What teaching means to me

I was a bartender for 17 years to support my habit as an artist. I still painted more than most people I knew even though I worked 20 - 40 hours a week. I worked nights so I could paint all day. I had the energy so I persevered.

      During the later era of my bartending years, I was able to convert a two car garage into a studio. When it was done, my dream was to have an artist's night where we would paint and trade ideas to lift each other up and also to network. It was so much fun to schedule and host these evenings. I would hire a model and invite artists to come and paint together for the fun of it. During these nights I became close to a lot of these artists. One of them kept telling me I should become a teacher. I should try and spend some time teaching people. I am not sure now what finally made me stop and give it a try. I didn't have the time and I didn't think I knew enough, but I did finally did give it a try.
     The first few classes were really tough. I drew back on my years as being a student and thought about what really helped me when I needed it as well as what I thought was missing in my years of training. There was, in my mind, a lot of faking it. But I found I loved it. And even though I might have thought I was faking it, I really knew what I was doing and my found my passion. I tried to give my students every thing I ever learned and all the things I wanted to know. If I didn't know it, I read from my favorite books till we all memorized it. "Alla Prima" by Richard Schmid was my all time favorite. But there were many more I loved. Before long I could recite from these books. My time at  an atelier, my experience as a plein air artist and my knowledge of the fundamentals helped my students progress at a great speed.
     I have now been teaching for many years. I am so grateful to where this profession has taken me. I have met some of my best friends through teaching. I have traveled to some of my dream locations in the world on workshops with those wonderful people. I have the best hours too. I teach in the mornings which give me the whole rest of the day to paint. And teaching has taught me more, in all my years as a student, about painting. I learn as much from them as they do from me. And now, I don't need to bar tend any more.

     There is no greater joy than seeing the lights come on in a students face. I always say, you might want to punch me in the face at the beginning of the class, but you will want to kiss me by the end of my class. How they sometimes look frustrated or angry until they finally get it and then I see their lips curl into a smile....
     I teach every morning. When the weather is good, plein air "alla prima" (outdoors in one shot) in our beautiful seaside communities sometimes adding a live model, some days inside with still lifes. I find that still life helps with technique because you can control the set up, you can work on it longer and without the distractions of the outdoor elements, bugs and people. Figure and portraiture helps to improve your drawing abilities because if it is off just a little, you can see it. And painting outdoors helps to make you paint faster, see color and to understand how important temperature in your colors to create depth in your work.
   Next sessions classes start January 19, 2017. Please go to www.diannepmiller.com to see the schedule.

Painting the Sagrada Familia in Barcleona

Each year, I design a trip to Europe with a group of artists to go and paint. This year I chose Barcelona, Spain. We had 5 artists and myself painting together all the amazing and beautiful sights. A collector friend of mine saw that I was going and asked me to paint the Sagrada Familia for an anniversary present for his wife. So the day we visited this architectural wonder by Guadi, we brought along our paints. We walked around the church trying to find the best composition until we found the perfect spot behind a pond that was in front of the church. It was the perfect amount of nature to offset the splendor of the cement. 

We set up our easels jockeying for the best spot with the crowds of tourists trying to use the same place to take their pictures. It was truly the best place to be to see this church. With 6 of us painting, there wasn't a lot of room left. We were bumped and blocked many times, but we persevered! After about 2 hours we gave up and packed up our gear. But I was happy with the sketch I had done and could use as a study for the larger piece I was about to do. We all visited the inside of the church afterwards and was totally inspired. What a masterpiece. You really have to see it to understand it's grandeur.

   When I began the larger piece I used my photos and painting to construct the church on my canvas in the best way to highlight the large steeples from the main part of the church. I worked on it as soon as I got back so I could rely on my memory and inspiration from my visit. I visited my friends home to see the exact size that would fit in the spot he wanted to hang it. 

    This was quite a feat to get it on the canvas accurately. I used my sight to copy it. I didn't trace it. When I was pleased with the arrangement, I began to add color. I blocked the whole thing in before adding any detail getting my values and color correct. When that was done, I began to put in the detail. And what detail that was!!! It took me much longer to finish than I thought it would, but I learned so much in the process. Being able to look at each piece of the many details to add to this painting was awe inspiring. What an incredible genius this Gaudi was. 

   In the end, I believe this is one of my favorite paintings. I was able relive and own the memory of being at the Sagrada Familia and was proud that I was able to do it.