Recovering Art School Grad seeks Technique

Feedback from Emily Headen

I’ve been an artist and maker my entire life and feel it is my true purpose on this planet to create art.

So I did what every young aspiring artist is supposed to do and went to art school for three years and majored in painting. It was a good experience in a lot of ways, but it recently dawned on me that they didn’t really teach me much about painting technique. In fact, some teachers discouraged it, and several outside the department even declared painting “dead”.

Art school also had the counterproductive result of making me doubt myself and stop making art altogether. For years after graduating I didn’t paint much because I was hung up on making work that is “meaningful”- a truly paralyzing concept.

I am also not interested in making art in the style that seems popular now, which makes it hard to see a place in the art world for me. I’ve decided I don’t care what others are doing or whether my art means anything to anybody else. I need to do what I need to do, come what may. I am working to get past the mental blocks and am beginning to paint again. For the first time since school, I feel free and full of possibility. The muses are humming in my ears!

However, as I recover from art school and explore my true artistic calling, I visualize working in a more classical style. Now that I am painting again, I am frustrated a lot and feel like I waste time with bad technique. I simply don’t have the technical training to work more in the style of the Old Masters. I’ve read some books but find them lacking in actual detailed instruction. I hope Web Art Academy is the answer I’ve been seeking. I would love to learn to paint the way I visualize paintings in my head, and would love to share those visions with all of you.

emilyheaden.com