Janice Mason Steeves

My workshops are filled with (mostly) women, who are in the 50-75 year-old range. They are coming to art with a vengeance and an impatience, having recently discovered or rediscovered their creativity after years of working in other jobs. On the one hand, it's a huge pleasure to teach them because of their burning desire to learn. On the other, many appear to be under an enormous amount of pressure. Time pressure. There is a sense that they don't have time to waste. Christine Brutin Linda Virio Sharon Helleman How can I teach them to slow down, to have patience with themselves, with the process? One exercise I do, if I'm teaching in a beautiful location, is to have the students go outside first thing in the morning. I ask them to pick a spot where they will sit for 20 minutes each day while asking themselves some contemplative questions. Then they come quietly into the studio and do 4 small paintings. Anne Jackson One of the women in th...

A morning studio practice-lighting a candle  My son, Andrew Mason, is a musician in Toronto.  He recently recommended a book to me that he had read during his  music studies.  The book is called Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within by Kenny Werner.  Written in 1996, this book is just as relevant today as it was 18 years ago.   Effortless Mastery is about learning how to find the 'space', the 'flow'.  Werner  gives meditations and suggestions as to how a musician might find that 'universal' space within themselves from which to create. Visual artists will find the suggestions helpful in their own creative work. In my own artistic practice, I light a candle each morning as I come into my studio.  I do this to set my intention and to hold the space for my work for the day.  I have the candle near my studio door so I can remember to blow it out and feel gratitude for the day's work as I leave at the end of th...

This past weekend my studio was filled with nine enthusiastic and industrious artists learning about the cold wax/oil process.  The air was filled with excitement.  The artists ranged from those with almost no experience at all to professionals, so I had a lot of explaining to do! One of my goals was to encourage the artists to play, to experiment with a new technique and just let go.  So often we get hung up on goals, on making a product, on being 'perfect'. I read to them from Eric Maisel's book, " Coaching the Artist Within " , where he talks about the creative process. "To create, we have to take the bad with the good.  We're bound to write bad paragraphs along with good ones.  That's the eternal law.  We can get rid of those bad paragraphs later on , but first we must write them.  Otherwise we won't write anything at all .  If we try to write only the good paragraphs, we are three-quarters of the way toward paralysis.  The name that ...

This past weekend I had a wonderfully enthusiastic and intense group of students for my Oil and Wax workshop at my studio.  Here are some images of the studio cleaned up for the workshop, with some of my new work on the walls. I've been working long, long hours, almost obsessively this summer, creating a new body of work that is becoming non-objective. It's been an incredibly powerful summer of work.  I read once in the book, "A Prayer for Owen Meany " by John Irving.....and this is not a quote but a remembering...that if you stand in the way of the gods, they will go with you.  I feel like I have been swept along this summer in a wind so strong that I've had no choice but to go with it.  I'm getting ready for my show at Abbozzo Gallery in Oakville which opens October 22nd. But meanwhile it was a fabulous class here at the studio.  Much sharing and learning happened and some really exciting work was produced. We talked during the workshop about the d...