Online Class: Still Life with Pear | Color Drawing with Watercolor Washes

Using Georgia O’Keeffe’s depictions of pears as inspiration, this intermediate class will focus on observational still-life drawing using watercolor pencils (or black, terracotta, and sepia pencils) in conjunction with light watercolor washes. 

First, the class will explore O’Keeffe’s innovative use of color and tonality. Then, participants will be shown through an interactive demonstration how to create mass, highlights, value, and shadow using colored pencils with the option of adding light washes in watercolor. 

Students are welcome to set up their own still life with pears, or they can follow along with the instructor’s example during the demonstration.

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This class is suitable for youth ages 12 and up. Children are welcome to participate alongside their adults.

This program will take place via the video conferencing app – ZOOM. Details for accessing the Zoom meeting will be with your receipt upon registering and again sent via email the day prior. Please register in advance in order to access the program.

Note that all program times are in Mountain Time.

Supplies Needed for this Class:

• 2B or 4B drawing pencils and an eraser.
• A set of watercolor pencils and a few watercolor round brushes in 8, 10, 12, etc.
• Strathmore 400 Series or any other brand of watercolor pad or block in any size between 9” x 12” and 12” x 16” consisting of 140 lb hot press or cold press paper.
• 3 to 4 blending stumps (AKA Tortillons, often come with drawing pencil sets) and/or Q-tips.
• Masking tape to keep the paper flat especially if the pad is larger.
• Optional: Watercolor tubes and palettes if watercolor is used as light washes in combination with watercolor pencils, a set of regular color pencils to combine with watercolor and watercolor pencils, Sakura Micron or similar drawing pens with black or sepia waterproof ink, watercolor soluble graphite pencil, conté Pierre Noire (black 2B or 3B) pencil and Sanguine or Sepia pencil.

About the Instructor:

Sudeshna Sengupta’s career as a teaching artist spans multiple decades, continents, and cultures that inform her pedagogy for decolonizing studio art. She earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in 1985 from Visva-Bharati University, founded by the first non-European Nobel Laureate (1913) and humanist poet Rabindranath Tagore.

After teaching art and design at the college level in New Delhi, Seattle, and California, she taught at New Mexico State University-Alamogordo, where she established its first intaglio printmaking studio in 1995. Besides the O’Keeffe Museum, Sengupta teaches credit courses with the School of Art & Design of the Santa Fe Community College.

Her etchings and lithographs from the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi have been featured in a landmark exhibition on Women Printmakers of India at the NGMA-New Delhi in India. Her work is in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; Association Musée d’Art Contemporain, France; Kala Institute, Berkeley, and more.

Sengupta also conducts workshops, short courses, lectures, and community-based art events focusing on multicultural and intercultural experiences that emphasize human, cultural, and environmental connectedness through creativity.

To learn more, please visit notes-and-doodles.com and visit her Instagram @santafe_online_art_studio

Registration

This class is being offered on a sliding scale. Your class fee helps to sustain the variable costs associated with hosting this program. We appreciate your support.

$15 minimal fee.

$25 covers the cost of the class.

$40 covers the cost of the class, plus a contribution to support educational programs.