I taught a beginning level Abstract Realism class last Wednesday to a community group. We abstracted people and things in the morning, and the landscape in the afternoon. They enjoyed my inspirational slideshows of work by others, and bravely stepped out of their comfort zone to express more of themselves instead of merely trying to reproduce their photo reference.

Here are some of their comments:

• It was liberating not to copy
• It was challenging to bring more feeling to my work
• I’m seeing things differently now
• good balance of painting time with discussions
• I love the freedom abstract art represents
• I have so much greater a desire to abstract my future paintings more so they don’t look like photos
• Now I’m much more curious about abstract art
• This class was challenging and fun
• I enjoyed the teacher’s attitude and professionalism; Polly is a good teacher and very personable
• Good evaluation and critique of our work
• I loved the slides
• Helped me dig deep into who I am as an artist
• I realize now that it is okay and actually preferable to put myself and my heartfelt emotions into a painting

Yes! Especially that last comment! It captures my goal, which I guess was achieved. I’m starting to think I should call these liberation classes.

I wish I took more photos of their work. I’m sorry to have missed recording many paintings because I was focused on them in the moment. Below you can see the ones I did capture for you.