Tara Finlay gave you 1 free month of Skillshare

7

Classes

2,845

Students

Hi! I'm Tara. I'm an artist and instructor, living in southern Maine. I've been making art and jewelry for 20 years, and I have been teaching arts and crafts since 2015. From my career as an IT instructor, I have learned to combine the creative with the technical and to explain those technicalities to absolute beginners.

I firmly believe art/creativity is learned, not some innate thing you are born with. By understanding the reasons behind artistic decisions, and by planning your work, and with practice, you will achieve artistic growth. If you have tried to make art on your own and you were not successful, it's very likely that with  guidance and study, you can achieve your goals. 

I've made it my job to explore various media and techniques, and to figure out the logical order of steps necessary to create a successful artwork. Success to me means creating something I like. If other people like it, that's great too. But I make art for myself.  Now, more than ever, we need beauty in our lives, and art-making can be a meditative practice that provides a type of comfort and escape that nourishes your soul.

NEW JEWELRY CLASS is now live! 

 Learn to make a cohesive collection of jewelry. In this class I also cover a new tool, the jump ring opener, a new type of ear wire, lever back ear wires, and I dedicate a video to buying beads online.

Every year, I make Christmas Spiders to give as gifts - what is a Christmas Spider? To find out, watch the intro where I read The Legend of The Christmas Spider!

Beginner Jewelry Part 2: Connecting Wire-wrapped Loops to make a Tassel Necklace, with a special bonus earring video. Even if tassel necklaces aren't your jam, I provide a number of ideas for other things you can do with these skills.

Drawing on my background as a tech instructor, I have just released the first in a series of classes designed to help people who are perhaps a bit uncomfortable with technology but really want to make Procreate art.  My hope is that by learning how to navigate the Procreate app, and what the basic tools and functions are, you will then be better prepared to take Procreate art classes here on Skillshare with more confidence. You can find that class below:

Procreate for Beginners: Working with Files, Stacks, and Labels

I'm a recovering perfectionist. I learned that if I want to succeed with my art, I need to let go of perfection and embrace "mistakes" for what they are: opportunities to learn. I love to learn!

My first Skillshare class, Repurpose Old Acrylic Art into an Abstract Floral, grew out of a "mistake" painting. There was nothing wrong with the painting, except I didn't like it. I decided to paint something completely different on top of it and I liked the result so much, I chose it for my first online class. 

My second class, Beginner Jewelry: Mastering Wire-wrapped Loops is my most popular class to date. I have more jewelry classes planned so if you would like to Learn to make jewelry with me, start here!

In Live Edge Resin Ocean Painting, I break down the steps for using 2-part epoxy resin to create a beautiful ocean on a piece of live edge wood. Live edge just means the bark is still on the wood.

I have a lot of ideas for future classes which I will list further down on the page.

When I'm not creating or teaching, I love coffee, baking, coffee, recipe development, stand up paddle boarding, and hanging out with Fuzz McGee:

"Paint me like one of your French girls, Jack."

Don't forget to follow me on Skillshare so you get updated when I release a new class. Please feel free to contact me any time with questions or suggestions. Thank you for stopping by!