Adult Programs | Classical Atelier
An Atelier devoted to Classical Art Training
Instructor: Juliette Aristides
Monday - Friday, 9:30am to 4:30pm
September 14 - June 25 [35 weeks]
AT0909: 2009-2010 annual tuition: $6,930
The Gage Classical Atelier program, based on the teaching methods of the nineteenth-century Academic tradition, offers the opportunity to study classical drawing and painting techniques with master artist, Juliette Aristides. Information is presented in a variety of formats intended to enable students of all levels to easily grasp even the most difficult concepts.
Intended for long-term students, the Classical Atelier curriculum is designed to provide fundamental drawing and painting skills with a strong emphasis placed on accurate observation of proportion, shape, tonal value and color. You work through the atelier's curriculum in a step-by-step progression. As you acquire each skill, new and more challenging projects are assigned. Classical Atelier students are also encouraged to take additional classes in perspective, anatomy, composition, painting techniques and color theory. Then, with the help of the instructor, you put it all together achieving a high degree of skill in observation, theory and craft.
Instructor: Juliette Aristides
The Academic Method
During the first year of the atelier, you are immersed in the academic method of drawing. You learn how to sight and measure the subject in order to reproduce it accurately. Exercises are designed to improve drawing skills, with an emphasis on contour, proportion, gesture, anatomy, modeling and the shape of light and shadow.
Once you have acquired the requisite drawing skills, you learn the art and science of painting. Painting projects are designed for the beginning painting student. Emphasis is on drawing accuracy, handling the paint and the careful observation of light and shadow. You go on to use a limited and then full palette while completing increasingly complex projects in cast and still-life painting.
During the first year of the atelier, you are immersed in the academic method of drawing. You learn how to sight and measure the subject in order to reproduce it accurately. Exercises are designed to improve drawing skills, with an emphasis on contour, proportion, gesture, anatomy, modeling and the shape of light and shadow.
Once you have acquired the requisite drawing skills, you learn the art and science of painting. Painting projects are designed for the beginning painting student. Emphasis is on drawing accuracy, handling the paint and the careful observation of light and shadow. You go on to use a limited and then full palette while completing increasingly complex projects in cast and still-life painting.
- As a Classical Atelier student, you are expected to attend on a daily basis, six hours a day, five days a week. Atelier instructor, Juliette Aristides, attends the studio twice a week to carefully monitor your progress by providing individual critiques, facilitating peer critiques, leading group discussions and demonstrating concepts.
- First-time Atelier students can expect to draw exclusively for the first year unless special plans have been made.
- New students are strongly encouraged to enroll in the evening Analytical Drawing class, which covers the design systems employed in the Classical Atelier program.
- New students must complete one successful cast drawing and cast painting before moving on to still-life work.
- In addition to classroom work, there are reading assignments and occasional take-home projects.
- During the year, in addition to the Atelier instruction, you are encouraged to attend lectures at the Academy in art history, anatomy, historic methods and materials as well as technical demonstrations. You are encouraged to discuss requests for additional areas of study to your instructor.
Atelier Student: Michael Hoppe
Curriculum Progression
It was common practice in the nineteenth-century academies to prove one's ability to draw in general before being allowed into the life-drawing room. Students began by copying lithographs or engravings to learn technique and aesthetics. When found competent in copying, students would graduate to drawing from the antique. Drawing these plaster casts, students learned directly from great works of sculpture, the aesthetic translation necessary to transform life into a work of art. Only then would the novice be allowed to join the life-drawing room where all the experience gained in copying masters would pay off in tackling the complexity of real life. Everyone in the class had a similar experience, creating a common language and high level of competency from the beginning of the artists' training.
It was common practice in the nineteenth-century academies to prove one's ability to draw in general before being allowed into the life-drawing room. Students began by copying lithographs or engravings to learn technique and aesthetics. When found competent in copying, students would graduate to drawing from the antique. Drawing these plaster casts, students learned directly from great works of sculpture, the aesthetic translation necessary to transform life into a work of art. Only then would the novice be allowed to join the life-drawing room where all the experience gained in copying masters would pay off in tackling the complexity of real life. Everyone in the class had a similar experience, creating a common language and high level of competency from the beginning of the artists' training.
Atelier Student: David Dwyer
Cast Drawing
Cast drawing is a way of learning the design systems found in the art of the ancient world through emulation. Atelier students work from classical statuary under unchanging light conditions. The light and cast set-up is designed to enhance form and clarify value relationships, to gain rendering skills and a command of the materials.
Reading: The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed
Cast drawing is a way of learning the design systems found in the art of the ancient world through emulation. Atelier students work from classical statuary under unchanging light conditions. The light and cast set-up is designed to enhance form and clarify value relationships, to gain rendering skills and a command of the materials.
Reading: The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed
Drawing from the cast
Cast Painting
A monochrome oil painting that carries the lessons of the cast into the medium of paint. You learn to address the problems of painting: dividing light and shade, blocking-in, handling the materials and finishing without the complication of color.
Reading: Oil Painting Techniques and Materials by Harold Speed
A monochrome oil painting that carries the lessons of the cast into the medium of paint. You learn to address the problems of painting: dividing light and shade, blocking-in, handling the materials and finishing without the complication of color.
Reading: Oil Painting Techniques and Materials by Harold Speed
Figure & Portrait Drawing
Drawing the human form is the benchmark of a classical education and forms the focal point of the Classical Atelier program. The goal is unflinching accuracy combined with a thorough knowledge of design. You are not simply copying nature, rather in the spirit of the Greeks, you seek to understand nature so thoroughly that you can reconstruct it to convey the power of life. The average figure pose is two weeks. Throughout the year you focus on creating a strong block-in, understanding the gesture, separating shadow from light and then concentrate on understanding and rendering form.
Readings: The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed
The Nude by Kenneth Clark
The Artist's Complete Guide to Figure Drawing by Anthony Ryder
Artistic Anatomy by Dr. Paul Richer, translated by Robert Beverly Hale
Figure & Portrait Painting
Unlike figure drawing, which focuses on linear relationships, figure painting explores mass and form. The goal is to become comfortable handling paint and to understand the procedures necessary to begin and finish a painting. Students complete a drawing and transfer it to a panel or canvas, then create poster studies and an underpainting in either monochromatic tones or full color. The process ends with the final layers of paint to complete an intelligent painting.
Reading: Secrets of the Old Masters by Albert Abendschein
Drawing the human form is the benchmark of a classical education and forms the focal point of the Classical Atelier program. The goal is unflinching accuracy combined with a thorough knowledge of design. You are not simply copying nature, rather in the spirit of the Greeks, you seek to understand nature so thoroughly that you can reconstruct it to convey the power of life. The average figure pose is two weeks. Throughout the year you focus on creating a strong block-in, understanding the gesture, separating shadow from light and then concentrate on understanding and rendering form.
Readings: The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed
The Nude by Kenneth Clark
The Artist's Complete Guide to Figure Drawing by Anthony Ryder
Artistic Anatomy by Dr. Paul Richer, translated by Robert Beverly Hale
Figure & Portrait Painting
Unlike figure drawing, which focuses on linear relationships, figure painting explores mass and form. The goal is to become comfortable handling paint and to understand the procedures necessary to begin and finish a painting. Students complete a drawing and transfer it to a panel or canvas, then create poster studies and an underpainting in either monochromatic tones or full color. The process ends with the final layers of paint to complete an intelligent painting.
Reading: Secrets of the Old Masters by Albert Abendschein
Atelier student: Holly Hudson
Still Life Painting
The focus of still-life painting is one of composition (design) and color. This module of the Classical Atelier begins with methods for creating thoughtful, interesting arrangements and continuing the examination of relationships between masses of value, color and intensity. Paintings progress from poster studies to highly finished areas of turning form. You are introduced to color through studying several limited palettes, including how to mix neutrals and the concept of color keying.
Reading: The Power of the Center by Rudolf Arnheim
More about Juliette Aristides.
The focus of still-life painting is one of composition (design) and color. This module of the Classical Atelier begins with methods for creating thoughtful, interesting arrangements and continuing the examination of relationships between masses of value, color and intensity. Paintings progress from poster studies to highly finished areas of turning form. You are introduced to color through studying several limited palettes, including how to mix neutrals and the concept of color keying.
Reading: The Power of the Center by Rudolf Arnheim
More about Juliette Aristides.
Atelier student: John Rizzotto