This year marks the completion of 20 years of teaching people how to draw. Or, perhaps it marks the beginning of year #21. Numbers aren’t my strongest subject. When I started, I didn’t know how to teach. I just bumbled, fumbled and mumbled. If someone wanted to draw, say, a lion, I’d procrastinate on the […]
Learning to Oil Paint
Remember in the olden days when I was an oil painter? This was before 2013, the year I drew 180 pencil drawings of Wilsonia cabins. A number of my drawing students have been pressuring me to teach oil painting. We know one another fairly well so they understand how I teach, and I understand how […]
Last Chance to See Wendy’s Awesome Pencil Drawings
Now there’s a title and a half! Remember my amazing and very advanced drawing student, Wendy Miller? Her show ends this coming weekend. The last day to view it at the Courthouse Gallery (at 125 South B Street in Exeter) will be September 29, 2013. The gallery is open from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. […]
DON’T MISS THIS!
Wow. That sounded bossy. Please excuse me – my intention is excitement, rather than shouting orders. Wendy Miller is one of the best drawing students I’ve ever had the privilege of helping. I urge you strongly to see this show. And, many of her pieces are for sale. What an opportunity to own high quality […]
A Friend’s First Art Show
One of my drawing students is so good that I asked The Courthouse Gallery in Exeter ( where I teach drawing lessons) to feature her in an upcoming show. I’m defining “so good” based on several things: Her work is technically excellent. She composes her drawings from her own photos (and occasionally from mine), carefully […]
New Plan for a New Year
2013 brings a new focus to my professional life as a California artist, a “regionalist from Quaintsville”. I’ve told you about the book I am drawing, writing and publishing – The Cabins of Wilsonia. You’ve seen drawings as they are completed and read my groanings as I wonder how I will ever finish the project. Now, […]
Why the (beta version) Oil Painting Workshop Was Successful
Yesterday’s blog post told a secret – that I gave an oil painting workshop without publicizing it first, and why I didn’t publicize it. Today, I will reveal why I believe that workshop was a success. No, I will reveal the reasons that I believe it was a success, not why I believe . . […]
Learning and Growing
My drawing students really impress me. They sign up for lessons, come for an hour a week, and produce wonderful pencil drawings. Most of them begin knowing nothing. They persist, they do the work, and they learn to draw. I show them the way, but they do the work and grow in their knowledge and […]
Bowlafruit Critique
Last week I showed you this watercolor painting by Jim, who asked me for a critique. This is what I told him: “Wow, you are a get-‘er-dun kind of guy! Love the title too. . . (I’m puzzling over what to call my painting of the same scene that isn’t too dumb, obvious and boring) […]
Normally on Tuesday. . .
. . . I would be teaching people how to draw. This happens at the Courthouse Gallery in Exeter. No lessons in July or August because in the past, the attendance was abysmal during those months. Besides, it is just hot! I’ve been teaching people how to draw since 1994. Looking back, I’m not sure […]