This workshop begins with a slide-and-poster-talk introduction to works by Edgar Degas from the VMFA Paul Mellon Collection. Students create Degas-inspired drawings that they transfer to print blocks. They make relief cuts from the transferred drawings using block printing gouges and produce hand-rubbed black ink prints on colored stock.
This workshop begins with I Spy with My Artist’s Eye, a warm-up game that helps students see the world of nature through their “artist eyes.” Through this exercise, students learn to identify an “artist’s alphabet” of the elements and shapes found in nature. (A poster serves as a quick reference during the sessions.) Once the students have begun to use their “artist eyes,” they explore Herbert Haseltine’s animal sculptures through slides and photographs. Inspired by his work, they create an animal using the “animal alphabet.” These drawings are transferred to watercolor paper and painted with watercolors and oil pastels using a resist technique. The finished work is mounted on a brightly colored card stock, which “frames” the piece. A dramatic finish (optional) is provided as the students use colored paper clips to join the squares to form a paper quilt.
In this workshop, students study the paintings of George Catlin through slides and photographs. After learning about Catlin’s interest in preserving and documenting the life and culture of the North American native tribes, students explore aspects of their own lives that they would most want to document and share with another culture, as Catlin did when he visited Europe. Students create tempera paintings on cardboard that reflect what they have learned and discovered.
