I'm studying right now! I've bought a few more art books and am watching Peggy Kroll Robert's videos on demand. I love watching other artists paint! It's so relaxing and inspiring at the same time. My favorite workshops are Richard Robinson's landscape workshops, but I love painting people too, so I was thrilled to find Peggy's videos. I actually first found her from a plein air site which was advertising her workshop coming up in Palos Verdes, this March but I'm not able to take the workshop at this time. Her videos are a great substitution
and are pretty reasonably priced.
I read an article last week about how art school is a waste of money. That's a little controversial, I'm sure, but I was happy to find several links to videos and recommended readings that are supposed to take the place of school. It was a very well thought out article, that mentioned about the need for a mentor. Hmmm, don't know where I'll find that around here, but I do my best with my online resources. Of course if money was no object I would find a mentor online and pay for their expertise…but…that's not quite where I'm at right now. I did have someone I refer to as my mentor, but that was before I was this serious about my art. While in college, I worked for a wonderful landscape artist who painted large pastel landscapes. He taught me a lot about the art world, but I wasn't taking notes! I wish I could go back and pick his brain. I actually just heard from him the other day and it's been years! Is that a sign?
I guess I should tell you about my art education. I've taken just about every class that my community college, in Torrance, had to offer; three semesters of art history,(although I would really like to take a whole course on the impressionists)drawing, lettering, design, painting, and sculpting(one of my favorite classes). I also had two amazing semester of life drawing from an amazing professor. El Camino College had the best instructors, at least for art. My sculpture class was taught by a professor from Long Beach State which has a very competitive art department. So even though I don't have a BFA, I got the most from what was available to me at the time. Since then, I've been teaching myself through books and more recently, videos. The videos are great for me, as I'm a visual learner.
But someday, I hope to be able to take a workshop in person and even better yet, teach my own!
Jennifer
3 comments:
I just love that you keep on learning; I think it's a secret to life!
Love this post Jennifer and it was interesting to learn more of your background as a self-taught artist. I looked into schooling early in my art journey, but quickly changed my mind for many reasons. Cost and being forced to study, draw and paint subjects that hold no interest for me were the top reasons. Not sure if that was a wise decision or not.
I love that you are so active in doing things to grow as an artist. Your work is lovely. This study is lovely. And congratulations on your quick sale in the following post! It's lovely too!!!
Hi Lisa! Thanks on congrats! It's a great feeling when someone sees something in your work that impulses them to buy it! But you know how that is!:) Thanks for reading my ramblings. I think writing this was a little bit for myself, as well. I was thinking about only having my AA in Studio Art instead my BA, but then realized I was able to get a lot out of that time and am still learning today! I think as an artist you can never learn enough! My reason for not continuing was because of money as well. I was a single mom and had to work. With no child support school was not an option. I tried a few times but was able to do it all. I always tried to work in creative fields though like as a florist and a giclee color corrector! :) I still think it would be fun to be an art student again, though! I loved being around other artists!
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