Visual Art School: The end of the semester in painting class

The beginning of the semester in painting is devoted to more structured assignments - color mixing, technical training with the media, studio practice, even a lecture on the specific pigments, binders, different oil medium recipes and their properties, and of course, color theory. The idea is to give each student a visual vocabulary, or, a set of tools, if you will. My attempt is to take the "mystique" out of painting - to give my students an empowering sense, that they can work through problems and make things happen in a specific manner. I say to them often that I want to them to MAKE things happen (or, even if they don't have a clear sense of what will work, I encourage them to work through the POSSIBILITIES of what can happen), instead of hoping that they do. The first assignments are geared towards having an "organized series of states of mind," as Robert Henri says. I want them to know that the mystique around painting is a ... fraud. The mystery and wonder should be present in the reading of the image, inevitably, but not in the work that leads up to that moment. During class, I often present to them a body of images from an artist, so that they realize that the process of working, the mastery of media, drawing, organization, etc. is the secret, that there inevitably is no ONE resolution to the situation, but that it is a growth on the part of the artist, based on a sustained work ethic. If you get an email from me, you'll see a quote from Chuck Close that states that you should not be waiting for "the clouds to part and for inspiration to come." He states that "work is your salvation." The first two assignments are geared towards each student seeing that affect on their own work. Towards the end of the semester, I can see that mastery and strong sense of where they want to go in each of my students. For the final assignment, they must first complete a series of three drawings from any subject matter that they can observe, and then to complete a larger format painting using these drawings as their source. I feel that, again, the working through of problems that the drawing process accomplishes empowers them to be able to manipulate the media so that they can communicate what they want to the viewer.