“In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.” – Phil Collins

I’ve got a full teaching schedule ahead.  Two workshops at Pine Shores Art Association (June and August), Plein Air Sessions in Cape May, a week of workshops and demos hosted by the Artists Association of Nantucket in late August and a Plein Air class with the Philadelphia Water Color Society in September. There’ll be a lot of preparation… study sketches, demo paintings and putting together a lesson plan for each class.  The best part is seeing the artist’s reactions when they successfully try a new skill, master a technique or produce a workshop painting that they didn’t think they could do.

I start each session with my most important instruction. “This is a learning class… you may paint a masterpiece today and if you do, FANTASTIC! But the critical goal of the session is to learn new techniques and ways of thinking about your art. We all learn from our attempts, mistakes and successes.”

Some artists paint masterpieces every time. I don’t. I have piles of studies, sketches, paintings on the back of paintings, and some real crap.  But I think I’ve produced some good work as well. And each painting reinforces a skill and gets me thinking about what’s next. And sometimes it’s the mistakes that lead to a new technique or a successful painting. Bob Ross called them “happy accidents”.  So, if you’re sketching or painting keep at it even when it’s going poorly.  Good things will come… also taking a class can help too.

studies and demo paintings for my upcoming workshop at PSAA