North Lands Creative Glass releases Summer 2011 course schedule

Organized around the theme of “Touching the Past,” the North Lands Master Class schedule for summer of 2011 has been finalized. In August and September, the Northeast Scotland-based center for the creative use of glass will offer four sessions instructed by five established artists from around the globe seasoned in glass work, sculpture, painting and an array of techniques. Closing the summer of workshops and classes will be a 2-day International Conference where speakers will relate their work and the Master Class courses to the overall theme. Many of the courses will tap into the rugged natural beauty of Caithness, Scotland’s farmland and coastal setting, students’ personal pasts, and their ability to translate both into glass-based work.

Each of the four Master Classes offered will be led by either a single artist or a pair who will help participants develop techniques for hot glass blowing, glass painting, grisaille, sculpture, cast glass, and other techniques. A class-by-class rundown is offered below:

Session 1, from August 24 to September 1, will be taught by Czech sculptor Ivana Sramkova. Sramkova employs the use of cast glass to create pieces simplistic in shape but that communicate an attention to human and animal form. She will head a course titled “The Pleasures and Difficulties of Choice,” focused on the creation of abstract pieces using basic tools and the inspiration of Scotland’s natural surroundings.

Session 2, from August 24 to September 1, will be taught by British potter Philip Eglin and British cast glass artist Tessa Clegg. Eglin’s work reflects an appreciation for past and current events, as Clegg’s work tends to focus more on the physical form and texture of each individual piece. Together their backgrounds will inspire the course, titled “The Drive to Improvise,” a week-long exercise in developing an eye for form as well as the incorporation of modern and historical subject matter. Students will be doing hot glass blowing using different moulds over the weeks, as well as cold working and decals.

Session 3, from September 6 – September 14, will be instructed by American glass sculptor Michael Rogers. With work rooted in narrative glass sculpture, Rogers’s course, titled “Out of Thin Air” is designed to fuse language and glass in a way that will illustrate each student’s perception of their surroundings as well as found objects. The course will involve hot glass working, cast and blown, moulding and field trips Rogers designed to influence the creative process.

Session 4, from September 6 – September 14, will be taught by American glass painter Cappy Thompson. Thompson, a Seattle native, uses images stylized similarly to mythological and folktale art, painted on glass to communicate personal experiences and stories. Those enrolled in her course, titled “Painting on Glass: Developing a Personal Iconography,” will discuss how the work produced will reflect each students individual style, using painting as a medium for glass decoration. There will be a heavy emphasis on the use of grisaille painting style, a technique Thompson often uses in her own work.

The International Conference, from September 3 – September 4, will offer a series of lectures presented by curators Jane Pritchard and Tina Oldknow, art historians Paul Faber and Marjan Unger, journalist Louise Tait, and each of the artists instructing Master Classes. The lectures will highlight the relationship between the theme, “Touching the Past,” and the artists personal work, as well as in-depth commentary on topics such as glass art history, jewelry, and local Scottish craft.

—Alica Forneret