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Study with Bennington Artists Ehrich and Brownstein at Prestigious Brookgreen Gardens
NORTH BENNINGTON, VT / PAWLEY’S ISLAND, S.C. — North Bennington artists Stella Ehrich and Fred X Brownstein will teach week-long workshops at the renowned Brookgreen Gardens, on Pawley’s Island, South Carolina, in October. Beginning to advanced painters and sculptors are encouraged to join the artist-couple for this unique opportunity at Brookgreen, a National Historic Landmark with the most significant collection of figurative sculpture, in an outdoor setting, by American artists in the world.
Ehrich will lead the five-day “Landscape Painting in Oil” workshop Monday-Friday, October 19-23, for beginning-to-advanced students. Students will paint on location (weather permitting) to take advantage of the beautiful views of Brookgreen Gardens. The painting sessions include instruction on plein air techniques and how to capture the effects of light, shadow, and atmosphere. A specific color palette will be introduced and Ehrich will give instruction on how to mix color to create atmospheric effects and aerial perspective. Emphasis will be placed on composition and simplifying values, the anatomy of trees, and artistic perspective. Ehrich will also teach measuring techniques to help students fine-tune drawing skills and check proportions. Students receive individual attention based on their levels of experience, and group critiques provide a forum in which all students can learn from each other.
Ehrich is a renowned painter whose work has been extensively exhibited locally as well as in England, Italy, and throughout the United States. Her paintings are currently in a one-person exhibition at Tunnel City Coffee Shop in Williamstown, Massachusetts, presented by the Harrison Gallery through the month of October. She is also included in two regional galleries: Fiddlehead in Bennington, Vermont, and L. Wicks Fine Arts in Saratoga Springs, New York. She paints a variety of subjects including landscape, portraits and still life, and her work is included in numerous public and private collections both here and abroad.
”The opportunity to paint at Brookgreen is a rare treat," says Ehrich. "The gardens provide many varied compositional opportunities from formally laid out plantings to vast fields, waterways, and ancient live oaks dripping with moss. The sculpture that highlights the different parts of the gardens adds an unusual and exciting element for the landscape painter. And the weather at this time of year is perfect for working outside!”
Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and raised in Clarksdale, Mississippi, Ehrich earned a B.F.A. in painting from the Memphis Academy of Art, and an M.F.A. in painting from Bennington College. She has taught as an adjunct professor at Williams College, the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts, Bennington College, and the Community College of Vermont. Ehrich has previously taught landscape painting workshops at Brookgreen, and with Brownstein, teaches a summer workshop for painters and sculptors in Tuscany, Italy. She says the most profound influence on her work came from the 16 years that she lived and painted in Italy, during which she studied in Florence for seven years in the atelier of Signorina Nerina Simi, whose instruction was based on the rigorous discipline of French academic training and the school of Gerome.
Brownstein’s workshop, “Basic Mold-Making from Clay Model to Plaster Cast,” will be held Monday-Friday, October 26-30. The five-day workshop is for beginning-to-intermediate students who want to know how to make a mold from a clay sculpture and a plaster cast using the waste mold process. The resulting permanent plaster cast can be retouched, patinaed, and prepared to eventually become a bronze sculpture. Each participant should bring a clay model of a sculpture to cast — such as a medium-size portrait head or relief sculpture (8”x10”); the clay model must be malleable, (not dried or fired). Water-based clay and medium-soft oil-based clay both work well for this process.
Waste molds are a traditional and inexpensive method practiced by sculptors for centuries to preserve their work in plaster. The process is a foundation for understanding of the principles used in all types of mold making. Brownstein learned the skill from a master mold maker — a “formatore” — in Italy, where the process is still preferred today.
Born in Greenville, Mississippi, Brownstein earned a B.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1970 and was soon after accepted as a resident at the prestigious Károlyi Foundation in Vence, France. He returned to Europe in 1975 with his new wife, Ehrich, and they lived and studied in Italy for the next 16 years — Brownstein at the Pasquini Studio in Querceta and then at the Nerina Simi Studio in Florence. He is a Fellow member of the National Sculpture Society and member of The Stone Carvers Guild, and his work has been widely shown here and in Europe.
For more information about Ehrich and Brownstein’s workshops at Brookgreen, and Brookgreen’s workshop policies and procedures, visit www.brookgreen.org/km_classes.cfm or e-mail sculpture@brookgreen.org. Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis. Students may register by telephone at 800.849.1931, ext. 6027, or by fax at 843.235.6003.
For more information on the artists, visit www.stellaehrich.com or www.fredxbrownstein.com.
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