Learning from others

I was reading an article the other day about the fact that historically, artists learned by apprenticing and studying with the masters. Later, there were studios where you could study one-on-one with fine artists and teachers to learn your craft and improve your skills. While private lessons today can be quite expensive, there are options open to us to take classes with experienced teachers. These classes can be small groups that meet once a week or on some other sort of schedule or they can be a more intensive workshop that lasts for just a few days, but involves painting for 8 hours each day. In the decorative art world, the classes are taught much as they would have been at the feet of the masters. Techniques are demonstrated and then practiced on a project. Everyone in the room is painting the same project, but no two finished pieces are ever alike.

This weekend, I traveled to Buffalo, NY, to take a 2-day workshop with Connie Parkinson. Connie is an oil and acrylic painter. Her workshops are generally in acrylics. She had adapted techniques that are traditionally used with oil paints so that they can be used with acrylic paints. It was a wonderful workshop. I can't wait to do some of my own designs using the techniques that I learned from her. Each day was an 8-hour painting session and we completed one painting a day. Here is the Saturday project. It was painted on a 9x12 piece of gesso board.