november 2023 intersession marathon

This 5-day Marathon is ideal for artists who wish to engage with abstraction and who seek strategies that will unlock new ways of working and perceiving. Led in real-time by abstract painter Fran O'Neill and limited to an intimate group of twenty participants, this Marathon will enable you to experience pathways to abstraction from your studio location, wherever you may be in the world. We welcome you to join us for this rigorous 5-day immersion and look forward to the ripple effects that it will have on your drawing and painting for years to come.

The Virtual Drawing Marathon will explore pathways, literal and metaphorical roads, to the creation of abstract works. Participants will be encouraged to make many works and studies, with the idea of traveling beyond the threshold of what they might consider to be the final product, into new arenas of abstraction. Beginning with a pre-existing historical image (this could be a work chosen ahead of time, or a selection of works will be presented during the first session to choose from) participants will be encouraged to enact ways of shifting this image further into abstraction, focusing on how one image can inform the next. Various approaches via drawing will be explored; not limited to, but may include explorations of: shape, line, intersections, scale, collage and mark making.

Participants should be committed and care deeply enough to be willing to recreate or destroy a work in order to allow a new and different process to come into play. This will be a jumping off point to explore abstraction and how to achieve a new exploration of an image(s) based on pre-existing geometry and exploring subtle (and not so subtle) shifts that can occur, via scale and a variety of mark making, which could result in a very different image than what the original source. This course is for anyone with a curiosity to explore and may develop differently for each participant. The first few days will solely focus on drawing and collage, with students having the option to work with a limited palette in paint during the last two days.

NYSS Marathons:

New York Studio School Marathons explore drawing, painting, and sculpture as direct methodologies for understanding one's experience in the world. Participants experience a wide range of activating, first-hand strategies for making art, in tandem with the intellectual rigor of extensive group and individual critiques. The innovation and depth inherent in these programs expand participants' engagement with their materials of choice and lead to ways of creating which continue far beyond each program's conclusion. Open to artists of all levels, courses are taught daily In-Person or Virtually in real-time from 9am – 6pm ET.

Join us this fall online from anywhere in the world to immerse yourself in essential art making strategies, experiences, and discussions that will infuse your work with vivacity and new direction.

ABOUT NEW YORK STUDIO SCHOOL:

The New York Studio School was founded in 1964 as an intensive studio arts program with an emphasis on perception; artists learning from artists; and drawing as the most direct means of describing one’s ideas or experiences. To learn more about our full-time programs: MFA, Certificate, virtual and in person; or additional part-time options: Evening & Weekend Classes, Drawing Master Classes and Sculpture Master Classes; please email info@nyss.org with any questions or to schedule a virtual or in-person visit.