Mentorship is the fastest way to go from where you are today, to where you want to be! Learn How Mentorship Works or join this mentors group below. Not sure what stage you are? Click here for descriptions.
Mentoring Emerging Artists Not sure if you’re an emerging artist? Find your stage here.
MEDIUMS: Drawing | Oil | Encaustic | Printmaking | Mixed Media SPECIALTY: ✔ Creating Bodies of Work ✔ Critiques ✔ Finding Your Artistic VoiceÂ
I can help with making your work–what you want to do- -as authentic and powerful as possible. Suggesting artists and techniques to checkout, figuring out what makes your work unique, and how to sort out all the chatter on what makes good art are some of my strengths.
We ask what what was in your mind when creating a piece, tell you what we see as your viewers, and how that affects or doesn’t affect what you do next. We talk about ways to make your own judgments about a piece and when the proper time to do that would be. We can talk about myths and preconceptions that will impede your progress.
The mentoring is to be guided by each of you. I’ll focus on your goals and aspirations and If I don’t know an answer, will come back with information after our session.
Debra’s EXPERTISE
Listed below are this Mentor’s specialty skills. Join this group if you want to grow in these areas.
Specialty: ✔ Creating Bodies of Work ✔ Critiques ✔ Finding Your Artistic Voice
Technical:
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Teaching How to Self Critique
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Providing Art Critiques
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Technique Demos
Marketing:
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Artist Statement & CV
“Mastrius is a perfect balance of accountability, community and fun. It feels like family. Family that makes you a better you.” ~ Elizabeth, Emerging Artist
JOIN NOW
select your mentorship group
If the group you’re interested in has a waitlist, you have the option to join another group to get started. When your group opens we can transfer you over.
Your Membership Includes (click here):
Mentorship Session: Meet via video conference for a monthly 2-hour session with your Mentor and small group. You choose the mentor, we provide the group!
Mid-Month Session: Meet via video conference for a 1-hour session with your small group and Navigator to connect, share progress, encouragement, and support.
Weekly Events: Attend LIVE weekly events online, on hot topics like Finding Your Style, Composition & Critiques, plus master DEMOS. Access event recordings!
MyStudio: Access your private online studio space equipped with business tools and Mentorship Session Recordings.
Chat Group: Access your private online chat group to connect with your small group and Navigator (group facilitator) anytime.
Discounts: Enjoy member discounts on LIVE and ON-DEMAND courses, art supplies, and more!
Emerging
Mentorship Membership
$ USD90/Month
Next session: February 19, 2025
On the 3rd Wednesday of every month 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM MST Wed
Not your timezone? Click below
MORE ABOUT THE ARTIST
BIOGRAPHY
Debra Claffey’s paintings in oil, encaustic, and mixed media concentrate on abstracted plant and foliage forms as expressions of the human dilemma. Her experience in horticulture adds a scientific perspective to her aesthetic appreciation of the natural world. With the plant kingdom as muse, Claffey’s work employs direct observation of nature to comment on the critical relationship between humans and plants.
Claffey’s paintings have been exhibited across New England and have won several awards, including the Juror’s Award at Anything But Flat at the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill. She holds a BFA in painting from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and Tufts University and an Associate’s Degree in Horticultural Technology from the University of New Hampshire.
She has been Past-President of both the New Hampshire Women’s Caucus for Art and New England Wax. She exhibits with a four-artist collective named Elemental, which focusses on environmental issues. Claffey currently teaches online and in her Maine studio.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I use pattern and repetition to express appreciation and record memories of movement. My paintings—in oil, encaustic, and mixed media—visualize my anxieties, fears and preoccupations with ecology, environment, and our care for each other. The drawn line is a tracing of my roving eye, following the lively edge of orchid leaf or fern bract. The paintings range in size from modest monotypes to monumental paintings on canvas or paper, incorporating my use of drawing tools and carving or scraping into the surface for an expressive line.
My experience in horticulture offers the plant kingdom as Muse, and it still nurtures me and gets me moving. Using plants as a beginning point for drawing provides innumerable opportunities for direct perception of nature, and a deeper understanding of relationship while also sparking a lively discourse toward making a good and satisfying painting, even when the painting is about anxiety and loss.
FREE eBOOK: Secrets You Won't Learn In Art School
✔ Where creative BLOCKS come from, how to identify them, and how to quickly move forward
✔ What not to be a SLAVE to (this feels counter-intuitive to most artists)
✔ Two things to focus on that improve the VALUE range making your art more interesting
Plus 16 other tips from successful Master Artists that you won't learn in art school.
