For decades people have asked me why I love to paint. I would mumble in an incoherent way, “I don’t know”. Then one day I heard one of my painting hero’s, Wayne Thiebaud say something like this, “Paintings are a different kind of species, inert, quiet, simple a new kind of world. Painters find a way to bring them to life, alternative species, and alternative worlds. Great works from memory – imagination. I can be a God in that universe, I am making my own world.”

Wow, that’s a statement.

Now, I can’t, and I won’t ever call myself a God but, I can say it feels as if I am making my own unique world when I paint. Art is about seeing and then applying one’s own vision to that view.

I’ve been teaching in my home studio for about 15 years. It is inspirational to watch the faces of those who haven’t held a paint brush in their hands since kindergarten, use a brush to apply color on a piece of paper. It’s exciting to see how please with themselves they are regardless of age. With just a little guidance even the person who claims, “I can’t draws a straight line”, begins to feel safe enough to keep going.

I love teaching adults who have had full lives reverting to childlike behavior as they spread paint on paper or canvas. Appreciating joy, even in the little things is what I teach, they do the rest.

Life can beat us down. The daily grind or the 24/7 constant global news is too much to take in, we can’t ignore it, but we can transform our feelings about it all. Art accelerates that process.

I admire realistic painting. But realism is not for me. I was struggling in art class to make perfect lifelike renditions when I read what Michelangelo said, “If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all”.  That statement released me from trying to be perfect, if it’s not wonderful to paint, then I must ask myself why bother. I will never be Michelangelo or anyone else. I am me. That is what I teach in my art class = Be Yourself.

I’ve studied or taken art classes with well over 60 artists. Each has her / his own take on making art. But I often felt obligated to paint in the style of the teacher. That never happens in my classes. It’s important to me that my students find their own character in the art work they create I  my classes.

Robert Henri said, “the object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable”. That rings true for me which is why I’ve always called my art classes “Finding Your Own Visual Voice”. Painting is expressing something words cannot convey.

It’s not to discover your personality but it is to uncover your own character. Painting is a bit like our handwriting. If we allow our soul, or more understandably our character, help us to choose what and how to paint, our own visual voice starts showing up. It’s up to the art teacher to notice when that happens.