I’ve been catching up on the Sneaky Art podcast by Nishante Jain (The Sneaky Artist) and I’ve just finished another fab episode where he chats with Suhita

One part of the conversation really caught me because they were talking about hierarchy in art - who is better than who, which medium is more ‘serious’ than the others, who has training from the ‘right’ institution or is qualified enough to be a teacher. I make no secret of the fact that I have no qualifications in art or education, and I don’t believe that disqualifies me from either creating beautiful things or teaching sessions that people can get a lot out new techniques and great creative mindset out of.

Art is subjective, go to a gallery of famous artists and you will hopefully see things you love, and probably also see things that you wonder why it’s in a gallery. The worth of something is how much one person is willing to pay for it, and it also has to be one person that sees the artwork as well! As they said in the podcast, a teacher only has to be someone who has information that you are interested in and who is capable of explaining it to you. The beautiful thing about Antiperfection art and urban sketching is that there isn’t this hierarchy - I’ll teach you something and you might not realise it but as I walk around you are all teaching me things all the time. Thanks for that!

I might have more practice than you in something, but neither of us know if I’m better at it. If you’re really excited by an idea you’ll practice it more, which is why the focus of any session I run is enjoyment I and relaxation. I’ve been doing a lot of this with my eldest recently as we like to doodle whilst waiting for appointments or on the train. It’s a lovely bonding game, super relaxed and we take it in turns to doodle, which this week turned into a pageful of penguins!

The more you can doodle, sketch, splash with your paints, the better you’ll get. Not better in the sense that there is Good Art and Bad Art, but better in the sense that the more you use your materials the more you can choose what the outcome looks like. It’s one thing doing a cool thing by mistake, HAPPY ACCIDENT high five! But if you can repeat it that’s an awesome moment where you know your skills are developing. Bigger high ten.

I’d love to hear whether you think there’s any place for hierarchy in art, or anywhere at all to be honest. In my opinion, I’d love you to teach me something any time, and I’ve seen plenty of qualified teachers who couldn’t teach at all (along with lots of amazing ones obviously!).

Hit reply and chat to meeeee :)

Cat x