Cape Breton art class encourages creativity at any age

A new art class in Cape Breton is helping beginners and self-taught artists tap into their creative side.

The eight-week course is being held in Coxheath, N.S., by instructor Nancy Chiasson, who says she first became interested in the arts when she was a child.

“My mother was a farmer from Grand Mira and they were constantly making things, so I grew up in a home where everything was homemade,” she says.

Chiasson is also involved with Visual Arts Nova Scotia and teaches in the Professional Artists In The Schools (PAINTS) program.

“In our adult program, we learned last week about single-point perspective and how (Vincent) Van Gogh used that in his drawings, and I showed a painting of a practice that I did on that, and it really helps open them up to seeing that their sketchbook is a place of exploration – it’s not a place of perfect art right away,” she says.

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Chiasson also says she finds people are afraid to ruin their new, pristine sketchbooks when first starting her classes.

“So I try to get them into that area too. Let’s wreck this as we learn the fundaments of art,” she says.

One of the students in the adult art program is Cori Elter. She says the foundations she’s learning from Chiasson are helping her explore her creativity.

“It makes me less afraid to put something on the page when I feel like I’m using some technical abilities that I wouldn’t naturally have found on my own. I like to be creative, I enjoy it. I wasn’t really born with natural talent, so I have to go out of my way to find people to inspire me, or to learn from,” she says.

“(I’m) so fortunate to be in a place where I can spend a lot more time doing the things that I love.”

More information on Chiasson’s art classes can be found on her Facebook page.

For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page.