How I Teach Painting
By Kathy In Painting On March 15, 2015
Artists don’t’ know how to paint. Those who who knows exactly what their painting will look like when it’s finished may be excellent technicians, but they are not artists. Artists are involved in the process of painting; they discover what is, while it is happening. When I provide paints and canvases for for my students, I first of all support their naivete, because this is the source of the beginner’s mind as Buddhists might term it, and my underlying goal is to keep this alive.
Jasper likes to paint. She experiments with brush strokes and color. I particularly like this one of her paintings. Who knows what prompted her to scrunch her brush against the canvas to create the winged flurry in the upper left hand quadrant.
After I congratulated her on her unique work and pointed out its unique qualities, she has been trying to find that approach again. She’s been varying her approach, but she is too much in her head and her efforts have come out rigid and predictable. I don’t criticize. I don’t give what she’s done any energy. If she asks, I might say what doesn’t work for me, but I know that dwelling on that sort of thing doesn’t work in the long run. Congratulating students, on the one hand gives them feedback, on the other could get them stuck thinking that there is a RIGHT answer. My work is to pay attention and notice when spontaneity has returned.It’s only my shared excitement with my students about what happens to paint on canvas that brings us along in this subtle dialogue.
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