Rocks and Colored Pencils
Only one student came to the final class. I was legit upset, just because I spent the time to set everything up. . .one student had said she might not be able to attend, but the other two didn’t call or anything. It’s not a huge set up, but still: handouts, photos, colored pencil paper, 3 colored pencils, tone paper, and setting up my small rock/fossil collection on the tables. I don’t take it personally, but I do take it a little personally.
I told the we could do whatever she wanted: do the lessons in a different order, focus on a topic from the previous classes, etc. We basically stuck to my original lesson plan.
We took some time to look at an exhibition in the hallway, landscape paintings by Christine Joy Swanson, and talk about how she painted water. That was definitely a cool juxtaposition. I wish I could always guarantee there'd be something relevant in the galleries. :)
And yet again, I was explaining some about the painting's craftsmanship, and I'm thinking, duh, everyone knows this, and the student is like "Oh wow that's really interesting!" I wish I knew why my brain is like this. (I do know, mental illness, ha.)
Since Swanson's art is largely impressionism, we also had a good discussion about the choices artists make and why one might capture a feeling versus every detail.
This student was also a talker, so it was turned on me. Overall, it was really interesting. I had my rocks and fossils set out for class, and she told me about taking her grandchildren to museums and such to learn about paleontology. And just a lot about her life in general, which truly was interesting.
She asked about me as well. I think one question to me was if my parents are artists. I said not visual arts, but they had been musical. This led to me talking about my dad's death and then, later, my mother's. ("But you're so young!" yes. "Were they young?" also yes.)
So the disappointment about attendance and then talking about my parents meant I did cry in the car on the way home. But so it goes, I had some dinner and pet the cats and felt better.
My sketches for the night. The bottom left is my warm ups; they do warm ups at the start of every class, though I don't always do them. The orange-red-yellow objects are gemstones. The green thing on the left is a tree reflected in water. And the thing in the center.....I don't know. I started trying to draw a regular eye, but as often happens, I wound up turning it into a dragon-monster-thing.
