Who is interested in Critique Club? I have one live session dedicated to the whole membership where you can show your work and get help. And another dedicated to VIP where you show your homework for the lessons. How is this landing?

tollowing up to my comment at the end of critique - we were talking about wanting a smooth surface for larger pieces that wasn't unwieldy or textured like canvas. I was listening to a podcast (Undraped) with Stanka Kordic and she was bemoaning the same thing. The host Jeff Hein mentioned that he uses ABS, I think it was 1/4" thick, for his paintings. This is a manufactured plastic one can purchase in flat sheets at a home goods store like Home Depot or Menards. It comes in those giant sizes like a full sheet of plywood might. Jeff says he has seen these mounted together to create larger surfaces - he actually will mount his larger paintings (I think he said anything bigger than 18x24) onto gatorbord, and even larger ones will go/get mounted onto the pink insulation foam. Once they are framed, they remain relatively lightweight and the surface is stable (will not react to humidity levels or warp. I was going to try painting on a smaller piece to see how I liked it - a simple google search will give you the details on priming for waterbased or oil medias.

Last night, ALL NIGHT in the liminal I was being shown images of my latest fish painting. In different stages, the record button, it was relentless! I often get messages about my path in this way. I'm trying to parse it out. Thoughts: There's obviously some opportunity with that painting... I had been planning on just releasing the four part footage. Shall I do more voiceover (re: record button). But also.. that painting was born out of an intuitive nudge to make a game out of one client's need for pressure and testing their mettle. Shall I give us monthly challenges? I used to do this during the pandemic and painters still talk to me about it.. I'm gonna let it go and allow the aha moment to roll in, pushing never works for these sendings!

I recommend following this gal, not always easy to grasp her understanding but when I do it's powerful.

I'm adding little goodies from my extensive history of teaching content. These gifs showing my puzzle piece exercise are super fun and a placeholder for a more extensive lesson I'll be creating in the future.