Tallinn University's Institute of Fine Arts offers a practical and creative workshop, consisting of two parts – Glass Art and Painting. Participants can choose to join one workshop or both.

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July 15 – July 19

Glass Art is a world of endless possibilities and gives every person who wants to get acquainted with it, a portion of the magician's skills. Glass, in its form and state being similar to water, allows us to relate to natural forms and phenomena. Just as nature creates reliefs, sculptures and perceptions out of snow and ice and the mirror of a lake in the landscape,  similar abstractions can be obtained by techniques used in Glass Art.

How does a smooth glass surface change into irregular, cracked, volcanic landscapes or precise geometrical structures? How can pieces of colourful glass be linked into sophisticated images and structures without lead frames or any other support? How is a moulded piece of clay transformed into transparent glass sculpture? How is it possible to create hollow forms, transparent as flowing water or shining with its crystals in the candlelight or sun,  without using blowing techniques?

You can experience this magic during the summer school… The course leader is glass artist Sofi Arshas.

July 22 – July 26

We live in a colourful world, colours surround and influence us for our whole lifetime. But how often do we stop and think about this influence? What is it in our environment that makes us nervous and stressed; what is it that creates harmonious feelings and joy? Colours have a lot of power, depending on the combinations, and the ones that are used in nature differ from those used by man. During our course we try to analyze the influence of colour combinations in a modern town.

The summer school painting course is led by painter Renee Aua, who is also an expert drawer and portrait artist. The primary aim of the painting studio is to explore creative relationships and to collectively find solutions to problems in painting. The task of the current studio is classic “veduta” in modern key – painting a townscape, discovering which motifs offer themselves as possibilities  for painting in our present day.

1. SHARING AN EXPERIENCE
For beginners and less experienced painters, it is essential to explore basic methods of painting. For more experienced students, it is usually more important to develop their individual means of expression. For both beginners and advanced students, it is helpful to see and learn how similar tasks are performed by another student. Although this may result in plagiarism, such methods of  subconscious copying are considered a valuable part of  the study process and  exchange of information.

2. METHODOLOGY IN FRAMES
An academic painting studio has always been considered the universal means of imparting painting skills. Nowadays, following these same rules is still valuable in quickly learning the necessary techniques to create a picture. Usually, under these circumstances, the result is predictable and the method is only effective for solving a particular delimited task.

3. ACHIEVING INDEPENDENCE
As painting is a much broader and more creative process than just making a picture, the next stage in the studio program will be to test the limit of possibilities in academic painting until rules are abandoned. The pattern of activities is improvisation, originating from a motif or an individual idea or vision.

4. PRESENT DAY AS SOURCE FOR MOTIFS
The aim of the Summer School is to use the wonderful milieu of Tallinn, where one can find either academic or modern town- and seascapes and to discover and paint what summertime in town can offer to a painter's eye. Depending on the weather, the studio will take place in the open air (plein-air) or if necessary, indoors. It probably will be necessary to finish the works and create larger formats in studio rooms.

Participants

The course is for people interested in improving their glass art and/or painting skills, as well as for those who would like to explore their abilities for the first time

Course fee

One workshop 200 EUR, two workshops 380 EUR

Contact

Birgit Kirsimägi | birgitk@tlu.ee

Register

Read also about degree studies in English at Tallinn University!