Here She Is! The Evil Teacher Who Criticized Your Artwork in 3rd Grade!

We all know her name, that teacher somewhere in your past who said something critical about your artwork and you stopped painting and drawing because of her comment.

Here are some things she has been heard to say:

"Too bad your older brother/sister got all the art talent in your family."

"You really should learn to color inside the lines."

"Why are your drawings always so timid?" (okay, it was my college professor that said that).

"That's nice honey, but artists don't make any money."

"Never try to draw again."

"That doesn't look like an elephant, a skunk or a _________."

I could go on for days at what well meaning but evil art teachers have said to aspiring artists. I am not going to excuse them, but try to explain, that years ago the comments they made were due to lack of knowledge and sophistication about how we acquire art skills.

Now we know better. We know that art skills can be learned by attending a class or reading a textbook but most of all through practicing techniques.

So lets all tell that evil ghost of our old art teacher to go by-by and do what we need to do today to enjoy the process of making art.

Any of you out there, care to share a comment made to you by some critic?

The Process of Watercolor Painting An English Cottage

It was a dream come true to stand with my students in front of this cottage and attempt to do a small painting of it. A wonderful unplanned event took place while we painted. A lovely English woman came out of the neighboring cottage, chatted with us, then invited us inside her home so we could experience an authentic English home.Here is the my watercolor painting done on the spot.

Here is the first painting I've done of this cottage since I have been home. It will be the first of my many attempts as I try to figure out how to paint the best cottage I can. I will be trying to simplfy the composition using the photos I took, and find the correct paint colors and arrangement of lights and darks.

I just thought I would mention here that I sometimes paint a picture many times until I get it "right". Perfect paintings don't pour out of my studio ever! I just keep trying until I achieve a painting that is as good as possible for me right now.

Journey to the English Countryside

Here is my first English dinner, we had our choice of 2 starters, 2 entrees and 2 desserts every night of our workshop. Wanting to understand the country and culture I was visiting I suspended my Weight Watchers, quasi-vegetarian diet. Since we were staying in Oxfordshire, the heart of farming and sheep, lamb was served.

This is The George Dorchester on Thames Hotel where we stayed. I believe it is about 500 years old. We enjoyed comfortable rooms, amazing service and we had a studio to work in too.

We had a wonderful driver, who drove us out of London to Oxfordshire, where we were staying and then took us to see some of the beautiful sights in the Cotswolds. Everyone agreed we were grateful not to have to drive on the opposite side of the road while we were on vacation.

If you peek between these houses, you can see a windmill, that was built especially for the filming of Chitti Chitti Bang Bang........does anyone recognize it?

Why I Went to London

My Watercolour Workshop in the English countryside, began with a few days spent in London to meet some of the locals.
I spent some quality time looking for a butter knife a dear friend wanted from the antique stalls on Portobello Road. I think a few dozen other people were shopping for a butter knife as well.

I found some wonderful shadows and windows to photograph near my hotel on Prince's Square. I will be busy all winter painting from my photos.

Just in case you don't believe I went to London, I took this shot of a London phone booth around the corner from my hotel. Now that I am home again with a pile of dishes waiting for me in the sink, it is nice to have remind myself also that I actually was walking around in the London fog last week. I find these reminders useful to pull me out of post trip minor depression.

Since I do have a "slight" interest in shoe shopping, I thought you might like to see some shoe trends I observed in a shop window on Portobello Road.

Learned and Saw Many New Things While Traveling

I returned home from Europe last night and quickly am posting a travel picture of myself here. As you can see from this photo I am trying out a new mode of tube travel. The gentlemen in the picture were awfully helpful. As soon as I am over my jetlag I will post more information about the current state of watercolouring in the English countryside and Paris.