Private Lessons
An Expression of your inner creative consciousness
Do you feel stuck in your work? Don’t believe it. As Richard Rudd, creator of The Gene Keys has said, “You can never be stuck, You just aren’t accepting where your rhythm is.” I will work with you to move out of the mind and into the heart, so you can find your rhythm. Having been an art teacher and a student, I know the intimate exchange that happens between student and teacher in the context of art lessons and mentorship. It’s a gift and a blessing and, before embarking on the journey, it is important that there is an understanding of my philosophy on art, art making, art teaching and learning, to ensure a good match.
What I love most about being a painter is the making of the artwork itself, for that is the part that changes me and grows me. That art-making process is an incredible balance of mind and imagination, of mental striving and intuitive allowing. If we only focus on the technical or mental aspects of art making, we are operating at a fraction of our potential. I’m interested in helping you unlock your full potential which means helping you let go of the resistance to the massive intuitive creative potential that exists in all of us. When someone wants to learn how to paint, or learn how to get “better” at painting, or even to paint more “realistically,” what I hear them asking me is how to achieve that feeling of creative flow or, put simply, to feel good about what they are doing when they are doing it. They are after the feeling of creative flow, the feeling of freedom, and the feeling of visual success. To me, it is the feeling of expressing yourself creatively without resistance. Sometimes that comes from learning new skills that really do create ease in the workflow or techniques that support creative choice, but I find, more often, it comes from learning how to deeply trust your own authentic creative intuition, removing the resistance you have to the creative ideas and pieces that already exist in completion within you, learning how to trust yourself to make the mark and pick the color without too much regard for the specific end result because it feels right. This is the key to finding your own authentic artistic voice and having fun in the process.
I can work with you at any point in your artistic journey, whether you are just discovering a little whisper of a voice asking you to buy some brushes and paint, or if you are seasoned in your painting journey and looking for more. What takes place in a one-on-one session is both technical and intuitive. That will be the theme of my approach to everything in private lessons and mentorship, a balance of Yin and Yang. The first class is typically two hours so we can establish a baseline as well as our end goals. The following classes can range from one to two. At the end of each meeting, you will leave with a new project that you began in class, and tailored follow-up “homework.” For the beginning session, I want to get to know you more. On a technical side, I want to understand the current skill set you are working with, based on either previous work you bring in or from working on something new in class. This part of the process gives me an idea of the technical things to be both learned and unlearned, or holes in the understanding of art fundamentals that need support.
From an intuitive side, there is an assessment of what your artistic goals are from a soul level. I want to know how you feel about painting, what you want to feel about painting, and why you want to paint (which often takes you back to what you feel/want to feel from art-making). Then, with a full understanding of where you are technically and intuitively, and what you want to achieve in those areas, I will craft custom lessons and exercises to support you in achieving those goals. What excites me the most is this — drawing out the creative genius that lives in each of us by helping you let go of your judgments and amplify your creative voice. I’m most interested and gifted in helping you feel the way you want to feel about painting when you’re painting. This focus on feeling actually guarantees creating work that you look at at the end and like. When I reflect on which artworks of mine are my favorite, it is always the ones I enjoyed making the most, and I’m here to create the container for you to feel that.
