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This
class takes students out into a variety of Provincetown
landscapes to create, in a sketchbook format, an experiential
record through drawing, painting, and journaling.
Exercises will include ways of observing the environment,
both objectively and emotionally, and exploring techniques
to aid in this process, including experiments withmaterials
and practices conducive to working in the field. Developing
both a point of view and enhanced powers of observation
will be key components of the class. By week's end
the sketchbook can be thought of as a discreet art
object, or as a tool to inform and fuel future art
making projects; ways to continue after the class
is completed will be discussed.
Students
should be dressed comfortably for walking in a range
of weathers, as a portion of the class will take place
outside. Activities may include drawing on the fly;
pen, ink and brush exercises; juxtaposing image and
text; creating simple folded/stitched books; reading
the landscape (some basic landscape ecology); using
nature field guides; and key clues to the cultural/natural
history of Outer Cape Cod. Class is open to beginning
and experienced artists, writers, and anyone with
natural history interests. Drawing skill is not as
important as observation; experience is not as important
as a willingness to try new things.
Mark
Adams has worked as scientific illustrator and cartographer,
with training in watercolor, printmaking and life drawing.
His participation in the C-scape Artist's Mapping Collaborative
in Provincetown and the study of Japanese scroll painters
have also been important influences. Of his work he
has said, "I aspire to an approach that wanders
between Lewis and Clark and Andy Goldsworthy."
He has degrees in landscape architecture and ecology
from the University of California, Berkeley and has
exhibited his paintings and drawing on the Cape and
Islands since the 1980s, most recently at the Schoolhouse
Center for the Arts and DNA Gallery, Provincetown MA;
On the Vineyard Gallery, Tisbury, Martha's Vineyard,
and the Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA.. Adams currently
resides in Truro, MA. He has been keeping travel sketchbooks
for 30 years.