Sharz Art Design Blog
Welcome to the Sharz Art blog — a place where we share ideas about creativity, learning and the things we discover along the way.
Our blog is about more than drawing and painting techniques. Through The Sharz Way, we explore the ideas behind how we learn, how we approach challenges, what happens when things don’t go to plan, and why creativity can be such an important part of our lives.
You’ll find thoughts from the studio, stories from teaching, creative ideas, student learning, art education and the occasional behind-the-scenes look at what happens at Sharz Art. Some posts are about art. Some are about learning. And some are simply about the things I’ve noticed after years of teaching people of all ages.
At Sharz Art, we believe creativity is about more than producing a finished artwork. It’s about exploring, experimenting, making mistakes, building skills and developing the confidence to have another go.
The blog is where we can take some of those ideas a little further.
Whether you’re a student, a parent, an artist, a teacher or simply someone who enjoys being creative, I hope you’ll find something here that makes you think, gives you an idea to try, or perhaps makes you look at learning a little differently.
Building Confidence Through Creativity.
That’s what The Sharz Way is all about.
These are our 6 latest blog posts.
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Why Struggling With Something Is Part of Getting Better
Not many people are good at something the first time they try it.
It sounds obvious, but I think we sometimes forget it.
When we’re learning something new, we can struggle with the task. It doesn’t necessarily mean we’re not capable of doing it. It usually means we haven’t worked out how to do it yet.
Take drawing a perfect circle, for example. It sounds like an easy task, but most people can’t draw a perfect circle the first time they try. There are lots of ways to get one right. I have my way of doing it. Someone else might trace around something. Someone else might use a completely different method.
There isn’t always one right way to get to the result.
And sometimes the struggle is different every time we sit down to create. What seems easy one day may be surprisingly difficult the next. That’s part of the creative learning process. We can’t always be in the creative mood. It isn’t a switch we can turn on and off.
When a student is unhappy with something they’ve drawn, I don’t just tell them what is wrong. First, I ask them what they don’t like about it. And I nearly always find that what they don’t like is different from what I was looking at.
That gives me a starting point. We can talk about what they have done well, what is already working, and then I can show them how to change the part they aren’t happy with. Sometimes seeing how to fix one small part is all it takes to move forward.
I don’t always get things right the first time either. If something isn’t working in my own artwork, it will often end up in my “continue later” pile. I’m certainly not embarrassed by my mistakes or by showing students something that hasn’t worked. It’s part of creating art, and it can open up conversations that help me understand the way a student thinks. That helps me find the best answers for their learning journey.
I teach best when I know the student well.
But I don’t think we necessarily learn from a difficult attempt by sitting there thinking, “Right, I did that wrong. Now I know exactly what to do next time.”
A lot of learning happens without us even realising it. A student might try something, decide to do something completely different, and then come back to that idea weeks or months later. Something has changed in between. They have seen more, tried more and built up experience without necessarily knowing they were doing it.
And then one day, something that was difficult becomes easier.
That happens at Sharz Art all the time. Students who once struggled with something eventually find that they can do it. Sometimes they don’t even realise how much they’ve improved until they look back.
That’s one of the things I love about teaching art.
Being bad at something isn’t the opposite of being good at it. Sometimes it’s simply where you start.
The Power of “Not Yet”
“I can’t do that.”
I hear this less often than you might think. Our students are more likely to avoid saying it outright. They might ask if they can do something easier, or choose something completely different to draw.
When that happens, I don’t expect them to work it out on their own. I offer to help. We might work on the whiteboard and draw it together, or break the picture down into shapes and start looking for those shapes. Once they can see where to start, the task often doesn’t seem quite so impossible.
And in fact, a little praise can go a long way. When they have a go, I make sure they know they’ve done well, even if their drawing isn’t exactly what they were hoping for. The important thing is that they had a go, worked through it and discovered that perhaps they could do more than they thought they could.
There is an idea from psychologist Carol Dweck’s research that I particularly like: the difference between thinking “I can’t do this” and “I can’t do this yet”.
That little word can make a difference because it leaves the door open. “I can’t” can sound like a final decision. “I can’t yet” suggests that this is where I am right now, not necessarily where I will always be.
I use the word myself all the time, particularly when I’m experimenting with something new. If something isn’t working, I might think, “I haven’t perfected it yet. I need more practice.” That doesn’t mean I’ll automatically get it right. It means I haven’t finished learning how to do it.
And that is where I think we need to be careful with the idea of “not yet”. Simply changing the words doesn’t magically make us better. “I can’t do it yet” can become a comfortable excuse if we never actually do anything differently.
The useful part comes next. What can I try? Can I break it down into smaller steps? Do I need someone to show me? Do I need more practice? Do I need some feedback? Is there another way of approaching it?
That’s what I see happen in art classes all the time. A student doesn’t suddenly become able to draw something because someone tells them to believe in themselves. They start to see the shapes. They have a go. They get some help. They make mistakes. They try again. Gradually, something that once seemed impossible becomes something they can do.
So perhaps “not yet” isn’t about convincing ourselves that we can do everything. It’s about being honest about where we are now, while leaving ourselves room to improve.
I can’t do it yet.
Now, what do I need to do next? Just push the door open a little more.
Why We Need a Break From the Routine
School holidays make for some interesting childcare arrangements, and I’m sure more than a few parents have wondered, “How come they need so much time off when I only get four weeks?”
But perhaps there is actually something we can learn from the way the school year is structured.
Routines are important. They help us get things done, learn new skills and make progress. When we practise something regularly, it becomes easier and we can start to see ourselves improving. But doing the same thing week after week without a break can also become tiring. Sometimes we simply need to step away.
I know I do. If I keep pushing without taking a break, I can get stale. I stop seeing things clearly, my brain gets foggy and sometimes I just need to step away from whatever I’m working on for a while. When I come back, things often look a little different — and usually a lot clearer.
And taking a break doesn’t mean that nothing is happening.
Think about a problem you’ve been working on that just isn’t quite right. You try again and again, but you can’t seem to work out what to do. Then you leave it alone for a while. When you come back to it, you suddenly see something you hadn’t noticed before.
Creativity works like that for me too. We don’t always have our best ideas while we are sitting down and trying very hard to have an idea — in fact, that hardly ever works for me! My ideas usually appear when I’m working on something completely different. I have to stop what I’m doing and write them down, otherwise — poof — they’re gone. I’ve learnt that my brain seems to do some of its best creative work when I’m not actually asking it to.
Sometimes a change of scenery, a good night’s sleep, a walk, a holiday or simply a few days away from a routine can give us the space to come back with fresh eyes. Stepping away doesn’t mean we’ve stopped thinking. Sometimes it gives our brains the room to think differently.
This is one of the things I love about the rhythm of school terms. There is time to learn, time to practise, time to challenge ourselves — and then there is time to stop.
The same applies to adults. We don’t stop needing breaks just because we have left school. In fact, as our lives become busier, making space to step away from our routines can become even more important.
At Sharz Art, our students sometimes come back after a break and surprise themselves with what they can do. They haven’t necessarily spent the holidays practising. They have simply had time to rest, think about things differently and come back ready to have another go. So perhaps school holidays aren’t really a break from learning after all.
Perhaps sometimes, taking a break is part of learning.
I Don’t Need Much to Make Me Happy
I’m generally happy with my life. I have a roof over my head, people around me who care about me, work that I enjoy and I’m happy with where I’m headed. What more do you need?
I think we spend a lot of time looking for what’s wrong. Lets flip the coin and start seeing what is right in our world! Celebrate some of the small things and enjoy what we have.
Look at the news. Most of what makes the headlines is bad news. Disaster, conflict, tragedy, things going wrong. I don’t watch much of it because I don’t need to fill my head with everything that’s wrong in the world.
We do it in our own lives too. We’re often looking at what we’re missing, what needs fixing, what we haven’t achieved or what someone else has that we don’t.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t improve things or deal with problems when they need dealing with. We still need to do that.
But sometimes I think we forget to notice what’s already okay.
My life isn’t perfect. Things go wrong, things annoy me and most of the time I have plenty to deal with.
But, in saying that most of the time, I’m happy.
I don’t need to keep searching for something that’s missing.
Sometimes, things are actually okay just as they are.
And I think that’s worth noticing. Don’t you!
Some Things Are Worth Keeping
I have a collection of things at the studio that I probably don’t need. But I keep them.
They’ve come from different parts of my life, and most have a story attached to them.
There’s a wine bottle with a face on the label from one of our Paint n Chat sessions. A teapot, because I’m a bit of a tea snob and really enjoy a good cuppa. A blown and painted chicken egg that reminds me of when we had chickens as pets. Then there are two big teddy bears. These are probably my favourites. They were given to my boys for their first birthdays and have been around since they were little. They’re part of the keepsakes of my life. And then there’s a collection of mugs from an office where I used to work. When the office closed, I inherited the mugs. None of these things are particularly valuable.
But they mean something to me.
And now they have another purpose. Still life is one of the easiest things to draw or paint, and when I first opened the studio, before I had built up a catalogue of source images, I started using the things I already had. I’ve continued adding bits and pieces to the collection ever since. The shapes, textures and unusual forms make great subjects. But they’re also conversation starters. Sometimes a student will recognise something similar from their own life and have their own little story to tell.
There is actually a reason we can become attached to objects from our past. Research into memory and possessions has found that meaningful objects can act as reminders of people, experiences and different parts of our lives. They’re not necessarily valuable because of what they are, but because of what they represent. So, do we need to keep these things?
Probably not.
But the real thing usually means more than a photo of it. There is something about actually holding an object from your past. Feeling it. Seeing the little marks and imperfections. Knowing that someone you loved held it, or that it was part of a particular time in your life. I think that’s part of why we keep these things. The real question isn’t whether we need them.
The real question is why we keep them.
And I think the answer is different for everyone. For me, these things have become part of my present and my future, not just reminders of my past.
I’m Quite Happy Being Me
I’m quite happy being me. That probably sounds like a very simple thing to say, but I don’t think it’s something everyone can say comfortably. I don’t mean that I think I’m perfect. Far from it.
I have plenty of things that annoy me, plenty of things I could probably do better and, like everyone, I have my good days and my not-so-good days. But I’m comfortable being me.
I’ve always trusted myself. If someone gives me an opinion, I listen. I consider it. Sometimes I might think about it for quite a while. Other times I know fairly quickly whether it has any relevance to me.
But at the end of the day, I make my own decision. That’s always been important to me. I don’t need everyone to agree with me. I don’t need everyone to understand my choices. And I certainly don’t need to change who I am to make someone else more comfortable.
I’ve come to appreciate this even more over the last nine years of running Sharz Art. One of the lovely things about working with children is that they generally don’t judge you in the same way adults do. They just accept you. I can relax around them and be myself. I think that’s one of the reasons I enjoy teaching so much.
There’s no need to put on a particular version of myself. I can just be Sharlene. I’ve also had the privilege of working with a lot of people with different needs and neurological differences, many of whom are dealing with things far more challenging than anything I’m dealing with.
That has taught me something about judging people. You simply don’t know what someone else is carrying. You don’t know what their day has been like. You don’t know what they’re dealing with when they walk through the door. And because I don’t know their whole story, I don’t think it’s my place to judge them.
I suppose the other side of that is that I’ve realised I don’t really care that much if someone judges me either. That’s their business. I’m happy being me. That doesn’t mean I don’t care what people think at all.
I care very deeply about plenty of things. I care about the people I love. I care about my students. I care about doing a good job. I care about being kind. I care about making decisions that feel right to me.
What I don’t care about is whether someone else thinks those things should matter to me. There’s a difference.
I think I’ve also become better at choosing where I put my energy. Things will always get under my skin. I’m not suddenly some zen person who floats through life without getting annoyed! But I’m learning that being angry or annoyed about things I can’t control is usually a wasted emotion.
If I don’t let all the little things annoy me, then when something genuinely does upset me, I’m much less reactive. I have a bit more space to think about it. Sometimes there’s something I can do. Sometimes there isn’t. And if there isn’t, then there’s not much point in giving it all my energy. That’s something I’m still working on, but I think I’m getting better at it.
I also think being comfortable with yourself doesn’t mean you stop listening to other people. Quite the opposite. I like hearing other people’s opinions. Someone might see something I haven’t considered. They might have a completely different perspective. They might even change my mind. I’m perfectly happy with that.
Listening doesn’t mean I have to agree. Considering someone’s opinion doesn’t mean I have to follow it. I can listen, think about it and then decide what feels right for me. I’ve always done that with my art. I’ve always created for myself. For a long time I didn’t even publicly share much of what I made. My artwork was mine, and I didn’t need anyone else to approve of it for me to enjoy creating it.
That’s still how I approach my creative work now. I’m only recently starting to share more of it, but that’s because I want to, not because I’ve suddenly decided I need other people to tell me it’s good.
I think that’s probably the biggest difference. I don’t need someone else to validate what I already know about myself. I’m Sharlene. This is who I am. Some people will like me. Some people won’t. Some people will understand my choices. Some won’t. Some people will agree with me. Some definitely won’t!
That’s okay. I’m not everyone’s cup of tea, and I’m quite comfortable with that.
I try not to judge other people, and I hope people don’t judge me. But if they do, I can’t control that. That’s their choice.
What I can control is how I behave, where I put my energy and whether I’m happy with the person I am.
And I am. I’m quite happy being me.