Finally, paint!

I’ve been wanting to (and planning and trying to make time to) teach some sort of Mandala art class at Gallery 194 since summer. I have a few different class formats in mind, and based on the sign-up sheet at my booth at Art on Nepessing St. in June, there appears to be enough interest in both a two-hour “Imagination Uncorked” painting class, and a 3-session “Meditative Drawing” class that explores different techniques and mediums.

A couple ladies who visited my booth that weekend were interested enough that they asked me to come and teach at their book club meeting in July. We decided on a format that we thought would work for their group, a sort of combination of the two types listed above, a two-hour mixed media class. Everyone had fun and I learned a few things the process. Most importantly, it confirmed my suspicion that two hours would not be enough time to cover everything I wanted to cover.  Much of it would fit better into a 3-session class.  Also, don’t forget to take pictures!  I did forget, therefore didn’t post about it at the time - because who wants to read about an art class with no pictures?

So I still needed to figure out how to narrow things down to 2 hours which is the typical length for the Imagination Uncorked classes. I decided to go with a quarter-mandala design, created some templates out of cardboard, and made copies of a quarter-circle practice grid on paper.  August & early September were packing and moving time, including clearing out my mom’s place, so not much else got done for a while. Then in late September I led a practice class at Gallery 194 with three volunteers. Again, we exceeded two hours. But 3 should be enough; maybe we can do an extended class format.  And I can still streamline the process a bit more. I went home and got background paint onto two canvases that would become my samples and brainstormed the next steps.

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Meanwhile, my husband developed a new back issue – another disc has disintegrated, rendering him barely able to walk - right as we are trying to get settled into the new place and need to get certain things done before the snow flies.  With much help from me and a few other people, the most important things on the list are getting done, just in time before surgery next week.  So again, artsy pursuits have had to take a back seat.

But then Wednesday it snowed! Normally I wouldn’t be excited about snow in October but it forced us to abandon the day’s task list and get inside for the rest of the day. Which meant I was able to get back to work on the two sample canvases. With a little luck I can finish them up and get a class synopsis over to the gallery in the next few days and finally get this class on the schedule! Stay tuned….