Creativity While at Home--Online Classes: Nature Journaling from Your Window

Well, we're in the midst of "stay-at-home" orders. For those of us who don't have an essential job or who can work from home, we've been patiently following orders. That's good; it does save lives. As time goes by however, you may wonder how much longer can you manage to get through another day. I've read depression creeps in because we're stressed, grieving or just bored. Our American work ethic tells us to be productive, and if we can't, we're sort of at a loss.

This isn't new. There have been many plagues and quarantines before. In fact, my mother’s family was quarantined for a month because of scarlet fever in 1930s.  We have a history of people surviving quarantines and have had to face the same we are facing today (or even worse). With that in mind, some of us have even accomplished some rather powerful masterpieces because of it.

Take Shakespeare, it's claimed he wrote King Lear during isolation as well as Isaac Newton, who developed the laws of gravity and invented calculus all because of the plague. During the 1918 Flu, Edvard Munch painted Self Portrait with the Spanish Flu. He contracted the disease, but survived for another 25 years.

Isolation happens in life. Most of us have been rather lucky not to have done it often.  Mary Shelley, the author of the first science fiction work, Frankenstein, lived during “The Year without a Summer “ (also known as  "Poverty Year” and ”Eighteen Hundred & Frozen to Death”). While being confined in Switzerland with others, she wrote her masterpiece. By the way, if you want to take a few moments to learn how bad things were for everyone back  in 1815-16, go to this link. It makes me realize how awful life could get.

While in exile on Guernsey island, Victor Hugo completed his Les Miserables and Freda Kahlo did her first portrait while lying in bed recuperating from an accident. My point is when we are isolated, either through quarantine, exile or sickness, good things can happen.

So of course, as a drawing and painting teacher, I thought I could help with 30 days’ worth of projects. Let's draw or paint:

1. An orange, apple, lemon
2. A coffee cup
3. A toaster
4. A chair
5. Your bedroom
6. Your hand
7. Your foot
8. Jewelry
9. Lamps
10. Paint brushes, pencils in a cup holder
11. Windows
12. Stairs
13. Pillows on a sofa
14. A fried egg—sunny side-up or poached
15. Comb (s)
16. Stacks of books, using perspective technique
17. Still life set-up created by you
18. A hair brush/hair dryer
19. Your pet (s)
20. A kitchen mixer
21. Lots of different breads
22. A garden flower
23. Bars of soap
24. Landscape (cityscape) from  your window
25. Your food pantry
26. A bookcase
27. Draped cloth over a stool or chair
28. Water running from faucet (hint: take a photo)
29. A finger nail
30. A hat

Share with me your pieces if you like. Have a great month of May. Hang in there; we WILL get through this!

What coming up?

All classes are now online via Zoom

Tuesdays and Wednesdays

10 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
$90 per five-week session

Creating a Nature Journal from Your Window

Media: Pencil, pen, watercolor and gouache

Supply list provided upon registration

Tuesday mornings: May 5-June 2

Wednesday mornings: May 6-June 3 Full

To register, email: jjgoodell@gmail.com

One more thought...
Interesting article from Reader’s  Digest:

When Your Whole Life Gets Canceled, Here’s What to Do Instead

Online classes begin in May

Classes to migrate to online in May

Hope all of you are feeling okay and taking every precaution to stay well. I even made my own face mask (with felt liner) when they flew off the shelves.

Since we had our house up for sale (not anymore though) with plans to move out of the area, I was going to go online to teach my classes and workshops.  During the past month, I’ve been working with a core group of students who volunteered to help me toward this effort. Because of the virus, we decided to stop meeting in person and use Zoom to hold our classes. We had our first this Wednesday and it worked seamlessly. In fact, there seemed to be no difference in our social interaction and it became a nice break for everyone.

The plan
Right now we are up and running in the Wednesday class. I will be re-opening the Tuesday class in May. We will meet (via Zoom)  from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., study all forms of drawing (except charcoal) for $90 per five-week session or $18 a class. There is a minimum of four students and a max of 10, a limit to the US (International can come later) and eventually an offer for more drawing and painting classes on different days of the week. Workshops will follow.I want the classes to be smaller at first and then increase in size later.

·        The classes
All the classes and workshops will be taught in real time, totally live, no recordings. Here is my tentative format:

•  Everyone joins the meeting via Zoom (it doesn’t cost you to use Zoom)
• Meeting and  greeting--waiting for the whole group 
• Class is called to order
• Review of last week’s assignment
• Introduction of the drawing technique and subject
• Demonstration of both if necessary
• About two hours of drawing with my help. Questions and advice can be asked here.
• Show your work  with possible critique (if you want).
• Next week’s subject will be discussed 
• Photos are uploaded on my cloud for you to download—but you are encouraged to do the project in class. Most people don’t finish all their work in class anyway, so that’s usually the homework.

Why not start the online classes immediately? Maybe?
I still have some things to accomplish and don’t want to offer something to my students that hasn’t been totally thought out. However, if I have enough people interested, I can always be persuaded to try it earlier than May. Let me know: jjgoodell@gmail.com.

Here’s a sample.Along with me seeing you and you seeing me, I am able to give you a very good demonstration(s) in class. Here’s one I have recorded.

https://youtu.be/sH0SX1rzNQ8

Want to learn more? 

Contact me through email: jjgoodell@gmail.com