Curtis Bartone residency/workshop at Penland

Written by Curtis Bartone

I was invited to teach a two-week workshop at the Penland School of Crafts, an art utopia tucked away in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. The workshop was called, BEYOND THE SKETCHBOOK, and it was built upon the premise that drawings can be ends in themselves (as opposed to stepping stones to works in other media). We analyzed and explored the physical properties of drawing materials and surfaces. We covered charcoal, graphite, pen/ink, ink washes, color pencil, pastel, and the centuries-old technique of metalpoint drawing.

The students were amazing: motivated, hard-working, and open. We breathed clean mountain air, ate/drank well, and made a lot of drawings. It was difficult returning to the real world.