PORT TOWNSEND — If you want to feel free, this woman has an art style for you.
“The Joy of Abstract Art,” a new class at the nonprofit Northwind Art School at Fort Worden, has immigrant painter Xin Xin as its guide.
The workshop, open to beginning to advanced artists, is offered online from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 20 — because “we need more colors to brighten up the January winter blue,” Xin said in an interview.
Enrollment in the $40 class is open now on the Courses page at https://northwindart.org.
Xin means for her students to fall in love with abstract art.
It’s liberating. It’s playful. It will brighten up your space, she promises.
“But first, Xin will discuss the rich history of abstract art, and introduce participants to what contemporary abstract painters are doing,” said Northwind Art communications manager Diane Urbani.
Xin, whose name is pronounced “sheen,” will give live painting demonstrations, and then invite participants to practice and play.
Abstract artmaking frees the mind, Xin believes: “There is no right or wrong, it’s all personal preference. Because of that, we can truly focus on the experience of creating something we love, instead of listening to the internal critic.”
As a teacher, Xin knows how to keep the energy up in an online environment. The keys, she said, are “breaks for snacks and drinks, relaxing music and great conversation around art.”
Lifetime of learning
Born in Beijing, China, Xin took her first art class at age 3, and for the next nine years, she went to a local art school every Sunday.
Not long after her 12th birthday, Xin emigrated to the United States with family.
She didn’t go to any art school, she recalled, because she didn’t know enough English.
Instead, Xin taught herself anime drawing and started an anime club at her middle school.
When it came time to choose a college major, art was not an option.
That, according to her culture, is merely a hobby.
So Xin earned a degree in communication at the University of Washington and entered the corporate world.
After some years there, she decided to travel the globe, solo, for four years.
“Traveling brought a lot of freedom and joy that I was seeking,” she said.
“Wherever I go, I visit different museums, and that opens up my view of art.”
Xin is now busy exhibiting and selling her paintings across the region.
Her abstract work titled “Full of Sparkles” is installed on utility boxes at Southcenter mall in Tukwila.
“It was such a joy to see my works in public and in large scale,” she said.
Art was and is a self-healing agent and companion, Xin added.
In her class, Xin invites participants to engage in “paint playtime.”
This, she said, is where they learn how to loosen up, express themselves and discover the ways abstract art can express things that other visual art styles do not.
“This is a chance to explore feelings and ideas in our minds and spirits, instead of in our external world,” Urbani noted.
“This art class is a way to reconnect with ourselves, and just enjoy color and freedom.”
