Artvoice - Lynn ferris

MUSIC by Blake Wynia blakewynia.bandcamp.com Watercolor is an evolving medium. Watercolor from the way I work requires a lot of planning It’s not a terribly correctable medium and it’s not a terribly forgiving medium. Music One of the reasons that watercolor inherently that the use of light is so important is watercolor is a transparent medium. It does not use white paint. It uses the white of the paper. In order to preserve your whites You need to plan them in advance. With watercolor paper you have to know where you are going to leave those whites and by knowing where you’re going to leave those whites you also have to know where you will put your shadows and where you’re not going to leave whites. You have to plan it all out in advance. If you don’t do your drawing I don’t see how you make your plan. I may spend 3, 4, 5 days, maybe even a week doing drawings and I may erase 3/4 of what I have drawn. But I’ve kept the thinking process in my brain. MUSIC I have been asked numerous times to teach. and I kept saying “No, no. I’m a painter. I’m not a teacher. I’m a painter. I’m not a teacher.” And I was at a social event and a woman who asked me many times, would I teach it was Howard County Parks and Recreation, I said “Oh I guess so.” Music And I was so nervous. I was just looking for any way to get out of teaching. And someone said to me, it was a college professor Just remember, you know more about it than they do. And I was like - Oh, I guess I do. And I started teaching and at this point if you told me I could either only paint or only teach, I’d only teach. I love it. Music I learn from teaching. I’m very passionate about the teaching I get a lot of students who aren’t sure why they’re taking painting class. And I’ve had students who always wanted to be an artist but real life got in the way and now at 50 or 60 or 70 it’s like this flower unfolding and they’re finding out what they can do that they weren’t sure they could or were afraid of doing. I’ve had students who are fairly accomplished artists who want to take it to the next level and they’ll come back and say, “Oh I got in such and so show.” “And I got this award. And I got that.” And for me that’s as much fun as me getting it. Music Oh, I’d like to say that there is a drive pushing me to do it But the reality is the drive that’s pushed me has always been paying the mortgage. and not wanting to go back to work in an office. Music