Dear painters, art aficionados, and art explorers everywhere. I would never have guessed this journal would keep my interest for so long! Join me as I learn about the processes of painting, drawing and at times, the history of art.
My website is: terirobusstudio.com

5.24.2015

Distilling what you know - the good parts

 Chapter 6 of
Show Your Work!
is
"Teach What You Know"

  I was SO excited when reading this chapter - for a couple of reasons:
 
1.  Author Austin Kleon lives in Austin, Texas, where our daughter and son-in-law live and as a matter-of-course, when you visit Austin (Texas), you must go eat barbeque at Franklin's! ... and A.K. tells of his chat with owner Aaron Franklin 
and how Aaron made a crowd-funded YouTube series called BBQ with Franklin.

!!!!!   I haven't watched this yet   !!!!!!

BUT

I HAVE been to Franklin's!
and I got the T-shirt!



2.  I have always heard that you learn when you teach, and any "teacher" who thinks they know it all (especially in art) - is probably not a good pedagog.

Sharing trade secrets may seem counter-intuitive to some ... but since we humans are not alike, the way we do things will not be exactly alike. We will think of a new way to mix a color (or a recipe) or draw the figure or imagine an abstract or or or ????

So, teaching the same subject (say oil painting, or making bbq brisket) that someone else is teaching - is NOT, in my opinion (especially with a bit of thought)  copying or duplicating what another oil painter/chef will do. Everyone does it differently!
 
As A.K. says in this chapter, 
"Teaching doesn't mean instant competition. Just because you know the master's technique 
doesn't mean you're going to be able to emulate it right away ... "
He says that the Franklins just love barbeque 
and they want to share their knowledge 
because they were also beginners at one point. (and aren't we all?)

Of course, as in any successful (delicious) recipe, there are the basics to know - thus, in my post today, while there may be slightly different ways to stretch a canvas, 
I demonstrate how I do it.

Ok, getting rather wordy here, so following are photos of my process of stretching a raw canvas onto a stretcher frame. 
These canvases are for my large triptych commission;
34 inch square center canvas and 34 x 17 for the two sides. 
My husband made the stretcher frames. Beautiful aren't they?












This may have been better in a video ... I am not set up, nor am I mentally ready for that   :o)

I learned this canvas stretching technique from my teacher, 
Jane Terzis, now retired from UAS (University of Alaska - Southeast).
I really love making my canvases (almost) all by my hand, but don't do it very often.
 
 Thank you for following along on this pedagogical journey today!


 


1 comment:

Chris Lally said...

Beautiful stretcher frames - great post! Thanks for sharing this.