Unfinished Business
Last weekend I taught my first official painting workshop. This was a bit different than the six week classes I've been teaching at the McLean County Art Center back in my home town. The latter is geared for beginners so I go through a lot of details on materials, techniques and hands on guidance. My one day workshop was very accelerated in comparison. I arrived ready to paint and narrated my process from the first brushstroke and kept engaged throughout the entire days worth of painting. In short I tried to explain the method to the madness of how I paint.
So I drove down to Sullivan IL, a little farm community just north of lake Shelbyville and started in on a 16" x 20" glass demo. There were ten to twelve people in attendance from the Sullivan Art Club. The challenge was trying to get through an entire painting in six hours. I didn't think I could do it and by 3:00 PM I finished about half of it. I'll need to find a better balance that will allow me to finish a painting in a day that is large enough to use as a good demonstration piece. Glass is always one of the more complex subjects I paint, and rushing does it no justice.
I had a lot of fun doing this and could see myself doing more workshops. I really enjoy sharing my knowledge with others and meeting other artists. It's flattering to get painting demonstration requests, especially by my peers. I have to pinch myself at times to accept that I have come a long way in the medium in the handful of years I've been painting, I guess being asked to [...]