Something about turning fifty has triggered all kinds of changes in my life! One is that I’ve felt a strong urge to teach. I’ve been asked about offering workshops, and want to do that at some time in the future. In the meantime, I approached the University of South Alabama’s Continuing Education department, and have been working with Sue Allison in that office to develop a course aimed at beginners. (It starts September 24, runs for six weeks and I learned yesterday that there is room for only one more student.) I plan to teach still life using the underpainting and glazing technique I learned many years ago from Jack Dempsey, the late, great professor of painting at the University of Alabama at Huntsville. Later I may offer landscape painting, but right now I want to test my theory that anybody on the street can walk in and learn the craft of painting. Kind of like learning a song on the piano–you can do it if someone is right there telling you how–and you’re willing to practice.
Each session is only two hours long and so I’ve been testing ways to get the basic ideas across efficiently. One of these ways will probably include some slides of the various stages the painting goes through from start to finish. To do that, I’ve been exploring Power Point and Adobe’s Captivate programs and thinking about how to supplement what I am saying and doing, but not repeat myself.
While I paint in a very traditional way, I love discovering ways technology can assist the art-making process! In my own work, I’ve added a monitor and laptop to my studio setup in the past year and appreciate how I can zoom in on details, darken or lighten areas, and color correct immediately. Of course, photography is not nature, so I make drawings and color notes as well. But the minute changes in a cloud formation are impossible to capture any other way–so it’s a wonderful tool.
Painting class
Something about turning fifty has triggered all kinds of changes in my life! One is that I’ve felt a strong urge to teach. I’ve been asked about offering workshops, and want to do that at some time in the future. In the meantime, I approached the University of South Alabama’s Continuing Education department, and have been working with Sue Allison in that office to develop a course aimed at beginners. (It starts September 24, runs for six weeks and I learned yesterday that there is room for only one more student.) I plan to teach still life using the underpainting and glazing technique I learned many years ago from Jack Dempsey, the late, great professor of painting at the University of Alabama at Huntsville.
Later I may offer landscape painting, but right now I want to test my theory that anybody on the street can walk in and learn the craft of painting. Kind of like learning a song on the piano–you can do it if someone is right there telling you how–and you’re willing to practice.
Each session is only two hours long and so I’ve been testing ways to get the basic ideas across efficiently. One of these ways will probably include some slides of the various stages the painting goes through from start to finish. To do that, I’ve been exploring Power Point and Adobe’s Captivate programs and thinking about how to supplement what I am saying and doing, but not repeat myself.
While I paint in a very traditional way, I love discovering ways technology can assist the art-making process! In my own work, I’ve added a monitor and laptop to my studio setup in the past year and appreciate how I can zoom in on details, darken or lighten areas, and color correct immediately. Of course, photography is not nature, so I make drawings and color notes as well. But the minute changes in a cloud formation are impossible to capture any other way–so it’s a wonderful tool.