Online Class: Tonal Landscapes in Charcoal & Graphite—Hills & Dunes

Inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe’s drawings and sketches of land formations from the American Southwest, this class will focus on how to draw landscapes with a subtle interplay of graduated tonal shading and contrast in order to build spatial depth and dimension within the pictorial space. 

Through guided demonstrations on the use of various drawing tools and techniques, teaching artist Sudeshna Sengupta will show how to apply skills with charcoals, pencils, blending stumps, and even your eraser, to depict sinuous hills and sand dunes of the high desert with lost and found edges. 

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

Space is limited, reservations required.

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: 

• Strathmore 400 series Mixed-media drawing pad or Strathmore 400 series Hot-Press or pad/block or Bristol pad or Mixed-media drawing pad or any other brand of drawing pad in any size between 9” x 12” and 12” x 17”. Thicker paper (140 lb or higher) is better.
• A set of 2B, 4B, & 6B graphite pencils
• White plastic eraser
• Charcoal Pencils: Medium (2B) and Soft/Dark (4B or 6B)
• Vine charcoal or Willow charcoal sticks, 1 to 3
• Compressed charcoal stick or black conte stick
• Blending stumps (AKA Tortillons, often comes with drawing pencil sets) and or Q-tips and tissues or cotton rags (clean pieces of old t-shirts work well).
• Masking tape
• A pair of scissors or an X-acto knife
• A 12“ ruler if available
• Optional: Watercolor round brushes, container of water, and water soluble graphite pencils, color pencils or color Conté crayons if anyone wants to add a hint of color.

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

This class is being offered on a sliding scale.

$10 minimal fee.

$20 covers the cost of the class.

$30 covers the cost of the class, plus a contribution to support educational programs.