A bit like life, mmm?

Creating is a spiritual experience, a meditation – it is finding peace in a particular function of making something out of nothing.  Be your god, self for a time, make something out of nothing, for fun.

Reflections on beginning and ending Artwork

Detail of A Plein Air Oil Painting I did in 2006 on San Juan Island, Washington

Knowing about color was something that came natural to me.  It is a sensibility I thought everyone had and I learned that many people appreciate exposure to information I take for granted. 

Becoming familiar with the color wheel and acquiring hands-on experience mixing different colors and seeing what happens helps artists get where they want to go because they learn which colors to add or refrain from adding to a painting so the painting more closely depicts the image as an artist's mind sees it. 

I believe the lack of understanding colors is the biggest stumbling block for those desiring fluent tools with which to create art.  When an artist has a good understanding of color, then addressing shape, form, and lighting, or mood in a painting happens easier.

Please forgive me, if anything I share is below your knowledge.

A student asked me to break down painting, into clearly defined steps. I can get to the basics of set up, what to have on hand, what I think about, how I move forward, and then… a big abyss opens in my mind and I have a hard time articulating the next steps.

They are choices.  Decisions made based on the current information about the painting, as well as my mood, how much time I have to paint.

At any point, what to do next depends on how that painting evolves. It is infinitely variable. It is based on all the previous decisions.  And whether I am patient.

I do not paint systematically like paint by number set.  I paint in order of what draws my attention, or in accordance to the color I have on my brush and where I see the painting calls for me to add to it somehow.  I listen.  I listen for internal guidance about where to start and how to proceed.

I know it's a bit etherial; I listen to the painting.  And where it is calling to have color or marks to note its beginning and becoming.  Paintings evolve.  And they often evolve to something other than a creator had in mind, because… some artists say paintings have a mind of their own.  Perhaps this is how the subconscious communicates to us what is going on beneath the surface of what is already known.

If you think of a painting guiding you, letting you know what needs to be put where, it can take a little pressure off you making that decision mentally.  Listen with your heart.  Art is much more intuitive, so learning to listen to that message and inclination is helpful.

The steps of painting: each step involves all the decisions I make as I paint and observe the results I am getting, as I try different ways of depicting what I see and evaluate or compare to what I want to obtain with each added paint stroke, within a painted image.  Or I get reckless and I simply try stuff. Random efforts or calculated efforts, sometimes when I just trust and move forward. 

To put things into perspective, though I have been a very confident painter (most of the time), it was only in 2012, after nearly 50 years of creating art that I suddenly realized, (while painting a mural in December outside in nearly freezing weather), that I was no longer afraid of paint! That was incredibly freeing!  I was no longer afraid I would not be able to adjust a painting to suit me. It is quite freeing to not fear the results.  (More on this later).

Painting may seem easier than it really is. 

Actually painting as a activity, is easy.  However achieving a desired result is sometimes tricky; it requires hand eye coordination, patience, (lots of it), and and ability to be with the painting while it is not yet finished and may give every indication that it is not what a painter had in mind – yet.  This is a lot like life. Learning to be with something in process, that is not finished yet.  Living with incompleteness is a challenge, especially if we have the expectation of already wanting to have arrived.  

When people ask me at a street painting festival what happens if I do not finish in time.  And I laugh. I tell them.  "If I do not finish before the end of the last day, at 6 pm on Sunday, I call it done."  There is no way to not "finish".  When you decide you are done with a painting.  You are done.  You may come back to it later, repaint it, change it or completely paint over it.  But at the time you called it done, it is done.  Much of my abilities to address problems in paintings evolved to seem easy, months or years later.  All is much better when I relax. But I did not begin that way. I began with such high frustration issues that i would put projects away until my upset passed so I would not ruin something out of frustration.

Some teachers told me it takes two people to complete a painting. One to paint it and another to indicate when to stop. They often wanted to be the one who told me to stop way sooner than I was ready to call it complete.  The saying  made me laugh, because I was notorious for over working my paintings.  Without being able to recognize it at the time.

These days I use a vibrational measure to asses completion. I assess, "Does it sing?" I know another odd way to approach artwork.  It is a little bit like balancing huge rocks at the beach, in a river or on the top of a hill.  There is a feeling inside my bones that lets me know the stack is in balance, and I can stop adjusting and feel the harmony of something in balance.  When a painting meets that criteria, and the harmony vibrates, and it feels to me that the image sings.  I am most satisfied when I work an image until I hear its completion song.  

If I am not paying attention to this potential song early on, I might paint past the completion song, and miss it altogether and paint it out of harmony into chaos again… 
in that case, it is like being in a spiral dance, I may keep painting until I hit another harmonious balance moment that will come around again, eventually.

If I have four days for a street painting, it take four days.  Typically the amount of effort put into a painting will fill the allotted time, and then some, just to fix or adjust or correct or change that little itty bit that may not have been in the choir-song toward the end.  But that nitpicking can go on and on and on if you let it. Street Painting events have an ending point which helped teach me to quit and enjoy looking at the finished work of Art. I can never go back and change or alter any of those images – they were in chalk and are long gone.

Learning to love the results helps keep artists producing art. As soon as displeasure escalates beyond enjoyment, people freeze and creativity may shut turn off until the activity is restarted and someone works through the difficulty or what was not happening according to a desired result.  

Having strong opinions fuels creativity – unless those opinions are about the result being not good enough.

I am no longer a beginner.  In many ways, I am masterful.  However I am also always discovering and learning as well.  Being too sure is not helpful to a creative process.  Lots of people like to maintain a "Beginner's Mind" in life about most things; because being curious and interested in the process is helpful, versus too established in what is known.  This is true with creating art as well.

I am familiar with and can articulate many minute aspects of how to get where I want to go, yet, I might not even notice all the subtle shifts I make to adjust my work in accordance with how the aesthetics of a painting appeals to me. These color or design shifts are often very subtle. 

While painting, I also have to be selective about which aspects I will put into a particular painting. As I cannot include all styles or aspects in one painting if I want it to make sense to me, I have to select and chose, and remember the direction I was heading, or it could get complicated and very messy fast.

Before I get to the actual painting techniques, I want to bring your attention to these aspects, which are tightly integrated within the painting process:

Consider these, as in, notice.  Creating Art is an observational process, it begins with noticing.

Just consider these: 

1) How do we see what we are looking at? How is your view of it different or unique? 

What do we notice. What aspects matter to us enough to include in a painting?  

        What matters to you?

2) What do we most want to preserve in order to tell the "story" of the image? 

3) What do we want to accent, or minimize, in lighting or color or shadow, etc?

4) How do we want to depict what we see?  Realistically? Figuratively, Impressionistically?             Suggestively?

5) What color choices do we make?  Bright? Saturated? Calm? Muted? 

6) What brush size? Soft smooth blended strokes? or rough choppy paint -filled strokes?

Creating as prayer

This blog is about my thoughts on teaching art. 

It is my musing, and it is what I share to help a student learn what I know about painting, which does not begin with techniques of painting. 

It begins with Seeing.  Noticing. Decision making. With how we begin or finish anything.  

And it includes acknowledging Creative endeavors as inviting LIFE FORCE energy to flow through us in order to make something out of nothing.

Yes.  Any time you stand or sit with the directive to create, it is like a prayer to a higher power, a creative all, to the great spirit or God, what ever you want to call the source of all, that you request energy beyond yourself to flow through you, to not be hindered by your mind, in order to allow your hands to create a gift to you and those who see it.

I believe this is why people enjoy creating, because doing so evaluates them to a more calm inner peace of mind and heart.  Even if their creative moments are fierce and intense.