Marcy LaBella
Spring Classes - Fun Times #teachingartist #arts #creativity #lifelonglearning #mindfullness #flow
Updated: Jun 23, 2019
Spring time is art time and I have been busy with my teaching schedule. I adore my students of all ages from my littlest ones to my vibrant group of active seniors.

I love working with my students and sharing different art processes with them. I also love taking workshops myself, pushing my boundaries and gaining new skills and perspectives from other artists.

Teaching creative collage with encaustic painting technique is a workshop that has gotten to be extremely popular. This time we were booked on a holiday week-end so the class was smaller giving me more time to go in depth with more demos. While I love the energy of a large class I also enjoy the intimacy of a small group just as much. We created some lovely pieces with collage, paint, wax and oil based pastel, crayon and paints. Loads of messy creative fun!



I like doing demos during classes and working along side of my students so they can see the ways my work progresses even the sometimes awkward phases of a painting. Sometimes this is where people give up or think its a loss and I think of it as the awkward "teenage" phase and where you need to push through and keep going. Knowing when to stop is also something that every artist needs to learn.

In my Drawing class students really get into the process of drawing what they "see" by using Right Brain Drawing Techniques. Using contour, blind contour and really examining the positive and negative spaces, thinking in terms of shared lines and the relationships of forms in our composition. We get into the nitty gritty of drawing what we see rather than what we THINK we see. Amazing work by a wonderful dedicated group of learners.

I love experimenting with Gel Printing. This winter I taught a gel printing workshop at Guilford Art Center and students experimented with stencils, transfers, vintage block stamps, masking, layers and painting into their mono prints. There is so much potential and room to explore with print making. I love the ease and immediacy that the gel plate offers and how it offers seemingly limitless ways to generate creative ideas.

Art is a way to feed the soul at any age - teaching and sharing art and process is an every expanding way to connect with people of all ages and one I am so happy to be involved in as part of my life journey.
Namaste
Marcy
Be sure to visit me on Instagram @bellamarcella1212