I am teaching an art class at the Oasis Center in Eugene. It just started Monday. It is called Fun with Pencil and Watercolor. We focus on drawing techniques and use watercolor as an extension of the drawing process. In my classes I like to do lots of demonstrations. Here is a quick demo of a piece of hard candy.
I always liked it when teachers used to do demonstrations. When I was in art school it was somewhat rare to see the teacher actually painting or drawing. I can understand the philosophy that it is important to let a creative person develop without mental restraints on how it should be done.
One of my favorite teachers at Maryland Institute was Paul Moscatt. He often did demonstrations in class. But Paul didn't do demonstrations on technique exactly and his student's paintings don't look like his own. He demonstrated how to get to work as an artist. He puzzled through problems in front of the class. That is a great lesson to learn. Painting is puzzling through the problems with brush in hand. In the end the piece is scrutinized as a product. To the artist the final piece is an artifact of a kind of performance of thought and action.
