Since I started one more line of activity in June 2017 which grew naturally out of my general focus, conducting and organizing versatile art workshops and events became one of the main doings. And I have been putting much thinking into where exactly I want to take enthusiasts attending my classes during the creative journey in arts and crafts, how I can help to unravel their creative self, what results I would like to see in their works…
Sure enough the last thing I would want to see, as a teacher, is a copy-paste of my work. And yet, how often all we can see in many art workshop reports is just an array of multiple works looking exactly the same as a sample work presented by the teacher at the class, copyist painting classes excluded.
Of course, newcomers to Arts and Crafts stand on the shoulders of the teachers and instructors, so to say. In learning process imitation plays an important role. And by imitation I mean not just simply copying. Imitation happens when someone sees something that inspires them, inspires them enough to want to do something just as great.
However, quite often even with the passage of time, some people just establish imitativeness as a basis for self-expression, keeping repeating the same patterns,color schemes and ideas once learnt at a class. And this deja vu has been manifesting itself so often lately, making it hard to tell whether it is the teacher’s work, or students overuse ideas from a recently taken workshop…
As a teacher, I’d rather see ideas shared at the classes being transferred onto a new level, revised and reworked, rather than seeing plain replicas of my own works, no matter how flattering imitation can feel at times…
I also believe the more you see, the more you get exposed to versatile creative approaches, the more unusual creative ideas you come up with in your own works. So, for the program of creative classes at my gallery I invite artists from whom I get inspiration myself, who masterfully demonstrate versatile approaches in their work. And I keep the work on the conditions for creative exchange.
This coming July I am expecting my friend artist Natalia Logachova to come visit and introduce local enthusiasts to several techniques she is using in her art work.
These are impressions from my last visit to Natalia’s studio. So I caught her working and took some photos on her permission. Sketches:
I so enjoy visiting art studios! This is one of my favourite works by Natalia…
So many things that I love are there in this studio!
I was lucky to catch Natalia painting on silk. She will demonstrate her virtuosic silk-painting technique at one of her master-shows at the gallery at the end of July.
She will also make a demonstration in palette knife painting, as well as dry pastel.
Natalia’s series of demonstrations will be followed by workshops series in all three techniques. Please, stay tuned for more news to come and follow us on FB!
