Adult Classes
Adult studio classes are tailored to reinforce museum exhibition themes and/or concepts. Filling a niche in the community, studio classes offer a nurturing, creative environment and provide a wonderful opportunity to advance your artistic talents. All classes and workshops are at the Jepson Center unless otherwise noted. Contact Kip Bradley for more information at bradleyk@telfair.org.
Drawing for All Levels
Wednesdays, February 6 – March 13 | 11am–1pm
Members $175 / non-members $195
Instructor: Mickey Boisvert
This class is for students seeking to advance their observational drawing skills. Each week we will focus on fine-tuned looking and seeking, perspective, composition, drawing mass not just line, and use of the full value range. A still life or model will be provided to encourage students to draw from life, and handouts will offer important reminders for good drawing practices.
Experienced artists: Refresh your fundamentals.
Beginners: Learn techniques that will broaden your skills and improve your drawing confidence.
Returning students: There’s always more to learn – enroll again to elevate your drawing to the next level! With solid fundamentals, you can draw anything!
Sketch-Booking, Observational Painting, and Drawing Foundations
Tuesdays, March 5 – April 23 | 10am – 1 pm
Members $175 / non-members $200
Instructor: Kip Bradley
The more technology is integrated into our lives, the cooler low-tech activities like sketch-booking become. It’s time to enjoy the simplicity, growth, and delight that comes from sketching. This eight-week class will introduce you to keeping a sketchbook and assist you in developing your own methods. This class will provide a strong introduction to drawing and watercolor techniques while helping you develop the habits of incorporating sketching into your daily routine. Artists of all levels welcome.
Drawing Savannah
Wednesdays, April 3-17 | 11am – 1 pm
Members $75 / non-members $95
Instructor: Mickey Boisvert
Find challenging subjects on our doorstep! Each week, we’ll meet in the museum studio, then venture outside seeking interesting views. Students will home thier observational skills on site, and reference photos will bring drawings to a finished state in the studio. Students will learn to: plan for changing light, never underestimate the mundane subject, vary the quality of line and shading to convey atmosphere, and more.
For graphite artists: When you can draw “plein air,” no view is beyond your scope.
For painters: Remember, solid drawing skills make better paintings!
All levels welcome.
Savannah Sketchers Plein Air Group
Fridays, February 1 – May 3 | 1-4 pm
No Class March 22
Members $40 / non-members $65
Instructor: Kip Bradley
The tough part of painting isn’t always the “how to” but the sometimes just the “when.” Set aside a regular time to meet and ensure time is taken each week to create in a safe and social atmosphere. This non-instructional group will meet each week in a different location to execute paintings in plein air. Work in the media of your choice and have the opportunity to see how others work as well.
Oil Painting Class: Intro to Landscape Painting
Thursdays, March 28-April 25 | 1-4 pm
Members $175 / non-members $200
Instructor: Kip Bradley
Start with the basic materials, add the right tools and techniques, and let the painting become a lifelong passion. Learn to work in oils outdoors to create impressions of Savannah. Explore painting techniques, composition, color and creative expression in an upbeat and encouraging atmosphere. Learn brushwork, layering, applying paint to the surface, and color mixing techniques and apply them to express yourself in paint. We will be working with still life and landscapes.
Featured Artist Workshop
January 23 – 25, 2019 | 9 am–5pm
Members $650 / non-members $675
Instructor: Lori Putnam
*This workshop is currently full. Please email bradleyk@telfair.org to be placed on the waitlist.
Learn from the masters by exploring works from Monet to Matisse with one of today’s leading American Landscape painters, Lori Putnam, in this 3-day workshop. Recognized for her expressive brushwork, contemporary compositions, and intelligent use of color, Nashville, Tennessee native Lori Putnam paints small to medium-sized works en plein air and creates large paintings in her studio.
Lori believes that working both en plein air and indoors expedites an artist’s growth at lightning speed. She divides her time equally among the two, not just producing, but experimenting and stretching the bounds of creativity. Her paintings are a personal and genuine response to her subject, and she encourages and teaches her students how to do the same.
Complementing the exhibition Monet to Matisse in this unique opportunity with Lori, students will explore lessons from Impressionist and post-impressionist painters in the galleries and then apply those lessons to their own work in the studio. Lori says ”If you love working from life, even if you rarely do, you won’t believe the painting inspiration we will find all around us, and if you are wondering if you have any real creativity in you, this workshop will expose creativity you didn’t even know you had!”
Lori Putnam’s sold-out workshops are a testament to her approachable, giving nature. Learn through energetic demonstrations, individual painting time, personalized instruction, and group discussions that will promote your progress. Students will leave this workshop excited, ready to experiment, and above all, pointed toward meaningful, personal, artistic growth.
Participants will receive a free copy of Putnam’s booklet “Plein air, Right from the Start.”
While demonstrations and advice on technique will be geared toward oil painters, artists who are more comfortable working in other mediums are welcome. Plein air experience strongly recommended.
Featured Artist Workshop
Sketching Savannah’s Historic Squares
March 20-22, 2019 | 9 am–5pm
Members $450 / non-members $475
Instructor: Shari Blaukopf
*This workshop is currently full. Please email bradleyk@telfair.org to be placed on the waitlist.
Savannah is a sketcher’s paradise—22 historic squares, each one surrounded by lovingly restored homes and churches, shaded with majestic live oaks, filled with fountains and statues, and flanked by wooden benches. This three-day watercolor sketching workshop with Shari Blaukopf will help participants celebrate and capture this visual wealth, with special focus on the buildings of local master architect William Jay.
According to Blaukopf, location sketching is all about capturing the flicker of changing light and shadows, the fleeting impressions that give a plein air sketch its characteristic sense of place. A gifted instructor who teaches to the individual, Blaukopf will strengthen your sketching skills and help you express your individual style and way of seeing.
Her structured workshop will cover good value planning; establishing a well-designed composition; distilling complex scenes to their essence; mixing clean colors; capturing plays of light and shadow; and preserving whites. Each day will begin with a demonstration and conclude with a group critique. In between, participants will receive plenty of individual sketching time and personalized instruction.
This workshop is geared toward participants who have some experience in drawing, sketching and the use of watercolor.
Members $450 / non-members $475
