3 Moves, 2 Dogs, 1 Biz, and a degree later ...
I’m back at it folks and ready for some art talk.
Never let it be said that grass has been growing under my feet.
The last several years were a whirling blur. At the start of my blog and studio, I had newly arrived back in the States, married, figuring out life, and suddenly relocating to live in Seattle for my husband’s career all in 3 and a half short years. Maybe, we can all agree that those initial years into your 30s are a doozy ?…
I had spine health complications to cope with during this time so it’s been a heck of a time. My health journey led me to a tunnel of research and a degree in Kinesiology, Human Movement Science. As much as I am able I have healed myself. The entire experience has deepened my life. My passion for remaining well and assisting other in the busy world of health and wellness became a small business where I care for others with wellness challenges. ( see laurahausler.com) I had a few bumps in the road on the way…. I didn’t expect that I would be teaching my body to walk again in 2019 or learning about the somatic movement back in 2015. In my movement work I have woven together a beautiful wellness opportunity I hope you will visit the work at some point. The anatomy of my movement expertise was born from my experiences in life drawing. I learned that in wellness when you view patients as their own masterpieces amazing things happen!
the years of 2020 and forward were for many of us “survival modes”.
For me moving back east, being near family, and enjoying a slower rhythm have been wonderful restarts for my senses.
So…. I’m here again. remade a room into my studio, with my easel, and my drawing tools. There is a bit of natural light pouring into my small window. I hoped against the odds I’d get back to it…. and here I am. The funny thing, I’m more confident and stronger at drawing now than ever. A little older, more gracious with myself, and genuinely experiencing my work as a joy in life.
Halo, Hat, or Abstract shape
I learned a great deal from a recent self portrait. I really broke it down into 5 stages. My Method written out on the Student part of this site expands on the images you see below.
Student Work
" Whatever the soul knows how to seek it can not fail to obtain" - Margaret Fuller -
I love this quote. While we have very little control of a great many things, there is a very strong will married to the existence of creativity and exploration. I believe that when it comes to learning you very much need this strong creative will and it can take you anywhere! This is why I teach.
I wanted to add some photos of two student works to the teaching blog. When I am teaching I get almost giddy as I see students beginning to nail down the process of seeing like an artist. Drawing from life is huge shift in thinking and seeing. I can't help but cheer in my mind when my students are gaining ground in their understanding. These two images were exciting to me because of the efficiency and questioning these students used to create their block ins. Like I said, I was definitely cheering in my mind as they were drawing. The word proud won't do justice to the effort I see growing in the studio. Bravo everyone.
Efficiency and visual experience of a form achieved in a block achieved by a young artist Rileigh.
The middle stage of his drawing, by a young student Weston, who is beginning to merge this solid construction with value and mass.
References for Students
Progression of Structure and Value
Hopefully the below slide show will speak for itself. Please stop and review previous pictures and flip forward to the proceeding ones, and go back and forth as much as you can. I placing these images here for the ability for student to see works in progress.
A Great Reminder...
I'm teaching more lately and the more I teach the more I realize students need a deep hope and encouragement in their efforts in order to practice and progress. As an early student and still today hope has been my most difficult hurdle in finding my voice, learning my most desired skills, and putting them into practice. Artists can be their own toughest critic, and this isn't a bad thing since we need to have endurance to carry ourselves as far as we want our work to go. Today I wanted to share this inspiring link of a teacher I have worked with who kept a record of his 9 year drawing journey and has given all of us the grace of understanding that time, passion, and practice do pay off!
If I may introduce, Mr. Jonathan Hardesty's 9 year journey video: https://vimeo.com/29510470
Keep it up everyone!
Cheers
Teaching Update : Private Lessons Available
April's workshop was a lot of fun. Workshops are the most fun when I can sense I am bending minds and helping folks really work through artistic questions. We had a great group at the Atelier with varying degrees of experience. I was thrilled with how everyone dove in and started really considering all the questions that came up for them. Everyone really digested the sight-size approach I was suggesting they take on for the weekend, and I was thrilled to see people experience every stage of cast drawing! This was a major bonus for the group because they will have the ability to attempt the entire process at a steady pace in their home studios and refine their own technique.
As a result of this groups interests I am going to be available for private instruction at the Townsend Atelier. I am excited about the opportunity to help artists expand certain parts of their drawing practice, teach them a more visual approach, or help them buff up a portfolio for up coming applications to exhibtions or Art Schools. These are just a few suggestions. Students should be a minimum age of 15 (and have a high interest in drawing) ranging to Adults.
Click sign up for lessons to get started
Please Contact me directly to coordinate scheduling. I am teaching primarily on Wednesdays and can make room accordingly through June and July . Lessons will be available all year.
Townsend Atelier is not responsible for scheduling.
Below is a caption from a student at the workshop who made it really far in the process ! I was thrilled to see her work through these drawing questions! Thanks for coming Amy wetmore, and for sharing on Facebook.
Below I'm indicating areas to work on in this students drawing .
A little NEWS
Click the image above to read the recent Nooga.com Interview about the workshop.
TOWNSEND ATELIER WORKSHOP
APRIL 18 - 19
(9 AM - 4 PM SAT / 10 am - 4 pm SUN.)
Workshop in April
APRIL 18 9 am to 4 pm - APRIL 19 10 am to 4 pm
Take a weekend to dedicate yourself to drawing and looking intensely using a cast to raise the level of your visual awareness when you're working from life.
Spots will be limited so click HERE to sign up . For questions call (423) 266-2712 / email: info@townsendatelier.com
Below is another beginning cast drawing
Upcoming Event
Main x24 Event
Instructor Portfolio Sale at Townsend Atelier
I am thrilled to be selling along side these fabulous artists at the Atelier. I will have large original drawings, pencil sketches, and a few oil sketches, for sale. Come check out the event .
see you soon
-Laura-
Recent Drawing Workshop & featured photo
This Workshop was a such a pleasure because of a great group of artists who truly took on the challenge of training their hands and eye. They each arrived with immense focus and we too the jump head first into some 19th century drawing history of various types and styles, learned gestural drawing from life, and then finally the copies of Bargue using Sight-Size. We even had some great local featuring of the Atelier in the photo below for the local Chattanooga PULSE magazine. (* I'm on the left student with me to the right is examining her marks she made from her position further away from easel as she is learning Sight-Size drawing)
These students are my heros, because...the way the Workshop is structured we were only covering the introduction of how to use Sight-Size tools through copying Charles Bargue's drawings. In the 2nd half of the workshop I intended to utilize the initial steps of Sight-Size to teach creating a drawing from life, but these folks asked me to help them take on the challenge of continuing to refine their Bargue copies!
I was delighted by their willingness to challenge their typical way of discerning form and then translate it to paper with this specific approach. They fought through all of the typical mental battles that come with learning a new way of seeing and I am happy to report all of them showed immense progress. The workshop consisted of a mixed level of experience. Some had been drawing for years, several people had drawn very little in their life, and I loved that I had a software designer looking to understand optical fidelity at a deeper level!
This post is a thank you to the students for attending and for the honor of welcoming me into your intellectual & artistic space to offer a new way to comprehend and depict form.
Well done crew! And Thank you Townsend Atelier!
Looking forward to the next one. Perspective dates and requests can be made on my Contact form Page.
- Laura -
Youth Workshop was a hit!
“The activity of creating harmonious visual relationships is what differentiates artistic drawing from “copying” reality. The artist is not copying the subject, but rather making a beautiful, harmonious image using the subject as a reference. ”
I love this quote. It points out that not only is what an artist obverses beautiful to them, but the connectivity between the artist and the subject involves an even deeper level of observation. The connectivity in this deep observation has the ability to put aside the beauty of the whole and allows the artist to recognize all the details that create the harmony of edges and interiors of a drawing.
The group I worked with for this workshop had a great energy. The sequence of starting with gesture drawing was very suitable for them. I always love warming up to drawing this way. There is so much that the eye is taking in and it almost feels required that you work quickly. As the mind and hand warm up and the eyes begin to digest and retain information at a more average rate for each artist you can see the students settling into their groove.
We talked together as we looked at drawings in-between their hour of gesture drawing. The Pause (Pow-za) (which is very fun to say with an italian accent) had them on their toes ready to get back to their easels. We reviewed drawings from my colleagues at the FAA (Tanvi Pathari and Stephen Bauman, whose work I very much admire) a few of my own studies, and then focused on examples of drawings from history: Bargue, Bridgeman, Vanderpool, and Speed.
This moment of the workshop was very important to me in the organization of the workshop. I love to share these drawings and the sight size technique from FAA because through 7 years of studying no one in America ever talked about these draftsman because of the large post-modern dilemma regarding most of Art and Academia .
Delightfully, in Florence it seemed hard to find anyone talking about other drawings besides the draftsman named above and masters of the 19th century. The amount of visual language present in drawings from this era is enormously exciting for the mind!
At FAA Due to the everyday training of your eye (and your mind) at your easel , your eyes learn to limit and be very selective with visual information as your draw. For example, learning to avoid solid contouring (without being very detailed of how it changes if you do have to use an entire contour) and how to present with your hand the true information your eye perceives, not simply what you know yourself to be drawing. For myself , I know that when I was lose my ability to perceive and draw what my eyes are experiencing and begin to draw what I "know" I'm looking at , I have usually reached a point of exhaustion. Taking a 10 min break will usually resolve the fatigue of the eye and starting fresh keeps the drawing in good standing. As an artist you can never get bored of seeing and thinking with your eyes only as you work, because there will always be your individual way of presenting this information and it feels new to your mind every time! There are different patterns to get the puzzle to fit, and its just familiar enough ,as you weave your way through what your seeing, that with each subject you attempt you find a new journey.
Applying, the above explanation of perception to the class I tacked on drawing with straight lines as an initial start ( called a Block-in) and introduced proportions to challenge the students to maintain a particular visual effect in the beginning phase of drawing.
They had laser focus, and their brains had digested the images and conversation beautifully. To help them accomplish this challenge I had given each student a copy of a Bargue drawing. These copies helped them to feel sight-size drawing in their eye, hand, and mind. The method requires that you observe from a specific distance, memorize your desired mark, and then place that mark on the paper. The proportions on the drawing are determined by a plumb line held horizontally. For these students the goal was to help them develop discipline in accuracy without being frozen by the obsession of getting it right. Getting it right takes an immense amount of practice. The goal was to provide a tool and help them practice. By not over emphasizing perfection, letting them experiment, and then keeping them honest in their work, I found they were doing very well! It was immensely gratifying to help them learn to know their own artist dialog and dive in!!!
Another Pausa served as an introduction to more materials. We were shifting from compressed charcoal to pencil (with the Bargues) then to Nitram Charocoal( for life drawing again) . ( see lower in the blog to see the materials list). I gave each student a hand made sander and they purchased Nitram from the Atelier.
After spending the remaining part of day 1 on copying the Bargues (this was done with pencil) and the start of the 2nd day, we then took all the principles introduced (gesture,material, visual approach) and placed them into practice with drawing from life again. The students had the familiarity of the still life they had been working on during their initial experience of the gesture work. They began their final study on heavier quality paper with Nirtram Charcoal for their sight-size drawings from life!
I was excited to see the results of these students. They had digested and transferred a great deal of information into their final studies. I had one student who I advanced to a cast for the last part of the final day. She did so beautifully that she bought a cast from the Atelier! Needless to say there were questions and struggles, but that was the idea. Having the questions arise when you are in the community of a group is a lovely thing.
By demand, I am teaching a second workshop Sept. 13th and 14th
Adults and young adults are welcome. I am thrilled to be returning to the studio. And I hope to see some of you readers there.
Laura
Fun to Find
There are locations and spaces our minds never forget. I suppose I should add people to that tendency as well. It's wonderful to have memories of transitions and change. Yesterday I found this image on the Florence Academy's website and found myself in the left corner ! This is the the studio of the FAA on Via Della Casine, known as Casine. This place is the initial experience of every student and its known as the 1st year building. The skylights and small studios make it the working hub for figure drawing training and eye training that begins with copying drawings by Charles Bargue. (see the Florence Academy tab on my website)
This image is from the evening drawing hours and the well known Simona Dolci is the teacher present, in the far right of the foreground , for that evenings session. Its important to remember the hours and dedication that took place in this building for me. Its the type of focus and attention that rarely is generated elsewhere. For me, I watched my drawing skill evolved in a remarkable way in this place. And my hope is to return for the painting portion of the program. I completed my first year there and continued training on my own once I was hone in The States. Once the routine of 3 a day , 3 hours sessions in your system, its tough to do anything else ;) .
This small post is perhaps a Thank you to the FAA for their dedication to training and excellence and the inspiring people that make up its core.
“light seen is light from the past
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“Whatever the soul knows how to seek, it cannot fail to obtain - ”
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A Person should hear a little music, read a little poetry and see a fine picture every day in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.
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Announcements
Making work, experiencing your work, and teaching your work is about as good as it gets for an Artist. Im thrilled to be able to work along side some of the best artists in Chattanooga at the Townsend Atelier this summer.
Learning your journey as an artist is an adventure. Making work allows artists to use their sensitivities of observation to give breath to their own experiences.
At this workshop, I am excited about facilitating a dialog between each artist and their work. The Atelier is a gorgeous space to begin to settle into your observational skills and translate them into a drawing.
When I attended the Florence Academy, my aim was to learn so that I could pass on what I gleaned. It is my privilege to offer to the students who sign up all that I can. If you have any questions please use the contact page at the top of the site to let me in on your questions, concerns, or just sheer excitement!
arrivederci! (see you soon!)
Laura
Process Blog
In these post I offer a breif peak into my studio and process. This is part of sharing my teaching and contributing to a collective knowledge I believe should be accessible to everyone.