Did I Learn Anything in Art School?
Posted by: ninacolors on: December 10, 2009
This is something I get asked about a lot; what do they teach you in art school? The short answer it that they don’t. Anyone who has seen the movie “Art School Confidential” will come away no longer regretting that they “missed something”.
But (there’s always a but – right?) — even tho the teachers don’t do much teaching, what you do get is an amazing amount of studio time to develop your skill as you watch others and learn about the great artists of the past. Each class (like sculpting 101) is called a “studio” and is 4 hours long. You have 2 studios/day, which means you are working at developing your art skills (painting, drawing, glassblowing, soldering, etc.) 8 hours a day, including Saturday. That’s 48 hrs/week, and that doesn’t count time in the evening finishing up a piece or two.
That is how we really learn in art school Learning to question, to try, to fail, to “see”, to steady the eye-hand coordination. And you do it 
YOURSELF! Don’t ask me what the professors were doing; I vaguely remember them walking around:-)
I got off the track for a long time, but am now able to replicate this time spent honing my craft by painting every day and every hour that I can. By going to the library and actually reading about the artists I was supposed to be studying back then. I have my own “studios”, and I’m teaching myself to use many different kinds of media, as well as cramming in all I can about color and composition.
We’re all self-taught; don’t you think?
New Paintings
Posted by: ninacolors on: December 5, 2009
Many of you follow my Flickr feed and have already seen these, but I keep hoping I’ll get some new visitors here, so I’m posting work from the last 2 months.These are all going to be for sale – let me know if you’re interested.
Feeling a bit more like a real thing!
Posted by: ninacolors on: December 2, 2009
Rachel Makepeace suggested I share this w everyone. I had to go into a hobby shop to get something for a doll I’m making and found these letters discontinued and reduced to pennies!! They look big in the picture, but they’re really only 2″ high. The window is just to the left of the chair I ususaly work in, so it’s quite fun, actually.
It’s a bit like naming my studio, and since I’m not selling or known at all yet, it’s great fun:-)
Busy But No Real Results… yet:-)
Posted by: ninacolors on: November 10, 2009
I’ve been painting up a storm, but not enough yet to see a pattern. Since I quit painting 20 yrs ago, and am just now starting again and trying different mediums, these are all “experiments”. I hope they’re part of a path to my “own sytle” but I won’t know that until I have a coherent body of work.
To see what I’ve been up to, just click on any of the pictures at the right which will take you to my flickr where you can browse or not, as you choose.
Painting again!
Posted by: ninacolors on: October 23, 2009
So glad to report that my mojo is working again:-) I don’t know how long it will stay, but I’m dee-lighted. Trying lots of different things ……. playing and sketching. So, most of it’s not proficient, but at least it’s happening!!
You’ll have to click on the “Yoga” pic to see that I’m working on fingers (and toes!). The “Crazy Fried Eggs” is acrylic paint (which is really plastic) poured onto glass, then cured for 24 hrs, and lifted up and pasted down on the painting. See, it isn’t just Jackson Pollack:-) (whom I do not like).
The Best Summer of My Life
Posted by: ninacolors on: September 29, 2009
Hitting the wall
Posted by: ninacolors on: September 15, 2009
a plateau is a bummer…. for an artist, anyway.
I can’t explain a plateau (this is the first time it’s happened), but it seems to be a kind of loss of balance in the overall progress of learning. Learning seems to work like this; there is usually a kind of breakthrough painting that seems to pull techniques together in a new way, as a harmonious combination of skills. It’s great when it happens, and I’ll do a few in that style — but then what?
The next step has to be either to add another skill to the mix, or change how the skills are applied, or apply the skills to a new subject or motif. all these things usually disrupt the balance between the skills and the painting, which makes the painting process either very exciting or less satisfactory.
Until I find an effective balance, I’m back at the beginning, and can’t change the balance without feeling like I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole.
Of course i could keep doing the same painting in the same way, over and over (as many professional artists do for a living), but I’d be bored out of my gourd.
So I try something new, and that disrupts the harmony, and my flow goes downhill.
Now comes the gotcha part: I can’t just go back to painting exactly the way I did before, so I’m back to trial and error, trying to gain a new balance, trying to find a new relationship.
It seems like the plateau is actually a searching time. I am trying to do things I can’t yet do, trying different combinations of effects, media, colors, visual codes or brush styles, the way chess players work out new combinations … trial and error, many variations, patient analysis of why it doesn’t work. But not so much analysis that I can’t get out of my head.
This too shall pass 
Watch this space!
Nina’s AWOL, but check this out!
Posted by: ninacolors on: August 17, 2009
I’m not unpacked, my studio isn’t set up properly, and learning all the new ropes is taking a LOT more energy than I realized it would.
Until I get back to painting, check out this artist on “Ukraine’s Got Talent”. I think she’s quite something. She’s depicting Germany’s invasion of the Ukraine in WW II, which is why people are crying (I think).
Leaving friends, finding friends
Posted by: ninacolors on: June 14, 2009
My neighbors invited me over for brunch, and it’s my third “good-bye” party — interesting for someone who’s been mostly home bound:-) I wanted to give them something of myself, but much of my “tools” are packed up. So, I did a small collage and mounted it on black foam core board. I hope they like it.
COLLAGE DE LE MER ET LA CIEL
At the same time, I’ve made a new online friend who is quite an amazing person, and I’ve hooked up with an artist in Chicago who is going to “show me the ropes”.
Sad and glad. Keeping my eyes facing forward as I have 2 weeks to finish up in this house which is no longer mine!
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Just a word about collage. Many people do collages using pictures from magazines and collected bits of stuff. I have tried that several times, and just can’t do it for the life of me! But this kind of work with translucent color and some pattern is fun for me. I paint tissue paper with diluted acrylics because store-bought colored tissue is unstable and the color fades too easily. Then I overprint some of it with stamps, brayers and other tools. The process of tearing up bits of paper and deciding where to put them is very spontaneous. Altho I can rest at any time (which is great), decisions happen in the moment – there can be no plan ahead of time. I’ve been making much larger collages, but decided to try this smaller size (about 6″ x 10″) and find that it’s easier to manage. I think it might sell better, also……..if I ever get around to that:-)
Color!
Posted by: ninacolors on: June 8, 2009
Earliest human paintings in the caves at Lasceaux, France.
“The use of expressive color is felt to be one of the basic elements of the modern mentality; a necessity, beyond choice.” — Henri Matisse
watercolor by Nina
My 10-minute life on flickr
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