Pre-registration is required for most classes & workshops - please register online below or call  508-693-1850.
Minimum age requirement for all adult classes is 14 years old unless otherwise noted (Life Drawing).
CANCELLATION AND REFUND POLICY:
Please read all class descriptions and be aware of age, skill level and materials requirements in ADVANCE of registering for any classes and workshops. Featherstone does not issue refunds unless we cancel the class due to low enrollment. 

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register

Open Studio Life Drawing
Day: Tuesdays
Dates: October 11, 18, 25, November 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, December 6, 13
Time: 9:30AM - 12:00PM
Location: Art Barn Drawing Studio
Fee: $25 per meeting, pre-registration required
Life Drawing is open to students/artists aged 18 and older

This is a figure drawing series which meets weekly for 2.5 hours. There is no instruction, but a volunteer class monitor will be present. There is a (nude) model each week who will hold poses, participants paint or draw as they wish. Sessions will have limited capacity (12 people) for the safety and comfort of our models and students. MASKS ARE REQUIRED at this time, as the studio windows will be closed and the model will be unmasked.

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Previous 2022

Visiting Artist Workshop: Drawing Basics with Douglas David
A simple, fun approach to give a better understanding of drawing...
Date: Monday, August 22
Time: 9:30AM - 3:30PM
Location: Art Barn Drawing Studio
Fee: $170 plus materials (materials list below)
Visit our Painting page to learn about Douglas' oil painting workshop Tuesday-Wednesday, August 23-24!

This really successful and simple one-day workshop on drawing will walk you through many of the “basics” of drawing. Whether a refresher or the first drawing class you have ever taken, it will make sense and help you have a better understanding of drawing. Developed by the many requests of painting students, Douglas has assembled all the basic areas of drawing and the things he thinks you need to know to be able to be more comfortable and a bit more confident in your drawing. This course will also help to make your paintings better and to correct problem areas that might come up in your work. Some of the basics of composition and general sketching to get shapes and proportions correct, massing in large shapes, simple easy to understand perspective for landscape/seascape, understanding and tackling the task of drawing the various ellipses on vases, pitchers, bowls and plates for floral/still lifes, point-of-view, contour line, figure and how to build into a streetscape and get the scale correct, and the checklist of what to look for when trouble shooting a painting and a drawing problem.
The entire class is done with pencil in your notebook/sketchbook. Lots of presentation, demo and workbook-type exercises to help you understand and comprehend these basics. A great class by itself to feel better about drawing or great to go with Douglas’ landscape/seascape and floral/still life class/workshops.
Lunch: Brown bag or run to cafe or deli close by.

Materials List:
notebook/sketchbook/sketchpad
#2 pencil, or a variety of pencils
eraser
pencil sharpener

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Still Life Charcoal Drawing Class with Katherine Gagnon
Day: Tuesdays
Date: Session 1: July 5, 12, 19, 26 // Session 2: August 2, 9, 16, 23
Time: 9:00AM - 12:00PM
Location: Art Barn Painting Studio
Fee: $260 per 4 class session

In this 4 week course, instructor Katherine Gagnon will bring fresh energy and perspective to what can sometimes be seen as an overly academic/traditional course. Students will work with charcoal (soft vine charcoal, charcoal pencils) and intriguing still life set ups (driftwood, antiques, shells, flowers, feathers, garden tools). The curriculum is designed to encourage learning and creativity from very beginning to advanced skillsets, focusing on different themes in the class such as proportion, placement, value, scale, figure/ground, texture, contour etc. 

Katherine plans an upbeat, low stakes, welcoming environment to:

• Develop an understanding of form through placement, proportion and scale on the picture plane
• Increase ability to render form and how it relates to a surrounding environment through an understanding of light and shadow
• Further enhance observational and perceptual drawing skills
• Demonstrate formal analysis and communication skills through verbal and visual articulation 
• Strengthen ability to work with a range of mediums including vine charcoal, charcoal pencil

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POSTPONED

Visiting Artist Workshop: Drawing (in) Place with Marthe Rowen
Days: Thursday & Friday
Dates: July 14 & 15
Time: 9:00AM - 1:00PM each day
Location: Day 1: Art Barn Studio and outside at Featherstone
Day 2: on location (location TBD)
Fee: $200 for 2-day workshop

This two-day workshop introduces artists to Drawing in Place - how to capture the character and sense of a place through drawing. We will draw on location and study the architecture, landscape and people, a particular moment of time and light. The workshop is open to anyone who loves to draw and wants to learn how to better draw the world outside of the studio. Artists of all skill levels are welcome - some drawing experience and comfort with a pencil is recommended. The first day of the workshop will introduce some basic skills and techniques for drawing on location. The focus will be on drawing space and place, rather than on drawing object. We will study how to choose what to draw, how to frame and draw what you see. Topics will include: line and figure, light and shadow, space and negative space, point-of-view, drawing vegetation, pattern and color. On the first day of the workshop, we will start in the studio, making a series of studies and sketches, addressing skills and techniques, and then move outside the studio to apply these to a drawing of the buildings and/or landscape surrounding Featherstone . The second day of the workshop will be on a “sketch crawl”. We will meet at a designated location, and make a series of drawings seeking to capture the character of the place. Students will first make several quick study sketches, before choosing a view-point to make a final drawing. Students may choose to introduce a bit of color to highlight their drawing, using colored pencil or water color.

Materials:
9 x 12 sketchbook, spiral or bound, drawing weight paper. Optional larger sketchbook 11 x 14. Pen felt, fine tip, .05 or .07; pencil (recommend full graphite pencil HB), pencil sharpener.
Optional: Colored pencil (Prisma-color or Derwent recommended) or water colors
IMPORTANT: We will be walking around as we draw, so bring a small tote bag and zipper bag to hold your drawing things. We will be drawing outside, so be sure to bring appropriate clothing and sun-protection: Hat or visor with brim, sunglasses, sun-block, comfortable walking shoes, bottle of drinking water.

About the Instructor:
Marthe Rowen is an architect, artist and teacher, and has been a part-time resident of the island for 30 years. She is currently Visiting Faculty in the the department of History of Art and Architecture at Brown University, and runs Rowen Barton Studio in Providence, engaged in both architecture and drawing practice. She has taught drawing and design at many universities around the country, including The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Roger Williams University, Princeton University and Arizona State University. She has taught Travel Drawing on Semester at Sea, and led study abroad programs in Travel Drawing to Portugal, Spain and Morocco. In between teaching, traveling and drawing while traveling, she practiced architecture in New York City and Charlottesville Virginia and raised three children. She has lectured and shown her work at The University of Virginia, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Brown University. In recent years she has completed several large-scale panoramic drawing projects, including a “circle” of drawings made at the edges of Martha’s Vineyard; a series of “blind” drawings of the earth from the sky, made on planes while traveling across the US and Europe; and “Scroll across America”, a series of drawings made continuously while on a train from Los Angeles to Boston.

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Calligraphy Workshop with Lynn Hoeft
Days: Wednesdays
Dates: April 27 & May 4
Time: 10:00AM - 12:00PM
Location: Art Barn Painting Studio
Fee: $80 for 2 day workshop (materials not included, please see list below)
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Learn how to make beautiful letters: we’ll concentrate on the Italic or Chancery Cursive alphabet which was developed in Italy during the Renaissance. With these letterforms, you’ll be able to make invitations, fancy cards and envelopes, certificates and journals.
For beginners and advanced beginners.

Materials List:
PENS:
The best pen for beginners to use is the Pilot Parallel Calligraphy pen, preferably in 6.0 mm or 3.8 mm size. This pen, with a nib or point made from 2 parallel metal plates, delivers a smooth flow of ink with reliable crisp edges and sharp, thin lines. It is available online on Amazon and other stores.
Any other brand of calligraphy pen (or markers) is also welcome, but they should have a point at least 3mm or greater in width.
PAPER:
The best kind of practice paper is a smooth, lightweight (13.5#) bleedproof semi-transparent marker/ink paper. This one is available online at Amazon and other retailers: Borden and Riley No.37. Boris Marker Layout pad, either 9 x 12 or 14 x 17.

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Open Studio Portrait Drawing supervised by Sean Roach
Day: Sundays
Dates: February 6, 13, 20 27,  (no March 6) March 13, 20, 27, April 3, 10
Time: 1:00PM - 4:00PM
Location: Art Barn Drawing Studio
Fee: $25 per meeting ($10 for high school students)

Join us on Sunday afternoons to work on portrait and figure drawing. We will  have a clothed model each week featuring character types (i.e. a ballerina, a fisherman, a businessman) to work with. Single 3 hour long pose with 5 min breaks every 20 minutes. This is a non-instructional open studio, but Sean will be available during model breaks to offer guidance to any artists that would like feedback.

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