Teaching - A Post By Santiago

This past week I had the chance to stay after the show and teach Amy some of the basics of painting. Amy and her mom are the women responsible for the wonderful smells and delicious food that come from the cafe at The Celebration Of Fine Art. If you are at the show you should try my favorite the Starving Artist Chili.

Still life by Amy 

Anyway, although Amy has been around art and artists for so many years working at the show she had never painted before. She made for a great pupil and I was very impressed with her natural talent. I realized how much I enjoy teaching and it was a great feeling to have her listen and incorporate the things that I was saying. I can't take any credit though for how her first painting, a still life of an apple, turned out. That is raw talent! Definitely looking forward to doing more teaching in the future!

Art On Vacation

Every summer we spend a wonderful couple of week's with all of Santiago's family (24 and a half of us) vacationing on the beach in Mexico.  That means lots of time to relax and paint. 

Santiago plein air painting on the beach summer 2009

This year Santiago's brother Leo posed for several hours so Santiago could paint him.  They even rigged it so he could play FIFA soccer on the X-Box (one of their favorite games) to help pass the time.

They also took hundreds of pictures of 'our little artist' just doing his thing.  Santiago oil painted while Leo sketched.  The amazing thing about 'our little artist's' 2-year-old body is how round his little belly is and how child-like his mannerisms are which is evident especially in the way he balances the weight of his body and movement. He was so cute running around in just his diaper and dad's socks.

Santiago patiently walked me through my first painting.  Apparently being around, and being able to recognize artistic talent doesn't make you a natural artist - that's for sure!  Santiago was an amazing teacher  and it was a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend an afternoon together on vacation.

We put Santiago's artistic talent to good use for our chin people skit and to make a RISK game from scratch when we discovered the board game got left at home.  What can I say?  He is a very versitile artist!