HOW TO BE A GOOD STUDENT

I get excited once I have chosen a workshop to take. Usually I am taking a workshop as a personal retreat, a gift to myself, where I refresh and renew myself creatively and inspirationally.

To that end, I make sure that I take time to visualize myself expanding joyfully and creatively. I plan the trip and gather all the tools and supplies I will need. I do all of this with great lead time, so I can arrive fresh and feeling preesent.

I get excited to meet the instructor and to be open to whatever transpires. I like letting the workshop unfold with no expectations other than curiosity, good energy, eagerness, and feeling like a sponge ready to absorb it all.

By giving myself fully to the experience I feel like I am a vessel that is ready to be filled up, hold all the lessons, and even get ready to trade the old vessel for a new one. It is always going into the unknown. I love meeting new like-minded people who are just as excited and eager to learn and share as I am. But, I also keep my distance so that I can fully immerse myself into my own process of exploration feeling attuned to my own body rhythm and intuition where ever it may lead me. I suspend any kind of judgment and open only to what is it that I like and where does it lead me, a form of discernment which is different from analytical thinking.

In the end, I relish feeling supported in a safe and nurturing environment where I can let go and play in that infinite field of creativity with my senses wide open, following my heart and where my intuition and its expression get wild! My feelings and discernment are the real skills that I am cultivating in a workshop.

Of course, I show up on time, work hard, am cooperative, courteous and self-sufficient, part of the experience of group oneness.

How are you a good student?

We hope you look at our list of abstract art workshops and find one that is right for you!

Suzanne and Grant

---

“Every child is an artist. The problem is to remain

an artist when we grow up.”

— Pablo Picasso

JOIN OUR MAILING LIST

WHY TAKE AN ABSTRACT ART WORKSHOP ?

Maybe a better questions is why not take an Abstract Art Workshop?

They are fun! They get the creative juices flowing. They are inspirational. They are nurturing and a great way to meet like-minded people.

If you are stuck, a workshop can give you new perspectives.

If you are a beginner, a workshop can teach you what abstract art is and the fundamentals of art..

If you have been away from your art, a workshop can jump start you back into your practice..

If you want to grow, a workshop can push your edges.

If you are curious, a workshop can ignite your imagination.

If you are open, a workshop can offer you new techniques for your toolbox and new perspectives.

If you are adventurous, a workshop can bring out your wildness! .
If you are daring, a workshop is a place to take risks and explore, delve and excavate.

If you are timid, a workshop can help you gain confidence to trust your intuition.

Workshops help artists become better artists!

We hope you look at our list of abstract art workshops and find one that is right for you!

Suzanne and Grant

JOIN OUR MAILING LIST

MEET MICHAEL CUTLIP

“I’m painting with paper. It’s totally improvised. The shapes are very impulsive.”

— Michael Cutlip

Michael Cutlip is a master at unexpected juxtapositions——Image a big, dynamic abstraction in red, orange and white, with chunks and splashes of other colors, and graphic elements taken from the street……this is Michael Cutlip’s art. Direct, Bold. Compelling……

Michael says he is inspired by the naïve gestures and honesty of children’s art, as well as the layering and weathered aspects of paint and postings on old buildings. He uses house paint, Xerox transfers, a printing press, wallpaper, book pages, and many other things not usually found at an art supply store. “In life I think I tend to be somewhat serious, but when I’m in the studio, it’s like playing. I’m having fun and putting things together. Then I find something that works and it makes me smile,” said Michael.

“I might start out just throwing down a bunch of flyers from a telephone pole, or tear up some posters just to get some stuff underneath, which a lot of times you see revealed in the edging,” he says. “What paper taught me is composition, and about color. Now I’m just dealing with the basics. Taking a piece of paper and tearing it, layering another piece on top of it, layering, layering — you start creating something you wouldn’t have imagined.”

Michael’s vocabulary has roots in the Abstract Expressionism of Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell and Clyfford Still, and in Mark Tobey’s calligraphic scribbles, and have the same sort of grooving street energy, mixed with fine-art finesse.

As a teacher, Michael is very skilled at helping others see new directions. He encourages pushing edges, exploring the unknown and finding the magic that comes from the process of collage making.
Michael Cutlip and Suzanne Jacquot will be giving a 3 day Mixed Media Workshop July 19, 20, 21 and it is a rare treat to have such a talented teacher and artist make this special visit to the bay area. .

---

JOIN OUR MAILING LIST

MEET GRANT TAYLOR

“I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the Heart’s affections and the truth of the Imagination.
”

— John Keats

Grant Taylor at ease

Grant Taylor is someone you would love to meet. He is full of joy, warmheartedness, and enthusiasm for life. He has been a Creative since he was a child and continues to live in the wonder and awe and curiosity he experienced in his youth. You might like to watch this short video on what Grant says about his being a photographer:

Grant studied photography at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles and spent 8 years in New York City where he soaked up as much art and culture as he could. He took classes at the Art Students League, New York Academy of Art and worked at Sotheby’s as a photogrpher. Then, in his mid-thirties he moved to Santa Fe where he fell in love with the land, “Big Sky” and spaciousness.

Since his move to Santa Fe, Grant has honed his skills as a videographer by working on important documentaries on global warming and hospice and dying. And, he has developed a body of emotional photographs reflecting his own poetic views of the sky as Nature’s grand symphony, and leaves and flowers as Nature’s reminder that beauty is everywhere even in the midst of decaying.

I feel very lucky to have teamed up with Grant to create Living Your Wild Creativity. We started inspiring one another over 4 years ago creatively, spiritually, and emotionally. It has led us to sharing these gifts with others through Living Your Wild Creativity workshops and more. Grant’s keen and sensitive understanding of the subtleties of color is a special gift he brings to the workshop we do together on COLOR.

We are excited to come together to teach next month. COLOR——Moods, Rhythms, and More! February 8, 9, 10, At Studio4404, Sebastopol, CA. We are teaching it both in person and LIVE ONLINE. While our main focus will be exploring color with the heart, we also give tons of information and studio practice exercises to gain mastery of the topic. There is still room to sign up. For more information and to register:

---

join our mailing list: