Figurative Sculpture in Clay
Let your creativity shine
Casa Berti, in collaboration with Art Escape Italy, is able to offer you a selection of week long art retreats dedicated to helping you hone your craft.
Our painting workshops focus predominantly on oil painting – portrait, figure and plein air landscape painting. Our instructors are trained in academic painting techniques, and teach either sight-size or comparative measurement methods. In 2017 we have added sculpture workshops to our program – learn to sculpt in the tradition of Rodin with Jason Arkles in March 2017.
Retreat prices include tuition, accommodation, meals, model fees if applicable, and transfers. You can either purchase all the materials that you need for your workshop on arrival, or you can bring your own materials with you. See the materials list for each workshop.
Figurative Sculpture in Clay
March 5 – March 11
- 5 days tuition, 6 nights accommodation
- Instructor: Jason Arkles
- Level: Beginner to Advanced
- Medium: Clay
This intensive retreat and workshop is the perfect opportunity for those with an interest in sculpture to learn the sight-size approach to figure modelling. In just five days of tuition, each student develops a 40% life-size seated or reclining figure from life and prepares the work for firing. Students will create their models without armatures, and this course is loaded with tips and techniques for building strong, stable forms in nothing but clay. In addition to instruction and critiques, Jason works alongside the class on his own figure project, giving a demonstration of techniques and processes throughout the course. This course is for all levels of experience.
Being an almost entirely optical/visual approach to art making, the sight-size technique is normally associated with portrait painters. Jason himself learnt sight-size from the painter Charles Cecil, who commissioned Jason with the task of adapting the method for three-dimensional work in 1997. The resulting method is now taught in studios around the world, thanks both to Jason’s teaching and to his book with documents the technique, titled Sculpting from Life – A Studio Manual of the Sight-Size Method.
The Instructor
Jason Arkles
Jason Arkles is an American sculptor living and working in Florence, Italy. After training at the Charles H.Cecil studio in Florence, where he was instrumental in adapting sight-size technique for sculpture, and then training in marble carving in Pietrasanta, Jason opened his own teaching studio in 2009 – the Studio Della Statua. Jason’s work focuses upon portraiture, sacred art, and figurative marble. An ardent student of art history, Jason is the host of the popular podcast for figurative sculptors, The Sculptor’s Funeral.
To see more of Jason’s work and learn about Studio Della Statua, visit www.jasonarkles.com
To listen to The Sculptor’s Funeral podcast, subscribe in iTunes, or go to www.thesculptorsfuneral.com
Itinerary
Day 1 | March 5
Pick up from Lucca train station at 4pm
Orientation
Welcome dinner
Day 2 | March 6
9am-12pm: Workshop begins – introduction to the technique and designing a figure in terracotta
Lunch
2pm-5pm: Modelling from life
Dinner
Days 3-5 | Mar 7-9
9am-12pm: Modelling from life
Lunch
2pm-5pm: Modelling from life
Dinner and optional evening activity
Day 6 | March 10
9am-12pm: Final session with the model
Lunch
2pm-5pm: Finishing touches on the sculpture and hollowing out ready for firing
Farewell dinner
Day 7 | March 11
Departure, transfer to Lucca train station at 10am
Summary
- Start: March 5, 2017
- End: March 11, 2017
- Skill level: Beginner to Advanced
Cost
- From €2165 private dbl
- From €1700 pp twin share
- Includes: tuition, materials, accommodation, meals, transfers
Book this course
For pricing and booking click here
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