LABORARTRY
Summer Arts School
January 2023
Raglan Whaingaroa
MULTI-DISCIPLINARY
RAGLAN ARTS SCHOOL
EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH
Laborartry is an arts school offering art courses and workshops in Raglan Whaingaroa. From weekly programs to immersive 3-day courses, and our Summer School, you’ll find creative activities for beginners and the more experienced.
Laborartry Summer School, January 2023
Printmaking Course with Dyana Wells
Woodcuts, linoprints and screen printing were the traditional methods used to make striking designs and prints. Students were encouraged to use reduction methods to develop their work through several stages. In the screen printing section the students created masks and used resists for printing onto paper and fabric.
Image preparation on light table
Inking up the lino cut
Preparation phase
Positioning after first print
Ready to overlay second print
Previous Course descriptions :: January 20-21-22
6 hours of focussed tutoring and exercises each day, with lunch breaks
Experimental Printmaking #2
with Dyana Wells
Woodcuts, linoprints and screen printing.
We will be working with traditional methods to make striking prints from woodcuts and linocuts. Students will be encouraged to use reduction methods to develop their work through several stages. This is easier than it sounds.
In the screen printing section we will be developing our ideas – making stencils as masks and using resists for printing onto paper and fabric.
Go home with a personalised teeshirt, dress, pillow case, or cushion cover.
No previous printing experience necessary.
Limited to 6 participants.
Photographic Storytelling
with Rodrigo Hill
Shape your creativity and develop your voice as a photographer.
For intermediate / hobbyists / semi-professional creatives who wish to shape their own styles in photo media.
Participants will follow an intensive 4-day programme and will be exposed to relevant case studies, conventions, photographic genres, styles and representational strategies. Click Details below for specific hours for this course.
You will develop your photography practice and skills and, with critiques and discussion, work towards an edited themed portfolio you can present.
Limited to 6 participants.
Wax to Bronze
with Stuart Shepherd
Students will be introduced to the process of planar wax sculpting and the principles of 3D design.
Day 1: Introduction to the process and materials, and begin working with the wax.
Day 2: review of first day’s work, continue refining work, introduction to various casting techniques.
Day 3: discussion and finalisation of work. Preparation of the finished pieces for transport to the foundry.
Limited to 6 participants.
For more information on the Tutors and their courses, click their name in the menu above.
Previous Course descriptions :: January 23-24-25
6 hours of focussed tutoring and exercises each day, with lunch breaks
Painting – Finding Your Voice
with Dyana Wells
This course is a journey about navigating chaos and structure, intuition and thinking, bold and gentle etc – complementary orientations as applicable to your own life as to your painting life.
In this course you are welcome to use whatever medium you like, eg watercolour, acrylic, oil pastels, soft pastels, coloured pencils, ink etc. You may wish to experiment with several.
Limited to 6 participants.
Design and Optimisation for Creative Websites with Brian Thurogood
Learn to create a new website using the latest Website Builder options.
Understand the limitations of the “free” website builders, and why you don’t want to be locked into their platform – and their true costs.
Learn how to upgrade/update your existing website to include the latest design tools.
Understand why Search Engine Optimisation is a minefield, and yet easy to action when you use the top 5 tips.
Limited to 8 participants.
Art of Nostalgia and Memento
with Wanda Barker
Participants will bring objects, mementos, fabric or items of clothing that hold meaning for them and that they’re prepared to cut, rip, glue, paint and reassemble.
We will explore the stories of the objects throughout day one, and how they might be remade, either on canvas or as sculptural pieces.
We will choose a palette and mediums to explore on paper, using building foam, tape and glue guns, embellishing the work with paint, or card collage, fabric, beads, glitter or crafted elements, i.e. crochet.
Participants limited to 8
Experimental Printmaking #2 with Dyana Wells
Printmaking is a way to create stunning pieces of art without needing years of practice. If you can think it, you can do it.
Please bring along concept/image ideas and clothing or fabric to print on.
No experience necessary.
Limited to 6 participants. $220 + $30 materials.
January 20-21-22 2023
Open Ground Art Studio, 24 Lily Street, Raglan
Photographic Storytelling with Rodrigo Hill
This workshop invites participants to execute a themed project of their interest. Participants will work individually to produce their projects working towards a final portfolio of images.
You will explore the language of photographic storytelling, the curation skills of editing and sequencing, and gain a deeper understanding of best practice.
Thursday evening, 19th January, 5pm–7pm
An introduction to methods and strategies to successfully execute a photo media project. Bring your ideas and camera equipment.
Friday 20th and Saturday 21st January
9am–1pm each day: working solo or with others to photograph your project and ideas.
1pm–3pm each day: present on tablet or laptop a selection of your work for individual review and group discussion.
Rest of the day: You may use this time to keep exploring your ideas and photography practice.
Sunday 22nd January
9am–2pm Final shooting time and preparation for afternoon session. Bring three final selections to present.
2pm–6pm: Introduction to editing and sequencing, final individual critiques and group presentation.
At Little Hill Studios, 49B Hills Road.
Limited to 6 participants. $200 per person.
Art of Nostalgia and Memento with Wanda Barker
Working intuitively with colour and textures, we will craft art pieces to take away that hold some of their original meaning, or they might have evolved into a new story.
An altar piece, or relic 2D or 3D adding bits and pieces over the course of the workshop, until we have a work that is satisfying.
Small warning: This work is emotionally evocative, deep and fun, and can stir up strong feelings and that’s a good place to make art from.
At Little Hill Studios, 49B Hills Road, Tea/coffee, BYO lunch & wine.
Limited to 8 participants. $225 + $60 materials
Introduction to Community Photography (5–12yo) with Elisabeth Denis
10 week program on Wednesdays 3:30-5pm, October 12 to December 14.
Introduce youth to the expressive use of photography. Here’s what they will achieve:
- A different theme will be explored every week. Each person will be taking a photo of the subject of their choice.
- Learn about capturing landscapes, portraits, exposure, saturation, contrast, and the editing process.
- At the end of the program, their favorite photographs will be printed and exhibited beside the ones of the rest of the group.
$195 – materials included.
Raglan Scout Hall, 49 Cliff Street
Visual Storytelling with Stuart Shepherd
Over the 4 week period students will be given exercises aimed at helping develop their particular skills in visual story-telling.
Workshops will be held where hands-on skills will be developed and where Individual projects will be assigned and reviewed. Workshops will deal with drawing and composition and digital photography in contemporary contexts.
During the final week each student will have the opportunity to put together a presentation portfolio as a takeaway showcase of their work .
$75
October 19 to November 9
21–23 Wallis Street, Raglan
Practical Talk with Marten Ten Broek
1. The Role of Art in Societal Transformation – October 19
From the first, art has been catalytic in how we evolve as a species. It simultaneously affirms our beliefs and kicks them down. It galvanises us in action … it forces us to look at ourselves. But it also possesses the ability to convey ideas and information in ways more attached to our passions and emotions, and has been used in as many ways to control as it has to liberate. This talk will explore ideas about the role of art in societal transformation in the context of history, the present, and about how the future could look, if we are able and wish it.
2. Remix! – October 26
History is littered with examples of trends, fads, crazes, styles. There are piles of masterpieces, and still more piles of derivatives. We are in continual cycles of revisiting ideas in art, rummaging through the attics and annals, and re-representing them with new contexts and purposes. Engaging in this process, whether negative or positive, is part of art. But where are we crossing lines? When does homage give way to sycophancy? At what point does art lose its power through dilution? Do we kill off our heroes and heroines by continually sampling them … or do we keep them alive?
3. Death and Art – November 2
Death, the inevitable. The inescapable. There is something about art that we trust ourselves in when we are searching for our own feelings, or seeking recognition that others have felf the same thing as we, or so differently that our divergence of thought from theirs, proves to us that such thoughts and feelings must be by right, most individual. This must also be true whether by making it on a personal level, or by viewing it. Something as sure as death is relateable for us all, and this makes it a widely-visited subject for the perusal of art. In this talk, we will regard some examples of death in art, both historical and current.
4. The Art of Fire – November 9
One of the most instantly recognisable examples of japanese culture must surely be the japanese sword configuration known as the katana. It has been elevated to mythical status through the oft repeated ideas that popular culture has instilled in us. This talk will give a historical context to its development, a practical and factual account of what goes into the production of a japanese sword, and how the view of one as an item of high art saved the tradition of swordmaking in Japan from being discontinued. It will also touch on themes such as fetishisation, nationalism, propaganda, cowboy movies and jedi mind tricks.
5. How to Find Your Sound – building guitars in dirt-floor sheds – November 16
Every musician is beholden to the need for an instrument. There are racks of them filling stores. But what do you do if you cannot find something you can feel right with, or you cannot afford to lay your hands on what you crave? There is a brazilian expression that says, “if you don’t have a dog to hunt with, hunt with a cat”. In that spirit, I started making stringed instruments. Please join me, and a pile of instruments that are answers to questions I had to ask myself along the way to finding my sound. The idea is to elicit questions in you about why it is you play what you do, what you would play if it didn’t already exist, and perhaps inspire you to find your very own sound. Nothing is as it seems. Everything is as you wish, if you are game to try.
5 week Talk series. Wednesdays 6:30pm–8pm. $10 per session.
45 Bow Street, Raglan Community House Meeting Room
Painting – Finding Your Voice with Dyana Wells
This is a painting course suitable for beginners and more experienced artists who may feel stuck and looking for new inspiration and ideas.
It is an exploratory course, with different exercises each week to develop an understanding of colour, tone, line, form and texture.
In this course you will develop confidence in your own mark making and decision making processes. You will move towards authentic art making. You will be exploring the principles underlying art making, so you can trouble shoot and fix problematic areas. However most significantly you will start to find your own voice and the joy this brings to painting. You are welcome to explore both abstract and representational ideas
All materials supplied.
Adults, 6 students maximum
$220 + $30 materials
Open Ground Art Studio, 24 Lily Street, Raglan
Introduction to Character Design with Arshad Mirza Baig
4 week program, Saturdays 10am–1pm, from October 29
This series of lectures will focus on the fundamentals of character design. Core drawing elements such as simplified anatomy, structure and basic shape construction will be explained before moving on to understanding how to implement exaggeration and appeal into a drawing.
The importance of Personality, characterisation and stylistic choices will also be explained as well as understanding how to adapt human expressions into animal and inanimate objects.
Basic material requirements: sketchbook, no smaller than A4 – A3 preferred.
Basic drawing equipment: pencils, pens and erasers can be expanded upon with markers and coloured pencils etc. All equipment must be brought to the lectures.
Adults $200, 7 students max
45 Bow Street, Raglan Community House Meeting Room
Hands-On Practical Workshops with Marten Ten Broek
Saturdays, 9am–1pm, 4 week program, from November 5
Hammerforging a cutting tool – November 5
The aim is for the learner to feel the satisfaction of making a tool from scratch, the old way. Due to the nature of the processes, this is suitable for individuals only. Introduction to hot metalwork and hammerforging processes, sharpening and polishing processes, handle making and fitting, and sheathing/scabbarding.
Making charcoal for drawing – November 12
Charcoal is a highly cost effective way to engage in drawing and mark making, and variation in wood species leave a lot of room to experiment. In a world pulsating with colour and slickness, great peace can come with simple black and grey and the scratching, squeaking, tinkling sound of something that never feels cold to the touch. The huge variation in wood ensures varying effects on how it draws, and it is a wonderful way to use bits and offcuts, or garden prunings, or perhaps broken but sentimental wooden items to add to your story.
Creation of art materials and tools – November 19
Visual art is as simple as leaving marks that can be seen by others, since we lived in caves. There is a particular joy that can be got from adding a second layer of creativity in your art making process. That is, making materials and tools to apply them in your own work.
These may include simplicities such as charcoal, ink, or paint making. The essence of the mark. Or it could be canvas stretching, easel making, palette knife forging, or through to slightly more complex things such as wood carving gouges or hatchets.
Find a lump and ride it like the wind – November 26
Since our species first ripped the trucks off roller-skates and stuck them in parallel, it has been skateboard mayhem. I have ridden skateboards for 44 years now, with the odd pause, and there is still no greater fun than to find a lump and ride it like the wind.
The rules are:
- You are allowed commercially available trucks, wheels and bearings.
- The board you mount them to must not contain skateboard decks.
- The board cannot be made of brand new wood, unless it is from wood with bark on it still, otherwise it must have been some plank else in a former life.
- You must take no more than a day to make your lump. Let’s face it, it’s drilling a few holes, sticking on some griptape, making some art on it to suit your taste, and tightening a few nuts.
- You ride lump dress up. Doesn’t matter what you dress up as, so long as you dress up. Then, we go test them. Flatland, asphalt, maybe some pumptrack, and go bomb some hills.
- Safety first. Helmets and pads are always cool. Make sure your plank is strong enough to take it. There are copious lumps at Xtreme, if you can’t find an old plank kicking around home that you can claim.
That’s it. Make them, and ride them like the wind. No contest, no kick tail, just some skateplanking.
Adults $140, 7 students max
21–23 Wallis Street, Raglan
Introduction to Table Top Sculpture with Stuart Shepherd
Saturdays, 10am–1pm, 4 week program, from November 26
Introducing students to working with the traditional materials of clay and wax, and the less traditional material of synthetic clay.
Students will be guided through an exploration of hand building with both natural and synthetic clay (sculpey). The principles of 3d design, composition, structure and movement will be discussed in an informal workshop environment.
If time allows the class will be introduced to the process of casting.
Students can expect to take away work to be completed in their own time. Note this is a hands-on “making” workshop. Support and advice for students will be available to follow through with firing and casting of finished pieces.
$145 + $65 materials cost
21–23 Wallis Street, Raglan
Wax to Bronze with Stuart Shepherd
Note: This course takes students through the steps necessary to prepare wax pieces for the foundry process. The eventual casting of the bronze happens at a foundry some days after the completion of the course.
The cleaning up and finishing of the bronze will be discussed in the workshop but the actual work will happen outside the course. There will be a number of options available.
Stuart brings his experience of commercial model-making to this course.
Max no. of students 6.
Course fee $200 includes wax
Design and Optimisation for Creative Websites with Brian Thurogood
- design for the user, not for a design award
- best practices for navigation and user flow
- using your brand design to best effect
- creating for desktop, laptop, tablet and mobile (yes, they are all different)
- sales funnels
- Google (and human) credibility
- image types and sizes
Max no. of students 8.
Course fee $180