This entry was originally posted on Sunday, September 23, 2012
This past week I met another artist.
The first thing she asked me was, “Are you a self-taught artist?”
My reply, “What is a self-taught artist? Are not all artists self-taught?”
I feel that in art, it doesn’t matter how much we are told how to paint, we don’t learn until we apply that knowledge.
It is up to you to apply the knowledge.
It is about your own motivation and desire.
It is about your own hard work and perseverance.
No one else but you can do that.
The properties of watercolor (and any other medium) are never fully understood until you actually paint in it.
You can sit in class after class about watercolor but the Aha! moments don’t actually happen until you try what is being told to you.
This can happen in a classroom at university, a workshop, or in your studio at home.
The teaching and the learning happens as you are doing.
You will always be learning if you are doing.
And perhaps I should say that painting has taught me more about myself than I have taught myself about painting.
