The Digital World Delivers Opportunities to Study Art
When the pandemic started and most people were on some version of a lockdown, I discovered that the digital world delivered opportunities to study art. I signed up for anything I could find: free online art classes being offered through Facebook live, Instagram Live and even Zoom sessions.
I met an artist through a friend who was willing to host small informal art classes on zoom. We would all have a glass of wine together while we learned how to sketch or paint. With her I also discovered that youtube is a great place to find quick painting lessons for free. If you search 'watercolour' or 'acrylic'...and 'wave', or 'sunset', or 'tree'… you will find a number of quick lessons for skill development.
If you are interested in finding other digital lessons; Facebook has art groups you can join for free. There are free sketching groups and Friday paint nights etc. In Canada there was a group called Canadians Create that had some wonderful recorded video lessons. They started during the first of the pandemic but have wound up the group now. I feel such gratitude for the generosity of so many artists especially during the pandemic.
What I learned was that there are opportunities in our digitally connect world for creative growth. In addition to all the free opportunities, if you want to spend some money, there are artists who offer paid courses, or access to a gallery of online video lessons. Another great source for art courses are university and art colleges who offer non-credit programming. I have taken University of Saskatchewan acrylic painting classes and had a fantastic experience. These are reasonably priced and highly engaging. Also in Canada there is also a group called Boomerang (focused on retired and semi-retired Canadians) that offers art classes for a nominal fee. They have some excellent teachers.
My advice is to look for these digital opportunities to develop your own internal artist. The key is to actually paint, or draw along and experience it for yourself. We learn through doing.