Artist Jan Poynter is back in her Grantham’s Landing studio to lead a group of painters who are adding to their works in progress. She coaches, studies the paintings, comments and generally encourages the small group. It’s satisfying work, she said, and different from her most recent position as art instructor on the Cunard Line ship, the Queen Victoria, that cruised the Mediterranean Sea for four weeks. She was hired to teach watercolour to vacationers for four hours a day on the days when the ship was at sea.
There was much formal dining on the high-end luxury cruise ship when evening gowns were worn, but by day while in port Poynter was happy to set out in cap and jeans to do some plein air painting at exotic locations in the Canary Islands, Spain and Italy.
It sounds glamorous. Perhaps an enviable job for an art teacher?
“It was a challenge,” Poynter said after her return in December. The students kept her hopping. She had a full group of 28 students on the first day out, and when word got around the ship that she was teaching such an interesting class, she had a wave of new artists, from beginners to more experienced, who had to be integrated with the others to make 35 in all. The first sea days were on the rough English Channel and Bay of Biscay. Poynter struggled with seasickness but managed to overcome it to teach the enthusiastic crowd.
Each participant was provided with a package of watercolours, brushes, paper, pencil and extra palette. Poynter did not have to bring all the supplies with her – a good thing, since her one suitcase held all her personal items (including a formal gown) plus her own art supplies.
“I came well prepared,” she noted. “Easy exercises for the newbies, and challenging projects (to trace and paint) for the more experienced.”
She gave demos that everyone could learn from and found a way to keep the new participants happy until they had caught up with the rest. Her own experience as a professional artist and illustrator helped. She had taught before in Mexico and was accustomed to working with travel groups, but this was the first time on a ship. The big payoff in this case was the colourful ports she visited.
“My head was spinning,” she said, “from the culture, the languages, the history of the places.” Pompeii, the ancient city frozen in time by the smothering ash of Mt. Vesuvius, was particularly moving. Poynter snapped photos and sketched constantly. Coincidentally she had just finished reading Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander, vivid tales of voyages on the old sailing ships that visited some of the same island locations, Madeira and Tenerife.
“I was already sailing the high seas even before I was asked to teach,” she recalls.
She will be sticking closer to home this spring where she gives workshops and private sessions from her studio. A weekly beginner course in Drawing and Watercolour starts on Feb. 3 and a weekend Colour Mixing workshop is on March 19 and 20. She is also preparing for a solo show at the Gibsons Public Art Gallery in November. Expect to see some paintings of Mediterranean locations at that show. See www.janpoynter.com for more about forthcoming exhibitions and classes.
