We have 6 weeks, to take big, giant steps forward in our painting.
For many of us this means putting down our watercolor brushes and moving on to painting with acrylic paints.
The first time I tried to make this transition I felt like I was trying to paint with mittens on. SUPER FRUSTRATING. I gritted my teeth and created a tight, tiny painting.
The PROBLEM: I was trying to create a WATERCOLOR PAINTING WITH ACRYLICS.
The SOLUTION: get out of my paint box. Paint big shapes, big colors!
I was fortunate to be introduced, via an acrylics class, to FREEDOM to make marks that did not have to be totally drawn out or colors planned; it no longer took several weeks to make one painting. Class assignments included just smearing lots of my favorite colors at random on a canvas. Later I started adding lines and words.
FREEDOM! WORD ART. The text was added on the computer, but we can also add cut out words and/or paint words and collage it all together. Week 3.
CLICK ON THIS ART TO SEE MORE.
Scary, no perimeters. Just play with paint. but GUESS WHAT? It was so much FUN. I began a love affair with thick, gooey paint, that I was free to paint over top of if I changed my mind. Instead of 8" x 10" paintings, I was doing 16" x 20" or larger. The bigger the better.
That brings us to our 6 week art class: Dare to Paint Your Joy.
Week 1 was a challenge. Shapes, lines, colors. Sounds simple enough. But when we are moving into any new direction, anywhere, it's usually not simple.
Week 2 we moved onto shapes, lines, colors as the music played. Easier. Each artist had 30 seconds to paint a shape, any shape, or line or color to a page, music stopped, pass it on. All 15 students added their marks to each page. Let the fun begin.
Whew! We can do this. Look what we got? Fun pieces of random art that didn't cause any suffering. No preconceived ideas of WHAT we were drawing. Just freedom to play. For me, that is the heart of art. JOY.
After the group paintings we moved on to each one decorating their own letter. See what we got. (this is a slide show of work, so give it a few seconds between arts)
So proud of all the students. Your designs were free and fun. We've only just begun.
Jane took her letter "Z" home and worked on it a little longer. Beautiful composition! Jane, think about doing this on a 16" by 20" canvas or heavy watercolor paper. That will add a whole other dimension. to it.
Great class, everyone!