Thoughts on Drawing Lessons


The show for my drawing students is still hanging in the workshop room of the Courthouse Gallery in Exeter. Their hours are Saturday and Sunday, 10-4. You can also stop by on Tuesday afternoons. They will be removing their pieces on November 29.

One of my more blunt straightforward students said something to the effect of “a room full of yous!” That was in response to me telling her how proud I felt of my students.

That is something that I struggle with a little bit. I want to teach people how to draw. I can only teach what I know. I only know how to draw like me.

Is that bad?

If I tell fail to tell them that my style is all I know and all I can teach, if I tell them other styles are wrong, then maybe it is bad.
I have to pay attention to several things – letting them pick their own subjects even if I don’t like their choices. Drawing a creepy heavy metal band doesn’t inspire me, but helping a student draw something she loves is very rewarding. I tell each person, “Pick something you love, because you’ll be looking at it for a very long time.”
If someone wants to work from a calendar, I have to explain about the copyright laws. Ultimately, I tell that student it is his choice but he needs to know that he cannot reproduce the work. It is very difficult to find good photos of one’s own unless one has been taking photos for awhile with drawing in mind.
Sometimes a student wants to copy someone else’s work. I explain that while it is easier in some ways, in others it is more difficult. I tell the reasons and let the student decide.
When a student brings in a photo he loves, instead of saying, “Sure, go for it”, sometimes I suggest we try different cropping to see if there is a simpler way to draw the subject. In this too, I back off and let the student decide what he likes best.
There are even times I have to tell them that their chosen subject is too hard. Sometimes it is too many steps beyond the student’s current skill. Sometimes it is too hard for me to demonstrate, and sometimes it is too hard for me to draw!

Often, I provide photos for those who have none. That really makes the subject matter look like my work!
As I view the show and contemplate my pride, I realize the joy is in their accomplishments, how great stuff looks in frames, and how great it looks as a group.
Mostly, I think about how much I enjoy them and the process of helping them learn to draw.

I also have to view the teaching of drawing as a beginning of their art education, not drawing as the final goal. It has always been my Main Event, but i know it isn’t like that for everyone, even those who love drawing as I do.


Show Summary

In the interest of following up on Friday’s post, here is the summary of the weekend show in 8 points.

1. My booth looked great.

2. My booth neighbors were delightful, as were the show organizers and all the visitors too!

3. I saw many old friends and made some new ones.

4. This wasn’t really the right place for my art work.

5. Stuff sold anyway.

6. Not as much as I hoped.

7. That’s okay – I have another show next weekend (Three Rivers Senior League Bazaar), and the one after that too!

8. There was a neato star thingie on the ceiling of the convention center.

Five Items On A California Artist’s Brain

  1. Thank a Veteran today. (Thank you Bob J. and Happy Birthday, I can’t believe you will be 80!)
  2. Thank you, Laurie, for pointing out the booboo in the link under See My Work. Now, if you click on Exeter Murals, it takes you to a YouTube video about Exeter, including a talking chin. (weird view of me, good story of Exeter)
  3. Remember the show in Visalia today and tomorrow. See the entry on November 8 for the details.
  4. These paintings might be dry enough to bring to the show. If they are, they will be more detailed than in this photo.
  5. R.I.P. Bugsy, 1994-2011. I’m sorry for the time I folded you up in your bed like a taco and poured you into your kennel (but you had tried to take my hand off on a previous attempt.) I won’t miss your yipping, but you were awfully cute when you came over to my house to find your missing people. And your ears flapped in the most adorable way when you ran!

Paintings In Situ

“In situ” is Latin for “in position”. My brain is full of these helpful pieces of information, and I have no earthly idea how they got there.

These paintings, however, got to their location with great intentionality. My good friend and neighbor wanted to repaint her kitchen. She wasn’t sure how to pick the color, so I suggested that she show me some colors she was considering, and I would mix a small sample for her to try.

One Sunday afternoon I took my paints over, and together we put patches of various shades all over her kitchen walls. When she saw a certain orange that just made her feel happy, with great laughter we dubbed the color “Orange Blossom Special”.

Once her kitchen was all painted, I came over to see it. (Just call me “The Blister”  because I showed up after all the hard work was done.) The kitchen was looking happy, but it lacked some art.

We hustled back to my studio, loaded up a box with paintings that might work and tried multiple combinations until we found the right blend (just like mixing the paint!) Of course, she is only graciously storing them for me until the next show (and the next and the next, ad infinitum, which is Latin for “to infinity” or until they find another happy home).

Spring and fall, both represented here. ( California poppies by a California artist, Mr. Google!)

P.S. You are welcome for the Latin lessons.

P.P.S. It was great fun to mix paint colors and help her choose! Should I add this to my list of art services provided? (Stop thinking I should just lend out my art! She is doing me a favor by modeling the paintings AND storing them!)

P.P.P.S She said “Not to be mean, but I hope they don’t sell!”

Mineral King Bridge Painting, 3rd Layer

Branches and leaves on the cottonwoods, a pine in the right foreground, and some branches added to the red firs back by the cabins.

Sounds like a lesson in native trees of Mineral King. Might be, if I knew what sort of pine that is. Bet it isn’t a pine but is another red fir.

There is more to be done. There is always more to be done.

Sounds like a life lesson.

(Hey Mr. Google, this post is about a Mineral King oil painting, a commissioned oil painting, and I am a California Artist. Just sayin’.)

No Shopping Gene

I get to participate in a cross-cultural experience on Friday and Saturday. No, I’m not going to a Hmong festival or a quinceanera. It is the Holiday Marketplace Boutique at the Visalia Convention Center.

My idea of shopping is the Mercantile and Creekside Yarns in Three Rivers, Winco in Visalia or Amazon in my living room. My clothes come from the local thrift shop, a very few catalogs, eBay and my knitting needles. I have no idea what is in style, and shopping is the furthest thing from my mind when a friend suggests “doing something together”.

Despite my lack of a shopping gene, this coming weekend I will set up a booth in the convention center and happily accommodate those who enjoy shopping. I might even learn a thing or two about what the current fashion trends look like! (But I am NOT giving up my long floral April Cornell skirts, so there.)

Oil paintings, cards, reproductions of my pencil drawings – that’s what I’ll have available.

What If I Gave A Party. . .

. . . and EVERYONE came! The art show for my students was a HUGE success. It was elbow to elbow for almost the entire 2 hours. The work looked stunning, and if I had been any prouder of my students, lightning might have struck us all.

First, HUGE THANK YOU to Michael, Robin and Sylvia for taking charge of the food and beverages so that no one else got stuck in the kitchen and could just enjoy the show. THANK YOU!

One of my long term students, Jackie, helped me hang the show. I think she has been taking drawing lessons for around 6 years. We grouped the pieces by subject – portraits, florals, landscapes, animals. Then, I just enjoyed it by myself for awhile in the afternoon. (There is more art than appears in this photo, of course. Just didn’t want to antagonize you by showing you all 52 pieces so far away that you can’t really see them.)

The brown box is where you put your ballot after you vote for your 3 favorite pieces. The artist whose piece has the most votes will get a month of free drawing lessons!

This is Jerry – he is the husband of one of my drawing students. He bravely volunteered to be the first at the food table, and to let me photograph him “for scale”. 😎

Kirby and me – 2 different people want to buy her swan drawing! (I couldn’t get the silly happy grin off my face for the entire evening, and my hair did look better in the morning, thanks for asking.)

Kim and me – between us is her first pencil drawing, her cat Scooter. And isn’t it cool that Kim and I are birthday twins, although I am about 1 hour older which means I get to boss her around.

The show will be on display at the Courthouse Gallery of the Arts in Exeter until the Tuesday after Thanksgiving (because that is the last day of drawing lessons for the year and everyone will take their pieces home then.) The hours are Tuesdays 12:30-5:30, and Saturdays and Sundays 10-4.