As a teacher, I am more interested in my students learning how to problem solve rather than their walking away with a perfectly rendered painting. I ask them to give themselves to the process, considering each painting as an exploration to the next. I feel strongly that the best takeaway from a workshop is remembering the steps to good painting. I encourage them to make lots of starts, which can be frustrating for them, because who doesn’t want to take home a finished masterpiece to show the family? I find, however, that left to their old habits they often lose the freshness and become a slave to detail. It is my hope that they take the studies they’ve done in the workshop and learn from them, remembering the spontaneity with which they were created. Here are 2 demonstrations I did in workshops, purposely leaving them in simplicity:
Landscape Demo
Tuileries
Learn something today to put into practice tomorrow, and then you will arrive at old age still fresh.
– Charles Hawthorne