We shouldn’t abandon what history can teach us

Artwork by Anya Grey

I am a student at parsons who’s considering dropping out to pursue academic oil painting.

I’ve mostly been a self-taught artist until very recently and I’m currently looking for oil painting teachers and ateliers in real life and I would love to have access to all of Old Master Academy’s resources. I feel like I have come to a point in my journey where I need guidance to improve even further.

My biggest struggle when it comes to art is time. I constantly feel like I’m in a race against time, against myself. I go through stages of painting 8-10 hours a day, and then not even touching a pencil for weeks. I am trying to change this by giving myself a more rigid schedule.

I would like to continue learning the fundamentals and discover how the materials, tools, and techniques of the old masters. I strongly believe that contemporary artists should not completely abandon the skills and knowledge of our past.

I find Old Master Academy’s in depth painting analyses to be extremely fascinating, and I would love to learn more. I’ve done my own experiments with glazing, master studies, and I’ve been reading about Flemish and Venetian techniques, but I feel like I have come to a point in my journey where I need guidance to improve even further. I strongly believe that contemporary artists should not completely abandon the skills and knowledge of our past, and I hope to set up my own atelier one day.