Artist Nancy Scoble is teaching local adults and children the many techniques of panting at the Inner Banks Artisans’ Center.

To gain inspiration for their work, would-be artists participating in the classes go start with storytelling. During the sessions, she also has an art walk to review other paintings from classmates to gain more ideas for their next painting.

Scoble said when new students join her class, she’ll often hear them say they can’t draw a stick figure. Her humorous response: to tell them she’s not good at bowling or making biscuits—but she would be, if she practiced.

“I’ve been practicing my entire life being an artist, so I have more skills, and I know how much fun it is,” Scoble said.

Scoble said she encourages her students to try things they haven’t done before when they paint. She also encourages interaction with other class artists, bouncing ideas off one another.

“We’re not trying to set the world on fire with our art, but we are a community of support like an old fashion Quilting Bee,” Scoble said.

Scoble said she tries to cater her classes to her students’ desires. For example, last week class members told her they never have worked with watercolor — so she taught a class about watercolor painting.

“The ones who had watercolor before said, ‘I didn’t know my brush could do that,’” Scoble said. “They are learning about their skill.”

One of Scoble’s rules when she is teaching art to children is to ban the use of the color green by placing a piece of tape over the green palette.

“They think all grass is green, and if they’ve been to my house they know it’s not,” Scoble said. “I don’t give them brown. They make their own colors, they learn and problem solve.”

Scoble holds a class every Thursday from 10:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m., and every fourth Friday of the month, she hosts Art Uncorked from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. at Inner Banks Artisans’ Center.

For more information about Scoble’s classes at the Inner Banks Artisans’ Center, call the Inner Banks Artisans’ Center at 252-975-2223.