The Smiles Tell Their Own Story at Mawgan Porth

Some art lessons are about far more than the finished painting. This lovely mother and son joined me for an art lesson overlooking Mawgan Porth in Cornwall, on one of those wonderfully changeable Cornish days.

There was plenty of learning, lots of questions and conversations, but also giggles, silliness and laughter. For me, that is exactly how learning should feel. When we are relaxed enough to experiment and ask questions, we often begin to see far more than we did before.

They were both looking at the same Mawgan Porth landscape, the same sea, sky and beach, yet their finished paintings were distinctly their own. That individuality is something I particularly love to see.

Learning to Look Rather Than Learning to Copy

Afterwards, I received a lovely review which included these words:

“Jeanni will teach you how to look at what you see from a different perspective, allowing you to go on and paint a masterpiece of your own.”

Those words mean a great deal to me because they describe something at the very heart of the way I teach art.

I don't want an artist to leave a lesson knowing how to copy one of my paintings. I want them to understand more about how to see… to recognise light and shadow, colour, shape, depth, perspective and the visual clues that allow us to translate the three-dimensional world onto a two-dimensional surface.

Once those fundamentals begin to make sense, you have something much more useful than a formula for producing one particular picture. You have knowledge that can be taken away and explored in your own subject matter, medium and individual style.

A Cornish Memory Captured in Paint

The final part of the review was perhaps the loveliest of all. She wrote that she and her son had come away very happy and would “treasure our Mawgan Porth art experience in our paintings.”

And that is rather special. Two small paintings have become a permanent reminder of time spent together in Cornwall… talking, learning, laughing and looking properly at the beautiful landscape of Mawgan Porth.

Sometimes the artwork captures more than the view.

And sometimes the smiles tell the whole story. 🎨💙

Photograph and artwork shared with permission.