What Makes a Great Workshop?

The opportunity to teach or to take a workshop can be an integral part of your practice as an artist.

Each role is a way to strengthen, develop or gain new skills, network, and meet interesting people.

So what makes a great workshop? 

Participants at my Encaustic Workshop at DCAD

It comes down to the experience and, the take away.

The experience:  Is it a safe and positive experience for both the teacher and the students? 

Is everyone engaged, supported, as well as, challenged? 

Here are 3 steps to ensuring a great workshop- on both ends.

1. Be prepared.  

Teacher: Clear realistic goals and intentions for the time and space allotted. 

If this is a new venue for you have you checked out the space or asked about a sink,               work tables, ventilation, etc?  Do you need a smart board or any other media available? Have you sent a list of materials to your students so they know what they need to bring?

Students: Have you received/reviewed the materials you need to bring?  Are you wearing the right clothing? Do you need gloves, steel tipped shoes, whatever???? Lunch, snacks? (that's always high on my list)

More shots from Encaustic Workshop at DCAD

2. Be Organized.

Teacher: I keep (at least) two Materials/Supply Lists on my computer:

1. What I need to bring for the various workshops I teach- Monotype, Altered Books, Encaustic, Image Transfer, these can be edited or adapted for any upcoming opportunity that may present itself and 

2. What I'd like my students to bring. 

If the workshop has a materials fee, have you clarified and confirmed with the hosting organization who is responsible for picking these materials up? If it is you, save your receipts so you can get reimbursed!

Do you have your handouts prepared? Students love handouts (me included) to review what was covered, refresh and have a handy list of resources. 

Students: Do you have a way to transport your supplies? Even if it's not on the list, it's always a good idea to have on hand pencil, permanent marker, note paper, scissors or utility knife and an apron. 

Linda Merry adding encaustic to her water based oil painting

3. Expectations

This speaks to both the experience and the take away.

Teacher: What are your expectations for the workshop? your students'? This is where having a syllabus to handout is helpful.  You are clear on what you need to cover... history, safety, logistics, and skills. Any or all of the above.

Usually you would not know your students' expectations ahead of time so that's why during my introduction I give an overview of what the workshop will cover. Then when I have them introduce themselves I ask them what their experience is with the medium or topic, and what they would like to get out of the class. This is important. If their expectations are unrealistic best to address that in the beginning.   (Many years ago I taught a series of Monotype and Collograph Workshops and halfway through a participant was not happy with what she created. She left the workshop, her work behind, never to be seen again. Turns out that she wanted to create something to match her sofa- and her collograph was a bit too abstract and uncontrollable for her abilities) 

Student: What is it you hope to learn from this class?  Are you willing to experiment and be engaged in the process or are you looking for something to hang over your sofa or put on your coffee table?  If so, please let your instructor know! 

Encaustic, graphite powder, image transfer on birch panel
©Laurel Redefer

The take away: What have you learned and how can you integrate new systems or techniques into your studio or teaching practice? And... something to show that demonstrates the new skill you have learned! 

Colleen McCarthy and her piece
Encaustic, oil pastel, image transfer on cradled board

The Painterly Print: Monoprint Workshop

Here are some shots from my Painterly Print: Monoprint Workshop at Delaware College of Art & Design this past Sunday. The monoprint process is the most direct and spontaneous of methods of printmaking.  

Photos by Jessica Sturgis,
Director of Communications
Delaware College of Art and Design
A Creative Partnership of Pratt and the Corcoran

Working with a variety of textures the students experimented with color and process and enjoying fun surprises along the way.

Love these papers that one student brought from India.

Meeting new wonderful and creative people is always a bonus in a workshop

A workshop is a great way to make time for yourself!

Monoprints by DCAD student Joel Turner

The print on the left was the first run, printed on Rives BFK White,

the one on the right is the "ghost" print- we ran the plate through the

press a second time without adding any ink.

Printed on Rives BFK Buff.

Look for my Monoprint and Book Arts Workshop in the Winter Catalogue at Delaware College of Art & Design in their Continuing Ed Program.

Recipe for Burnt Offering

Next Sunday I will be teaching a workshop at DCAD called Mixed Media Mash-Up.  A perfect opportunity to bring out your found objects and other materials that somehow "spoke to you" but weren't sure what you would do with it.

Burnt Offering, 2005
Encaustic, plastic, nails on wood,
 12" x 12"
©2012NanciHersh

"Creative insights often occur by making connections between ideas or experiences that were previously unconnected."

Sir Ken Robinson, Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative

Burnt Offering is part of a series I did in response for surgery for breast cancer.  The tree cutoffs were a metaphor for loss and the materials that I used with each one varied.  This piece began with a floral plastic placemat that melted in the drawer below my oven when I used the self cleaning setting. Everything else fell into place with that.

Give yourself the time and space to find connections that Sir Ken is referring to in the quote above from his book, Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative.  

Come join me Sunday, September 30 from 1-4 at DCAD at my Mixed Media Mash-Up workshop.

A sure fire recipe for the unexpected!

Drawing Energy of Form

Sculptor Stan Smokler is this week's guest blogger for the Artist as Collector series.

9" x 12"

©2012BernarVenet

"I am writing this after returning from NYC and visiting galleries.  


I find it almost impossible to enjoy one work that I see.. bits and pieces......but some time ago - perhaps 7 years  or so...I discovered a wonderful artist by the name of  Bernar Venet... and was spiritually moved by the way he used line; creating exciting movement in space.  


He did this by his ability to draw with "steel" both on paper and physically.  ....So, I purchased a work on paper from the artist  Bernar Venet's that captures the movement and energy of form.....Most sculptors cannot draw - including myself! ...but they can see the volume and complexity of the material ...I am thrilled with the work..."


About this week's Guest Blogger:
Stan Smokler is a sculptor, adjunct professor at DCAD and curator.  He also teaches an intensive weeklong welding workshop at his studio in the summer that I hear is awesome
(and HOT).  I also know that he is a passionate and skilled squash player when he is not welding, teaching, curating or looking at art.