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I was in Brazil when this thread was happening, and a number of questions have also been answered in Julianne's cafe thread, but I use "studied under" to denote those teachers who have deeply influenced the way I think and paint. It is not a matter of time, I spent years studying to be a medical illustrator but the learning work was done by me, not by an instructor.
I have attended two short workshops with Richard Whitney, and several long lectures, but he has challenged me and in influenced me greatly. I am proud to say I studied under him. I've also studied under Daniel Greene, John Sanden, our own Karin Wells, currently with Allan Banks, at Atelier Lack and the Cape School in Provincetown, and most significantly, with Cedric Egeli, who has been my chief teacher/mentor. I studied with Cedric in 2 week and 4 week workshops for ten years.
It is not necessary to move to New York, or Minneapolis or elsewhere to study for 4 years at an Atelier or Art Students League, although that would be a tremendous opportunity if one could work it out. But many of us are older, have families, responsibilities, and in is impossible to make that four year commitment. But this does not mean that one can't get the training. You just must be committed to making the sacrifice to get to a top teacher a few times a year, and be disciplined to paint and learn the rest of the year. As I said earlier, I am proud to say that I have been trained within the workshop arena.
We are lucky to live in a time when most of us can expect to live into our 80's. Gail Sheehy calls this the "Age of Mastery", we are living long enough to have two careers, or a family then a career. We can live two lives. Unlike our predecessors, who had to commit at an early age to become artists so they could put in the years to become masters before dying at relatively early age, we have a little more "slush time" to realize this is our passion, and still reach our potential.
Peggy
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