to a mentor: thank you

Today I found out, a month late, that an artist who inspired and encouraged me passed. In fact, he inspired countless artists through his work and his newsletter The Painters Keys.

Robert Genn was the artist who, in one of his newsletters, discussed how he mixed acrylic with matte medium to create many light layers of color. After trying it myself, it completely changed my art and pushed it to a new level. My skies would not be what they are without his suggestion.

It is amazing how much you learn from a mentor or teacher even if you never meet them and they may have no idea you exist. To think one newsletter he wrote changed the way I create in such a way that I could not imagine going back to a simpler and possibly quicker way to paint skies. Then to think of all of the teachers I have had over the years, in after school programs, at school and of course in college. To think of what they have offered me possibly without even giving it a second thought. I am deeply grateful.

So here’s to all of the teachers and mentors out there.

And here is to you, Robert Genn. Thank you.