Part 2 Exercises

This is a collection of exercises for the entire group to be completed between the first and second meetings.

From The First Meeting

1. Part 1, question 1 of Understanding the Artist Within reveals aspects of what you want your personal creative process to become . Take your answers that might describe an aspect of this process. Try and express them in a concise (point) form. For example, "I want art to be (a) fun (b) an exciting learning experience (c) an activity that I can do when I travel...

2. Part 1, question 2 of Understanding the Artist Within reveals aspects of what you want to express (content) in your art. Take your answers and summarize them in a similar manner, such as "I want my art to (a) contain harmonious colours (b) be about quiet seascapes (c) be whimsical ...

3. If you find you have conflicting activities on your life list (Part 1, question 3, Understanding the Artist Within), prioritize them (if you haven’t already). We will assume it is an artistic one but it doesn't matter. Decide to focus on the top priority activity to the relative exclusion of the rest. Give it time – say six months – and reevaluate you priorities. For the meeting, tell us what your plan is.

For The Second Meeting

1. Read the support material for Part 2 and write down any questions that arise for discussion in the second meeting.

2. Look at a number of paintings of a favourite artist, either in a gallery, a book or any other source. Isolate those properties, elements or areas of each painting that attract or repel you. Use 90-degree corners to frame an area as an aid. For negative observations, invert them to get a property you find appealing. For example “too cold and sterile” might become “sumptuous and luscious”.

1. List the major points of interest for each selection in each piece. The questions and categories in Evaluating Art and Categorizing Art in Part 2 may be useful for this. Having done this with several works, consolidate the points in a short list.

2. Taking one or two works and noting the aphorism, “the whole is more than the sum of the parts” consider how these elements work together to create this picture and its mood or feeling.

3. Review your recent work in light of these points observing whether they are present or not and how they were or might have been used. If this motivates a change in your style, introduce the change slowly, one point or element at a time. When one point is integrated, then introduce another.

4. A concrete exercise that you might try is doing a series of small, brief paintings on a set theme, either one that personally appears in your work or one that appeals to you in the work of another. Apply elements from the list you created to successive paintings making only one essential change from painting to painting.

3. Collect together and bring the pieces of work we discussed in the last meeting, to this meeting for review. Be prepared to talk about the changes you made, particularly if they resulted in new insight or changes to your working process. Be ready with further questions arising from what you did or attempted. If you have no work of this sort, bring a couple of other pieces that we haven't seen, for critique or discussion.