Amherst College - Guest Critic - Drawing a Shifting Landscape
- onepaintingaday
- Jul 4
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 5
Early in May, I was invited to be the final guest critic for Abby Flanagan's art class at Amherst College, Drawing a Shifting Landscape, an art studio cross-listed within Amherst College's Art and History of Art and Architectural Studies Department. We spent a Tuesday afternoon together- gathered under the classroom pavilion at the Book and Plow Farm- a place out of time, with rolling terrain, perched high enough to catch glimpses of the Pelham hills in the distance, framed by tree lines in the mid-ground, and rows of crops in the foreground. The wind was constant, bringing fresh cool air and dancing clouds between Spring rain storms.
For several weeks prior, back home in the studio, I had been immersed in making a landscape mobile made up of Mylar tiles, and had just submitted a proposal for an interactive collaborative gallery exhibit. As a test of concept, I thought I could bring some of the experimentation to share with the students. For the class, I invited the students to join me in a "paint by number exercise" with paint pens, acrylic paint, and Mylar sheets. In the studio, I had prepped 9 of the tiles (each 15cm x 15 cm or roughly 6" x 6") of the larger 36 tile abstract composition with outlines and gesso washes. After introducing the exercise, students were invited to pick a set of three colors for their own tile and paint it in. One student used color pencil, others gravitated more towards the paint pens than brush and acrylic paint. I delighted in the color selections they derived with the simple instructions, "one light color, one medium color, and one dark color." While the students painted, I set up fishing line and magnets on the wood screen wall, in an area the most sheltered from the wind. to receive their completed tiles. It was quiet for twenty minutes as they painted, and no one looked at their phones, falling deeply into the task at hand. There was a bit of time upfront in deciding which media and colors to use.
As Abby signaled it was time to put pens and brushes down, we gathered outside the pavilion to bring the individual tiles together. The composition and size of shapes created relationships between the pieces, even though the colors and techniques differed between them. After a brief sharing of each artist's experience within the exercise, we returned to the classroom tables.
For the second half of the studio class time, students placed their cumulative work from their semester on tables, holding them down with large round river rocks (4" size) as paperweights for everyone to see. We stopped at each collection of drawings and paintings to hear each artist speak of their approach and the lens through which they were framing the class assignment to make it their own. Collectively we critiqued the work, each student held respect and affirmation for the other. And the students had insights for their peers as well as for their own work. I was impressed with the students' gentle consideration and culture of care towards the work.
The entire day felt magical- a little out of space and time, maybe because it was outside in such a scenic place, the build up an intense work schedule and stress of the work-day melted away. It felt as if there was a pause in my own timeline, and space set aside to reflect and share. And I felt attuned to the colors, the textures, the light, and the movement of the wind, a type of creative awareness that often is the scaffolding for really lovely artistic discoveries. Thanks Abby and the Class ARCH- 333 and ARHA-333 for sharing your work and your creative energy! And thanks to Book and Plow Farm for cultivating such a creative oasis for the campus!
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