Image Credits
The Bascom offers a wide variety of classes, workshops and other hands-on opportunities in an array of mediums for artists of all ages and skill levels.
To register, please visit us online at TheBascom.org or call 828.526.4949.
Awareness of LegaciesMindful Reflections
with Debra Alvis
June, July, and August 2024
Introduction to Drawing
with Steve Reagan
June 5 - 7 | 10 am - 4 pm
$350 members
$425 non-members
Explore the fundamentals of drawing and enhance your art appreciation with Steve Reagan, former art teacher and owner of SpaceAgeMakers. Whether you’re a beginner or have never tried drawing, this class offers a fun and relaxed environment. Steve shares insights on creating a strong foundation for quality drawings, ensuring improvement in your skills. Join us for an enjoyable learning experience!
June 17 - 21 | 9 am - 4 pm
$775 non-members
Join our one-week workshop for an immersive exploration of the ceramic firing process, with a focus on soda kilns. Participants will actively engage in loading, firing, and unloading, gaining firsthand experience and understanding of successful firing intricacies. Discussions will cover kiln firing theories, design considerations, and insights from 20 years of experience. Bring bisque ware for glazing and firing, and enjoy demonstrations on wheel throwing and hand-building techniques in the adjacent studio. Ideal for those eager to deepen their understanding of firing and explore their creative paths.
Embracing the Unknown in Landscape Painting
June 19 - 21 | 10 am - 4 pm
$500 members
$575 non-members
Explore landscape painting with a focus on fundamentals like composition and value. Discover the balance between control and chaos to infuse your work with energy and wonder. Engage in creative experiments, non-traditional techniques, and critiques to push your boundaries. Suitable for acrylic and oil painters of all skill levels, this workshop encourages a dynamic approach to transform your art.
Inner Secrets
June 28 - 30 | 9 am- 4 pm
$500 members
$575 non-members
Explore the untold stories of the heart in this three-day sculpture workshop. All skill levels are welcome as we craft a bust (male or female). Work intuitively on the basic form, hollow it out as the clay dries, and reassemble. Add final details using groggy sculpture clay, stainless steel, and your hands. Cap off the experience by adding basic color with slips and underglazes. Join us in bringing secrets to life through the art of sculpture. with Kelly Odden
Awareness of LegaciesMindful Reflections
Exploring Legacies, Deepening Connections
Debra Alvis
July 5 | 9:30 am - 10:30 am Free
Through mindfulness we become more aware of influences in our lives including those that we have taken in from others. As we become more conscious of these gifts and challenges, we can more effectively choose whether and how to express them. To begin the series, we will engage in mindfulness practices exploring our personal legacies and how these inheritances have contributed to our lives.
June, July, and August
Learn to Turn: An Intro to Woodturning
John Tagliarini
July 10-12 | 9 am - 4 pm
$400 members
$475 non-members
Trays All Kinds of Ways
with John Tagliarini
July 12-14 | 9 am - 4 pm
$450 members
$525 non-members
Students will make beautiful and useful turnings using the three basic cuts of woodturning with gouges. We will begin in “spindle orientation” by turning a mallet, a tool handle, a goblet, and a twig pot. Then we hope to make at least two bowls, one with a round top and one with a natural edge. We will practice safe technique at the lathe as we also learn to sharpen the gouges using various jigs and tables.
Inner Reflections - Mindful Reflections
with Debra Alvis Exploring Legacies, Deepening Connections
July 12 | 9:30 am - 10:30 am Free
If you want to learn how to make all kinds of different serving trays and unique dishes, then this is the class for you!
We will cover a variety of hand building techniques such as slab construction, coiling, pinching, carving and cutting to give you the skills to make any kind of tray that you can dream up.
Communication skills are, in part, a legacy from our families and transform or strengthen through non-judgmental awareness and selfcompassion. Honest communication with others is based upon acceptance, curiosity, and openness. As we strengthen our ability to bring deep listening to our own experiences, we enhance our capacity to be present with and available to others, to nature, and to artistic works. After learning brief, selflistening skills, we will become aware of our sensations, thoughts, and feelings as we view artists’ images.
How to Nail Color
Harmonies and Color
Pops for Killer Skies and Atmospheric Paintings
Bill Davidson
July 16-19 | 9 am - 4 pm
$675 members
$750 non-members
The Clarity and Strength of Vulnerability- Mindful Reflections
with Debra Alvis Exploring Legacies, Deepening Connections
July 19 | 9:30 am - 10:30 am Free
Join Bill Davidson for a workshop where you’ll learn to add harmonious color pops and atmospheric skies, enhancing your paintings to a moody, atmospheric level. We’ll cover mental tips to boost your abilities and explore new techniques for swift advancement. You’ll learn to establish a solid design, strong value foundation, and effective use of edges. Paint along with Bill or work on your own images. Looking forward to creating great art together!
Artists make themselves vulnerable through sharing with us works that express their visions of the world. In this way, their images touch and transform us. Sharing their visions is an act of courage and strength. A similar vulnerability allows us to live fully and from our hearts. Our daily presence and vitality in living our lives may be our greatest legacy to those we love. We will engage with gallery images using mindfulness practices that support our connection with presence and our heart’s wisdom. We will conclude by discussing how to apply these same principles to our daily lives.
Using Cold Wax Medium with Oils
with Cath Connolly Hudson
July 24 - 26 | 10 am- 4 pm
$450 members
$525 non-members
Enhance your artwork with cold wax and oils in this workshop. Learn to use wax and other mediums to add translucence and texture to your oil paintings. We’ll cover materials, techniques, and layered abstraction, with stepby-step demos and guided practice. Use your photo references to complete a ready-to-frame painting.
June, July, and August, 2024
Using Cold Wax Medium with Oils with Cath Connolly Hudson
Transparency - Futhering Relationships Through Art and Mindfulness - Mindful Connections
Exploring Legacies, Deepening
Connections
with Debra Alvis
July 26 | 9:30 am - 10:30 am Free
Landscape Drawing Class
with Steve Reagan
July 31 - Aug 2 | 10 am- 4 pm
$350 members
$425 non-members
The Landscape “InBetween Realism and Abstraction”
Chris Groves
Aug 7 - 9 | 10 am- 4 pm
$575 members
$650 non-members
Loving Kindness Practices increase positive emotions, strengthen health, and enhance the quality of our lives. Moreover, these practices help us to navigate relationships with greater tolerance and appreciation for those we love. These same practices can help us to forge a connection with the artists who help us to envision our worlds in new ways and with the images they create. In this session, we will practice open-heartedness and apply this open-heartedness to our experiences of the artwork. Take homes will include brief skills for bringing an open heart to our daily interactions with others.
Landscape art has been around as long as art itself. This drawing course is a beginner course about drawing outside in nature. It is designed not only for the beginner, but the artist who wants to brush up on their drawing/sketching skills.
This class combines classical landscape painting fundamentals with principles of abstraction to help you loosen up your painting style. You’ll explore various mediums and tools, focusing on markmaking, color theory, and composition. We’ll cover techniques with Cold Wax Medium and Galkyd to add texture and layers. The workshop includes demos, discussions, and one-on-one guidance to support your progress, culminating in larger-scale paintings.
Double Vision: Hot Surfaces and Cold Finishes
with Thaddeus Erdahl and Beau Raymond
Aug 9 - Aug 11| 9 am- 4 pm
$500 members
$575 non-members
Join ceramic sculptors Thaddeus Erdahl and Beau Raymond for a ceramic glaze workshop. Explore the magic of glazes, slips, underglazes, and layering to create captivating surfaces, patterns, and colors. Whether you’re experienced or a novice, this workshop will elevate your skills and inspire new artistic expression. Learn to make the surface the star through layering, carving, sanding, and trade secrets.
Painting with Confidence and Style - Landscape and Still Life in Oil Paint
John Guernsey
Aug 14-16 | 10 am- 4 pm
$475 members
$550 non-members
Painting Vibrant Flowers in Oil
with Pat Fiorello
Aug 28-30 | 10 am- 4 pm
$450 members
$525 non-members
This workshop focuses on interpreting the physical world with paint while developing your unique style. You’ll build specific skills, gain confidence, and explore expressive brushwork, harmony, and design. Learn to handle complex subjects with simple gestures through demonstrations, practice studies, and one-on-one assistance. Expect a challenging yet relaxed atmosphere filled with fun and camaraderie.
In this 3-day workshop, learn to paint vibrant flowers in oil using a loose, direct method. Pat will provide demonstrations, instruction, critiques, and guidance. You’ll simplify flower shapes, depict form through light and shadow, mix colors, and paint vases. On day one, we’ll paint together from a supplied photo; on days two and three, you’ll work from your own fresh flower setups.
June, July, and August, 2024
June, July, and August, 2024
Abstract Realism
Will Henry Stevens, Artist and Teacher
with Andrew J. Rodgers, Executive Director of the New Orleans Academy of Fine art
Aug 23-25 | 10 am- 4 pm
$625 members
$700 non-members
This exciting 3 session workshop will explore the line between realism and abstraction through the natural world and the incredible art of renowned artist Will Henry Stevens. Through Steven’s lens of naturalism and attention to the expressive beauty of the world around us artist and Executive Director of the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts, Andrew Rodgers, will lead a small group of workshop attendees through the process of finding abstracted form in nature, creating a space en plein air and then expanding and exploring nature further through the abstraction of nature in the studio at The Bascom. This workshop experience will take place both on and off campus at the Bascom and the beautiful North Carolina Arboretum grounds (outside Asheville) and will occur during the exciting opening of From the Lowlands to the Highlands at The Bascom.
Itinerary of Programming
• Thursday, August 22, 5 – 6:30 pm: WHS Reception at The Bascom (students are encouraged to attend)
• Friday, August 23, 10 am – 4 pm: Experience at the NC Arboretum (Students will meet at the location)
• 10 am - 11:30 am: Lecture
• 11:30 am - 12:30/1:00 pm: Lunch and Learn
• 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm: En plein air on the Arboretum campus
• Friday, August 23, 5:00 pm: Blue Spiral Closing Reception The Will Henry Stevens Estate: Past, Present, Future with work by Matt Byrd (students are encouraged to attend)
• Saturday – Sunday, August 24-25, 10 am – 4 pm: Workshop in studio at The Bascom
Resident Artist Series
June, July, and August
Resident Artist Series:
June Beginner Potter’s Wheel
with Frank Vickery
June 4, 6, 11, and 13
10 am - 12 pm
$175 members
$250 non-members
Resident Artist Series:
Learn the basics of using the potter’s wheel to create functional objects. This class will focus on centering and shaping bowls (e.g., berry bowls, soup bowls) and cylinders (e.g., mugs, tumblers). Expect some initial difficulty if you’re new to this. The second week covers trimming and more shapes, with glazing in the final week. Some experience may be necessary.
Christmas in July using the Slab Machine
Frank Vickery
July 9, 11, 16, and 18
10 am - 12 pm
$175 members
$250 non-members
Resident Artist Series: August - Totems
with Frank Vickery
August 6, 8, 13, 15, 20, and 22
10 am - 12 pm
$250 members
$325 non-members
Christmas in July using the Slab Machine - All the basics you need to know about using the slab machine to make a Christmas house or two. Glaze the 2nd week of class.
August - Totems - In this class we will use the slab machine and/or the potter’s wheel to make various shapes that will be stacked together on a metal pole/rebar for either garden art or inside your home. Students will need to source their own rebar and mounting base/block before class and have it ready on the first day of class. Various hand building techniques will be demonstrated as well as student created templates and studio forms used to construct shapes. Students need to bring resource materials for inspiration such as pictures, sketches, etc
