Artfully Asked

I started Decorative Painting, also known as " Tole Painting," in 1977. Our local organization of tole painters was quite active. I remember meeting Jackie Shaw and Jo Sonja at some of our first meetings. My mother-in-law and her sister, who had both just retired, had the opportunity to paint with those teachers at a local studio.

When I started taking classes I wanted a nice finished piece, but my main objective was to hear and understand what the teacher had to say so I could incorporate it into all of my painting. Needless to say, I had lots of unfinished pieces and before I would show them to my husband I made sure I preceeded it by telling him how much I learned! As a teacher it took me awhile to realize that not every student was motivated by the opportunity to learn new techniques or theory, but the project. I solved that problem by offering "theory classes" with booklets and study boards.

My teaching philosophy, which I explain to all of my students, is "if you understand why you have to paint a certain way, you may not have the technical skills to get you there today, or tomorrow, but if you understand WHY you will get there."

• When teaching I make sure that I repeat all information at least 5-10 times if not more. When we paint, we are on the other side of our brain and do not hear or comprehend verbal instructions.
• I always bring a dry erase board with me to draw on and explain the next step to be taken, the theory and reasons behind those steps. I encourage them to write and draw on their pattern or instructions. Like many of the teachers in our field I use cross-hatching to indicate shaded areas and concentrated dots to indicate the light value area.
• Because it is more difficult to paint a light value area with acrylics we have come to accept the "headlight" appearance or solid dot as the light value instead of an area with stronger and stronger lights until the final hit or highlight. I find I am continually reinforcing the objective, the more concentrated the dots the lighter the area.
• I repeat the same explanation with the cross-hatching lines, the more concentrated the lines the darker the value. The dark value area is an area that has to connect by gradual change to the mid value area and thus avoiding the dark stripe.