Townsend Atelier offering new classes for art-interested youngsters

During the Renaissance, Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling while lying on his back on scaffolding. In the Hands-On Art History class, kids will study his life and work, create story paintings of their own then paint them them while lying on the floor and painting over their heads.

Cave painting with charcoal you make yourself.

Turning a 3D object into a 2D painting.

Building parts of an Egyptian sarcophagus with hieroglyphics - but no mummy.

Sound intriguing? These are a few of the lessons in a pair of new, kid-oriented classes at Townsend Atelier. One is an afterschool affair - called, obviously, "Art After School" - designed to teach basic art techniques such as perspective, shading, painting, drawing and, as instructor Kristin Kendall puts it, "tricks of the trade."

Students "will be creating, yes," she says, "but what goes into each piece of art they create isn't what meets the eye. Students will observe, practice learned techniques, take away tricks of the trade, better 'vision,' and a healthy balance of boosting creativity and problem-solving skills."

The other class - "Hands-On Art History" - hopes to convince homeschoolers to leave their house and learn art history by getting their hands in it. The class kicks off by going back in time, all the way to prehistoric cave painting and will offer a chance for students to get Paleolithic themselves, says instructor Jas Milam.

"We will make our own charcoal by burning sticks, then drawing with those sticks," she says.

The other subjects will walk in a straight line through history, including Mesopotamia, ancient Rome and Greece, the Dark Ages and the Renaissance.

"We're marrying the idea of art instruction along with art history and (students) should come out of there with six different pieces of art," Milam says. The class will "provide the historical context with the processes and styles from the different periods of art history."

Townsend Atelier owner Peggy Townsend says the classes have been on her radar for a while, in part because people have requested them. But their former space on West Main Street was too small to accommodate them and, after moving into bigger digs on East 11th Street last October, things were simply too hectic to add a new set of classes and besides, October is "too far into the school year" to create an afterschool class, she says.

The classes will have no more than 12 students in each, a number they also use in their adult classes, she says. "With a larger student base, the kids just don't get the kind of attention they need," Townsend says.

Kendall, who moved to Chattanooga from Nashville three months ago, is teaching at Townsend Atelier for the first time, but she previously picked up the paintbrush for classes in Nashville and Knoxville. Milam, a Chattanooga native, has tackled several classes at Townsend Atelier and also taught art through Chattanooga's Education, Culture and Arts Department, the Hunter Museum of American Art and the Creative Arts Guild, among others.

In "Hands-On," Milam, who has a degree in art therapy, says students will "get book-background knowledge and also get the chance to do some hands-on art."

Kendall says her "goal is that each student will have a better understanding of what they're really seeing in their everyday life with depth and dimension, be able to easily represent that in their art through the techniques learned, and feel even more confident in their '3D' abilities as a result."

Townsend says both classes will help nurture an interest in art, whether the kids are just being introduced to it, already dabbling or fully invested. The classes also are a good choice for children who attend schools that don't have studio or visual arts programs, she says.

"That's a shame because that certainly rounds out a child's education and skills," Townsend says.

Contact Shawn Ryan at sryan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6327.