I have two painting students, PhDs in chemistry and electrical engineering. One is a novice acrylic painter; the other a more-advanced watercolorist. In recent months, they’ve been emailing about blue, not in the artist’s way, but the scientist’s. (I’m just following along.)
Among other things, they’ve demonstrated that some blues’ chroma increases when you add a little white. That flies in the face of conventional wisdom, which says paint will never be more intense than it is straight out of the tube.
I suppose thirty more years of looking at blue paint and I’d have drawn the same conclusion, but they’ve bypassed that painful learning process. This has immediately changed how I paint.
Meanwhile, a student from last week’s Schoodic workshop sent me a note about the watercolor skills he’s developing. What interested me was what he has learned from teaching beginners in a volunteer parks program. “Some of my best basic skills teachers,” he wrote, “are the novices I help.”
Short weekly class session starts next Monday
Claim your spot in Painting Water, Monday evenings or Painting Nocturnes, Tuesday evenings. Both are 6-9 PM, starting the week of August 17, 2026, which is next week.
This is my last Zoom session until I get back from Sedona Plein Air at the end of October. That’s because I’m teaching and eventing non-stop until then.
I upload videos of these online classes and you have access to them for as long as there’s YouTube. That means you can review them if you need a refresher or have to cut out early.
Beginners aren’t burdened by what they think they know
My student noticed that the novices he worked with were unconcerned with detail. They weren’t adding every rock, tree or branch because it was in front of them. They weren’t trying to reproduce the entire landscape.
That reminded him to reconsider the fundamentals of his own work. Were the values correct? Was the drawing accurate? Was he making decisions about composition, or simply recording what was there?
What artists can learn from beginners
I have formal instruction from the Art Students League and elsewhere. But the hours I’ve spent teaching have taught me as much or more. By having to explain technique, I’ve internalized it. By having to answer questions, I’ve researched things I knew nothing about. By listening, I’ve learned. Adults will challenge you when you’re vague or wrong. That’s a very good thing.
Am I too old to learn to paint?
On Monday, a woman watching me teach in the Berkshires told me, “I always wanted to paint but I’m too old.” She was my age, but she didn’t believe me when I said it wasn’t true.
I felt the same way when, at 38, I pivoted into a full-time painting career. Thirty years later, I’m very glad for all the other experiences I brought into my art career.
Every adult learner wonders about whether they left it too late. However, they come to art with knowledge and experience that an 18-year-old can’t understand. All of it translates into their art, whether it’s an understanding of process, years spent working with their hands or 10,000 miles trekking through nature. Adult learners take the long view; they don’t expect immediate excellence. That gives them the patience to not quit when painting seems daunting.
Quirky self-expression
One of the last week’s students made some very unusual paintings. Her work was very detailed for conventional plein air painting, which tends towards speed and freshness. However, it had a magical folkloric quality. That raised a discussion of why we value looseness in the first place, and why it’s important for teachers to not force students into the teacher’s style.
We don’t have to imitate another painter’s choices to learn from them. Sometimes the most useful thing another artist can do is challenge our assumptions about how painting is supposed to work.
Registration is now open for workshops in 2026! Reserve your spot:
- New! Color Clinic 2026 | Rockport, ME, October 3-4, 2026
- New! Composition Week 2026 | Rockport, ME, October 5-9, 2026
Can’t commit to a full workshop? Work online at your own pace: