Helping artists reach the next level in their personal creative work is foremost in my critiquing and teaching. This includes looking at a collection of an artist’s work, helping them see what they do that is special and unique, and give suggestions on how to increase those strengths as well as continuing to develop new skills. Encouragement is paramount. Presenting appropriate questions help artists identify their interests, goals, frustrations, etc. and helps me to best guide them in the direction they need to best place their energy. Awknowledging art is subjective, I keep an open mind to the artists’ personal aesthetics and can help them in several directions: conceptually, skill building, materials experience, and suggestions for growth in realism, abstraction, or non-representational painting.
I believe good paintings result from a marriage of the intuitive (right side of the brain) and intellectual (left side of the brain). Artists are encouraged to embrace free, loose and expressive painting in their work. But, there is a time for critical thinking, and analyzing what’s happening in their painting(s). Is it what the artist wants to happen? How do they get from here to there? When we engage both sides of our brain, we are creating from “our head, our hands, and our heart” and are truly creating our best art.
Learning to self-critic is important since most of our time is spent painting alone. I have my “cheat-sheet to self-critique”, developed over many years of teaching, which works well with mentoring. It prompts the artists to ask their own questions and I can teach them how to find the answers.
Kathleen’s EXPERTISE
Listed below are this Mentor’s specialty skills. Join this group if you want to grow in these areas.
Supplies and tools – what to use, where to save, and where to spend
Marketing:
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Shows & Exhibits
“Mastrius is a perfect balance of accountability, community and fun. It feels like family. Family that makes you a better you.” ~ Elizabeth, Emerging Artist
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Emerging
Mentorship Membership
$ USD87/Month
Next session: October 01, 2024
On the 1st Tuesday of every month 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM MDT Tue
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MORE ABOUT THE ARTIST
Master Artist, Kathleen exhibits her work, juries exhibitions, gives demonstrations, and teaches in-depth workshops. She has been juried into more than 100 exhibitions, receiving national and international recognition for the vision, innovative techniques, and fearless expression that give rise to her unique designs. Painting with openness to her subject matter, she is guided by intense observation and deep personal reflection. The result is rich symbolic layers of literal and figurative design.
Painting from an early age, Kathleen was influenced by teachers and artists in the fertile environment of Southern California’s prominent artists, museums and galleries as well as early international travels. She studied undergraduate fine arts at San Diego State University, finished her Bachelor of Art degree at the University of Washington in Seattle and earned her Master of Arts degree from Northern Michigan University. Continued study with American master watercolor artists over the next decade enriched her depth, understanding, skill, and personal style of painting.
Kathleen Conover’s current involvement in the growing international watercolor scene includes invitations to exhibit, judge, and demonstrate in China, Turkey, France, Belgium, Thailand, and Greece. She has been honored as one of 40 international master watercolorists invited to exhibit at the first watercolor-exclusive museum in Qingdao, China, the “Birthplace of Watercolor”.
Global travel continues to influence her award winning paintings and inspires her work toward her lifetime pursuit, “… to be a better painter”.
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.
