Daily painting #620 5"x5" oil on primed canvas panel
The last two weeks have been a crazy time in our house. Both of my children have been writing their end of year exams (in South Africa our school year ends in December and starts in January), and I have been marking practical work and Visual Art exam papers. It's been busy to say the least and like any exam period although you try to keep stress levels to a minimum, it's always a tense time of year!
My daughter finished exams a few days earlier and my son has finally written his last paper. I have managed to get all my pupil's marks correlated and am about to retire my red marking pens! I have marked my last Visual Art theory exam for a while I hope. Next year I will no longer be teaching Visual Art in a school environment and will only teach 3 morning painting classes from a studio at home. The rest of the time I plan to spend more time in my own studio painting and hopefully doing more daily painting too. This year has been a hectically busy year and it took falling down a flight of stairs in April and breaking my ankle and leg to realize that I needed to slow down. There really is no such thing as part time teaching....it consumes 150% of my energy...it's just what I do! But in order to give, its important to keep replenishing ones own 'stock' or else you end up having very little to give. My creative cup is almost running on empty and so it's time to refocus and replenish in order to be able to give again. I will certainly miss my interaction with the girls I have taught this year, it has been so rewarding. When a pre-teen arrives on a Monday to show you a drawing they worked on all weekend, you know you have given someone a gift they will cherish forever and more importantly you have made them believe that they could do something they never thought they could. I know I have inspired a few little souls to a lifetime of new experiences, joy and soul searching through art....and that gives me great pleasure! I hate goodbyes and so I choose to see this not as a 'goodbye' to classroom teaching but a new season of renewal in my own studio....and the journey can begin now that exams are finally over!
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