The uncertainty of these times has led many people to seek art making as a positive response to our predicament.
While the summer break is beach-time for some, summer art school gives others the opportunity to start the new year with a shot of creativity. We have two well-established art schools in our neighbourhood: Browne School of Art at 194 Great North Road, and Studio One Toi Tu at 1 Ponsonby Road, both offering different summer school programmes.
Browne School of Art (BSA) was started by artist and tutor Matthew Browne in 2013 to provide practical approaches to painting and printmaking within the contexts of contemporary art practice. While BSA offers short and long term classes during the year, their summer school is a crystallization of these, with a number of Auckland’s most experienced tutors giving plenty of individual attention to students who wish to grow their skills and understanding of art making.
A quick look at some of the tutors shows the skill level the BSA attracts. An expert in printmaking, Alexis Neal studied at the Slade, London and has taken part in national and international exhibitions, including currently at the Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui.
Zarahn Southon is a master of the academy approach, having studied in Italy and developed a concise and rigorous method for oilcolour portraits. After graduating from Glasgow School of Fine Arts, Leigh Martin was a tutor at Elam for over ten years, now bringing his considerable skills to his class on individual art processes.
Altogether, students can choose everything from contemporary watercolour, life drawing, and fluid printmaking, to exploring the environment or the abstract during the BSA’s exciting and informative January workshops.
The school holiday classes at Studio One Toi Tu focus on our youngest artists, and their children’s programme features a course in ceramics, where they create with clay and get to sit at the potter’s wheel; and an inventive Bunny Cinderella class, that starts with drawing and can lead to painting or sculpture.
Summer is for creating positive worlds, and art could be the answer. (EVAN WOODRUFFE/STUDIO ART SUPPLIES)