Abstracting The Garden II (Online Course) Fall 2024 w/ Esther Donaldson
September 2 to September 23 (Mondays), 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Eastern Time
**All sessions are live and will be recorded, students do not have to be present. All recordings will be available to students for 3 months after the final session, after 3 months the recording will be deleted.
Please check your email spam/junk folder for your Zoom invite.
Course Description
This four-week course will look at the importance of creating drawn studies and how to develop these into abstracted images based on the garden. Each week we will start with a PowerPoint looking at the work of both past and contemporary artists who are inspired by the garden. We will look at ways to push your practice forward, to take risks and create work that is exciting.
Course Outline
Week 1
We will be looking at the humble pencil and the importance of drawing to develop your language and ‘handwriting’. We will be drawing the garden looking at the character of the different plants and trees, focusing on the different leaves creating marks to relate to their character and nature.
Week 2
We will continue drawing but using coloured chalk pastels. Introducing colour to the drawn elements will help to start splitting up the image into sections whilst continuing to study the different marks that can be used to distinguish the different flora.
Week 3
We will be creating reduction monoprints using oil paint. Painting oil onto a glass plate we will then remove the oil, ( working negatively) leaving behind loose, oily images.
Week 4
Will be looking at the previous weeks’ drawings to study composition, using them as inspiration for final finished works. We will be using Acrylic and oil paint to create these.
Course Materials List
Week 1
Paper
Drawing board
Pencil 2B, 4B, 6B
cloth
Rubber
Week 2
Drawing board
Chalk pastels, coloured
Pastelmat paper or other smooth drawing paper
Week 3
Glass plate
Oil paint
Brushes
Smooth paper
Cloth for removing the paint
Week 4
Drawing abord
Paper, canvas or board
Acrylic paint, oil paint
Brushes
Solvent and containers
Mixing tray