In this two-day plein-air sculpture workshop, students will learn how to sculpt directly from nature in bas-relief.

In this course, artists will work outdoors to select their subject materials, which may range from individual botanicals such as florals, branches, and leaves, to multi-plant arrangements and landscape composition.

Working beside their selection, students will learn how to sculpt in low-relief by sketching their subject directly onto clay and building outward three-dimensionally in an alla-prima, intuitive style.

Instruction will include how to compose your subject matter within a defined space, organize depths according to an internal establishment of volumes and perspective, and utilize different textures and patterns to convey nature’s diverse forms. Students will learn how to edit nature’s infinite details into its most essential and striking components and capture the transitory nature of live botanicals. Consideration for artistic composition, surface texture and depth will be discussed. Demos on how to block-in a bas-relief, draw directly into clay and develop form will take place. Discussion will include the function of bas-relief as botanical study and as artistic three-dimensional records of the natural world.

Clay and wooden boards will be provided. Students will work outdoors, weather permitting.

Course Outline:

Day One:

Setting up your Bas-Relief

How to construct a clay base for bas-relief
Selecting your subject matter
Clay as canvas: drawing directly onto the surface plane
How to organize and establish depths
Day Two:

Refinement of forms
Essentializing nature’s multiplicities
How to describe visual and color differences through texture and composition
Addressing the challenges of working from life’s transitory stages