Workshops | Sherrie McGraw – Artist, Teacher and Author

Sherrie’s Workshop Schedule

Teaching Philosophy
Learning how to paint and draw is possible. While a cloak of mystery surrounds the mythical artist that is often intimidating to the novice, if someone is visually wired, he or she can learn to paint and draw. So why aren’t these disciplines easy? Why do they seem at times so difficult and why are great artists not more prevalent? Painting and drawing themselves are simple, but there is a reason that in practice, they are not easy. There is the small matter of our own minds. This is the real hurdle that is not broached often enough. Every brushstroke and line we make is filtered through our own perceptions, prejudices and emotional resistance to change. We are each the product of our entire lives and learning to be an artist is really learning about ourselves. And to me the most valuable part of this process is not the product of our labors, it is the richness of deepening self-awareness.

“With Sherrie’s workshop, I experienced for the first time, painting a portrait without drawing it first. This was a total revelation to me, even liberating. Each new portrait has now become an adventure instead of an uncertain road. I am looking forward to seeing her again.” —Johanne Mangi

April 9 – April 13, 2012
Scottsdale Artist’s School
Figure Drawing
3720 North Marshall Way
Scottsdale, Arizona 85251
Phone: (480) 990-1422
scottsdaleartschool.org
Info@scottsdaleartschool.org

April 16 – April 20, 2012
Scottsdale Artist’s School
Still Life, Portrait and Figure Painting
3720 North Marshall Way
Scottsdale, Arizona 85251
Phone: (480) 990-1422
scottsdaleartschool.org
Info@scottsdaleartschool.org

April 30 – May 4th, 2012
Salmagundi Club
New York
Still Life, Portrait and Figure Painting
Salmagundi Club
47 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10003
(THIS WORKSHOP IS ALREADY FULL)
Contact: Tim Newton 212-255-7740 ext. 300
timnewtonnyc@gmail.com

May 7 – 11th, 2012
Somers, CT
“Drawing: the Painter’s Foundation”
(Figure Drawing Class)
128 Parker Road
Somers – CT 06071
(THIS WORKSHOP IS ALREADY FULL)
Contact: Sandra Wakeen 860-763-4565
sandra@sandrawakeen.com

June 18 – June 22, 2012
Art in the Mountains
Bend, Oregon
Painting the Still life, Portrait and Figure
PO Box 311
Mehama, Oregon 97384
Office: 503.930.4572 Fax: 503.859-3891
artinthemountains.com
info@artinthemountains.com

September 24 – 27, 2012.
September 27, Studio Tour and Reception
Fechin Art Workshops
Taos, New Mexico
Still Life, Portrait and Figure Painting
P.O. Box 116
El Prado, NM 87529
Contact: Elise Waters Olonia, 575.751.0647
fineartservices.info
elise@fineartservices.info

October 22 – October 26, 2012
Pat Waymon School of Fine Art
Dallas, Texas
Still Life and Portrait Painting
8767 Bedford Euless Road
Hurst, TX 76053
Contact: 903.355.3657
patwaymongallery.com
artlady@patwaymongallery.com

“Thank you for last week at Wethersfield. It was an enjoyable and productive week. … now I am off to buy a tube of that “non-color”. You have had a great effect on me, as an artist, as a teacher and as a beautiful human being. I feel lucky to have met you.” —Jack Broderick

Students are often nervous about what they don’t know. However, not knowing is, ironically, where the real learning occurs. Not knowing is the allure where something new can happen. Artists educate their powers of seeing beyond what is normally required and a teacher has the privilege of helping students clarify and streamline this discovery. Yes, there are technical aspects to these disciplines—mixing color, applying paint, understanding anatomy and achieving line quality to name a few—but there is so much more to developing as an artist than the craft. The most important aspect is the developed ability to see as an artist, tempered with a compassion for one’s own humanness.

Becoming an artist opens up a very special relationship to the world—one of structure, symmetry, color harmony, edges, shapes and the sensuality of paint and line. The struggles encountered with changing how one sees mirror those of life—the tussle with it, the messiness of it, with all the good, the bad and the ugly. Most meaningful relationships do not come without a price, and so it is with art. Out of the struggle of learning to see comes a universal language. It is this very distinction—not knowing as opposed to knowing—that separates art from illustration. Art, the magic, the mystery come amidst the hesitance and the groping for a new understanding, a new way of seeing and the thrill of discovery within the relationship with your subject.

It is no accident that some students are drawn to certain teachers. When we resonate with another artist’s work, it is because we recognize it. The philosophy behind it lies deeply within us already. As a teacher I try to awaken these dormant sensibilities through an appreciation of the student as an entire human being. The more sensitivity I can bring to this relationship, the more possible it is to convey the language of painting in a way that the student can comprehend. Sometimes learning requires words, and sometimes it requires a visual demonstration. But if I am successful and I see the light of recognition in their eyes, this connection is, I know, why I continue to teach.