President's Message

March 2010

Dear Fellow Members,

As I have mentioned more than once, the great quality that for me distinguishes EAFA from many arts organizations is the support, mentoring, and exhibit opportunities it provides beginners. In that spirit, I would like to offer some tips on learning to learn how to paint, based on my own personal struggles and my experience as a teacher.

Teachers: Find one. There is no substitute for working with a teacher whose paintings and teaching style you admire. Workshops are great. Weekly sessions are even better.

Workshops: Take as many as you have time and budget for. Take from as many different teachers as you can. And when you’re in a workshop, paint like the teacher. That’s why you’re there: to learn what that particular teacher has to teach. Don’t attend a workshop simply to continue doing what you’ve always done. You can do that for free.

Books: Novice painters typically buy one or more books in the hopes of shortcutting the learning process. Alas, there are no shortcuts—there really aren’t—but the books are still valuable as inspiration and reference. You may find the paintings in a book turn out to be more useful than the text. In addition, some of the text may sink in only months or even years later.

Materials: Buy the best you can afford. Painting is hard enough to learn without using inferior brushes, paints, and grounds. Still, don’t expect even the finest materials to shorten time spent at the easel. (New paints and brushes will not improve your painting, but they’re fun anyway.)

Focus on Design: The most important single factor in a successful painting is design. If your design is solid, then your painting will work even when your drawing or colors are not. If your design doesn’t work, then your beautiful drawing and colors are simply wasted. This is true whether your painting is purely abstract, wildly fanciful, or representational.

Forget Detail: Focusing on detail when you’re trying to learn how to paint distracts you from basic issues, such as design and values. Save the details for when you have the skill to do them justice.

Practice: There is no substitute for practice. Paint as often as you can. Once a week is better than once a month. Every day is best of all.

Choose Simple Subjects: Beginning painters often choose subjects that are far beyond their abilities. Choose a pear or a set of blocks or a very simple scene, not your grandchildren or market day in Guatemala or Custer’s Last Stand.

Give Yourself a Break: Beginners often get discouraged because their paintings aren’t as good as their teacher’s or those of the more advanced student’s in class. Compare your current work only to your past work to see the progress you are making. Never compare your work to that of other students or your teacher. Also, get over being embarrassed. If you’re a beginner, no one expects you to paint a masterpiece. No one but you, that is!

From your President,

Steve Whitney