Women’s Retreat: The Art of Seeing Landscapes with Nina Jerome
September 6 @ 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
This workshop focuses on the essential act of SEEING and simplifying the landscape to its core visual elements.
The morning session will focus on short drawing exercises (using a variety of drawing tools) that encourage and guide the participants to look carefully and discover parts of the landscape that interest them. Weather permitting, we will work outside, looking at shallow and deep space compositional possibilities. The drawings will be resources for the afternoon painting session.
After lunch, we will work with acrylic paint on colorful tinted grounds, allowing the morning drawings to guide us to dynamic compositions. Review of work and discussion at the end of morning and afternoon sessions will allow participants to share their work with the group. Emphasis will be on seeing visual elements as well as the process of developing an idea rather than making completed, finished works.
All levels of art experience are welcome.
Schedule
Morning
- Introductions and overview
- Short drawing exercises ranging from 30 seconds to 10 minutes
- Longer drawing exercises ranging from 5 to 15 minutes.
- Three variations of the same subject
- Sharing of drawings and discussion of discoveries.
- Toning of paper or canvas with thin layers of acrylic paint in preparation for afternoon work.
Lunch
Afternoon
- Overview of afternoon exercises
- Selection of favorite drawings for painting
- Set up in an appropriate location to SEE the subject as well as the drawing
- Sketch the basics of the entire composition with a contrasting color to the toned paper or canvas
- Develop value shifts to create space, light, and movement through the composition
- If time allows, select another image to develop from a drawing to a painting
- In the last half hour, we will gather to share and discuss our paintings.
What to Bring
- All necessary art materials will be provided. However, if you have favorite drawing tools, you are welcome to bring them.
- A lawn chair or blanket for sitting outdoors. You may also use the folding chair from your indoor spot.
Refunds
We understand that unexpected things happen. You will receive a full refund if you need to cancel, provided we can fill your spot.
Venue
The venue for this retreat is the summer home of John Marin, the great American modernist artist. This spectacular home on Pleasant Bay in Cape Split, Addison, enjoys views of Sheep Island, Gooseberry Nubble, and Norton Island. Explore Maine’s rocky coast and local beaches during your visit.
About Nina Jerome
Nina Jerome has lived in Maine since 1975. She studied Art at Mount Holyoke College and the Rhode Island School of Design and taught for forty years in public schools and the University of Maine. She draws and paints series that explore visual variations and sense of place by observing cyclical changes in light, color, and movement. For the past four years she has focused her attention on local abandoned granite quarries, former industrial sites that have been reclaimed by nature. Although her practice has been shaped by the Maine landscape, Jerome has been influenced by travels and has responded to other environments. In 2015, she spent a month as a fellow on Great Cranberry Island, surrounded by water within a small community. In 2017 and 2019, she was a fellow at VCCA, where the vines of the woods in spring led to a body of complex, layered landscape. In June 2018, she spent a month at a museum in Iceland and responded to the lava fields, brooding skies, and moving water. Jerome shows her work at the Cynthia Winings Gallery in Blue Hill and the Elizabeth Moss Gallery in Falmouth. She has exhibited at the Zillman Museum in Bangor, Maine, and will present an exhibit of quarry paintings at the University of Maine at Machias Gallery in 2025. She has created paintings for fourteen public art projects in Maine, including six murals for the Penobscot Judicial Center in Bangor.
Register
Registration coming soon.
