My best moments teaching in the studio is to make people aware.
Aware of a shadow or highlight to create depth.
Aware of a shape, a curve, an edge. The softness or hardness of the edge.
Aware of the softer nuances of colour. Is it more yellow or blue?
These awareness’s are usually easy to point out and easy to notice once you are made aware of it. I often hear: “Oh, I didn’t see that before, but now that you pointed it out I see it!” As if it magically appeared. It did, through awareness!
If you are then aware of it, it’s usually easy to correct.
Another awareness I sometimes have to point out is the inner journey of creating.
Becoming aware of the discomfort while you paint and feeling like you’re lost. But instead of getting lost in your story about the painting, just to be aware of the discomfort. In painting it usually means you need to spend some more time in this discomfort of not knowing. Not knowing if all this effort is going to pay off. Not knowing if it will be ‘good enough’. Not knowing… That’s usually the place where we get stuck in our heads and forget to breath and just look and paint.
Another awareness is when you enter the studio you bring your whole world with you. All your business, your worries, your concerns, your head full of stuff and your heart full of pain or fear. This is when you get stuck in your painting not because of colour or shape or edges, but because of your cluttered mind and heart.
In my experience the studio is then the place where you can paint through the clutter of your life. For me, when I’m placing paint on a canvas, by making a visible mark that can create something right there, in front of my eyes, opens up space in my inner being. It’s as if the ‘order’ I create on a canvas is a way of ‘defragging’ my mind. I feel like my mind gets cleaned out and sorted out and that the rest of my day follows the same pattern of clarity and harmony.
And those are my best moments in the studio that I’m so grateful for.
If you want to learn more techniques to find patterns of clarity and harmony: https://sanchileibach.co.za/cm-coaching/