Yesterday, I joined an art class! Yes, I know! Me - drawing!! I haven’t drawn anything ‘proper’ since I was at school. I didn’t even do ‘O’ level art which means my learning of that subject stopped when I was 12/13 years old. Over 40 years ago. Blimey, doesn’t time fly? Anyway, because of some seeds of ideas that are currently germinating in my mind, I grabbed an opportunity to join a class that has started at our local Festival Centre. Basically, I just wanted to see if I could wield a pencil/ pastels/watercolours/ acrylics with any sort of competence. Yesterday was ‘Still Life’. And this is what I drew...
It was a bit overwhelming to begin with because the ‘tutor’ was an artist who wasn’t really born to teach. His advice stemmed mostly around the phrase ‘just draw what you see.’ And occasionally adding, ‘It’s easy!’ Well, yes, it might be for you, dear heart, with your 30+ years of experience under your apron, but I have NO idea what I am doing!
However, once I had embraced the idea of ‘go with the flow’ and ‘who cares, just do it!’ I had a jolly nice 2 and a half hours fiddling around with pencils (HB number what? Who knows?), charcoals, chalks and pastels with a sizeable group of lovely people who also seemed to be floundering in a similar level. I steadfastly refused to look at what other people were doing because I didn’t want to induce any ‘I can’t do this’ panic, and actually, at the end when we all had a look around each others’ work, I was happy with my own effort. Most importantly, I had enjoyed the time. And even more importantly, I had squirrelled away a few ideas about how to, and not to, deliver arty crafty lessons of my own, should that be one of the seeds of germination ideas in my head. Which it might be. Or not.
At one point I thought, ‘Oooh, that’s a nice piece of shading there. I don’t remember doing that,’ and then realised it was accidental shading caused by the outside edge of my hand which was covered in dust from the various materials I was using, and I had been smudging it along the paper as I was drawing!
At another point, when the tutor was discussing my progress with me, I said, ‘There’s a lot of rubbing out going on,’ and he said, ‘Oh, we don’t use erasers here - we like to see our mistakes,’ and I said, ‘It would be a ‘can’t see the art for the errors’ situation if I didn’t have an occasional rubbing out session’ and he laughed and said, ‘Just draw what you see.’ And I laughed, but not as hysterically as I could have done.
At one point, an experiment to recreate a piece of tree branch using the skill of chiaroscuro (nope, me neither) ended up looking like an enormous duck head with a sinister glint in its eye. My neighbour said, ‘Ooh, a dolphin.’ Which just proves how much art is open to interpretation. You’re not seeing that one...
Next week it’s watercolours! Given the mess I made this week, I’d best take an apron with me.
It was a bit overwhelming to begin with because the ‘tutor’ was an artist who wasn’t really born to teach. His advice stemmed mostly around the phrase ‘just draw what you see.’ And occasionally adding, ‘It’s easy!’ Well, yes, it might be for you, dear heart, with your 30+ years of experience under your apron, but I have NO idea what I am doing!
However, once I had embraced the idea of ‘go with the flow’ and ‘who cares, just do it!’ I had a jolly nice 2 and a half hours fiddling around with pencils (HB number what? Who knows?), charcoals, chalks and pastels with a sizeable group of lovely people who also seemed to be floundering in a similar level. I steadfastly refused to look at what other people were doing because I didn’t want to induce any ‘I can’t do this’ panic, and actually, at the end when we all had a look around each others’ work, I was happy with my own effort. Most importantly, I had enjoyed the time. And even more importantly, I had squirrelled away a few ideas about how to, and not to, deliver arty crafty lessons of my own, should that be one of the seeds of germination ideas in my head. Which it might be. Or not.
At one point I thought, ‘Oooh, that’s a nice piece of shading there. I don’t remember doing that,’ and then realised it was accidental shading caused by the outside edge of my hand which was covered in dust from the various materials I was using, and I had been smudging it along the paper as I was drawing!
At another point, when the tutor was discussing my progress with me, I said, ‘There’s a lot of rubbing out going on,’ and he said, ‘Oh, we don’t use erasers here - we like to see our mistakes,’ and I said, ‘It would be a ‘can’t see the art for the errors’ situation if I didn’t have an occasional rubbing out session’ and he laughed and said, ‘Just draw what you see.’ And I laughed, but not as hysterically as I could have done.
At one point, an experiment to recreate a piece of tree branch using the skill of chiaroscuro (nope, me neither) ended up looking like an enormous duck head with a sinister glint in its eye. My neighbour said, ‘Ooh, a dolphin.’ Which just proves how much art is open to interpretation. You’re not seeing that one...
Next week it’s watercolours! Given the mess I made this week, I’d best take an apron with me.
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KJ
Apropos seeds germinating: 10 packets sown, only 30 to go..