I am a retired university psychology professor living in London, Ontario, Canada. My wife and I have three adult children and 8 grandchildren. Ever since I was a child I knew I had some artistic ability, but I didn't get any formal art training and didn't develop my talent for many years.
A few years before I retired I started taking some evening classes in oil and acrylic painting put on by the city recreation department. There I learned the basics of painting, composition, and colour while working on still lifes, landscapes, and portraits. I enjoyed these classes and the teachers were very encouraging and positive about my ability. But I was always quite dissatisfied with my work, feeling that I was capable of achieving a higher level if I could get more personal training from a professional artist.
A few years ago I came across Matt Philleo's Youtube videos demonstrating his acrylic glazing method of portrait painting. I was immediately intrigued, and used Matt's videos to guide me in painting a portrait of one of my granddaughters. It was better than anything I'd painted before, and I sent him a picture of it. He very kindly did a video critique of my painting, noting all its strengths and pointing out areas that could be improved further. I knew this was the kind of personalized training and feedback I'd been looking for, and I quickly became a member of his all-access online school.
Since then, I have been absolutely delighted with the ongoing instruction I've received from Matt, through the numerous video courses that are available only to All-Access Students and the weekly personal critiques/demonstrations that he records for individual feedback and guidance on my own work. The quality of my paintings has improved steadily, to the point where I feel I'm painting at a professional level. So far I've been painting portraits of my grandchildren and other family members and friends, but I may start looking for commissions.
I can't say enough about how much I appreciate Matt's teaching. Besides being an amazing artist himself with an incredible eye for detail and realism, he's an exceptional teacher with an outstanding ability to share his knowledge and experience with his students. I love the way he explains so clearly the technical details of colour, lighting, texture, shading and nuances in an understandable way. Matt's knowledge of computers and technology also add to his excellence in teaching. He has perfected his own techniques for recording videos of his painting courses and has developed a method of giving feedback using Photoshop to demonstrate his glazing technique on photos of works in progress from his students. To top it all off, Matt is an extremely caring and kind person. He takes a genuine interest in each of his students and does his best to help them make progress from whatever level they're at. He has a remarkable ability to help his students see ways they can improve without making them feel criticized, always remaining positive and encouraging.
As a member of Matt's school I have also benefited from the positive support of his other students through the all-access Facebook page. They are a wonderfully supportive and caring group of fellow artists. Due to time constraints I haven't attended as many of the live weekly group sessions as I could have, but this is also a huge benefit of membership available to all his students.
A few years before I retired I started taking some evening classes in oil and acrylic painting put on by the city recreation department. There I learned the basics of painting, composition, and colour while working on still lifes, landscapes, and portraits. I enjoyed these classes and the teachers were very encouraging and positive about my ability. But I was always quite dissatisfied with my work, feeling that I was capable of achieving a higher level if I could get more personal training from a professional artist.
A few years ago I came across Matt Philleo's Youtube videos demonstrating his acrylic glazing method of portrait painting. I was immediately intrigued, and used Matt's videos to guide me in painting a portrait of one of my granddaughters. It was better than anything I'd painted before, and I sent him a picture of it. He very kindly did a video critique of my painting, noting all its strengths and pointing out areas that could be improved further. I knew this was the kind of personalized training and feedback I'd been looking for, and I quickly became a member of his all-access online school.
Since then, I have been absolutely delighted with the ongoing instruction I've received from Matt, through the numerous video courses that are available only to All-Access Students and the weekly personal critiques/demonstrations that he records for individual feedback and guidance on my own work. The quality of my paintings has improved steadily, to the point where I feel I'm painting at a professional level. So far I've been painting portraits of my grandchildren and other family members and friends, but I may start looking for commissions.
I can't say enough about how much I appreciate Matt's teaching. Besides being an amazing artist himself with an incredible eye for detail and realism, he's an exceptional teacher with an outstanding ability to share his knowledge and experience with his students. I love the way he explains so clearly the technical details of colour, lighting, texture, shading and nuances in an understandable way. Matt's knowledge of computers and technology also add to his excellence in teaching. He has perfected his own techniques for recording videos of his painting courses and has developed a method of giving feedback using Photoshop to demonstrate his glazing technique on photos of works in progress from his students. To top it all off, Matt is an extremely caring and kind person. He takes a genuine interest in each of his students and does his best to help them make progress from whatever level they're at. He has a remarkable ability to help his students see ways they can improve without making them feel criticized, always remaining positive and encouraging.
As a member of Matt's school I have also benefited from the positive support of his other students through the all-access Facebook page. They are a wonderfully supportive and caring group of fellow artists. Due to time constraints I haven't attended as many of the live weekly group sessions as I could have, but this is also a huge benefit of membership available to all his students.
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