I recently had a wonderful visit with Joan Brown at her SMOMA Retrospective. The show was set up chronologically and it was wonderful to see her earlier work, with heavy impasto, mature and develop into her later work that was made primarily with flatter enamel paint.
During my Junior year at Cal Berkeley I was taking a drawing class with Elmer Bischoff. He often had models for us to draw and I began drawing from the figure, primarily in black. A few weeks in to the class he told me he wanted me to to work without using any black. That made a huge difference in the quality of my work and I was able to push out of my black and white style bubble.
At the end of the class he mentioned that I should study painting with Brown. He knew I was a Junior and only Seniors and Grad students were able to get into her painting classes so he wrote a note and I ended up taking several classes with her over the next two years.
She was a dynamic teacher and most always came in to class wearing high heels and carrying a cup of coffee. She was enthusiastic about our work yet she did not hesitate to make suggestions for improvement. For more private mentoring sessions she would walk with me over to the Cafe Strada across the street and we talked about the possibility of grad school and beyond.
The images are from the show at the SFMOMA.