Life Drawing Workshop

As part of the Contemporary Arts Center mission statement “Striving to build, educate, and sustain audiences for contemporary art” the CAC offers a life drawing workshop.

The CAC Education Program facilitates weekly art classes for adults with the life drawing workshops.

No instruction is given but we offer the opportunity to develop and improve rendering skills.

Stewart Freshwater has facilitated the life drawing workshops at the Contemporary Arts Center of Las Vegas, almost the entire 22 years the CAC has been in existence.

Stewart got his BFA from University of Nevada LV in 1975 and was employed as an illustrator in Las Vegas from 1976 to 2010 and has continue his own professional Fine Art Design business since 1980

The life drawing workshop was started by others but when Stewart found out about it he quickly joined and has continued his involvement to this day. When he was at the university studying art he first began drawing models. He always wanted to continue this and the CAC life drawing workshop offered that opportunity.

According to Stewart “The body is used in the traditional art schools as a tool to teach artist to draw what they see, get the proportions correctly on the page. Once you can draw the body it seems you are able to draw most anything. You begin developing your perception of scene and understanding what you see and put it on the paper.”

Word of mouth has kept the workshop going for 20 years. The group is a diverse gathering of men and women ranging from the 20's to the 70's. Stewart hopes the life drawing workshop continues forever.

“In the life drawing workshop artists are able to continue working on and maintaining their skills in seeing how light goes across a form, how that light defines the form. Not only that direct light but reflective light and how it bounces off the surfaces.”

“For the student its an opportunity to work on the right side of the brain. Most of the time people don't use the right side of the brain. The left side of the brain rules because it is more structured. The left side tells you what you think you should be seeing, but by training the right side of the brain to see the details beyond the stick figure and oblong shaped eggs you become an artist.” said Stewart.

Some of Stewart's art work is on display at the Rhythm Repetion Movement exhibit through May 22^nd at the Historic Fifth Street School in downtown Las Vegas.

For more information go to http://www.lasvegascac.org/programs/index.html