Arts & Culture | Visual Arts | Youth Arts Journalism Initiative | COVID-19
| Facebook screenshots courtesy Renae DuHaime Matta. |
The paintbrush swirled white paint across a medium-sized canvas and brushed into semi spirals, laying the groundwork for yellow and orange that would come later in the night. The spirals were painted around like latte art at a local cafe. Renae DuHaime Matta looked up, to make sure the class was following along. From across the internet, she beamed.
Matta is one of hundreds of Connecticut artists that has gone virtual during the COVID-19 pandemic, as events continue on Facebook Live, Zoom, and Instagram. The Meriden-based artist hosts the virtual paint night called “Paint this with me!” on Facebook every Friday. The activity is part of the Facebook group “Socially Distant Fest,” which Facebook users must join before they take the class. She does so out of her home in Meriden, where she has set up a makeshift studio in relative isolation.
“I actually wanted to find a way to get people involved a little bit more ‘cause I like being able to connect with a lot of people more in general,” she said after a recent class “But especially at like, this point in the world.”
Before COVID-19, Matta used to teach live paint nights and run a photography studio (she has continued to post photos, but the work has largely transitioned from headshots and staged photoshoots to self-portraits). When the pandemic hit Connecticut, she was quick to echo public health experts and stay home, going so far as to create a socially distanced portrait of herself with a photoshopped respirator mask, gloves, and cleaning supplies.
She set up a home studio and began navigating a virtual world. Because she had been teaching in-person paint nights, she turned to leftover materials to help teach the class digitally. She also started thinking about the best ways to take the program online.
“I took a lot of the comments from when I used to do professional paint nights in person,” she said. Before COVID-19, several of her students had noted that she was a very fast painter. Now, when she is doing a paint-along livestream, she sets up double cameras on her phone and laptop “so I can make sure people can catch up with me.”
On a recent Friday, Matta walked viewers through painting a mandala, the geometric figure representing the universe in Hindu and Buddhist symbolism. While she was painting, the colors seemed to pulse and swirl on the canvas, even separated through a screen. At points, she held the canvas up and pulled it closer, to give viewers a better look at the work.
Matta took her time while painting, stopping intermittently to gently guide the viewer on different techniques and how they could even paint different shapes and proportions for their mandalas. Becky Fuller, a regular attendee and longtime friend of Matta’s, praised her approach.
“What I loved about the paint night is how well Renae explained the process—she was clear and concise,” Fuller said. “ She also did a phenomenal job making sure that her pace worked for everyone and was willing to slow down if she needed to. She is a great instructor!”
This piece comes to the Arts Paper through the third annual Youth Arts Journalism Initiative (YAJI), a program of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven. This year, YAJI has gone virtual. Read more about the program here or by checking out the"YAJI" tag.