Silversmithing photo by Tara Burns

WBCA In the News

Art is for everyone

January 3, 2007

by Mike Morgan, White Bear Press

After a few seconds pondering how to describe her students at White Bear Center for the Arts, Heidi Nelson exclaimed, "They're fun!"

Nelson, who teaches watercolor painting to students of all ages and abilities, loves to see what her students come up with. Different groups have different characteristics, but everyone's imagination comes through in their art, she said.

Adult women tend to be chatty and like to paint pictures of family. Children like to make likenesses of favorite pets and often make up stories to describe their pictures, she explained.

The results are always less important than the process.

"Everyone has the right to make art and express themselves," she said.

For Nelson, an accomplished watercolor painter, the classes are a way to share her talents with others, help with her own work and stay immersed in her passion.

"I learn a lot about art by teaching," she said.

She has taught lessons to youngsters in her home for several years. More recently she began teaching at the art center, which gives her a chance to interact with a wide variety of students.

In addition to adults, teens and children, Nelson also teaches classes of people with developmental disabilities like Down syndrome and autism. The classes are filled with enthusiasm and creativity, she said.

People take the classes for many reasons.

Adults with an interest in art often wouldn't be able to make the time to paint on their own. They need the structure of a class, Nelson said. Others like being guided through the process.

Taking a class is the best way for prospective artists to get started. Nelson said some people can learn by reading instruction books, but most people need help focusing.

One of the challenges of teaching art is passing down knowledge while also encouraging students to develop their own style. Nelson finds that no two people paint the same way.

"(Students) style is going to come through no matter what," said Nelson. "Who knows where it comes from?"

Surrounded by paintings, sketchbooks, magazine pictures and other art supplies, Nelson explained how a first lesson usually goes. A simple object often is the first subject.

Nelson has students stare at something in the classroom and draw it without looking down or removing the brush from the paper. The process helps the new painters with their hand-eye coordination, she said.

Her role as art teacher includes pointing things out that her students don't see on their own, such as how light changes an image, Nelson said.

She looks for things to compliment in her students' work. Each one sees the same thing differently, she said, making every class period unique.

When a room full of novice painters all work on the same lesson, subjects as simple as bottles or a squash become unique expressions.

Copyright © 2007 Press Publications. All rights reserved.

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