Sketchy August 21, 2007

Left: Dennis Burlingame's Snake Charmer from SAAM's collection. Right: Sketching workshop participant Arielle Sandor's interpretation.

When we talk about creating Web sites or interpretive materials for the museum I always think about promoting the idea that artists aren't a clan of exotic space aliens but are regular people who look at the world, think about it, and channel their reactions and decisions into making works of art. One of my hopes is that visitors to SAAM will feel that they too can make art and that they'll want to pick up a pencil or paintbrush when they get home. Apparently some get started even before they leave the building.

Luce Foundation Center for American Art Coordinator Georgina Bath has been telling me about the weekly sketching workshops they run in the Luce Center, an open-storage facility in the museum that offers more than 3,300 works of art to sketch from.

Georgina writes:

We've been running a sketching workshop in the Luce Center every Tuesday since December, and have built up a small following!  Attendees gather in the Luce Center at the beginning for a brief discussion of artists' sketches, then spend an hour drawing from the multitude of objects on display.

The theme last week was heads and bodies and the sketchers were challenged to try blind contour drawing—where you look at the object but not at your drawing; and continuous line drawing—where you try and draw the entire image without lifting your pen from the page. Luce Center staffers supply different materials each week and this week we were using very smelly calligraphy pens. Once everyone had recovered from the fumes, we gathered together again to discuss what we had done. Arielle Sandor from New Jersey sketched the wonderful image (above) of Snake Charmer by Dennis Burlingame and Nesta Lewis from D.C. did this rendering of I Baptize Thee by William H. Johnson.

Apparently it's not uncommon for Georgina to have a participant thank her for giving him/her an excuse to start drawing again. So many people used to draw or paint or do pottery or sculpture when they were younger but gradually give it up for other things. (Although many attendees are young enough to have never stopped.)

The program takes place every Tuesday at 3. (But check the calendar before coming down.)

• Drawing, Dennis Burlingame, William H. Johnson, Luce Foundation Center for American Art, American Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum