Preserve the spectacular Himalayan region through drawing, painting, printmaking, and photography

The Woodstock Summer School Art sessions will be led by artist Samita Chatterjee, who will take our young minds through a journey of capturing the spectacular Himalayan region through various forms of art.

This art course will provide students with the opportunity to immerse themselves in the outdoors as they learn important skills on how to create their own plein-air paintings in both traditional as well as digital media.

Learners will use different techniques to create prints, such as using botanicals that they forage for themselves, drawings on transparencies, cutouts and digital film negatives. The course also includes an introduction to digital painting and using nature studies to create illustrations.”

These sessions will also provide a great opportunity to learn how to create digital film negatives from photographic and digitally created artworks. Our instructor will introduce the young artists to the use of cyanotype prints (also called sun prints) and show them how to create prints on paper and fabric. Our end goal for young learners is to offer them a glimpse into how art can be expressed through techniques that they can explore for the rest of the summer, and their lives.

Who should take this course?

Students interested in painting, printmaking, photography and digital art will find this an exciting course. Some experience with drawing and painting is a bonus, but anyone with an interest in learning new artistic techniques will find themselves spoilt for choice. The course is built to make it enjoyable and informative for young artists who are beginning their creative journey as well as those who are looking to hone their skills and learn new techniques. We love a spirit of exploration and experimentation in the young artists who join us.

What skills and knowledge will participants gain through the course?

This is a unique opportunity for students to work with both traditional and digital mediums of art, which is indispensable to artists today. The intent of the course is for our participants to study and explore the hillside through drawings and paintings and learn specific skills to produce final artworks inspired by their studies, which could be digital work, paintings or cyanotype prints. Students will receive an introduction to digital painting using Photoshop and Procreate as well as learn to use digital software to work with photographs, create digital art and convert them into film negatives to create cyanotype prints. Techniques like paintings on transparencies, stencil cut-outs, using botanical elements like ferns and flowers to create artwork will be a part of the printmaking section of the course.

Week One:

• Exploring the hillside through drawings and paintings from life.
• Introduction to  cyanotype printing.
• Composing paintings and drawings on transparencies to create prints.
• Learning to create paper cut-outs and stencils from drawings to make prints.
• Foraging for botanical elements, finding unique patterns to create botanical prints on paper and fabric.

Week Two:

• Working with photography, digital manipulation and preparing film negatives for printing.
• Digital art with digital softwares to produce film negatives.
• Toning and working with cyanotype artworks post printing.