Painting Workshops, Creative Community, and Body Awareness for Art and Fitness
In this newsletter:
An individualized painting workshop for a client
A discussion with another creative on a similar path
Materials on fitness, body awareness, and the intersection with creating art
$80 lattes
A little over a month ago, I made a video offering an “$80 latte.” The premise was that I would invite people into my studio, make them a super expensive coffee, but the coffee comes with an hour of personal training / painting instruction. The video was a hit on social media; I had many joke offers (don’t go and read my comments) and a few that seemed legitimate and serious.
I followed up with one person who messaged me with an earnest request for information about painting. His initial request detailed his painting journey, describing taking some classes in the past and hoping to learn specific techniques and concepts around oil painting. I was intrigued, so I responded and we hopped on a phone call to discuss details.
I crafted him a four-hour painting workshop, tailored to his current level of painting proficiency. I threw in the lessons he requested, plus quite a few of the techniques and approaches that I’ve used to improve my own painting. He approved the workshop and we settled on $250 for the four hours of instruction.
(p.s. if you want to book painting classes with me, you can find information on my Personal Training page)
For this workshop, my client brought his own supplies, primarily because he was hoping to copy some of the techniques used by artists he has followed for some time. This was difficult to approach for me, given the fact that many artists hold their techniques close to their chest, and often you can’t determine technique just by looking at a painting. Still, I think we had positive results on those brush techniques— more on that later.
We got to work as I made us coffee, chatting about art philosophies and strategies to jump from “I paint rarely” to “I paint regularly” to “I paint as much as I can.”
We started out with how to use digital tools to approach a painting. I showed him how I trace a piece and apply compositional guidelines like the rule of thirds or the golden ratio armature to make the composition more compelling. I think he got the most value out of my process of color selection: sparingly using digital tools like this paint cheat-sheet (which I actually rarely use for my pieces), we can select a limited palette ahead of time, rather than trying to eyeball everything and pull out a new tube when we’re stuck.
I showed him the process of simplification in oil painting, in which we block out components of our painting based on complexity; we generally want to paint as crudely as possible for our first pass, combining areas of shadow and areas of light into one.
We discussed layering, and I showed him how I use thinning solvents like Gamsol to make an underpainting, then how we can tinker with the ratio of fat/lean in order to manipulate dry times and texture. I taught him how I craft color mixes and to eyeball the right amount of paint to cover a certain area. Throughout this process, I peppered in some lessons about artistic mindset and the habits and strategies that I’ve used to continue to branch out in my art and build my own artistic inspiration and environment.
Jumping in only when I felt necessary, I tried to make this lesson as hands-on as possible. We worked on some brush techniques and I showed him palette knife techniques as a bonus. He left satisfied with the lesson; recently we hopped on a video call as a follow-up and he gave me a positive testimonial, claiming that he learned more from this workshop than his previous painting classes, and that he thought it was incredibly valuable for the money. I’m excited to see what else he paints!
This workshop prompted me to devote more time to my online course, which is still ongoing. It’s live here if you’d like to check it out—entirely free, I’m hoping to share what I know via demonstrations and technique discussions. The most important lessons I’ve learned over the years are primarily about mindset and environment, so I’m adding those in as well.
conversation with a Creative
My friend and patron Natalie connected me with one of her artist friends who is on a similar journey as mine. She’s still in the Bay, and she left her job around the same time that I left mine. I told her about some of my favorite resources that I’ve used to try and expand my income around art—we spoke about classes and using social media to build awareness, hopefully building communities that connect with our art. I showed her how I set up my website, how I’ve been building an email list, and my technical setup to make videos for social media.
She had many thoughts about having to “fight the algorithm” on Instagram and hasn’t felt like she’s cracked the code. I don’t think I’ve cracked the code either—there are so many concepts they push on you, like chasing a 3s retention rate on videos. Still, I can’t help but admit that virality does often help—I wouldn’t have connected with my workshop student if not for one viral video.
The longest dialogue we had was on the artistic mindset and chasing your own dream. We commiserated in the struggle of churning away on art and content most days without any indicators of success—I think the hardest part of the path is to recognize that eventually inputs will match outputs, but you have to tinker with figuring out what’s the “correct” thing to work on to get the most success. There are many days where no one pats you on the back for making a painting; we have to be our own cheerleaders, deferring gratification for long stretches of time. We agreed that the path of independence is fully worth it, despite its challenges.
I feel incredibly grateful towards my community; I told her that in having a Patreon and by using social media, we can tap into that gratitude by knowing that our videos help people make something, or that it’s at least entertaining. I’m thankful to everyone who supports me there (and here in this newsletter)—it means a lot to me that people are checking in on my journey.
We both left the discussion invigorated to add more value via content, host more painting classes, and simply paint more. It’s a long road but we’re enjoying the journey; I can’t imagine going back to the corporate life despite these new challenges.
I released my updated workout guide
I’ve been working with more clients lately and I’m eager to share what I know about weight lifting and fitness with you all. I re-released my workout guide, titled Principles, Philosophies, and Programs, and I’d love any of your feedback or questions for an FAQ/expanded section. Check it out and let me know if it helps you. The guide doesn’t cover everything, and there’s still plenty of self-study that needs to be made to understand techniques and what might work best for you, but it should be comprehensive if you want to get into weightlifting. If you have further questions or the document sparks a new desire to start training, contact me for personal training!
Additionally, I’m working on my Flex and Paint course. This course will contain most of the information in the document, but I’m hoping to add a twist on the intersection of art and fitness, specifically to reinforce body awareness principles which are the crux of a healthy fitness practice. I’ve been brainstorming relevant exercises which will make students more aware of their feelings when exercising and creating—I think when tapping into these feelings, you’ll understand that these practices are about the process rather than the destination, and you’ll be confident to meet yourself where you’re at—I think absolving any anxiety around where you “should be” with exercise or art makes the process more inviting.
Again, I’d love to hear from you if you have thoughts. My plan is to build this out entirely online and start training some clients individually with these practices—I’ve been demoing them with a small crew and I think members have gotten much out of the experience. Contact me if you’re interested in participating!