Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Sunflower on Gesso and Favorite Art Teacher


 
SUMMER SUN
Watercolor on gesso 8x10
SOLD
 
Do you have a favorite art teacher? Was it in elementary school, high school, college or more recently? Who influenced your art the most? I ALWAYS took art as an elective from junior high thru high school - even took one semester where we designed and painted the sets for the school play since my best friend was in drama and I thought it would be fun - it was.
 
In college I majored in Architecture so we had to have four semester of art classes - we drew in pencil, ink, used watercolor and even had a figure drawing class. The teacher I gained the most from spoke very little English but he knew how to say MORE CONTRAST so I learned to love strong values in a composition and you can still see that in my paintings today.
 
 The teacher that influenced me the most was Jodi Binkley who owned a studio in Denver and taught the first real watercolor classes I ever took over twenty years ago. She was a great artist and wonderful teacher - encouraged, critiqued, taught negative shapes and showed me that a painting does not have to be perfect - I owe my love of watercolor to her!