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As a
teacher in 4-6 grades I found that some students
had great difficulty getting to school on time.
Occasionally, I would have a quickie, unannounced
art project by group the first thing in the
morning. There weren’t many late students in my
class. We had a regular art class each week –
Different every year, but some kind of projects
that built in difficulty throughout the school
year and that related to what we were studying.
I haven’t taught adults, other than to offer
advice as we paint together and others offer me
advice as well. Mostly I don’t put in enough
shadows, but I’m working on that. My favorite
advisor is my husband, who doesn’t mind telling me
when my mountain is too steep, or the sheep is too
long.
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My
first mother-in-law gets the credit for getting me
into art. When my husband was diagnosed with
cancer and would not live long she found an art
class to distract me. It worked. I could start
painting at 6:00 PM and suddenly it was 2:00 AM. I
was fascinated by the process of putting shapes on
paper with pastels and blending them until I had
color from the tips of my fingers to my elbows. A
doctor gave me confidence by buying one of my
paintings, framing it, and hanging it on the wall
in his waiting room. Then I began painting in
oils. When my husband died I couldn’t seem to do
it any more and then I became a teacher and there
was no time.
I remarried and two Christmases before I retired
nearly forty years later, my family bought me art
supplies. An easel, paint, brushes. Everything I
would need to paint in oils, but still there was
no time to paint. When I retired I joined a
painting group and gave me advise on what to do. I
knew I needed more instruction if I was going to
produce anything worthwhile. I found Daniel
Edmondson online and found his DVDs. To my
surprise he wanted to see each painting as I
finished it– it comes with the purchase - and he
made videos explaining what was good about each
painting and how I could improve. Wow! I started
with his still life DVDs, then his landscape DVDs,
and then an online class for 56 weeks, in which
people from all over the world send in the
paintings they are doing and he critiques them,
giving digital corrections as appropriate to help
people see how to improve. I loved it all. Now I’m
working on my own at least some each day, and I’m
still meeting with my art group on Fridays.
My studio is very small – the space between my
dining room and kitchen and includes the counter
space coffee pot. My son-in-law calls it “the
smallest studio in the world.” There is a skylight
and a window nearby so there’s plenty of light.
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