After all these years, one thing I've learned in the arts is to have flexibility and cultivate fluidity. Painters will appreciate the former point and drawers, stuck in a plateau, will benefit from the latter.
I take my work home with me. Well its not really "work" but a lifestyle and so its no wonder my mind doesn't really every shut off from thinking about the studio. Often I find my mind drifting. I think a lot about the students here. I'm often calculating how I can most effectively help you to meet your goals.
I found myself pondering in the bath tub the other day why everyone is facing similar challenges in painting. I see the same things occurring time and again. We need to find the goldilocks zone. I think there must be a blanket fundamental that can cover these issues. I had a Eureka moment = Fluidity. I'm in hot water when this happens, so the irony is not lost on me.
The benefit of in person classes is I can see what you are doing, how your palette is working and how you are applying material and help to manage things. The main thing is people are kinda cheap when they come to painting. They either make little piles of paint that dry too quickly or massive muddy globs that wind up getting wasted, we need to learn the happy place, not to hot and not too cold. The goldilocks zone.
In terms of Fluidity what we need to learn is how to get paint to do what we need. Often times it comes down to not having it the right consistency for the application technique you are using.
This week in classes I will be discussing mediums as they are the main vehicle to help us in this respect. In general people are either too wet and applying paint to thinly and without confidence or the paint is too stiff and thick and scraping across the surface without proper adherence and richness. More in class.
Fluidity also applies to the motion in which we make marks which the drawers should put the right line in the right place as much as possible. This can mean you rehearse over the drawing surface or do some "ghosting" before making the mark. With fluidity we get style, looseness and life in our artwork.
Fluidity leads to flexibility and vice versa.
In terms of flexibility we had a great example in the Friday sessions this week where I asked students to sit in a different station this week. It is good to understand the light from one spot, this is certain, but I also see how we become rigid in our ways quickly. We need to stay flexible in our creativity and sometimes a simple change of place, pace or technique can do this very thing.
Another way we stay flexible at Atelier Artista is in our bookings, knowing models and students have things in their lives come up so we must be willing to change a course of plan quickly. I often get last minute changes and the power of creativity comes into full force when one has to change plans quickly without time to prepare. This is where some of the super powers of artists shine. It happens on the page nearly every time in the battle of what you wish you saw and what you have to deal with now. So stay flexible and for goodness sakes take the breaks, it'll help keep you from becoming stiff and freshen your perspective.
Another reminder of how the human form is a living things and moves, and we must learn to be flexible with out perceptions and plans as well. I was asked a great question last class about chasing the form as time goes on and my answer to this is to stay flexible throughout the process as you must be willing to change everything by the end and not stay rigid in that one place you have perfected. Guaranteed thats the place you F''d it up and you'll have to erase or change it by the end anyhow. Pain the the arse I know but thats how it goes so stay flexible.
I hope this is some food for thought for how you are approaching your work. If anyone has further questions see you in your next session.
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We have a new session starting this Thursday night 6:30 - 9:30 DROP IN PORTRAIT SESSIONS! Its' a trial run so it may be a bit bumpy at first. We hope to continue these throughout March and we will see if people want to continue on afterward. read more about it by clicking the button below.
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