stepping out...

Sue B here...  I am really enjoying reading this months posts about everyone's take on the artist date.   Like a lot of the other SC hosts I am fortunate that I have the studio of my dreams (you can take a video tour of my studio here)and because it's attached to my home I get to spend time up here just about every single day.   I love the convenience of not having to go outside to get to my studio (especially during the cold snowy New England winter months!) but there are times when I crave the company of not only other artists but also a different atmosphere to work in so every so often I sign up to take a class at a museum not far from where I live.  Since I work primarily in fabric I like to sign up for classes in other mediums.  I've taken glass blowing, bead making and drawing classes and right now I'm taking an acrylic painting class with Catherine Carter.  It meets once a week so it's my standing artist date with myself for 10 weeks.

 The class is very structured with with a focus on drawing and painting forms, mixing colors, and depicting light, shadow and form in the painting.

This is definitely not the way I work in my fiber art and the class pushes me out of my comfort zone for a few hours each week.   I find that I get immersed in the class and the time zooms by so fast that it hardly feels like 3 hours have passed.

(work in progress during the class)

I'm not expecting to come away from the class with any masterpieces but the experience of working with a new type of paint and having to mix the colors I want to work with rather than pulling a premixed color off the shelf gives me a better understanding of color in general.   It also gets my out of the studio and away from whatever I'm working on for a few hours which allows me to come back to the studio with fresh eyes and a new perspective on whatever piece I have in progress on the design wall.

Think about taking a class or workshop at a local museum in your area.  If you don't have access to one then maybe a local fabric, craft, yarn (one of these days I'm going to sign up for a knitting class and finally knit myself a sweater from start to finish!) or art supply store offers classes in a subject you want to learn more about.