Why I Teach Painting Workshops

Video Summary:
This video answers the question I get asked often: Why do I Teach Painting Workshops?

When I began my painting journey, I struggled for 10 years (10 years!) before I was able to even create a reasonable composition and produce a reasonable painting. I never showed anyone a painting - except for my wife - during those 10 years. They were horrible! I was ashamed of them. 

I took some local art classes but they were not helpful. The instructors never did any painting demonstrations, they never talked about how to design a composition or how to manipulate values, or anything else of value. After many years I ran across two great books by famed watercolor painter and instructor Frank Webb. The first is entitled "Webb on Watercolor" and the other, "Strengthen Your Paintings With Dynamic Composition." These are both amazing books and they opened my eyes to the world of shape, value, color and composition design.

A couple of years later an artist friend suggested that I should take a workshop with, who at the time was a local painter in our area, Sterling Edwards. I was a bit apprehensive about taking a workshop with my limited ability, but I decided to jump in an give it a try. The result of those three days was nothing short of an epiphany! My previous 10 years of struggle, toil and consistent work all came together. I finally saw someone do a great series of painting demonstration and talk about design, values and other design fundamentals that were critical for me at that time. In that workshop I "got it" and never looked back. It hit me that my life had dramatically changed (improved) in just a short three day workshop.

Five or six years later I was asked by a local art supply store to teach a watercolor painting class, so I said yes. I had never taught before, and felt I could barely paint well myself - but I knew that I wanted and needed to try it. It took a few classes for me to work out a format and outline and a progression of steps for the students. After just a few classes though I could tell I was making a difference in the way they painted, and the way they thought about painting - and it was a great feeling to know I was helping people.

So, the short answer to why I teach workshops is that I want to help people shorten the learning curve to becoming a better painter. There is no reason for people to struggle as long and hard as I did to get quality instruction for design fundamentals. I am helping make people's lives better and teaching them how to be better painters, not just better abstract painters.

I'd love to have you join me for a workshop - you can paint with me here or join one of my online courses.