workshop week report: part 3: Maquettes with Chris Waddell

During the last week of April all the students in the core program took a break from our regular routine to participate in special workshops. I already posted some reports from the anatomy and value workshops so here is the last one about the maquette workshop.

A maquette is a small scale model or rough draft of an unfinished architectural work or a sculpture. Maquettes can be a great way for painters to work out more complicated compositions, especially ones with multiple figures in them. Students in this workshop came prepared with an idea for the composition they would create. They made rough models out of clay and then experimented with lighting and arranging the figures in different compositions. They also spent an afternoon in Central Park studying elements of the landscape.


Here Andrea Clinton is working on a scene of the death of Cleopatra.


Gregory Mortenson chose the story of the adulterors set before Christ.


Lauren Sansaricq made a landscape for Orpheus


Sean Russo's scene depicts a satyr chasing river nymphs.