I’m starting a new blog series today! Each month, I’ll be sharing a bit about what’s going at at my monthly membership site: My Art Practice.
For context, My Art Practice operates on a 3-month cycle, rather like a semester. Each cycle is themed around an idea or concept. This cycle’s theme was “Reading and Making Landscape.”
Art History
I shared two art history lessons this month. The first lesson was all about JMW Turner, one of the most influential landscape artists of the last century.
And then a lesson on Fauvism.
My favorite part of this lesson is that it included a great video that featured three artists trying to figure out how to make their own Fauvist artwork.
Art Techniques and Materials
I shared a lesson on how to make a single-pull gelatin printed landscape.
I shared FIVE lessons on watercolor.
Art Practice
My Art Practice has a Core Curriculum. (I know at least one of the accountability groups spent about a year working through the Core Curriculum together every week.)
Every cycle, I add a lesson to the Core Curriculum. During June I added two lessons to the Ideas section.
An important part of your art practice is evolution. Each cycle I share a lesson called, “The Re-Do,” which is about using old work in a new way. This cycle’s Re-Do was tied into the overall cycle theme.
Professional Skill
Each cycle there is a professional skill that is taught and then put into practice. Past topics have included photographing your artwork, writing an artist bio, and making short form videos for social media. This cycle we focused on titling artwork. In May I shared 3 lessons on titling artwork.
And then in June I held a live Zoom event where members could share and discuss the titles they chose after doing the exercises in the lesson. A number of things at MAP work in this two-part way: a written lesson followed by a live event to ensure questions are answered and learning really happens! Most months have 2-3 live events, included in the (at least) two new lessons every week!
Coaching and Mentoring and Community
There were two live coaching calls with me in June — each with a different flavor:
- Office Hours are just what you might imagine from a college campus. It’s an hour of time when you can drop by and ask questions about whatever you need a bit of help on. Technical, philosophical, and weird questions welcomed! Office Hours are held on Zoom and they are not recorded. It’s usually a very relaxed conversation and demo session.
- Group Coaching is a little bit more formal. Anyone in the community can submit work to be discussed during the session. We use a relaxed but formal methodology where the person who submitted the work should have a question in mind. Ex. “Does this feel cohesive?” “Do you think the stripes on the left are helping or hurting?” “Any ideas on how I can push this to be less realistic?” Etc. Then participants give feedback that is thoughtful, non-prescriptive, and focused on helping solve the problem. I also chime in! Coaching sessions are recorded and then erased after one year.
Both of these live online events are some of my favorites. They always leave me feeling inspired and excited! Whether you ask a question or submit work or not, attending these live events brings you into the community and the conversation. And of course, I don’t want to forget about all the chatter on the message boards, and weekly accountability group meetings. Lots of opportunities to be social if you want to.
Membership Info
There are two kinds of MAP membership. Full membership grants you access to everything on the site – all lessons and message boards and everything that has come before.
Technique Vault membership grants you access to a more limited selection, focused on art techniques and materials. But again, you get access to both new and archived lessons. (You can take a peek at the kinds of things that are available in this post.)
You can check out all the options HERE and do let me know if you have questions!
