Teaching Philosophy
The classes are underpinned by the following principles:
- Creating a relaxed and supportive environment where students feel excited about trying new things
- Rather than having set expectations, students are encouraged to take a positive and experimental approach and 'go with the flow'. Each painting is a learning experience and an opportunity for growth
- Starting with simple subject matter so students focus on technique
- Starting with a limited pallette so students learn about mixing and the underlying properties of each colour
- Providing step by step visuals for lessons as well as demonstrating in stages
- Choosing inspirational themes and topics associated with a rich symbolism and cultural history
- Providing a warmer 'skill building' activity to prepare students for a related main activity
- During warmer activities I will teach a basic 'schema' for a particular type of subject matter. Teaching landscape for example, I demonstrate the traditional way to paint a rock, cliff, clouds or different types of trees. Students are then encouraged to adapt these basic traditional formula to create their own compositions based on the day's theme
- Where suitable, each student is provided with an image or object related to the teacher's demonstration
- Students are also invited to bring their own objects and photos to personalise a topic