The goal of this course is to sharpen drawing ability and technique. Students will be guided through completing a single drawing from a reproduction in the Charles Bargue Drawing Course. The process will take students from the straight line block in to the end stages and subtle finishing. Occasional class exercises will allow students to practice using a variety of tools and techniques. This course is an excellent precursor to sight-size cast drawing and appropriate for all skill levels. Copies will be completed in pencil. Please bring a large 18" x 24" drawing board, HB pencil, and kneaded eraser to first class.

Enjoying doing quick paintings? Want to increase your painting speed and learn skills to critique your own work? This color study workshop will take students through 5 days of working on their alla prima and shorter study painting skills. The first day students will work on speed and value in black and white. Days two through five we will spend on one-day studies in color. Every day will be a new still life with different objects. It is highly recommended to have some drawing and painting experience, but reach out to the instructor if you have questions about your previous experience.

We will be using only oil paint and a chromatic palette for colors. Still-life objects will include glass, fruit, bones, flowers, fabric, and other colorful and neutral objects. There will be a demonstration by the instructor on Monday, June 8, from 1:00pm – 4:00pm that is open to all students. The demo will cover drawing, blocking in color, edges, and finishing a short piece. With the skills learned in the workshop we want to empower students to paint shorter works on their own and have the basic tools to critique themselves.

Demonstration only for Color Study Workshop

Bridget is excited to offer this workshop again. This workshop will prepare students to begin to tackle the fun challenge of painting outdoor landscapes on location. Get ready for a lot of information and learning. Day 1 is all about the value structure of the landscape with a focus on creating strong starts. Day 2 will focus on color. Bridget will discuss seeing color as value and organizing color temperatures to achieve various light effects. This workshop is a prerequisite to Bridget's landscape continuing study classes.

Experience our full-time program in a week-long workshop.

Students begin by drawing a plaster cast or still life in charcoal, developing their ability to render accurate proportions and value relationships. As students progress, they are introduced to the fundamentals of oil and/or pastel techniques, composition and color.

Experience our full-time program in a week-long workshop.

Life drawing is at the core of any serious program of fine arts. In the class, students draw from the figure in pencil. Each drawing is created over a period of several sessions, developing the student's eye for accurate proportions, gesture and anatomy.

Andrew Sjodin is a professional painter working in the representational tradition. Along with working as a studio artist, Andrew has also developed a dedicated practice as an instructor, teaching at his alma mater, The Atelier Studio Program of Fine Arts in Minneapolis, MN, as a core program instructor as well as traveling to teach workshops throughout the United States. Andrew brings over 15 years of painting experience and over a decade of instructional experience to his teaching.

Creating still life paintings has been a major focus of Andrew's career as an artist. His approach to painting attempts to synthesize both a visual/ intuitive as well as an academic/intellectual approach to seeing color, developing form, and telling story. In this five day still life workshop Andrew will be walking students through the entire process of creating a still life—from composing the set-up, to blocking-in, to developing form and color, to finishing.

Each day of the workshop will be split into two three-hour blocks: from 9am to noon Andrew will demonstrate; from 1pm to 4pm Andrew will critique student work. On day one, the morning demo will also include a lecture covering materials, composition, color theory, paint handling, and how to think about the three stages of creating a painting: block-in, development, and finish. Throughout the remainder of the week students will be free to work on their own paintings in the morning session and/ or observe Andrew as he works alongside them. In the afternoon sessions Andrew will work around the room, critiquing individual students, helping them problem solve, and pushing them with new ideas and critical approaches to developing their work.

Drawing the figure is a practice rooted in refining observation, deepening aesthetic judgement, and cultivating a profound understanding of form, light, and movement. Among the most evocative mediums in this pursuit is sanguine—a material employed for centuries by the Old Masters to capture the warmth, vitality, and structure of the human form.

This five-day workshop will explore the principles underpinning the use of sanguine in figure drawing, focusing on its role in both refined figure drawings and serving as a preferred medium for preparatory sketches in painting. We will examine key elements necessary for a successful figure drawing, including the balance between line and mass, the sculptural quality of light and shadow, and the poetic sensibility required to render the figure with elegance and conviction. Additionally, we will study the historical applications of sanguine, its popularity as a medium for preparatory drawings, as well as its continued prominence as a medium for detailed figure drawings. Practical exercises will complement these studies, helping students develop a disciplined and methodical approach to drawing.

Students will work from a live model, progressing from gesture studies to fully realized drawing. Emphasis will be placed on anatomical accuracy, proportion, and a sensitivity to the unique qualities of sanguine as a medium. By the end of the workshop, students will have achieved technical proficiency and developed a deeper understanding of the emotional depth and expressive power that sanguine brings to figure drawing.

The workshop begins with a lecture on the history and development of the academic style, with a focus on the role of sanguine. We will take a look at sanguine drawings by the artists who popularised the material—Tiepolo, Poussin, Watteau, and Rubens. This will be followed by demonstrations on fundamental figure drawing principles and the sight-size method in pencil. Finally, students will be introduced to the unique medium of sanguine, which will be provided for their use.