Review of Demo at Lodge Artists

Well.. dare I say, I think it went rather well and I really enjoyed it!! An artist friend of mine Lynne Frost (please check out her website her work is wonderful!!) decided to come with me and I am really grateful to her as she helped me set up and pack away  but more importantly was there for a bit of moral support!!

We arrived in plenty of time and a gentleman was setting up the camera and sound system and the room quickly filled up with I'm guessing around 25-30 people. I didn't really get the hang of keeping my work under the camera so it could be projected onto the screen. The trouble is I am constantly moving my work around so that makes it difficult to keep it in one place so got my hands slapped a few times when they couldn't see what I was doing!!

I also took some of my earlier work... I was so embarrassed!!! But I really wanted to prove to everyone that anything is possible if they have the desire to practice, practice, practice... I know I am like a long playing record droning on and on, but it is the answer to becoming a half decent painter!!!

I did get some wonderful feedback, one lady said she had been coming to demo's for the last 10 years and she found mine to be the most inspiring she had ever been to (wow!!!) and a gentleman said he always hoped to learn one thing from a visiting artist and from me he had learned 3 things, he also said that for a first demo I had done really well!! Other people said they had enjoyed and found it interesting so am really happy with that.

Of course there are things I would do differently.... speaking and painting for about one and three quarter hours takes some doing and I think I needed a touch more content as it flagged a bit to the end of each half. I had really come to the end of what I wanted to say about 10 minutes before the end of the first bit so did a bit from the second which then threw the timing for the second half... grrr!!! So that was the most difficult bit, I needed to plan in for questions and diversions so wanted to make sure I got everything in but would say I was about 15 minutes short. Having said that, I did pack a lot into the session and was also aware that if I did too much, they wouldn't remember enough to try and practice after.

So demo or workshops for the future? Well if asked, I would certainly do more demos and feel confident that I could  improve on what I did last night to have another go, we are always our own worst critic and I am just trying to be honest in my own evaluation but I am really quite happy with how things went last night and certainly happy enough to try again.

However I do think groups get more out of me when I do workshops and I am able to do both a bit of demonstrating and then help them when they start to have a go, I feel it helps reinforce what I am trying to get across and I sort of feel I have now left the group in the lurch without being able to help them if they decide to give the techniques a go. The thing is, because I feel so passionate about my painting I want other people to have a taste of that,  for them to have the joy of creating that special  magic for themselves and doing a demo feels there is unfinished business if that makes sense!!!

Anyway thank you to Lodge Artists for  inviting me, I hope you all enjoyed my first go, you were all really warm and friendly and made me feel so welcome and I hope to visit you again in the future!!