By James Taylor
For The Salisbury Post
It is always gratifying for an artist to be noticed for art and to win prizes for artwork out here in the trenches of the art world, a world where spending hard-earned dollars on art supplies and then devoting many hours creating art seems less than prudent. It is really special when a prize is shared by both art instructor and student. Shared prizes inform each artist: something is working here!
It was just such a moment Thursday evening at the Carolina Artist Exhibition at the Salisbury Civic Center when Carolyn Blackman, oil painter, and I shared the second prize in the oil/acrylic category.
Carolyn has been a student at my Art is What I Do workshops since last summer. She arrived at my workshop an accomplished painter and jumped into re-examination of the painting process and drawing skills. She began to look harder at how a picture works before she even picked up a brush and became comfortable with a range of new oil painting skills. Carolyn painted an oil on canvas, ëlacus in montibusí (lake in the mountains) mostly in the Wednesday Oil Painting Atelier (atelier is a French word that means ěworkshopî) at my Contemporary Realism Studio in downtown Salisbury.
Carolyn has worked very hard at drawing, concept and paint handling, moving far into her painting journey where she continues to grow exponentially each week at the atelier. I have been painting for 50 years and most basic to being an artist or an instructor is to be humble, open to ideas and pictures. No matter how long you have been painting, the artist is still just learning how to paint, both challenged and inspired by the art in each canvas, his or hers, mine or someone elseís. My task is simply to inspire the student and viewers, to always be looking for images in everyday life and encouraging all time travelers to find new insights into our world through art. Carolyn always embraced this challenge, and now I am inspired as a painter, gratified to have contributed to her unique insights in our Wednesday oil painting atelier.

If you are interested in the Wednesday Oil Painting Atelier and would like information about prices and schedules, call me at 704-245-6456 or send me an email at crstudioworks@gmail.com.