My Art Teaching Life
Encouraging and creating with others
October has seen me return to teaching my weekly art class, Painting for Pleasure, and a 3-day Abstract Painting course at the Bluecoat. Teaching part-time is a more reliable way of earning a living than waiting for a commission or for someone to buy a painting. But it is also a wonderful way to enliven culture, community and public life.
Upcoming day course - learn my mural secrets!
I’m preparing to teach a one-off day course about how to create murals, at the Bluecoat in the centre of Liverpool, on Sunday 3rd November. Obviously, this is “Madeleine’s Fine Art” style of murals, and will give in-depth instruction and advice on the practical, technical, operational and community aspects of creating murals to brighten up an ugly urban space. It will also be a very good opportunity to ask questions, do scaling-up exercises, to practise breaking down aspects of a project into manageable chunks, and to network with other artistic people. If you or anyone you know wants to come along, you can book onto the course here. The location is only five minutes’ walk from Liverpool Lime Street station, so don’t feel you need to be a Liverpudlian to attend!
Painting for Pleasure
I’ve been teaching Painting for Pleasure - an acrylic painting class - since September 2022. It’s every Wednesday afternoon from 1-3pm, in Ormskirk. Every month there is a new subject theme - at the moment we’re doing different colours of sunsets - and every week there is a specific skill focus with demonstration (eg how to blend, how to mix pastels/neutrals, identifying the correct colour of paint). I go around and help people individually, asking them about their approach and offering tips and advice. It’s a lovely group where friendships are formed as well as beautiful paintings created.
We’ve recently moved into a new building: we used to be at the Chapel Arts House, which sadly closed last summer. Now we’re at the New Church Hall at the Parish Church in Ormskirk. We have tried out the main hall and a smaller room (which has a piano!). I occasionally play a bit of live music during breaks in teaching, which people seem to find stimulating and relaxing.
Abstract Painting at the Bluecoat
I’ve been teaching Abstract Painting for several years now, through dot-art. It’s a 3 day course of three consecutive Sundays, and it runs two or three times a year. I don’t really consider myself an abstract artist, but I do appreciate abstract techniques and concepts. Teaching this course and preparing for it, researching and experimenting, has really enhanced my own practice and deepened my understanding about art.
It’s always popular and well-attended, perhaps because people like the fact that they don’t have to be good at drawing to paint something abstract. Many of the participants have jobs that are completely different and they just want to get their hands and minds into something creative! Others come because they want to explore the benefits of creating art as part of their therapy and psychology-based professions.
The course has developed over the years, and I’ve added different elements to it. It consists of components such as these:
Why abstract? - exploring the differences and similarities between abstract (non-representational) and realistic (representational) art
Art as a non-verbal method of communication, using paint instead of words as a language or mode of expression
The way that abstract art is more open-ended, deliberately ambiguous and speaks different things to different people, in a non-direct, implicit and suggestive visual manner
How colour on its own can set a mood and create an atmosphere
Exploring your own preferred, instinctive way of creating shapes and patterns
The importance of your gestures and movements being recorded forever in the surface of your painting
How art can act as an interface between (visible) reality and the (invisible) transcendent
Exploring similarities between art and music
As part of the second session where we get into the immensely enjoyable “scrape painting” - using palette knives to create illusionistic space - we consider how different pieces of music or songs can help us process our experiences and get through life. We mix print-outs of different shapes associated with music with whatever colours we feel expresses the mood, building up layers, using transparency and opacity to conceal or partially conceal. The wonderful thing about this is that every person’s work is unique and can never be created again in exactly the same way, even by the same person!
Harmonious Opposites
When it comes to creating or appraising abstract art, it can help to think about opposites or contrasts. A while ago I read Martin Schleske’s profound book “The Sound of Life’s Unspeakable Beauty” where he mentions “reconciled contradictions” or “harmonious opposites”. I’ve developed my own list of them and I introduce them a few at a time at certain points throughout the course. For example, light and dark; textured and flat; bright and muted. Some of them work for music too, for example familiarity and surprise.
In this participant’s painting, there is a harmonious balance of mainly dark and cool colours complemented by patches of light and bright. Busy, multi-layered and textured areas are supported by flatter, more neutral areas. It’s not trying to copy or represent anything physical, but it stimulates us visually nonetheless, and there’s something incredibly intriguing and mysteriously attractive about it.
Creative companionship
Art can be quite personal as well as reflective. I am the type of person who can get on with drawing and painting alone for hours. But I really enjoy preparing and facilitating a stimulating and creative atmosphere for people to paint together. I always provide examples of other artists, both from across history and who are alive today, male and female, from various cultural and spiritual backgrounds. It’s all very inspiring.
I go around everybody individually, like I do at Painting for Pleasure. But I always bring my own materials and do the painting exercises with my students in this course, with much enthusiasm! When I finish my abstract demonstration paintings, I put them on my Etsy shop which is here. They’re quite small and affordable, so if you’re looking for an unusual present, do have a look.
