workshop....

i taught a "paintover" workshop today at a very nice lady's house in la jolla. her name is sally. there were 9 students. each person was very kind and fun and great at art. the food was wonderful, the wine, excellent - all in all, the experience made me want to start teaching workshops again.
workshops are not all easy. even though i am the only expert in my style of art, i feel shy speaking to strangers --and i easily go on sensory overload. i know that i am this way, so i try very hard to prepare myself with a pep talk before going in and tackling the workshop crowd. but this crowd was so cool and fun, that i soon felt OK. also the wine at lunch helped a lot.

one thing i figured out today is that the pace of a workshop is slower than i had estimated. there really is no way i can introduce and teach the "paintover" method in one half day. so tomorrow i am going to sit down and hammer out the paintover workshop in smaller increments - including a couple of step-by-steps to help the new painter along while jumping feet first into this technique.

i get so mad at myself for feeling shy. i know i needn't feel that way - but tell that to my nerves. maybe if i have done enough workshops, i will overcome the shy factor. i was able to overcome it many years ago when i began to teach swimming, so i think i can do it here too.

nevertheless, the participants enjoyed the workshop and turned out nice work. that's the most important thing.