Revive and refresh your artistic
spirit!
Oxbow Summer Studio Art Workshops:
June 15-27, 2007
Photography, Painting, Printmaking
Taught and hosted by members of the Oxbow faculty, the Oxbow Summer Studios
offer adult artists the rare opportunity of time, space, environment,
facilities and friends to truly re-create themselves as artists. Limited
to 24 participants, workshops are available in Photography, Painting and
Drawing, and Printmaking. Participants work in Oxbow’s new studio
facilities located on the bank of the picturesque Napa River in the heart
of the California wine country, live in on-campus mini-suites and enjoy
the food and wine of the Napa Valley at mealtime.
Restful accommodations, on campus.
Oxbow’s college-style three-acre campus features a contemporary
teaching-studio complex, newly renovated dormitory-style apartments, a
dining hall housed in an historic Napa landmark building, and beautiful
gardens and grounds. The teaching studios consist of four, light-filled
galleries with “garage-door” style retractable walls, each
opening to a beautiful and intimate view of the oxbow in the Napa River,
directly across from COPIA: The American Center for Wine and Food.
Workshop participants can room on campus in co-ed, apartment-like dorms
adjacent to the studios. Each mini-suite apartment consists of three bedrooms,
two baths, and a living area with sofa, work table and chairs. Bedrooms
are furnished with two single beds, a dresser and a desk.
Dining at Oxbow is an art, too.
Integral to Oxbow’s founding concept and vision, in which all the
arts contribute to education and learning, the meals are essential to
both the quality of your experience and your positive frame of mind. Participants
will have breakfast and a sumptuous lunch prepared specially for them
each day, accompanied by a selection of local wines. Evenings are free
for our guests to explore and enjoy the many fine restaurants and dining
experiences available in the Napa Valley. During the week, there are informal
gatherings over wine and hors d’oeuvres and a gala farewell dinner
on the final evening of the program. All meals are served in the historic
Scaruffi Dining Hall and on the deck overlooking the Napa River.
Three workshops with as much—or as little—teaching
as you want.
As arts educators ourselves, we know how important it is to have the time,
the space, and the right environment to concentrate on recovering and
nurturing our “artist selves.” This is the core concept behind
the Oxbow Summer Studio Arts Workshops. Our faculty are also artists themselves
and appreciate the differing levels of attention and input that adult
participants might want and need in each of the three studios.
The Photographic Record: Rendering the Emotional Landscape
In the age of digital image making, black and white photography is becoming
a precious art form. The darkroom is a place for slowing down and getting
back to the “handmade” photograph. Black and white imagery
readily lends itself to the subconscious language of memory. Through all
the shades of grey we will explore the symbols and signs that fill out
the emotional landscapes of our memories, dreams, myths and desires. The
workshop will introduce the use of black and white films, alternative
camera choices and traditional black and white printing. There will be
discussions and slide shows on photography, current and past, appropriate
to our subject matter. Students will receive individual guidance to help
develop their creative objectives and technical skills. Participants should
bring examples of previous work if they have had darkroom experience in
the recent past.
Oxbow faculty:
Pattiann Koury teaches darkroom photography at the Oxbow School. She studied
photography at Rhode Island School of Design and the California Institute
of the Arts along with design, art history and film, graduating from Cal
Arts with a degree in photography. Her photographs and writings about
photography have been published in Darkroom Photography Magazine, Camera
and Darkroom Magazine, Outdoor Photographer and Clerestory, a literary
magazine published by Brown University.
Invented and Observed Worlds
Despite painting's technical simplicity, the medium has managed not only
to sustain our interest as a vital and expressive art form, but also to
grow in importance in the larger contemporary art dialogue. This is due
in large part to the attraction we have to the virtual world painting
invites us into. Simply put, there is something particularly attractive
about a non-electronic virtuality that has the added bonus of material
heft. In this workshop, we will consider the traditional and contemporary
implications of painting's role as a window unto another world.
You will have the time and space to further your technical and conceptual
skills through daily exercises in observational drawing, formal and compositional
arrangement, color mixing, as well as individual and group critiques.
Working on canvas, wood or paper with oils, acrylics, multi-media, gouache
and / or watercolor, you will have the opportunity to push your skill-set
with glazing techniques, encaustic, collage, transfers and other alternative
processes. Basic drawing skills and some experience in painting are required,
and students are encouraged but not required to arrive at Oxbow with a
personal project they are interested in furthering as the week develops.
Oxbow faculty:
Tia Factor has been exploring possibilities in the medium of paint for
twelve years and has taught at the University of California at Berkeley
before becoming the Painting / Drawing instructor at the Oxbow School.
Factor curated two exhibits, Deep Seeded, at an urban farm in an economically
impoverished Oakland neighborhood and What the World Needs Now (The Love
Show) at Blackbird Space in San Francisco. Factor has shown her work regionally
at numerous spaces including the Traywick Gallery, the Berkeley Art Museum,
the Richmond Art Center, the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, Southern Exposure,
and The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
Printing Personal Space: Interior and Exterior
Copperplate etching has traditionally been a medium of intense introspection
as well as a window on the outside world. The Oxbow summer etching workshop
introduces intaglio printing to beginners and provides advanced printmakers
the opportunity to refine their skills. Participants work on copper plates
in all the traditional techniques: drypoint, hard and soft ground etching,
aquatint, and multi-plate color printing. The class is conducted through
demonstrations and one-on-one instruction. Plates, paper, and basic materials
are provided, but participants should bring drawings, photographs, or
other source material for their imagery. The expectation is that participants
will produce as much new imagery as possible, rather than print editions.
Oxbow faculty:
Stephen Thomas trained as a printer at Crown Point Press, where he printed
for Wayne Thiebaud, Brice Marden, John Cage, Robert Kushner, and William
Wiley, among many others. He has taught printmaking at the high school
level since 1984. He is the Head and Founding Director of The Oxbow School.
A typical day at The Oxbow Summer Studios
Breakfast 8:30—8:45
Workshop I 9:00—12:00
Lunch 12:00—1:00
Mid-day Break 1:00—1:30
Workshop II 1:30—5:00
Wine and
hors d’oeuvres 5:15—6:15
Dinner On your own (with as much advice as you want!)
Open studios 7:00—10:00
About The Oxbow School
The Oxbow School is a one-semester boarding school program for high school
juniors and seniors from both public and independent schools across the
nation. Oxbow’s interdisciplinary curriculum, centered in an intense
and self-reflective approach to studio art-making, offers students rich
opportunities for learning in an environment that extends the traditional
school model. We believe that the critical and flexible thinking and problem-solving
skills central to the studio art experience support student learning in
other disciplines and other contexts, building new paths of personal responsibility
in education and in life.
To Register
The all-inclusive cost of The Oxbow Summer Studio Arts Workshops is $2,000.
The fee includes all instruction, use of the school’s facilities
and equipment, materials, one person’s accommodations in a mini-suite,
two meals a day, and other special activities such as a field trip and
the final dinner.
To register, complete the form below and mail it with a $350 non-refundable
deposit to:
The Oxbow School
Summer Studio Arts Workshops
530 Third Street
Napa, CA 94559
Payment in full is due by May 31, 2006.
Travel
Plan on arriving on campus the afternoon of June 15th and departing on
the morning of June 27th. There are shuttles to Napa from both Oakland
and San Francisco airports (see www.evanstransportation.com for timetables
and fares).
**On the afternoon of check-in, June 15th, Oxbow will host an “ice
breaker” reception with wine and hors d’oeuvres. On the final
full day of the program, June 26th, there will be a celebratory Farewell
Dinner for all participants. Participants depart after breakfast on June
27th.
Thank you! We look forward to welcoming you to Oxbow School and Napa.
|