PROVINCETOWN, Mass. – “Art is wonderful. It’s something with which you are never finished. Life and art are the same thing. You are always learning. You don’t graduate from it as much as you answer something which opens up new possibilities and more questions for you to answer.” Said Doug Ritter, instructor of the upcoming course at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, “Working in a Series: Designing your Practice.” Ritter’s workshop will run Tuesday-Thursday, July 5-7 from 1:30-4:30pm at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum.
Ritter’s low-key, fun methods provide an excellent way to discover, define or refine your ideas and work process.
Ritter, recently certified as a Drawing From the Right Side of Your Brain instructor, has been a year-round resident of outer Cape Cod since 1997. He has taught painting, design, drawing and color theory within the BFA Programs of the Corcoran School of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, and the Savannah College of Art and Design, and currently is on the faculty at Cape Cod Community College.
Together, Ritter and his students will develop a customized plan relevant to the student’s interests, strengths and preferences. Over the course of the workshop, students will learn how to take an existing work of their own and use it as a basis for generating additional works in a series, or students may start with a concept instead of an existing piece of art. Ritter will help students explore and define the materials, techniques, point of view and technical issues necessary to carry the concept through to production.
The goal of this course is not to leave with a plan that students later have to execute on their own but rather to develop and refine a plan from which the students are creating art while in class. Ideally, students will leave with four to five new pieces of work and a fresh, process-based way of working that will facilitate continued growth on their own.
The first day of class students will look at existing artwork, styles and techniques, talk about their work/ideas, sketch and storyboard ideas, and develop a personalized map of the rest of the sessions.
Each session will end with a period of sharing, critique and peer feedback, which, even as a professional painter and professor, Ritter finds rewarding and useful. “As unique as I think I am, I am still working from a tradition, a history of painters. I always learn from my students,” said Ritter.
This course is suited for anyone who has explored a variety of types of work and is looking to become more defined as an artist, for anyone who would like to develop more technical skills looking to create a structured, process-driven way to work.
This course is intended to explore any 2D materials and can accommodate beginner to advanced students. Students may either bring an existing work to build upon, or a concept to bring to fruition.
Ritter is teaching another course at PAAM from July 26-29 also aimed at helping artists apply a system to their working methods, Capturing the Impression: An Experiential and Logical Approach to Observational Painting.
For more information or to register for this course, visit PAAM.org or contact Grace Ryder-O’Malley at gryderomalley@paam.org or 508-487-1750.
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Course Details
Working in a Series: Designing your Practice
Provincetown Art Association and Museum
Tuesday-Thursday, July 5-7, 1:30-4:30pm
Course Description
Open to two-dimensional forms and practices, our discussions serve to model potentialities, and identify one’s strengths and proclivities. Participants may develop existing work, generate new work specific to this opportunity, or use work from the museum as a starting point. Intermediate to advanced two-dimensional artists are welcome, and may work in drawing, painting, or mixed media.
In this course, we identify the issues and processes that individuals engage in their work, and examine the narrative and structural processes involved in communicating through art. We create a plan that emphasizes the integration of content and process by generating a series of related works, then we storyboard, laundry list, generate studies, and sample materials. This class offers a balance of discussion, criticism, experimentation, and concentrated studio time.
Open to two-dimensional forms and practices, our discussions serve to model potentialities, and identify one’s strengths and proclivities. Participants may develop existing work, generate new work specific to this opportunity, or use work from the museum as a starting point. Intermediate to advanced two-dimensional artists are welcome, and may work in drawing, painting, or mixed media.
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Biography
Doug Ritter has been a year-round resident of outer Cape Cod since 1997. He has taught painting, design, drawing and color theory within the BFA Programs of the Corcoran School of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, and the Savannah College of Art and Design, and currently is on the faculty at Cape Cod Community College, and serves on the Visual Program Committee of the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown.
Awards and grants include a Maryland State Arts Council grant in 2-Dimensional Media; a Mid-Atlantic/National Endowment for the Arts Visual Arts Fellowship in Painting; SECCA/R.J. Reynolds Fellowship from the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art; and a residency/fellowship from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. His solo exhibitions include School 33 Art Center, Baltimore, MD; Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA; Elon College, Burlington, NC; and Julie Heller Gallery in Provincetown, MA.
His work is in the permanent collection of the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, Mass., and the Cahoon Museum of American Art in Cotuit, Mass., and in many private collections.
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About the Provincetown Art Association and Museum
Provincetown Art Association and Museum was established in 1914 by a group of artists and townspeople to build a permanent collection of works by artists of outer Cape Cod, and to exhibit art that would allow for unification within the community. Through a comprehensive schedule of exhibitions of local and national significance and educational outreach, Provincetown Art Association and Museum provides the public access to art, artists, and the creative process.
PAAM, located at 460 Commercial St., is open (October – May) noon to 5 p.m., Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, also open by appointment; (Memorial Day – September) 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. Monday – Thursday, 11 a.m. – 10 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. General admission $7. Free to members and children 12 and under. For more information, please call 508-487-1750 or visit www.paam.org.
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