My studio opens up from the kitchen and I've arranged my easel so that as I'm pouring a wine, making tea etc., I can see it. I see something which needs improving and go and do it. It might take me five minutes or half an hour. But, I seem to find it more comfortable and progressive than being at the easel for a couple of hours.
On another subject I found myself with palette and three brushes in my hand in front of the easel. It made me recall of one past teacher, (I only went once), who said 'we only use one brush here, don't we', and her accolytes all nodded and genuflected. Another so called teacher said 'black doesn't have a place on the palette'. I wonder how many teachers have stifled talent at birth.
Wonderingly
Jack

I find it interesting to hear how other artists work. I am with you working where you can sit and look with a glass of wine and ponder what needs to be changed,and usually one brush is between my teeth,which I often forget is there,so tend to get paint in my Hair and on my face.
You have a great figurative style and is something I like to do for pleasure rather than commercially.Somehow figurative works much better in oils than Acrylic for me,I think you get a much smoother and the blending is so much better.

I like to prop up almost finished works fpr a few days - its amazong how you miss little details when working that actually make a big difference when you view the work from a different perspective. I've alos rread to turn the work upside down ( something I always forget) esp if you feel there's a prob which you can't see....and we've all had them i'm sure!

I also hate teachers who say " do this" " don't do that" - my first art teacher ( as an adult) said "don't be too purist abot watercolours" she also used to say dive it - its only a piece of paper - and they are bots of advice thats soo useful.
I love to experiment and sometimes think that if i'd had formal tuition then maybe i wouldn'thave experimtaed and learned nowhere near as much - mistakes are all part of the process. but i do check on the longevity and acidity of materials i'm using - its one rule that does matter to me - may not to others? its a personal chioce.
the above teacher taught us how to mix paints - we had whole mornings on colour mixing - nothing else, how to take blue and yellow from one colour into greens and back, and how to make some great and differented shaded black. but sometimes you just wh=ant a good dark, neutral black from the tube so she'd say " use it"

I was lucky - she gavce me the courage to move on from weekly adult ed watercolour classes and mostly i've taught myself - with a couple of day sessions on new materials - acrylics, then encaustic wax- where i could at least learn how the paints worked and how best to apply them . I think tolearn a techinique in how best to use a new medium is helpful but the creativity is up to us.

Thanks Wendy and Jeannie. It's good to talk
Jack

I've come across two good teachers at Adult Education; Shu Hua Jin (worth a Google), who taught me at Epsom, and Dick who runs a Life class at Guildford. Both excellent in their own ways, Shu taught me colour mixing, interpretation (leave the photo behind, you're an artist) and gave me confidence to paint my way. Dick helped me see the figure more clearly.

David

from a good teacher we can learn so much but a bad one saps confidence or stamps their own mark on pupils work. sadly there's a good few bad ones and you don't always know until you start.
One of the tips about art holidays i read was look at how much tution you are getting, and look at the tutors style. If you're going to spend a week and lots of ££ then you want it to be what you need..

Thanks Jeannie
You've raised one of my favourite grouches. Art holidays. These are in the main concentrated upon the 'holiday'.
If a person is looking for, in a week or a fortnight, an improvement to their standards then the only way is a course which is intensive. I have only attended one such course, near Kings Lynn, and I went twice. Whilst the tutor was there for a specific time say 10am to 5.30 the facilities remained available well into the evening. Any work carried out was up for critiques the next day.
Great value for money and certain aspects have remained with me ever since. Art 'holidays' do not provide this in my opinion.
Cheers
Jack

interesting comments re art holidays here. i was asked twice to be an art tutor for mediterranean art holidays. the first venue wanted to double the price on their accomodation rates by offering painting classes and the second venue became more than a little side-tracked by the evening entertainment and excursions on the non-painting days.
although i initially agreed to be the tutor, both ventures didn't take off - much to my relief.
i've since been contacted again by other spanish holiday venues and declined the offers quite quickly and without a moment's hesitation.
i now offer painting breaks and holidays a bit closer to home and it's up to the student/s just how much time they want to spend painting and how much time they want to spend on excusions and sight seeing. it works much better.....

Black paint is evil!
A tutor taut me this on a fetac course I did. Its like your cheating using black! Or so thats what has been drummed into my head! I don't paint to much anymore I do alot of print making which i love but The teachers at college made me bad about painting. Althought other people have always like my paintings the tutors made me feel so bad that i just stick to drawing , sculpture and animation,.... but i feel these things are what i am better at so maybe they have a point?????????????? Yeah I think you just have to listen to all the comments from teachers and filter there comments, chose the ones that work for you and ignore the others that don't! Or try to!
Bec
http://www.artbyrebeccabrown.co.uk

What a load of tosh about black paint,I don't tend to use it much in my work but if it requires it I do.
It seems to me that a lot of creativity is being crushed by people who are supposed to be bringing it out of people.

You follow your instincts and glean the good bits of advice from reliable sources.

I love your drawing of the Ugly Church in Barcelona, as it is called by the Spanish.

if a tutor makes you feel bad i would seriously consider changing your tutor. with art, you're not going to get the best out of yourself with any negative vibes
an observant tutor should be able to read your body language ........... unless of course there's too many students in the class for your tutor to cope with.

I do find it useful to stuff 'completed' paintings away in the loft and dig them out again when I need to find material to exhibit.

Generally after a few months (or even years) I see better what I really wanted to express and 'bugger it about' accordingly.
(That's a technical expression involving the application of black paint ......... )

It's gratifying to observe that art has continued to thrive over my lifetime despite the intervention of teachers. Always remember - those who can do, those who can't teach !

toadslayer - i listened to an interview with the late beryl cook once. she did exactly as you do - she said she always put her "ladies" up in the loft for a while then could alter as nec when she got them out again.
She also said when she heard the official art school view that black paint was a no no it made her laugh because she uses loads of it. Being self taught no-one had been able to say "don't do" so she had the freedom to paint as she wanted - and certainly as many of her legions of admirers wanted!

If a tutor is negative go eslewhere - their job is to encourage and bring out the best in an individual - not to discourage, nor to convert the students painting style to what is "accepted" or to only show them how to work as the tutor works..I'm a great fan of self study - you learn by mistakes - and there's plenty...but no-one says don't do that. I like to see for real how a new material is used and the properties of it if possible - but with the amount of books, dvd's and art help forums online it can be done alone
the only reason i wish i'd gone to art shcool/uni is the materails - to get my hands on and in lots of different stuff that they have would be fabulous. Instead i have to wait for a sale and then buy more - and of course stuff like kilns etc simply isn't feasible well not unless someone buys everything i have and thats about as likely as my winning the lottery jackpot.

Good job none of us live in a house with a flat roof !:lol:

I agree the freedom to explore with nobody saying oh you can't possibly do that! Is wonderful
I wonder if there is anywhere you can hire expensive equipment, say for pottery for example?

As a teacher, I find that if you are teaching a class of complete beginners, they have to start from somewhere, so a bit of guidance is of course necessary to get them started. This can mean a bit of laying down of rules at the beginning, but any student who has a glimmer of talent will soon be branching out into a style of their own, and good teachers will encourage this. For the rest, I feel my approach is as good as any and will get them making good competent paintings, if nothing else. There is no "right " way to paint but there are wrong ways. For instance the use of black has been discussed here. I would say don't use black to darken colours as this will deaden them and make them look dirty and lifeless.There are other ways of darkening a colour that are more successful. I was taught not to use blacks in mixtures, but allways use it as a colour in its own right, and I think this is where the confusion starts. After all both Manet and Renoir used lots of black! However, black straight from the tube can look dead and lifeless, so I advise my students to mix their own black from ultramarine blue and raw umber. This makes a more interesting black I think.(And if you mix white in you can get lots of interesting greys).