Five Points Arts is proud to announce the receipt of a $7500 grant from the Northwest Connecticut Community Foundation and the Edward W. Diskavich Fund in support of artists living and working in Northwest Connecticut. This funding allows regional artists, based on need, free access to workshops, facilities and equipment at the Five Points Art Center located at 855 University Drive in Torrington.
Five Points Arts is grateful to the Northwest Connecticut Community Foundation for supporting the Five Points mission: “to champion and nurture artists at all stages of their careers and to empower a diverse community through the presentation of inspiring exhibitions and educational initiatives”.
For more information on the application process, contact Jenni Freidman, Five Points Arts Education Director: jfreidman@fivepointsarts.org
Dates: Wednesdays, June 1 – August 25
Times: 6 – 8 PM
Practice your figure drawing skills during this weekly drop-in workshop. Each session will begin with warm-up gesture drawings and will include a variety of longer poses. No instruction is provided, and artists will need to bring their own materials. Suggested materials include: charcoal, graphite, colored pencils, pens, watercolors, and newsprint or sketchpads. Seating is limited to 12 participants, and drawing tables and chairs are provided. All skill levels are welcome!
Instructor Name: Tony Kirk
Date: June 5, 2022
Time: 10:00 – 2:00
This workshop will focus on printing by hand using Japanese paper. Once the print is hand printed, then we will take the plate to the press and print a strong “ghost” impression. Prendergast’s monotypes were small and printing by hand takes a little effort, therefore you will make more prints if you keep your image small.
Instructor Name: Mike Berlinski
Date(s): June 11th
Time(s): 10:00 – 4:00
Workshop Description:
This workshop will go over the basics of painting outdoors. Including composition, values and color theory. It will cover the importance of proper observation, lighting and learning to identify key elements in a landscape. In addition color mixing, application and personal expression will be discussed. There will be plenty of one on one help for each student. Taught by an accomplished professional plein-air painter.
Instructor Name: Sophia DeJesus-Sabella
Date: June 22, 2022
Time: 1:00 – 5:00
Ages: 18+
This workshop will introduce students to the process of tapestry weaving, starting with building a frame loom and ending with a finished tapestry piece. Students will explore color, texture, and image making by working with a variety of tapestry weaving techniques. At the end of the workshop, participants will have a completed tapestry piece and a frame loom to continue weaving at home.
Instructor Name: Stephen Maine
Date: July 9, 2022
Time: 10:00 – 5:00
A truly democratic art form, collage requires few technical skills, yet its conceptual reach is boundless. Collage employs spatial disruption as an organizing principle, its interplay of fragmentation and continuity accommodating and even celebrating contingencies of concept, process, and form. Suited to artists as well as graphic designers, this workshop considers collage as both a pictorial strategy and a vehicle for communication. Experimentation is encouraged in physical and digital modes, and special emphasis is given to the compositional behavior of color, the fluidity of iconographic meaning, and visual humor.
Morning Classes: 9:00 - 12:00
Lunch: 12:00 - 1:00
Afternoon Classes: 1:00 - 4:00
Each class is capped at 12 students ages 13-17
Come explore the beautiful Five Points Art Center campus and create art in our fabulous labs! Students who are serious about artmaking will flourish in this environment that allows them to work with a variety of materials, explore new techniques, and experience the joy of making art. The space, equipment, and facility at Five Points Art Center are unparalleled in the area and are ready to welcome you!
Instructor Name: Ethan Newman
Date: July 16, 2022
Time(s): 10:00 – 1:00
What makes a successful composition? This workshop will explore the critical role of composition in painting and drawing, and dive into its often complex relationship with color.
The workshop will close out with a casual group critique of the work created in the class. By the end of this course students will have created their own unique work of art, have a firmer understanding of the nature of painting as a medium, and have an increased grasp on the elements of composition.
Instructor Name: Luther Gerlach
Date: July 16, 2022
Time: 10:00 – 4:00
Invented by Henry Fox Talbot in the early 1830s, salt prints are the earliest photographs on paper. For contemporary students, this is a fun, relatively easy process to make images in. You’ll come away with an intimate understanding of the origins of photography, the building blocks of photographic print making and non-camera image making. With the pure interaction of light and chemistry we’ll create images you might find in a Talbot book: feathers, lace and botanicals.
Instructor Name: Sophia DeJesus-Sabella
Date: July 21, 2022
Time: 10:00 - 1:00
Darning is the technique of mending a hole in cloth by stitching and interweaving yarn by hand. The process incorporates embroidery and weaving to create beautiful, functional repairs. We will move through the mending process from start to finish, learning embroidery stitches, weaving patterns, and color theory along the way.
Instructor Name: Kait Lennon
Date: July 23, 2022
Time: 10:00 – 2:00
This workshop will have us reconnecting with nature and ourselves, to slow down, focus and observe. Venturing outside, we’ll pull inspiration from the landscape around us. Whether you feel a strong connection to a particular plant, the dance of the leaves in the breeze or the way the light hits at golden hour. Run with what sparks your interest and start sketching.
Instructor Name: Carol Wax
Date(s): July 30 &31
Time(s): 9:00- 5:00 each day
In this two-day workshop participants learn how to prepare a [black] mezzotint ground and proper use of tools and techniques for creating and printing an image. Demonstrations of alternative grounding methods, use of mezzotint with other intaglio techniques, ways to correct mistakes, and cool printing tricks make this workshop useful for artists with knowledge of intaglio processes as well as beginners with no prior experience. Individual attention assures each participant produces a finished print.
Instructor: Souby Boski
Date: Friday, August 5th
Time: 1:00 - 4:00 PM
This workshop is intended for anyone who wants to explore non-representational painting by experimenting and applying free expression of one’s personal perception. Students of all levels develop a working knowledge of abstract painting, challenging them to see and interpret in new ways. Using acrylic paint, graphite, charcoal, oil pastels and other tools students will explore color, line, movement, mark making, form, proportion, shapes and texture. No prior experience necessary, appropriate to beginners to advanced painters. All materials included – just bring a sketchbook!
Instructor Name: Jessica Somers
Date(s): September 17th and 18th
Time(s): 10:00 – 4:00
In this workshop, we will explore a modern variation of the original Albumen process to create photographs that have a vintage appearance. During the workshop, participants will be guided through the basics of coating paper with an egg white solution, preparing digital negatives, and the printing and processing of Albumen photographs. At the conclusion of this workshop, students will come away with a selection of their own Albumen prints and will also be provided with written instructions, an Albumen supply list, and a digital curve file for printing Albumen negatives.