
Madhouse Workshops
Surrealist Still Life Workshop
Course Description
Use your imagination, drawing skills, and newly learned knowledge of surrealist properties to bring everyday objects to life in a new and unusual way. Feel free to bring your own favorite drawing tools, but otherwise many options will be provided.
Surrealism is an art movement that is known for its dream like qualities. Artists represent themes in a manner that employs a specific set of characteristics such as abstraction, decontextualization, symbolism and much more. The viewer of surrealism recognizes objects and figures from everyday life that have been framed in an unusual manner, hence playing with our sense of reality.
Creating a still life can be a very technical art making activity with emphasis on accurate overlapping, proportion and shading. Incorporating surrealism into the everyday still life is a way to take the pressure off the need to be technically “correct” in art making. The objects used for this workshop are more of a starting or jumping off point to explore larger concepts.
In this workshop, you will learn about some of the major characteristics surrealist artists employ and incorporate them into the rendering of objects that are present in front of you. In this way, you will transform a still life into a dream like artwork that explores artistic vision, emotional communication and imaginative composition.
This workshop takes place on Nov. 20th from 1-3pm at 479 Main st. Greenfield, MA.
A mandatory registration fee of $25 will be requested once the course has reached it's minimum enrollment.
Instructor Bio

S.T. Gately is a Massachusetts based 2D Visual Artist and certified K-8 Art Teacher. She has been a practicing the Visual Artist for over twenty years and has exhibited in group and solo shows throughout the New England area. Gately attended Hampshire College where she received a B.A. in Comparative Religion and Visual Art in 2003. In 2008, Gately received her M.Ed for Teaching Visual Arts PreK-8 from Lesley University. Gately currently has artwork displayed at the Mill District Gallery and Bistro 63 and has upcoming solo exhibitions at the Sunderland Public Library and the Anchor House of Artists in Northampton.