Workshops calendar for 2009

Professional development for artists

Preparing the ground and developing the surface

A weekend workshop with John Lethbridge

Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th September 2009   9:30am - 5:00pm

This two day workshop will focus on the technical aspects of surface and ground preparation.

  1. You will prepare a canvas for drawing using paint binder and gesso.
  2. You will prepare a number of sheets of paper with a developed ground using a number of techniques for the production of a series of works. This approach allows for large scale works based on the grid format, the standard contemporary structuring device. Once the ground is prepared, the drawing is already half way to completion, in fact the drawing can proceed to completion by focusing solely on ground development using the process is the artwork method.
  3. The structure of the workshop will be surface and ground preparation in the morning and figure ground development in the afternoon.

As this is a material intensive workshop participants will be required to bring their own materials, listed below.

Basic mark making materials will be supplied by the workshop. However, if your requirements go beyond compressed black charcoal, please bring them to the workshop.

Cost: $150 + the materials you will need to bring*

*Materials for canvas preparation:

  • Fine weave cotton duct canvas
  • Acrylic paint binder for unstretched canvas
  • Gesso for final canvas surface preparation
  • Medium sandpaper
  • Black builders plastic (at least 30cm larger than the canvas)
  • Gaffa tape
  • House paint brush to paint binder onto canvas. Reasonable quality so hairs are not left on canvas
  • Pots/bucket

*Materials for working on paper:

  • And/or at least 6 sheets of watercolour paper, the heavier the weight the better, but not less then 180grams.

To book your place please contact Avi Amesbury:

  • Phone: 0403 905 278
  • Email: avi [at] avicam.com
About John Lethbridge

John Lethbridge is a professional artist and was a founding academic of Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney University where he worked for twenty years. SCA is one of the four top art colleges in the world.

For the last ten years he has concentrated his own research into the psychological origins of the creative impulse and has developed a unique method of teaching his understanding through the medium of creative drawing.