Last Thursday, Valentine's Day, I taught a workshop at Cambridge Art Association's Kathryn Schultz Gallery in Cambridge, MA. Embrace the Sketchbook workshop compliments the current exhibit This is How it Starts showcasing 23 artists sketchbooks. I had the honor of jurying this show (please see prior blog post). Do see this new exhibit as it is very inspiring.
For this workshop the goal was to embrace the sketchbook as an important tool in our art practice. My class description:
The sketchbook is a wonderful tool in any studio practice to improve creativity, explore ideas, stay inspired and motivated. It becomes visual diary committing to paper those ideas rattling in the right brain. We will review some master artists’ sketchbooks (most pretty messy), sketchbook options and experiment with a variety of materials from a simple pencil to markers, paint and collage. Through exercises students can engage in the process of playing as it is the beginning stage of creativity allowing more risk taking since a “finished” piece is not the goal here. At the end of the workshop artist may find some gems to explore further in their art practice.
After my demo/lecture which I tried to keep short, nine artists embraced the materials and the time to play.
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| Some of the many tools available to play with |
The results were exciting. We did a few exercises but the majority of the time the artists pushed the materials and tools, experimented and transformed the blank pages into exciting content.
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| doodling is important |
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| A collaborative product with fun results |
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| new sketches in the book |
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| creating a pile of material to play with some more |
One thing we all learned was that 3 hours were not enough. I definitely could see this as a day long workshop. Hmmm...
I wish to thank all the artists for enrolling in this workshop and for their inspiring energy and enthusiasm! Many thanks to Cambridge Art Association for the opportunity to teach this.
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