In the Garden, © 2011, 30" x 24", oil on canvas

I delivered this recently finished painting to the Yarmouth Frame Shop and Gallery yesterday, just in time for their up-coming show. "Dog Days of Summer" opens Saturday, August 6.

If you're in the area, come on by 720 Route One in Yarmouth for the opening reception Saturday, from 4 to 7 pm, for a visit with art, artists, art lovers, food and refreshments! 

For the past three weeks, I've been teaching a class at Artascope Studios in South Portland. "Expression in Paint" is the name of the class. We are half-way through the six weeks.

Since teaching art is a new experience for me, you might say I've been learning a lot! Learning about how best to communicate and encourage others to explore their own artmaking has meant paying much closer attention to my own painting process (which includes the drawings that I do).

So much of my painting is a process in which I make "seat of the pants" decisions as I go along, trusting some sort of judgment that is not easily codified. I draw on some basic accumulated wisdom about colors and composition, but after that, I'm on my own, figuring things out painting by painting, sometimes even step by step.

This means that it's not all that simple for me to explain to others what I do, or even more, why I do what I do! I am, to borrow from the name of my other blog, trusting delight--trusting my own aesthetic about art and my own sense of what sort of energy or feeling I want to convey.

Not that I don't borrow from other painters and allow myself to be influenced by art that I love, but in the end, the decisions are mine, and the end result is mine as well.

Teaching the class is giving me a great opportunity to slow way way down so that I might notice what's going on within me as I paint. Some moments I'm quite clear about what I'm doing, or what I'm trying to do; other moments, not so much! No wonder it's hard to communicate this to others!

Don't forget to come by the Yarmouth Frame Shop if you're in the area!