Sculpting the Figure in Clay

Grow your skills with Hempel Studios

SUMMER WORKSHOP 2024 | June 20-23

Moe
Life-size plaster with faux bronze patina
2020

COSTS

$365 tuition

$65 model fee | Additional Materials Fees:

There will be tools to use in the studio and you are welcome to bring your own
Armature is $35 is you choose to keep it, otherwise it can return to the studio
Clay is $8/ pound if you choose to keep it, otherwise it can return to the studio bin

Fees calculated at the end of the workshop.

REGISTER TODAY! Spots are limited.

Sculpting the Portrait in Clay

When:

Thursday: 5:00pm- 8:00pm

Friday: 9:00am- 12:00pm and 2:00pm- 5:00pm

Saturday: 9:00am- 12:00pm and 2:00pm- 5:00pm

Sunday: 1:00pm- 4:00pm and 4:00pm- 5:00pm for Reflections and Clean up

Where: At the Griffin Art Center, 4 West 5th Street, downtown Frederick, Maryland

Who: Teens and Adults, ages 15+

What: This workshop condenses a six-week portrait class into four intense days of sculpting. We will work with oil-based clay over an armature to create a life-size portrait.

Finishing and Casting: You will be able to take your clay portrait home, but we will not have time for casting over the weekend. If you are interested in casting, I can connect you with mold-makers, though I prefer to think of workshops as being more for the process than the finished product. I encourage all of my students to recycle the clay and create another portrait. And another. And another.

If you are traveling: Frederick is conveniently located an hour away from three airports: BWI, Dulles, and Washington National. There are many hotel and AirBnB options. If you would like to stay with another participant we can try to coordinate via email: Sarah@HempelStudios.com.

Frederick Community College | Fall 2024

Weary Heracles in Antalya Archaeological Museum, Turkey

Wednesdays from 5:30pm- 9:30pm

ARTT 210 - Sculpture (3 credits)

Prerequisite: ARTT 102 or ARTT 113

In this class, we will focus on sculpting the human figure in clay. We will learn about the history of the figure in sculpture as well as structural anatomy. We will work from life, make a copy of a masterwork, and explore abstract expressions of the figure. In addition, we will create studio notebooks filled with vocabulary words, anatomical diagrams and notes, as well as a collection of sculptures from ancient to modern artists. This notebook will serve as a reference book for your studio!

This class will be a lot of fun but come prepared to work! Sculpture requires us to integrate what we can observe with what we know of the underlying anatomical structure and how we manipulate the clay with our hands and our tools.

ARTT 220 - Intermediate Sculpture (3 credits)

Prerequisite: ARTT 210

Intermediate sculpture continues the lessons from ARTT 210, building figures in clay from a live model, diving deeper into structural anatomy and the history of the figure in the history of art.

Location: Classes are being held at Frederick Community College in Frederick, Maryland.

Finishing and Casting: You will be able to take your clay sculpture home, but we will not have the time or resources for mold making and casting. If you are interested in casting, I can connect you with mold-makers, though I prefer to think of classes & workshops as being more about the process than the finished product. I encourage all of my students to recycle the clay and create another sculpture. And another. And another. Learn more about the kind of clay we use here.

ABOUT YOUR INSTRUCTOR

Study art with the sculptor who created Claire McCardell on the Creek.

Originally from Michigan, Sarah Hempel Irani moved to Maryland to apprentice with the former artist-in-residence at the National Cathedral. For the past twenty years, she has been sculpting expressive figures in clay, bronze, and stone.

Sarah created the larger-than-life-size bronze monument to fashion icon, Claire McCardell, on Carroll Creek Linear Park. She is best known for two larger-than-life-size sculptures of The Virgin Mary and St. Joseph cut from Carrara marble at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church in Potomac. She articulated the clay sculptures in her Frederick studio, then, worked with a marble carving studio in Italy to have them carved.

Sarah earned her MA in Medieval and Renaissance Studies from Hood College. She has been a visiting artist and speaker at Ave Maria University, Grove City College, Slippery Rock University, Covenant College, as well as Rotary Clubs and civic organizations. In addition, she has been a featured guest on the Makers & Mystics, Living from the Soul with Sam Torode and the Seminary Explores Podcasts.

She works out of her studio at the Art Center on West 5th Street, downtown Frederick.