I first met this wonderful 10-year-old artist while I was working on the beach here in Cornwall. She was fascinated by the artwork and what I was teaching, but there simply wasn’t enough time during her visit to Mawgan Porth to fit in an art lesson.

So instead, she continued learning with me through Zoom.

After only five hours of tuition, she sat in front of her screen and produced this portrait of me from life in around 30 minutes.

Not Learning to Copy… Learning to See

What excites me most isn’t simply that the portrait looks like me. It’s that she is beginning to understand why it works.

I teach what I call the grammar, spelling and punctuation of art… proportion, light and shadow, form, perspective and, importantly, the psychology of how we see.

A portrait on a flat piece of paper is really an optical illusion. There is no actual depth there, only marks, shapes and tones. Yet when those elements are understood and arranged correctly, the viewer’s brain interprets them as a three-dimensional person.

Once young artists understand that, they no longer need someone telling them where every line should go.

They can begin to observe, understand and make their own artistic choices.

Art Lessons From Cornwall to Zoom

One of the lovely things about Zoom art lessons is that someone can discover my work while visiting Cornwall and continue learning once they return home.

Whether I am teaching on the beach at Mawgan Porth, elsewhere in Cornwall or online through Zoom, the aim remains the same… to give artists the knowledge they need to understand what they are seeing rather than simply teaching them to copy.

Five hours of tuition. Thirty minutes of drawing. Ten years old.

Not learning to copy… learning to see.