Teaching and Student Works

I just wrapped up another fantastic semester teaching at the Visual Arts Center in Summit. I have to say I’ve been very lucky to work with such a dedicated and talented group of students, some of whom had little to no experience working with oil paint—a medium that can be challenging to fully understand and control. Yet, seeing the progress each student made over the weeks together brought me a great deal of joy. I know the hard work and hours they put into each piece, and it’s rewarding to see students carve out time and effort to create meaningful artwork.

In my classes, I try to cover almost every genre within the course of ten weeks. I know it’s a lot to ask, but it gives students a well-rounded foundation and allows them to decide how they would like to continue their practice. Another challenge I encourage students to face is painting directly from life—setting up real objects and working from a live model. This allows their eyes to adjust to seeing form, light, and space in the real world rather than simply copying from a flat photograph. One thing to remember is that much of the art we admire so deeply was created this way. Artists like Raphael, Rubens, David, Leighton, and Waterhouse all worked either from life or from imagination, grounded in direct observation!

So thank you to all my students for their dedication, and I look forward to teaching again in the future.