The best tip I ever received was from an instructor I spent only one day with. We called him Mr. Joe. There were about 15 of us in his class that day and we were at various stages of our painting assignment…and in very differing moods. Some of us were somewhat pleased with our paintings thus far, some were disappointed in what they had created, and a few painters were in utter despair.
This much beloved instructor knew exactly how to help all of us at the same time. Mr. Joe told us about “Priority Fix”. He had us stop working on our own paintings and then take 5 minutes to walk around the room and see what the other students had painted. After the 5 minutes he had us stand in front of him and gave us the following explanation of Priority Fix.
“Go back to your painting and stand at a distance. The very first spot your eye rests on will be the place that needs Priority Fix... the place where the painting needs your help. Your eye will not go to that sweet spot where everything you put down on the canvas is working well. You eye will go to the area where you are most needed.”
He told us to stand back from our own easels and allow ourselves to be hit over the head by the Priority Fix! All of us were seeing where our paintings needed us the most. And conversely the beginners were now aware that their canvases did have some successful areas, too. The whole studio was beaming with anticipation of the corrections we would be making.
Mr. Joe had written the words Priority Fix on a flip chart and tacked it to the bulletin board in the studio at the beginning of class. When class was over at 4pm I stayed behind. He was cleaning his palette and I stood there like sheepish teenager and asked if I could keep the large sheet of paper on which he had written Priority Fix. He told me to place it in my studio where I could see it while I painted and to keep it there until I no longer needed to be reminded of this wisdom. That was in 1989. I still have that sign. When you come to the studio I will show it to you!