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.
Studio Art Classes & Workshops
Jepson Center, unless otherwise noted
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How to Gilded Frames
Instructor: Belinda McLain
Saturday and Sunday, April 6 & 7 | 10am-5pm
Members $450; Non-Members $475 (Includes $300 supply kit)
Two-day traditional water gilding workshop: Students will be guided through preparation of the substrate, the making and application of traditional gesso and bole, laying gold leaf, burnishing the leaf and creating a patina. Discussions will cover methods and materials, how they work, why they work and ways of achieving varying end results.
Belinda McLain, a frame maker by trade for over 20 years, provides conservation of gilded antiques and period frame restoration as well as new designs and reproductions of period frames. She created the gilded frames on Shannon’s portrait of George Hitchcock and Alfred’s Smith’s Luncheon Under the Trees.
Sketch-Booking is Hip!
Instructor: Kip Bradley
Wednesdays, April 10-May 29 | 12-1 class time and 1-5pm open sketch time
Members $95; Non-members $120
The more technology is integrated in to our lives, the cooler low-tech activities like sketch-booking become. It’s time to enjoy the simplicity, the growth, and the delight that comes from sketching. This 8 week class will introduce you to keeping a sketchbook, get you beyond any hesitation, and assist in developing your own methods. We will initiate 4 different types of sketchbooks and explore why they are all important. Each class will introduce easy exercises that will help you to find your own unique sketching style. Learn how to sketch, draw, paint, and collage with a variety of simple techniques. Perfect for the beginner and experienced artist. Materials provided.
How to Fresco
Instructor: Sandra Fitzsimmons
Saturday, April 13 | 10 am -4 pm
Sunday, April 14 | 12-5 pm
Members $210; non-members $225
Artist Sandra Fitzsimons will teach an intensive workshop on fresco painting with an emphasis on the historical technique. This 2-day workshop will give students the skills needed to complete fresco painting for walls and portable panels. The course begins with hands-on instruction for applying plaster. Using a prototype Students will draw and paint the cartoon, transfer it to the plaster and begin painting the image. Students will learn about traditional fresco pigments by grinding, preparing and testing fresco paints and a variety of surface preparation techniques. Students will then paint the cartoon in color, as if it was the final fresco image. At the end of this workshop you will complete a portable fresco to take home with you. All materials provided.
The Great Chair
Instructor: Greg Guenther/Guenther Wood Group
Saturday, May 18 | 10 am -5 pm
Members $210; Non-Members $235
Tour the exhibitions, The Art of Seating: 200 years of American Design and Sitting in Savannah: Telfair Chairs and Sofas with Senior Curator of Decorative Arts Tania Sammons and then enter the furniture workshop of Greg Guenther at 409 East York Street for a review and analysis of lasting traditional joinery in historic wooden chair and chest construction. Gain an overview of wood as a material and the methods used in shaping components with hand tools, as was done in the 18th and 19th century. Then participate in constructing a small stool using traditional tools and techniques, gaining hands on a sense of what it really took to create the pieces in the Telfair’s collection. Greg has over 30 years of experience in creating new furniture and restoring antique pieces. His studio and work has been featured on PBS’s Antiques Road Show, HG-TV’s Modern Masters Series, and he has restored many works in the Telfair’s collection.
Materials and lunch included.
An Artist’s Portrait: A Photographic Workshop with Jerry Siegel
Instructor: Jerry Siegel
Saturday, June 22 | 10-5pm
Members $185; non-members $200
Artists become subjects in the insightful photographic portraits of Jerry Siegel. Following in the footsteps of his namesake uncle, an early collector of modern southern art, Siegel has spent more than fifteen years tracing the region’s contemporary art back to its creators, whom he captures in portraits as emotionally affecting as they are visually striking. This all- day workshop will provide students with a unique opportunity gain full insight into Jerry Siegel’s creative process, methods and opinions. Begin the day by joining the artist on a photoshoot of Savannah artist Preston Russell in his studio on Gaston St. After lunch the class will continue with a private tour of the museum exhibit with the artist, where students will discuss Siegel’s process of making a portrait and participate in hands on demonstration of single light portraiture. The class will conclude with a portfolio review and discussion of methods and processes for publishing photography books.
