Nick Engelbert’s Grandview
Teaching outside of a public school art room can be a little intimidating. While I am used to working with students in 30-minute blocks, taking a two-hour adult workshop over the summer was a whole new territory for me. I really had no idea what I was getting into, but a couple of my friends who also teach at Grandview suggested I give it a shot. It turned out to be the best practice and creative reset before the school year started!
Nick Engelbert’s Grandview in Hollandale, Wisconsin, is such a wholesome place. The views are incredible, and the property has so much creative history. There is a small studio area where folks sign up for classes in advance. When classes start, we all find a seat (and depending on the group size, we sometimes have to get pretty creative with the arrangement!), get comfy, and get ready to learn a new skill together.
I was nervous about filling a full two hours, but both my summer sessions flew by faster than I expected.
Watercolor Animal Portraits
For my first class, watercolor pet portraits, I had everyone email me a picture of their pet ahead of time. When everyone arrived, we kicked things off by learning how to do a graphite transfer to get their pet’s outline onto the watercolor paper.
Once the transfers were ready, we looked closely at our reference photos and asked ourselves: What are 4 colors that I see?
Some people chose naturalistic colors like browns, grays, blacks, and whites. Others went bold and abstract with purples, yellows, and oranges. Before touching the actual portrait, we practiced laying down paint on a color wheel and completed a value scale using those four chosen colors. From there, everyone painted their pet section by section based on value. It was awesome watching everyone’s individual style shine through.
Embroidery Moss Patches
My second workshop focused on embroidering moss patches. With embroidery, the goal was more about learning technical skills and enjoying the process rather than rushing ot leave with a totally finished piece. Embroidery is a slow, tedious task, but once you get the rhythm down, it is the kind of project you can sit and work on for hours while watching trash reality TV (which is exactly what I do at home).
We stretched small pieces of canvas fabric inside tiny embroidery hoops and used fabric markers to draw four organic shapes across the canvas. Breaking the space into four sections helped everyone focus on one area at a time without feeling overwhelmed.
Next came threading the needle, which is arguably the hardest part of the entire process! Once everyone was threaded, I demonstrated four different embroidery stitches, one at a time. After everyone learned all four stitches, they spent the rest of the class filling in their shapes with their favorites. I encouraged mixing different stitch textures next to each other and layering a variety of green embroidery floss colors to create that lush, dimensional moss look.
Try Something New!
If you are an art teacher who has been thinking about leading a workshop outside of your school, I cannot encourage you enough to just go for it. Stepping into a community setting reminds you why you fell in love with making art in the first place. It gives you a space to create and teach purely for art’s sake, free from state standards and time bells! And if you aren’t a teacher, take this as your sign to register! Learning a new skill with your hands is one of the best ways to slow down, disconnect, and have fun. Everyone needs a little art in their life.
