Artful Inspiration!
Never too old to be inspired!
Inspiration is what keeps us young and creative. Without it aging happens faster, hope is lost, dreams fade.
2024 UPDATE
I am going to be 82 next week. I started this website in 2007 and spent many hours developing its content. In recent years, because of challenging events in my life, I put this website on "auto-pilot." Nevertheless, daily requests and comments from the global community made me realize that offering free art instruction and resources has kept the website alive and well for over sixteen years.
This is what I wrote over ten years ago...I may be in the "old dog, new tricks" candidate now because I still make videos on my trusty Flip camcorder, I am typing this on the Pavilion computer I purchased over a decade ago and yes, I still have Windows 8. I have gone through several Android phones, however.
This is what I wrote here on this page over ten years ago...
"At age 74, I found it difficult to leave my old ten year old Dell computer. Easier said than done! As my work shifted to the new computer and I struggled with Windows 8, I found that many of my older programs did not work on the new computer.
This included my Kodakshare software and the Sims2, a recreational favorite of mine. And so, I ended up buying a small computer cart for the old Dell and, to date, it resides in my office along side the new HP Pavilion. I guess these days, I have the best of all possible worlds--bridging the old and the new. I have to confess that the I cannot keep up with the technological storm of I-Pads, I-Pods, WiFi, tablets, etc.
My trusty Flip camcorder has produced over one hundred art demonstration and cooking videos for my YouTube Channel.
Technology moves fast and in this day and age, I try to keep up. A recent visit to Best Buy was an eye-opener for me. Six years ago I could identify at least 80 percent of the gadgets and products there--this year, it was more like, what is that and what is that? I've been plowed under by the tech wave....
I have spent a great deal of time and effort the past seven years integrating my YouTube art and cooking videos into this website and my website lessons and pages into YouTube. I realize that a good part of my life now is on the Internet, a global relocation of my being I could never have predicted seven years ago.
It's scary to realize that as I go back to my older videos, I have brown hair instead of white, less wrinkles and thinner! The Internet has turned into my personal journal, my almanac, a faithful recording of my life. I see it as comfortably as paging through old photo albums, although I think that many of my videos have improved over the years.
And when the day is over, there's the Sims 2, ready to live in all of the houses I build for them. Oh, oh, but now the Sims 4 is there. Will I transition?
I most likely will, as I must transition with my art and my teaching art classes. I cannot be stalled out with teaching methods that I employed five or ten years ago because I want to reach all ages of students and speak to them according to their needs with a contemporary voice.
I cannot be stalled out with past techniques and skills that I employed in the past because I am continually changing. My art is organic and goes with me, grows with my hands and my brain. It changes as the world changes, in that tide of time we all swim in....
WHAT I TELL MY PAINTING STUDENTS:
My "Last Lecture:"
Lois DeWitt, Art Instructor
Learning painting from Beginning, to Intermediate to Advanced levels is a funnel-like process--a small area at first, concentrating on specific skill exercises and lessons for technique, then opening slowly to introduce more and more skills and techniques and working towards the development of a personal style.
Advanced painting is the widest part of the funnel, where the student has all of the skills and techniques at hand and begins to choose which skill and technique works best towards their personal style.
In the last lessons of Advanced Painting, the tunnel walls break away and a vista of personal growth and progress is now open to the student. For some students, this is an exciting time, as the tethers of the art instruction process fall away and they are free to do whatever they want. For other students, this can be a bit scary, as the comfort of classes is ended and they are on their own.
The migration of the student to a personal studio or work space signals a mastery of painting skills and a maturity of development which will make the student a true artist.
Do you revel in the fresh wind of freedom sweeping past you on this vast plain, or does the open space look a bit daunting? However you may feel, there is one thing that you must keep in mind--that is to always promise yourself that you will make time to paint, to be faithful to your skills and to always enjoy your art learning process.
Your Studio
Imagine yourself in a large, empty studio. There is your easel, your brushes, your palette, your canvases and your tubes of paints. The sunlight is a golden slant through the large window and outside the leaves on the trees are shimmering in a cool, summer breeze. Somewhere, a clock is ticking....
You are standing at your easel, staring at a large, blank canvas. You have done many paintings and drawings. Automatically, your hand reaches for a tube of paint. But wait...
Stand still, for a moment. Listen to the silence and let it speak to you. Now is the time for you to take full responsibility for using your creative powers. You are not alone in this big studio, however. I am in the studio also, ready to help you whenever you need some guidance.
Now, squeeze the colors out on your palette, get your container of water and your paper towels ready. Now take up a brush and paint!
I wish you a wonderful and enjoyable creative journey!
"Waiting For A Walk"
Oil painting
by Lois DeWitt
ON INSPIRATION: FROM A LECTURE BY LOIS DEWITT
Inspiration is key to creating my paintings and my poetry. How do I get inspired? Over the years I've learned to be watchful for things that inspire me.
I am quick to grab my camera and take a photograph of something that inspires me, be it a bird on the back fence or sunlight glowing on the fender of my car!
I teach students to see the world in a new way, through inspired and artistic eyes. Once you are open to inspiration, be prepared to find it in unusual places. Inspiration often connects with a part of your mind that is hidden. It is the place where dreams are born and all of your responses have been recorded since the day you were born. It is a place apart from our daily thinking and routine. It is the place where creativity lives.
Click here to learn more about how I use artful inspiration!
INSPIRATION AND FINDING THE ARTIST WITHIN YOU
Finding The Artist Within You is for those that seek to discover and invigorate their creative abilities. After over thirty years of art instruction experience I have learned that there is a large and ever-growing community of 55+ people that seek to discover and develop their creative abilities.
This is a course for you, regardless of your creative talent, age or disposition.
I wrote these lessons after years of teaching experience with the 55+ community and discovered than many, in this age group, desire becoming creative and need creative activities to invigorate their lives and strengthen their mental and physical faculties.
The emphasis is on self-discovery through simple visual exercises and verbal self-expression. Relaxing exercises and recommended readings are included with each lesson.
Groups of students can share their development with others, but individuals by themselves, can learn much from this class, as well. Your interaction, in any case, will be with me, your own personal art coach and the resources I can provide.
Why find the artist within you? Creativity can help you have a better understanding of yourself. Through the free Artist Within Lessons (the link is below) you will discover your innate creative abilities and develop your creative skills. The Lessons are not about creating “works of art," but about discovering your creative self, the artist within you, celebrating and activating that discovery.
After the Finding The Artist Within" course, you will be able to decide what creative direction you want to take, whether it is painting, drawing, collage, or printmaking. The lessons are all available to you on this website, and they are all FREE! The choice is yours!
Click here to begin the free Finding The Artist Within lessons!
Real Feedback
...I currently I'm working with a author for children's books and I'm doing some of the illustration. This has been a real challenge, but enjoying it. When I not at home my sketch pad goes with me and I'm practice on something all the time. I've taken my art more serious and have the time to do what I thought I would never be able to do and you have inspired me to make me realize a dream that I thought I wouldn't get to do in my life time. Will be sending a picture for you to look at and see where I need to do to improve. It may take a week or two, but you will hear from me. Janice
-----
I'm 60 and just getting back into art. My mother was an artist and I always wanted to be one too. I like the (acrylic) painting and I'm just finishing up the Intermediate! Never though I could paint so good! Eleanor Fuller
-----
Please send link to basic drawing lessons--enjoyed your blot painting! Thank you, Phyllis
-----
Hello Lois....In your introductory e-mail you asked about who I am. I'm retired. As I watched my triplet grandchildren drawing and creating fine looking artwork, I got to thinking about how much I had enjoyed drawing when I was about their age. My recollection is that I was pretty good but in truth probably not as good as my aging memory recalls. I do know, though, that I enjoyed it very much. So one day I sat down with paper and pencil to sketch a masterpiece only to find that all the talent I had as a teenager had been lost somewhere on my journey to senior citizenship. The desire, if not the ability, was there so I began searching the net for drawing lessons. I was surprised to find sites that actually provided free lessons. (I fully expected to pay for lessons) I was most impressed with your site so here I am....hoping to reawaken a long suppressed interest in the art of drawing.
Darrell Larson
-----
It's never to late to do art! I've been painting with water color and then did some little cards for my twelve year old niece.
Thank you for your art lessons,
Betty Jacobsen
Notes on Writing The Artist Within Lessons...
Five years ago, for a small business course at a community college I developed a financial plan for "The Artful Life Program," a series of art learning classes for 55+ students.
This offering of art classes could be installed in a community recreation center, a church basement, an instructor's house, or wherever people wanting to learn and do art could congregate.
I had to do the financials, figure out what would be needed to teach in a facility and project an income and expense sheet for its operation.
I came a way from the small business class with a good working plan for bringing art to the 55+ community. One of the classes I called "Finding The Artist Within." Based on my experience with teaching older people, the course was constructed to refresh, inspire and develop creative skills through a series of exercises. I made each project simple, fun and provocative and directed towards an end goal of helping the students choose an artful direction in painting, drawing, printmaking, or collage.
Through six lessons, students could develop their imaginative, visualizing and creative skills will working on projects that were fun for the group and not intimidating.
Over the years, I have taught "Finding The Artist Within," in in private classes as well as life-long learning programs. It remains today, one of the most popular class offerings I have!