New Abstract Painting Classes and Drawing Workshop with Mitzi Vardill - Interview with Mitzi

Acrylic on Paper by Mitzi Vardill

Mitzi Vardill has been teaching around Sydney for many years and her art practice is varied, mastering a wide range of mediums and techniques. At Centrehouse, Mitzi has taught mixed media painting and she will be teaching a Pathways to Abstraction, painting class on Thursday evenings from 6pm and a special workshop for beginners, called the Drawing, the First Steps on 18th June 2011. Please go to the Centrehouse website to find out more about these courses and to enrol in the courses.

We caught up with Mitzi to find out what she is focussing on in her own art practice, what inspires her and a bit about her upcoming classes and this is what she said.


INTERVIEW WITH MITZI VARDILL  MCA, Dip FA

CH. How would you describe your art practice Mitzi?

MV: My art practice is dynamically multidisciplinary, and this has been my approach to my career. I have practised in almost all media including; drawing, watercolour, acrylic, mixed media oil, printmaking, ceramics and sculpture. Recently I have been indulging in the digital realm of expression. I am always seeking novel ways to articulate my creative soul.

My teaching practice is an important feature to my career. I have discovered that teaching is a creative medium unto itself and inturn it is being re-injected into my artistic growth. I am employed at six schools in New South Wales and currently looking to expand nationally, and eventually overseas with my workshop modules.

 

CH. What are you working on now?

MV: My focus for 2011 and 2012 is equally my teaching practice and my commissioned work. As explained, I work for many organisations teaching in watercolour, acrylics, oil, drawing and art theory. My preference is for intensive workshops as the students learn at an accelerated pace. I also conduct several weekly classes which find their success from the relationships formed over time. It is enormously satisfying to provide a haven for personal and creative growth.

The industry for commissioned work in Australia is distinctive and I have been fortunate to provide my clients with some uniquely inspired pieces.

Fortunately for me, I love to draw and paint in my time off as well. It is a 24/7 obsession.

CH. What things inspire or inform your work?

MV: Early in my career many of my works reflected the shy young immigrant discovering new worlds. It was an outlet for many of my fears and certainly helped me get through the challenges that that period of my life presented.

Since then, my inspiration and the artwork itself have matured as I have. My family and personal experience has been a feature in many of my works. The most compelling contributions I have made tend to be inspired by the watershed moments that we all experience.

As explained before, teaching has become a large source of my inspiration. It challenges my technical knowledge and inspires me to continue to grow at the rapid rate of my students.

CH. What is your teaching philosophy? 

MV: There are three parts to an arts education; tools and skills; knowledge of the theories, and developing the aesthetic perception. For my students the main motivation to attend my classes is to acquire the skills and become proficient with the tools. For me, in my role as an arts educator, I also to teach the theories associated with these skills and along the way develop their aesthetic perception.

To be a teacher of art to adults in the private sector requires much more than a firm technical knowledge and a passion for art practice. It requires empathy, sympathy and above all stoicism and tact. You are at once the hostess and the instructor, the actor and the confessor. Their personalities are as diverse as any group of people can be, and my aim is to establish a cohesive group and provide a safe and productive environment.

I teach creativity

I develop aesthetic perception

I clarify the concept

And I appreciate the art of reflecti

CH. The idea of abstract painting started with artists like Mondrian and then through Cubism, briefly describe what you will be covering in your abstract painting class, Pathways to Abstraction on Thursday evenings at Centrehouse.

MV:I would love to be brief about abstraction, but I would be cheating history if I was too concise. Essentially abstraction is an effect on the viewer’s awareness of colour, shape; this being the basis of most art. It distorts the painter’s response to the subject. In other words it becomes a very personal statement. Abstract painting is about, self expression, individuality, originality and discovering your own personal style.

To see the birth of abstraction we need to look back to the last third of the 19^th century and the impressionists and the post-impressionist movements who rebelled against the traditional teaching given in the art academies.  They were determined to accentuate colour, which they used fully and freely to express their emotions. During the first decades of the 20^th century artists called into question even more the norms and rules that had controlled the activity of artists for centuries and they challenged the concept of painting as an imitation of nature. Reality was variously deformed, manipulated twisted and decomposed in its colours shapes and proportions by the Pointillists, the Nabis, The Fauves, the Cubists, the Futurists as well as exponents of Art Nouveau all of whom emphasizes symbolic and decorative aspects and put adherence to reality in second place.

There are many notables in this journey and they include; Picasso and Braque and the cubist movement; Paul Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg and the De Stijl; and in particular Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky’s book Concerning the Spiritual in Art published in 1912 is still considered the fundamental text for understanding the birth and characteristics of abstract painting

Even a cursory look at art at the last 150 years of western art it gives us a wealth of inspiration and although the traditional pathway of learning to paint is to paint reality it is not the only way. The skills and knowledge needed to become an artist can also be learnt through abstract art.

The aim of this course is to investigate the interaction of the tools, techniques and materials and how an artwork can be brought to completion. We will investigate the many ways abstraction can be obtained either from natural objects which are altered, distorted, simplified or exaggerated or even works that have no reference to the world at all.

The focus is on acrylics and mixed media. Independent oil painters and watercolourists are also welcome.

CH:You will also be taking a workshop on ‘Drawing – The First Steps’ on 18^th June, what will students achieve in this workshop? What do you most enjoy about the experience of drawing?

MV:  I have found that many people see the barrier to taking up a creative pursuit is a lack of drawing skills. This course covers the fundamentals of mark making and how to draw simple objects. We also explore ways of drawing more complex objects which is always satisfying for students. The aim of this course is to equip the novice with the skills to use drawing as a tool in their own art practice.

Drawing is both a tool of exploration and an expressive medium. It is a fundamental skill of the visual language and I believe it is the key to creativity.

 Thanks so much for chatting with us Mitzi, and I know people can find lots of images of your work on your facebook page.

Creative Kids Learning About Colour & Tone

Our first week of holiday workshops is already over and the students have been making some really colourful and creative images. In the Portrait - Drawing & Painting class, teacher Laura Carey had the children experimenting with various mediums such as coloured pencils, thick waxy crayons and paint to create a range of tones and textures in their drawings. With the subject of their pictures the portrait, the students were encouraged to think about proportions of the face and how the nose, mouth, eyes, cheeks.ears etc are related to each other in regards to space on the head.

The photo above shows the students work in progress, with those finishing early gettting to draw other favourites.

As you can see from the portrait below, the tones from the waxy crayons were much richer and darker than those from the coloured pencils. These contrasts add to the images complexity and becomes visually interesting. You can see more portraits and works from the classes by going to our flickr site.

There are only a few spaces in the classes for next week, so please go to our website to check these out.

Laura Carey will be teaching the Paper Mosaics Class and the Animal Masks which will all include working with coloured papers, pencils, paints and a range of mediums for some exciting results.