2023-2021
Classes
Drawing – Techniques and Expression
Instructor: Catherine Wells
Drawing is a way of seeing and a way of experiencing the world. Drawing techniques help us transfer into images how we each, as individuals, observe and feel about the world around us. This ongoing class is for all levels from introductory to advanced. Drawing techniques will be taught through observational studies with an emphasis on line quality, tone and values, composition and perspective. Self-expression will be encouraged through enjoyable exercises designed to encourage the students to discover a personal style and a way of expressing what particularly interests them. As the course progresses, students will be invited to work with paint if they wish, applying the lessons learned through drawing and acquiring painting techniques and painterly methods of expression. Classes will be in the studio with some sessions outdoors.
Developing a Personal Studio Practice
Instructor: Barry MacPherson
This is an open class to work at your own pace with instruction and guidance on a project inspired by personal preference. If you are working on something, bring it along, or start afresh at these sessions. Not particular to any style. Oil and acrylics. For beginners through advanced students of painting. All welcome.
Abstract Painting
Instructor: Barry MacPherson
An eight-week painting course on theory and method using oils, acrylics and other mediums. Beginner, Intermediate and advanced students will engage in exploring composition, techniques and problem solving with an emphasis on pushing the boundaries of perception and the evolution of ideas through non-representational painting. For beginners, this class will introduce students to basic concepts of abstract painting and to develop and build a repertoire of techniques and a visual style for artistic expression through abstraction.
Life Drawing
Open live model sessions
Improve your drawing by working from the model using single-source lighting
Landscaping the City II
Instructor: Dave LeRue
How does land become landscape? And how do the unique visual elements of a place form into a cohesive image? Using Kevin Lynch’s The Image of the City as our guide, students in Landscaping the City will undertake projects that connect our own neighborhoods to these considerations and invite students to connect artmaking to their memories and experiences of place. Classes will be taught completely online, and students from beyond Montreal are welcome!
Over eight weeks we will conduct drawing exercises, learn landscape drawing principles and complete three projects. There will be plenty of working time in class, and opportunities to share our ideas with each other. Students are welcome to work in any material they like, but instruction and exercises will be demonstrated with a sketchbook and pencil.
Outdoor Drawing and Painting Club
Instructor: Catherine Wells
This group will gather outdoors throughout the fall and winter to sketch, take photos and make notes to work on at home.
We will meet for one hour every week on Tuesdays from 1 – 2 pm in locations to be determined each week.
You can sign up week by week or for four weeks at a time and come when you can. We will be meeting in different places around the city: Pointe-Saint-Charles, Parc-des-Rapides, Mount Royal, the Old Port and more.
This is a time honoured practice among artists who braved all kinds of weather to bring us their exciting depictions of outdoor life all year round.
Daily Art Practice (online)
Instructor: Breanna Shanahan
Artists of all levels require healthy habits to keep them coming back to their practice. Whether it is to learn new skills, hone in on specific techniques or just discover new interests and novel directions in their artwork. Daily art practices take a step away from the preciousness of a single idea and instead focuses on the accumulation of different means of making. This course is intended for all levels from introductory to advanced. Pulling on personal interests this course will help guide you to create many different works and encourage a broad view of studio practice that moves beyond specific media boundaries. Some materials and techniques which will be covered include: drawing, watercolouring, zine making, writing activities, sculpting and photo documentation editing. Come with a willingness to try new things, an interest in your own unique view of the world, and a desire to expand your visual vocabulary.
Introduction to Contemporary Sculpture
Instructor: Walter Morselli
This class introduces students to the skills and thought processes required to make three-dimensional contemporary sculpture. We will think expressively and conceptually across a variety of media, working individually and collaboratively to create artworks inspired by contemporary artists and movements. Every week, we will look at an artist, and develop our own idea that we will implement using a new material. Mistakes, detours, and errors are all part of the process—learning new techniques and possibilities is our aim here. While classes will be tailored toward beginners, anyone interested in the art of sculpting is welcome. Additionally, students will have the opportunity to work toward an exhibition in Bâtiment 7’s grand atelier.
Creative Sketchbook: Explore Your Process
Instructor: Ana Victoria López Vázquez
In this class, students will explore their art language and interests, and record their process in a sketchbook. Traditional and non-traditional tools and materials will be employed, including, ink, pastels, watercolors, markers, glitters, and paper-cutting techniques. Students will also create and experiment with thread, and other non-standard materials. At the conclusion of the course, students will have a technical reference guidebook for later projects. Please bring a Sketchbook with paper that supports wet mediums (ink and watercolor – 250g to 275g or more).
The Power of Possessions (online)
Instructor: Jeannie Kim
In this 5-week online course, we will consider our past, present and future selves within objects and symbols inspired by ‘chaekgeori’, a Korean still-life painting genre depicting a scholars’ collection of items. Each week, historical themes of illusionism and symbolism will be explored as we compose our own still-life compositions to complete a final project. Instruction and demonstration will be conducted with pencil, pencil crayons and watercolours. All skill levels and visual art mediums are welcome to join!
Watercolour
Instructor: Louise Drouin
Explore watercolour and collage techniques that stretch the imagination and encourage self-discovery. Learn the basic layering process using a variety of rice paper, natural, tinted and stained and adhering them to watercolour surfaces to provide a textured ground for painting. Create exciting surfaces, cut and tear shapes, use them as collage textures. Combine rice papers, watercolour, acrylic paint, inks, gouache and pastels to enhance your artwork. Everyone is welcome.
Realistic Drawing
Instructor: Eberhard Froehlich
This class offers techniques and strategies for putting on paper our visual experience. Learn to look around and notice lines, shapes, textures, contrasts—and then draw what you see, and what you remember. Perspective, structure, space, and shadows can be fun to draw. Understand how space works on a flat surface, and create that space in your own drawings. If you are interested in developing your ability to draw light and shadow, this class is for you. Subjects include still life, nature, the human figure, interiors, landscapes, city views, portraits. For beginners through advanced students.
Drawing inspiration from life
Instructor: Chase Toole
This is a class for all levels but would better suit those who have begun an art practice in drawing, design, or painting. What this course hopes to do is to practice our drawing and observational skills while tapping into our memories to pull a narrative together to create a fun and exciting way of looking at the world around us. Some materials that will be covered will be graphite, pen and ink, marker, pastel, and paint. Mixed media is encouraged as is trying new things while staying anchored to the core principles of drawing from life.
Animating Life (11-16 yrs)
Instructor: Arijit Debnath
In this 8 week class, young students will embark on an exciting introduction to the world of independent animation. With an emphasis on play and exploration, this class will demystify the process of creating animation by approaching it in simple DIY fashion. Through individual and group exercises, students will explore several animation techniques, and in the final two weeks the students will have the chance to either work on a collaborative or individual project in the technique of their choosing. By the end of the course, students will be equipped with the skills and knowledge to make simple animations by being resourceful and creative, using only a smartphone to capture images, and everyday materials to animate with.
Note: Prior animation experience is good to have, but not necessary. Students are encouraged to bring their own smartphones to use at this workshop. Spare smartphones will be available for those who do not have compatible devices.
Knit (two)gether: Methods for the Absolute Beginner to Advanced
Instructor: Madeleine Mees
In this course, we will explore the fundamentals of knitting from cast on to finished object. We’ll focus on classic techniques on straight needles through versatile foundational projects to develop each crafter’s rhythm and to build exposure to the possibilities of knitted works. This course is intended for everyone who wants to knit, both new and experienced. Students looking for guidance on independent projects or techniques are welcome to bring their own works to walk through with the instructor.
Community
Images, Words and the Creative Process for Everyone
Instructor: Kristina Urkuhart
Extend your community network each Tuesday morning this fall by joining our group for artistic expression and friendly discussion. Participants will explore visual communication using journaling, printmaking, drawing, and collage techniques, and turn a memory into a 6-12 frame illustrated story.
Pinhole Camera for kids
Instructor: Colleen Leonard
For ages 6 to 12
Have fun with images in creative ways that existed long before the invention of cameras, movies, and television!
A pinhole camera is basically a box with a small hole in it, through which light travels and reflects to produce an inverted image. Learn about the basic principles of light and cameras, and make your own pinhole camera using recycled material.
OctoberRiver
The workshops are part of the Learning With the St. Lawrence research project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and are developed in collaboration with the Pointe-Saint-CharlesArtSchool.
- Puppets and Projections – Nina Pariser
- Building Bridges – Rachel Pochat Selby
- Riding Kaniatarowanenneh – Megan Kanerahtenhà:wiWhyte.
- Sharing the St.Lawrence with Other-than-Humans – Jacob Le Gallais
- Imagining the St.Lawrence – Dave LeRue
I Can Animate!
Instructor: Arijit Debnath
Come learn some quick and easy DIY animation! In this workshop, we will create animations for a music video as part of Hip Hop as Resistance. Never done any animations before? No problem. All you need is a smartphone and some creativity, and we’ll show you the rest! Materials and supplies provided.
Exhibition
Landscaping the City Pop-up Exhibition – Friday, August 6, 11am-4pm / Finissage – Tuesday August 10, 3-5pm at Bâtiment 7
What kinds of artworks can we generate if we imagine the city as a site of landscape? What meaning do these works take on when the city becomes the backdrop for this mobile exhibition on PedalBox Gallery? Works in this show were produced during Landscaping the City, an online class offered by the Pointe-St-Charles art school between September and April of 2020-21. These works demonstrate the myriad ways students took to the city as a site of artistic inspiration.