When new students stared a course, one of the points i would always make was this : Many (most?) people have a view that when studying drawing /painting, the closer you can make the drawing to an almost photographic representation of the subject, the better the drawing or painting is… viewing a painting of an apple, one could hear “you could almost bite that apple, it looks so REAL !” You get the idea, portraits should look like a photograph . There is nothing wrong with this way of representing your subject, nothing at all. But we are so used to this being the only way of viewing art – particularly our own – that we are sometimes not aware that there are hundreds of ways of depicting an image, it’s just that we tend to focus on this idea to the exclusion of any other possibility! One thing I am certain of after years of listening to people, if you could draw when you were at school, you can still draw, even if you have never drawn anything for years or even decades – it doesn’t go away! And I am equally sure that people who sign up for Art classes (including leisure classes). in spite of their protests that they are not really any good, inevitably DO show an ability – maybe not the one mentioned above, but I think the interest and the ability happen simultaneously! More about this next time!
Since leaving full-time college teaching some years ago, I have been asked many times by ex-students, friends and present students in my small private classes, “I want to draw or paint BUT I have no time/ I haven’t done it since leaving school/ I don’t know where to start/ I’m not even any good…” etc etc etc.. Here I want to offer some simple and encouraging help ! The first point (seems obvious but is a very real stumbling block for some people) is that you don”t need permission !!! This is YOUR choice, your time, and how you do it is entirely yours. ……..Watch this space for more in the next few days!!
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