The Story Behind My New Course
It feels overwhelming to start a blog post about my new course because it was in the making for what seems like ages! In reality, I created the curriculum when I began teaching adults in the spring of 2021. It was my first time teaching painting to adults, and the venue was The ArtsCenter in Carrboro. I have taught the class there several times as well as at the Eno Arts Mill in Hillsborough, NC. Before this, I taught art to children for ten years at Montessori schools, community centers, and art museums. I also taught photography to adults at Watkins Collage of Arts’ community education program in Nashville.
After graduating from Vanderbilt in 2017 with a master of education in learning and design, I couldn’t go back to teaching kids full-time because I felt called to pursue being an artist. But I also wasn’t quite gallery-ready with my painting skill level, so I enrolled in online lessons with a painter I loved from the ‘ole Instagram- Felicia Forte. She taught me how to see shapes and values much more accurately, and introduced me to oil paint in a more approachable way than I had learned in college at UNC. The images below illustrate my learning curve, and the role that these lessons had in my career: the top set of paintings is in acrylics and from 2016. The bottom set is in oils painted in 2023. I think you can see quite a difference, and I can’t wait to see what my paintings look like in seven more years! There are no words for how meaningful it is that my new course will help others start this journey.
The lessons truly changed my life, and while Felicia encouraged me to teach back in 2017, it wasn’t until the pandemic, the move from Nashville to Chapel Hill, and then the rather large change of becoming a mother that I really jumped into to being a painting instructor for adults. I was nervous throughout the first class but had a few years of experience of selling my work at that point, so the imposter syndrome wasn’t too bad!
And then! In 2022, one of my painting students at the Eno Arts Mill happened to be Lindsay Emery, co-founder of The Studio Source. She encouraged me to repurpose the curriculum as an online course, in order to add an additional income stream and of course reach more students that are interested in learning with me but are not local. In April 2023 I purchased her online course The Artist’s Online Course Blueprint, and spent the rest of the year typing lessons, filming demos, and being a perfectionist about my new program!
Left: Selfie after putting the finishing touches on the course. Right: Block-in stage of demo painting in the course.
With the goal in mind to launch by the end of the year, I hunkered down and glued myself to the computer once all my painting was done in November, and launched The 3 Hour Still Life on December 18th! Nine students enrolled during the launch week and so far they are enjoying the course! I am so excited for this program to grow and reach more students as I continue marketing it over the years!