Wise beyond his years

     I started this one during a demonstration that lasted 2 hours on Tuesday at the Eastern Shore Art Center. (I finished it this evening in about an hour.) I had invited my students to show up thinking it would just be us and they could get in their lesson. Much to my surprise, people started coming in about 20 minutes before the demonstration was to begin! I started answering questions and away we went! My students have heard it all before so they painted away, while I was demonstrating and talking about my upcoming classes at ESAC in Fairhope. Before it was all said and done, the room needed more chairs and I had come close to completing this piece, talking all the while. (We had about 24 people show up, even one of the other instructors!)

     I talked about transferring, why to paint a painting in a day, brushes, paints, canvas and everything under the sun! (I also checked on my students that were there to make sure they did not dig too deep a hole.) I really enjoy teaching and encouraging people to paint more. I started the painting a day 3 years ago while we were building our house in Fairhope. Hard days of hot sweaty work, then frantically completing, photographing, downloading and blogging about that days painting! I have never had so much fun! The painting a day discipline will make you paint faster, cleaner, and more profitably because if you sell, the name of the game is to keep your prices affordable. It also stops you from just plain fiddling around with your paint! During the demonstration, the people watching were a little surprised that I did not study the photo more. I have found that too much focusing on the reference slows you down, and cause you to 'tighten up' way too quickly. I refer to the photo as I am doing the big details and then the final touches, then I simply put it away because I do not like to let a photo dictate to me the colors I use.

     Long and short of it, I now have two more people signed up for this fascinating method of painting and creating. They may not all complete a painting a day, but at least we'll all have fun trying!

Wise beyond his years , 13 x 20, Acrylic on Canvas, Day 44 of the 100 days~100 paintings 2012