Taking a Break from Life: Drawing 3
When: Thursdays 7:00 - 9:30 pm, May 13 – July 1, 2010
Instructors: Michael David & Thomas Swanston
Location: First floor gallery space under the Serenbe Photograph Center
Cost: $350 for 8 week session (includes model fees and some materials)
This hands on studio experience is designed for those with experience drawing who wish to deepen their creative expression and have fun doing it.
We will explore drawing through the use of a variety of tools, both traditional and nontraditional. Imagining the figure requires an artist to invent a believable body that holds an interior emotional reality. There will be a focus on developing visual vocabulary, distinguishing preconceptions from personal meaning. Artists will be encouraged to value the experience of genuine engagement—how one feels while painting and drawing—as the criteria for quality. Reproductions of various artists’ work will be discussed with an emphasis on visual meaning. We will do all of this in a supportive atmosphere. Discussion of studio work will be an ongoing group activity with the goal being that when you complete the course you will be excited about drawing and with a sense of direction in the development of your drawings for the future
Drawing from the model will be the ONLY tool we will use to develop a greater understanding of each of our creative processes. Participants will use perceptual skills as a point of departure but the emphasis in the class will be on experimental modes of mark making, the use of the imagination, drawing systems and technologies
Participants will extend their drawing practice by broadening their comfort level of with traditional drawing methods, by utilizing innovative techniques, experimenting with non-traditional drawing materials (consider unorthodox media) and scale shifts. We will emphasize the use of different media to expand our effort to render, at the same time to a deeper involvement of self expression.
MATERIALS LIST
Cold wax medium: one pint
Round large charcoals: one large box
Yes paste: one pint
Clay
India ink: 8 oz
Watercolor brushes: assortment that your budget allows
Various papers of heavy weights and different textures: assortment that your budget allows
Sand paper: very fine to rough sheets
Michael David
Michael David has taught at Princeton University and the Savannah College of Art And Design, and has lectured at The School of Visual Arts in New York, The New York Studio School and The Art Institute of Chicago. His paintings have been exhibited around the world, and are included in the Permanent Public Collections, of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, Houston and Denver Museums among many others. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and awards from American Academy of Arts and Letters, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Albee Foundation. www.michaeldavidartist.com
Thomas Swanston
Tom Swanston has taught at the GLCA New York Arts Program and within the University of Georgia system at Kennesaw and Gordon Colleges, and lectured at The Maryland Institute College of Art. Exhibiting regularly in galleries in Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles, Naples, New Orleans, and Santa Fe, he has had 14 solo and 46 group exhibitions, included in 8 museum exhibitions and published in over 55 industry and lifestyles magazines. He has been awarded two Ford Foundation grants, a Rubenstein Foundation grant, and been a Fellow at the Hambidge Center for Arts and Science.