Why I Love teaching

This weekend I hosted a workshop in Perth, Western Australia. I had 12 wonderful students. It’s such a perfect number because there is lots of energy, but I can still give individual attention and enjoy myself!

Watching a person blossom before my eyes is a little bit miraculous… Being part of a that person’s creative journey in life gives me a HUGE WARM  MONSTER FUZZY…

We made journal and filled it with mermaids, fairies, cute girls, stories. It was a mixed media fun storm.The class felt like a buddy Fest to me… A flocking together of kindred spirits.

My mother  who has an OAM And more prestigious awards from a lifetime of business and charitable achievement than I can count, merrily sat and created a Rainbow self portrait that she is considering for the front cover of her new book.

 Beautiful Bridie  jetted in from the other side of Australia and graced us with her  gorgeous rubber spined drawings – she worked hard and wowed us all. She has a passion for drawing that is contagious!

Wendy creates the most incredibly smooth textures in her work, and i saw the start of many pieces that will develop into true ‘Wendy’s”. Because Wendy was on of my ‘advanced’ students and has done all of my online classes, i set some extra special assignments and this is a detail from one of them.. how lovely are the colours!:

Maxine revealed a talent for seeing a story in jumbled collage and created with a zest that was a delight to watch!. Tanya worked and worked on one piece until she nailed it – the mark of a true artist! (that’s one of her works up the very top of the page). Cheryl’s front cover faces with collaged eyes took my breath away and inside her book she had girls resplendent  in wild animal prints! Sarah spilled  Paint and created a very happy accident, PLUS drew a very divine turned face,  Karen  made a 3D fabric Fairy that wanted to float right off the page, and create this lovely spread:

Kerry created an amazingly beautiful bejeweled  bustier for her mermaid and Stephanie put aside her perfectionist lean towards  realism for the day and dived into mixed media madness! The star of our show may have been Rosalia, who had never drawn before and created gorgeous long- lashed faces and mermaids all in her beloved shades of green.

I was so proud of everyone!

This was the classroom before the storm… draped in colourful silk and artwork… it was a little bit magic! OK, ALOT magic!

What a privilege it is to be part of a creative storm and send everyone home exhausted, but smiling!

…………………….

The Perth Art and Craft show has just kicked off… And I am SUPER jazzed because I will have the new Dylusions ink sprays and Distress Markers! I’ve been playing with them for a month or so and LOVE them… So have been hopping up and down in anticipation to get them in the store- can’t wait to share the joy of new tools- I know…. I’m terrible!

I’ll try and do a vid so you can see what i am soooooo excited about!

xoxox

Jane