Express Your Creativity

initial painting / new painting with added shells and turtle

Blog 4

Last weekend, I hosted a painting party for a small group of ladies at my house. I have a designated teaching area next to my studio, that is surrounded by artworks so that the place feels relaxing and inspires to get creative.

The theme of the painting was “The Perfect Fish Tank”. If you compare the painting that I created to promote the painting party and the painting that I created during the event, you see that they look quite different. You might be wondering, why I did not create a more or less identical copy of the first image. It should be easy enough to do, right? Would it not also be easier for the participants to follow my example brushstroke by brushstroke?

While it would be easy to copy the initial image quite closely, it would take the whole fun out of creating the new painting. I would tense up to get every brushstroke and colour quite right. In the end, you would feel the lack of energy in the painting.

Whenever I create art, a little piece of me goes into the artwork. My goal during any art event is to guide the participants to explore their own creativity. I will show you the basic steps but I want you to explore and put your energy into the artwork. This way, every artwork will be individual even though we all started with the same blank canvas and the same image as a reference. I am very happy when I see all the different results.

When I guide you through the process, I am not concerned about me finishing another project, but I concentrate on how I can help you to reach your potential. During most events, I have participants with different skills. Some are complete beginners, who have not touched a brush since high school, others have gone to many painting parties or visited other art courses. Everyone can succeed as long as they have fun and don’t judge their work by that of their neighbours. It is my task to push you as far as you are able and willing to go outside of your comfort zone.

Aside from my conscious efforts to get you to create a unique artwork, my mood and my general well-being during an event are also reflected in the way I create my artwork. A couple of years ago, I hosted a painting party days after the death of a close friend. While my original painting was quite bright, the colours that I mixed during that event were more subdued.

One of my former students summarized my mission perfectly: "Kerstin Peters's workshops have helped me to become very creative. Kerstin is a multi-talented artist who loves art and people. In my case, she helped me see my potential, become more confident and daring as I learned and experimented. That is an amazing gift! Expressing myself through art (painting, collage, felting, mixed media) and enjoying art generally now enriches my daily life.''

If you would like to learn how to paint, but feel overwhelmed by the choices in the art stores, I offer an Introduction to Painting with Watercolour, Acrylic and Oil Paints. The mini-session starts next Tuesday, February 18, 2020, at 10 am. For more information, please go to www.kerstinpeters.ca/product/introduction-to-painting/.