Weeklong workshops immerse students in painting, drawing
For more than two decades, artists from all over the world have trekked to the out-of-the-way Donner Ranch in northern New Mexico, where they eat, drink and sleep art.
“Where it is, is just beautiful,” says Taosbased artist Sherrie McGraw, who teaches at the summer Fechin Art Workshops, as well as throughout the United States. “It’s the best north light studio that I teach in.”
The Donner Ranch, north of Taos in San Cristobal, is a unique learning space, McGraw says.
“It’s like no other place I teach at, honestly,” she says in a telephone interview. “It’s really like a complete immersion because of the location.”
She describes the Donner property as beautiful and isolated. “Students have time to be together … basically 24 hours a day,” she says. “It creates a bonding that I don’t think happens in other workshops. They eat, sleep and work together.”
While the workshops are open to artists of any level, the folks who attend usually are serious, older art students from out of state.
Mark Donner, who owns and operates the Donner Ranch with his wife, Nikki, says many students who attend the workshops do so because they follow a particular instructor’s work.
The Faculty
This summer’s instructors are painter Kim English, who will lead “Landscape & the Figure of the Landscape”; plein air painter Ken Auster, who will lead “Landscape in Oil Painting”; McGraw, who will teach drawing and painting; and nationally recognized artist David Leffel and painter/author Gregg Kreutz, who will each teach separate workshops on “The Still-Life & Figure” in oil painting.
Workshops are one week long and range in price from $550 to $900. Room and board, including all meals beginning the Sunday evening art students arrive until lunch Friday, costs $450 a person.
The ranch is 18 miles north of Taos. Nikki Donner is the granddaughter of the late Russian builder/artist Nicolai Fechin, who spent several years in Taos and built what is known as the Fechin House. The Donners remain involved with the Fechin House, though it is owned and operated by the Taos Art Museum. Students attending the workshops have an opportunity to visit the Fechin House during their stay at the Donner Ranch, Mark Donner says.
“It’s one of those places that’s timeless,” Mark Donner says of the Fechin House.
Added Perspective
McGraw, who is a student of Leffel’s and taught at the Art Students League of New York, says she began teaching about 20 years ago for the Fechin workshops, and has been a full-time artist for 28 years.
“Somehow, teaching came naturally,” she says. Teaching, she adds, “is an important part of what I do” as an artist.
For some, she says, teaching is a “lesser job.” But, she adds, it “contributes to how I understand painting myself.” She expects to have about 20 students attend her workshop. “One thing that’s nice about having different levels is they learn from each other,” says McGraw. “I like having all levels. It’s very stimulating.” McGraw, 54, fell in love with Taos when she first came to visit when she was 20 years old. She has lived in Arroyo Seco, which is on the way to the Taos ski area, for 16 years. “I just fell in love with the area,” she says. “It’s funny how New Mexico has that effect. It was a natural place to come when I wanted to move from New York.”
Learning to Draw
Though drawing classes don’t seem to draw the interest that the painting workshops do, it’s the drawing that leads to solid painting, McGraw says. Most of the students who come to her workshops have no background in drawing, which “makes learning to paint exponentially difficult.” “People want to paint more than they want to draw. I’m changing all that,” she says. “They need to learn how to draw to become good artists. After a workshop, you’d think people would be tired of drawing but they want a second workshop.” While it is a part of what she teaches, she says she doesn’t focus on anatomy in her workshops. Rather, she teaches her students what drawing is about. Most drawing classes, she says, cover anatomy, proportion and perspective. “But they don’t really teach them how to see … It’s really transforming the way you see into that of an artist,” she says.
To Learn More
For information on attending a Fechin Art Workshop in July or August, look up fechin.com. Or call (575) 776-2622.
