May Gallery Walk Features Art & Meditation

Feast your eyes on beautiful works of art from our Art & Meditation class! This month’s Gallery Walk happens Friday, May 2, from 5:30 to 8 p.m.

Participating artists are:
Simi Berman
Krishna Maples
Barbara Baker-Bury
Lindsey Knoepfel
Beth Ann Betz
Stephanie Foy
Tom Robertson

 

(Painting by Krishna Maples)

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Meanwhile … paintings from our Subscription Art Program are on display this month at the Hooker-Dunham Theater on Main Street in Brattleboro.

Subscription Art allows you to decorate your home or office with original children’s art while you support River Gallery School’s classes and outreach programs. For more information, contact us at (802) 257-1577, or e-mail us: rgsart@sover.net.

          

 

 

Dialogue

Ric Campman, the cofounder of River Gallery School, created the Dialogue seminar, which has become one of our most popular offerings. Dialogue provides students from the school as well as interested community members with a rare opportunity for exploration of the profound journey that art represents, both for the maker and the observer. 

At each session, Dialogue leader Lisa Mendelsund presents a topic, medium or artist as a starting point for the discussion, providing generous printouts for each participant that include color copies of art and related readings.

Dialogue happens on alternate Thursday mornings at the school, and is offered free of charge. We hope you’ll join us! Please call the school for more information.

Here are some photos from a recent Dialogue:

 

      

April ARTVARK

To subscribe to our monthly newsletter, please send an e-mail to rgsart@sover.net.

WE LOVE TO HEAR ABOUT OUR ALUMNI! Please send updates to rgswfriesen@gmail.com.

 

Click here to enjoy this month’s issue:

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Annual RGS Auction Was a Smashing Success!

This year’s auction was a tremendous success! Delicious food, great company and a truly generous collection of artwork, merchandise and donated services combined to create a festive evening and a successful fundraising event for River Gallery School. Our heartfelt thanks go out to auction coordinator Kim Hartman Colligan, as well as Jane Dewey and crew, Terry Ziter, Wendy Wilson, Hiroshi Hayashi, Rob and Eliza Thomson, Carol Ross, Priscilla Cotton, Ted Colligan, Richard Hawes, Betsy Gentile, Orion Barber, and Bill Penniman, as well as the wonderful board and staff of RGS. We also thank our gracious hosts, the staff and board of the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center.

Enjoy these photos of the evening!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upcoming Workshops

Chinese Brush Painting  with Bruce Iverson 

Date: May 3

Time: 9:30 am - 4 pm

Fee:  $110. 

A doorway to the world of Asian art, this workshop is for beginning students interested in learning and using the tools and techniques of Oriental watercolor painting (Sumi-e) and Asian calligraphy. Through instructor demonstrations and hands-on brush painting projects using the “Four Treasures,” students will explore this ancient and elegant art. Participants will leave the workshop with two completed projects. Limited to 10 students   

 

Figurative Sculpture Workshop with Heidi Mario

Date/Time:  Sun, May 4, 1 pm -  4 pm      

                    Sat, May 10, 10 am – 2 pm         

                    Sat, May 17, 10 am -  2 pm

Fee:  $150 ($135 for BMAC members)  

Suitable for teens and adults; most materials included

This three-day workshop will focus on learning to model small, realistic heads with fine detail in low fire polymer clay using simple tools. Students will explore anatomy and proportion, as well as properties of Puppenfimo modeling clay. Suitable for teens and adults; most materials included. Heidi Mario is a local artist whose figurative sculptures are part of the BMAC’s IN THE ZONE show. She is deeply inspired by the long tradition of doll making from many cultural traditions. Her sculptural work, though, tends to explore a deeper level of the richness and variety of human experience – emotional, psychological, and spiritual – as it is expressed physically through the faces and forms of her small and detailed figures.  

Sequencing with Lydia Thomson

Date:  Sat, June 14

Time: 11 am – 3 pm

Fee: $60.

Sequencing is an approach to painting developed by Ric Campman at the River Gallery School. It is a way to enter the process of painting at a deep and direct level.  The intent is to keep the connection between the eye, the hand and the painting as direct and non-intellectual as possible. This workshop is recommended for both novice and experienced art-makers.  Lydia Thomson is an artist and teacher at River Gallery School.  Limited to 12 participants.

 

Life Drawing Marathon at River Gallery School 

Date: Sat, July 12

Time: 10 am – 10 pm   

Fee:  $75.

River Gallery School will be hosting a Life Drawing Marathon with RGS faculty, guest and models. Bring your own materials if you are painting; we will supply charcoal, pencils and paper for a 12-hour-long deep-dive into life drawing. It is long enough to draw yourself into a zone, long enough to get exhausted, long enough to get giddy, long enough to really start to see! Come join in the excitement and fun. Limited to 10.

Finding Sounds: A Percussion Instrument Building Workshop with Ahren Ahrenholz and So Percussion

Sat, July 19   

11 am to 3 pm

Suitable for all ages (children under 10 yrs should come with an adult)

Cost: $30 for individual, $55 for 2 in family  ($25/$45 for BMAC members)

Anything that vibrates can make a noise - and this workshop will allow us to explore just what that might lead to. Members of the musical ensemble So Percussion will join Ahren Ahrenholz to facilitate the building of instruments from simple to off-the-wall.  Ahrenholz is an artist/object maker who has long been interested in the conjunction of sculpture and sound; his intriguing large-scale assemblages are part of the In The Zone exhibit. The musicians, known for using household utensils and quirky objects as instruments, will spark ideas and share their knowledge with workshop participants.  We will use a variety of found objects  to put together any description of new noise makers. 

For more info and images of So Percussion, please go to:  http://www.vermontperformancelab.com/sopercussion.html 

 

Pastel Painting Workshop with Karen Baker

Wed, Aug 13, Thur, Aug 14, Fri, Aug 15

10 am – 3 pm

Fee: $235.

Join artist Karen Baker for three full days of expressive painting outdoors on location at selected sites around the Brattleboro area.  The workshop will emphasize conveying the essence of landscape, using a full-color palette and value contrasts. We will review the basics of plein air painting and the creative process. You will learn how to render light and shadow and create harmony and balance in artwork that reflects your unique interpretation of nature. Some experience painting in the pastel medium is necessary. Materials list provided.

Karen Baker, CPS, PSA, is an award-winning landscape and floral artist who has been teaching the art of pastel painting for over 15 years. She is a member of many art groups, including the Vermont Pastel Society.  

Please call River Gallery School at (802) 257-1577 with any questions or to enroll.

You can also email us at rgsart@sover.net.   

Our website -www.rivergalleryschool.org

Children’s art on display this month

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

River Gallery School’s children’s art show has made its spring appearance! Featuring the work of students from tots to teens, this show is an eagerly awaited opportunity for our youngest artists to display their work to family, friends and the community.

A wide, exuberant range of artwork is on display. “There are so many styles to learn about, so many things to see,” said one student. “I like how you can choose to do whatever you want once you’re in the studio.”

Barbara Merfeld Campman, director of the children’s programs, said, “We give children time to think, to follow the thread. We support their vision and trust their choices.”

 

 

Welcome to our new blog!

Thank you for stopping by the RGS blog. We hope you will come by often to keep posted on the people, events — and artwork — that make River Gallery School special.

(Thanks to adult student Sandy Sears for this beautiful artwork.)

We’ve Launched Our Monthly Newsletter!

ARTVARK will now be a monthly publication, so we can keep you up to date on classes, workshops, exhibitions and events at RGS. To add your name to our mailing list, please send an e-mail to Wendy Friesen, our development director: rgswfriesen@gmail.com.