Silence 2 50x50" oil/cold wax on panel ©2012 Janice Mason Steeves How can you paint when someone is watching? I am commenting here on the recent blog post written by my colleague and great friend, Rebecca Crowell. Rebecca can somehow manage to focus on her own work during the painting time in her workshops. And do some serious paintings too! She finds this to be a learning tool for the class and is not at all bothered by the audience. I work in a totally different way. I am able to demonstrate for my students and experiment in the workshops I teach, but I seem unable or perhaps unwilling to paint in the classes. While Rebecca views her painting process as a learning tool (and I honour her viewpoint), I see it in a different light. I hesitate to paint in my classes, mostly because it is not my nature, and partly because I think it is important for my students to struggle to find their own voices. I feel that if I were to paint in the classes, the s