Getting Ready to offer another wild, fun, enlightening workshop where you really get to play and be surprised!

Stay tuned!

How To Make A Misstake

A Creative Arts Workshop

with Cynthia Schildhauer

 

In my next life I will try to commit more errors. (Jorge Luis Borges)

Perfectionism…comparison…judgment…talent or lack of it…these are all words that interfere with our sense of discovery, intuition and creativity. HOW TO MAKE A MISTAKE is a fun filled day or weekend designed to push you beyond the blocks you may have that are preventing you from moving forward in your creative work and life.  Scott Adams says” Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.  “During these two day long workshops we will be encouraged to make deliberate mistakes, and like all mistakes, the outcome of the day will be unintended…but will be positive and full of surprises! The goal is to encourage you to experience the relief (and probably other feelings) of opening up to the possibility of imperfection and spontaneity.  You may get the pleasure of “not doing it right”! And a colorful and interesting piece of art!



 

 

 

 

 

 Intuitive Painting Workshop

Also see Cynthia's Encaustic Painting workshop

During this inspirational weekend-long workshop, we will start with small creative exercises and mine our internal source for rich authentic material to use as fuel for our painting, culminating on Sunday with a large scale acrylic painting on canvas.  

Experience the freedom of using intuitive insight to direct your art, and the excitement of working BIG. Individual assistance provided for suggestions and technical instruction.

Open to novices and professionals alike who want to loosen up a little more and feel the incredible joy of painting! 

See Materials List for workshop.

Upcoming workshops

Chico ArttoberFest

LOOSEN-UP PART 1 AND PART 2

Let go of perfectionism, the fear of failure or of being judged, and the on-going frustration of working “the same old way” that you have always done…Break loose and experience the freedom of trying something new, taking a few creative risks in a fun and inspiring atmosphere.  Mixed media workshop featuring a day of experimentation, play and real art making.  Open to the talented expert, the inspired beginner and the totally clueless.  Most materials provided.  Credit card and special financial agreements requested and honored..just join in!

CONTACT CYNTHIA

Mendocino Art Center  Fall and Winter classes :TBA

http://www.mendocinoartcenter.org/Spring11/Fine_Art.html

March 18-21  Encaustics-A New Approach

May, 2011  Intuitive Painting Large Scale

Seattle: J at the Fremont Abbey. TBA
See photos from this workshop on the CynthiaArt Facebook Page.

Chico, CA: February 5 and 6 at the Chico Art Center
Register here for the Chico Art Center workshop

Livermore, CA:  Postponed till spring   Location TBD
Sponsored by the Livermore Arts Commission
Register here for the Livermore workshop

 

What is intuition?

1: Quick and ready insight
2a: Immediate apprehension or cognition
  b: Knowledge or conviction gained by intuition
  c: The power or faculty of attaining direct knowledge or cognition without evident rational thought and inference

Free as a childPicasso said "I love painting. It tells me what to do."  He had an innate, "I-never-worry-about-it-in-fact-I just-do-it ability" to approach the notion of painting like most of us approach brushing our teeth. It is necessary. It has to be done.I choose to do it. I enjoy it. It feels good.

This idea of taking action on the urge to express ourselves is what I view as intuition.  Many of us have impulses to do or try certain things, to connect with or avoid certain people, to travel or not, to pursue a career path or not…we are guided by an internal pull towards what we desire.  Yet so many of us, for a variety of reasons, squelch the expressive urge, make excuses and turn towards “the practical”, the known, the safe. 

Artists seem to be a little more tuned in to actually taking action when it comes to this elusive urge for self-expression, though they would likely claim to have the same difficulty recognizing an authentic desire from a pre-conceived or habitual thought..

How does painting connect with intuition?  Even without explanation, I believe that most people have an intuitive feeling, an understanding that the act of painting is somehow connected to an inexplicable part of us…a part unknown, full of surprises, some of which may be dark. 

This "unknown source," the center of the creative urge, the desire to paint and to make art…is the reason why people DON’T paint, make fun of artists, judge work that is not realistic…it is simply fear of the unknown…coupled with a problematic urge to discover (as in dis-cover, take the cover off,) the unknown.  Humans are hopelessly wired witha mutual attraction and aversion to mystery…Artists are the folks who hold the lantern on that misty road to the sublime, the beauty, the mystery wealth of the unexpressed human urge to create.

Getting started…here is what helps me and what I hope you may experience in my class.  Meditation… breath.  Taking your honest emotional temperature. Noticing and accepting what is current for you. Music without words (sometimes words, too). Feeling color.  Embracing  black. Playing. Remembering these three questions I have posted in my studio:

Who am I painting for?    Why do I do it?   Where does it come from?

Painting is a process.  Trust it and enjoy how it feels to fill that paintbrush with paint and let it go!


"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." —Laozi

 "The creative journey can begin with a single stroke of paint." —Cynthia S.

 

 

Here are some images from the Intuitive Painting Workshops