It's funny how life happens...
In my last post, I speculated about art, uniques styles, primitive art and asked myself whether all the years I invested in art training behind the scenes was a waste of time...
Yesterday, I went out for the day with my writer friend, Nina and my sister to tour around and take a look at the scenery of Nova Scotia. It was a lot of fun, and quite visually beautiful! Since it is spring out here, the rivers are mostly open and quite high, so we saw a lot of drowned trees and river rapids on our drive. There is a feeling of excitement and rebirth to spring that is unique to this season and very distinct in different places. In the Maritimes, it is all about melting and things getting going again... Rebirth;-)
That was wonderful, and of course, we got lost because we set out to do so. And I was driving, so that virtually guaranteed it! When we ended up on secondary road going along a river we stopped and asked this sweet older lady for directions. Just to get our bearings so we didn't end up in Yarmouth by mistake.
She got to talking with us and invited us to stop by her house for tea after we finished our photo session. We decided to take her up on it and after we got there, Marion and Sonny (the lady and her husband) treated us to an impromptu lesson on the history of that particular area of Nova Scotia. It was very fascinating and entertaining as they both had a great sense of humour and loved their home and province with a passion;-)
As we had tea, we found out that Marion had taken some art lessons and was interested in painting as a hobby. An interest in art was pretty obvious as she had a few nice paintings on her walls that she had done in her classes.
So we started talking about art and painting and I had my earlier blogpost question answered, even though I wasn't really consciously seeking the answer!
Because Marion was literally 'taught' to paint with what I thought was a very strange process... Her instructor premixed her paints for her and then had her follow along on her paintings basically by watching him paint and try to ape his movements on her canvas.
With this method of 'teaching', she ended up with paintings to put on her walls, but no personal skills to create more. Wow. I was horrified...
No grasp on colour theory, no grasp on composition, no practice in drawing or the creation of forms to simulate the appearance of three dimensions using light and shadows, and no way to move forward to paint for her own enjoyment!
It really took the enjoyment out of it, I could see that. So here we have a woman that would love to paint, but can't as she found herself frustrated and unable to because of the way she was 'taught'.
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| New Brunswick Farm by Teresa Young |
What is teaching? To me, it's about seeing what your student(s) want, where they are at and where they want to go... The focus for me is on them, not on me.
I already know how to paint, I don't have anything to prove. So if I'm teaching, I would like to pass on the craft and skills so that person can go away and stand on their own... What I would really like to pass on is a love of art for it's own sake, allowing that person to reach for their own unique form of expression, enriching the art world for all of us, eventually...
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| Cat's Emotions by Teresa Young |
I must admit that over the years, I've taught a few people to sketch, and a few people to paint, but nothing really major as I've focused a lot of my time on survival and working in IT. --> But in IT, I spent a lot of time teaching many different people how to do things, passing on knowledge to strengthen my teammates and allow them to reach their own potentials... I'm a good teacher, so maybe my training in art can allow me to teach what I know as a painter in a useful and clear manner.
I'm thinking now that what I was speculating about in my last post was more to do with how things are taught, not whether the information itself was a waste...
I think teaching anything should include a shift of focus to the student, rather than concentration on the teacher. Or else it won't work, as I so eloquently saw with poor Marion yesterday... The end result is that you could literally turn someone off art, without really meaning to.
Getting back to artistic training and how it relates to my unique style, what I think now is that without training in composition, my art wouldn't work as it does. And without colour theory, it wouldn't be beautiful and resonate as a major art form...
So in the final analysis, I believe my art training was not wasted. And that makes me really happy!
Photos and art images by Teresa Young:
1. & 2. River near LaHave - March 2010, 3. Stained glass window in LaHave Bakery - March , 4. & 5. An artists tools - March 2010, 6. New Brunswick Farm - August 1985, 7. Cat Dreams - January 2000.
