Mike Glier: Sense and Place, Abstraction in the Garden

Join artist-in-residence Mike Glier for a five-day painting course on Abstraction in the Garden, with a focus on using all our senses to develop colour and forms. What does the taste of rosemary look like? What is the shape of the colour of the sky? How can one paint the song of a bird? This is an experimental workshop for intermediate and advanced painters about perception and place. Using the Oudolf Field, the renowned garden at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, and the landscape surrounding Bruton as inspiration, participants will be prompted to use all five senses to assess specific places and to interpret these experiences in charcoal, pencil and paint. The workshop will include outdoor sessions that focus on improvisational responses to touch, sound and colour. Studio sessions will focus on the formal development of the field notes into rigorous compositions. The goal of the workshop is to balance the sensuality of perception with the rationality of design. Cost: £500 for the 5-day workshop   Requirements You should be at an intermediate / advanced level of painting and drawing Materials List Required Materials for Plein Air Sessions Medium size sketchbook and one or more of the following drawing media:

• Pencil

• Vine Charcoal

• Compressed charcoal

• Graphite stick

• Conte Crayon

• Rubbers

One or more of the following paints:

• Oil paint, traditional or water based

• Acrylic paint

• Gouache

• Watercolour

• Brushes and painting knives appropriate to the painting medium

A pochade box for organising and transporting materials to the field is recommended. You are also expected to bring materials for enlarging and refining the plein air studies in the studio. Choice of one or more of the following substrates:

• 5 sheets Arches 22 x 30in, 140 lb. Water Colour paper, cold or hot press, or equivalent brand of paper.

• 5 sheets Arches Oil Paper, 22 x 30in (for oil painters)

• 5 stretched and primed canvases, up to 30” on a side.

• Medium and large brushes and/or painting knives.

• Mediums and appropriate solvents.

• Scissors or matt knife.

You are expected to bring materials that are appropriate for drawing and painting outdoors. A French easel may be useful but is not required. Students should be prepared to mix colour from a full palette and to apply the colour with a limited number of brushes or knives to small sizes of paper or canvas. Itinerary: 10-1 pm Focused tutorial/class with Mike Glier at Hauser & Wirth Somerset 1 - 2 pm Break for lunch (Students are welcome to make reservations at Roth Bar & Grill directly, walk into Bruton town or bring their own lunch) 2 - 5 pm Individual studio time in the Oudolf Field, Implement Shed, Radić Pavilion and surrounding fields – Mike Glier has exhibited internationally at the ICA, London; Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe; and Krakow Witkin Gallery, Boston. The Drawing Center, NY; The Tyler Gallery, Temple University; and the Opalka Gallery, Sage Colleges, Albany, NY, have sponsored national touring exhibitions of his work in the U.S. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in painting and the Alexander Falck Class of 1899 Professor of Art at Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts.  As the artist-in-residence at Hauser & Wirth Somerset for 2019-2020, Glier will be studying Oudolf Field and the Somerset landscape to capture the seasonal changes of colour and motif. – A presentation of the student’s work will coincide with Garden Day at Hauser & Wirth Somerset on Saturday 21 September. For further inquiries, please contact ellyhawley@hauserwirth.com

Photo: Heather Edwards