"Artist Opportunity - Step into Leonardo's Shoes...Workshop in Drawing from Human Anatomical Specimens"
2002-03-09 until 2002-03-10
University of New South Wales, School of Anatomy
Sydney, NS, AU Australia

The Department of Anatomy at the University of New South Wales (Sydney) is providing a rare opportunity for the public to draw and sketch from anatomical specimens.  Only staff and students studying anatomy normally have access to these specimens, which are human body parts that have been professionally dissected; they are the embalmed remains of people who have generously donated their bodies to the University for study.

The workshops are generally held bimonthly on weekends. Personalized teaching is provided for all levels in a non-competitive atmosphere with a limit of 18 participants. The workshops are open to anyone under 100!

The workshops fill a gap in art education. Science and art meet under the guidance of artist Susan Dorothea White and anatomist Dr. Brian Freeman, both experts in their field. Participants step into the shoes of Leonardo da Vinci, to study and draw muscles, tendons, fascia, joints, and bones. By discovering whats under the skin, participants improve their skills in rendering the human form and learn to eliminate those arbitrary lines acquired in life drawing classes. A weekend workshop will cure common drawing ailments, such as concave faces, joint-less sausage limbs, eyes that emerge from noses, and finger thumbs. Drawing takes place in a quiet, well-lit Dissecting Laboratory during hourly periods, with four sessions per day.

These drawing sessions are interspersed with illustrated talks held in a conference room. Human development, movement and expression are covered, in addition to basic anatomy. The figure in art history is discussed, with reference to the work of different artists from diverse cultures, from Leonardo himself, to Rodin, Alice Neel, and Hokusai (regarded as the Leonardo of the East). Art topics also include drawing techniques, perspective, proportion, and the golden section. Comprehensive course notes with diagrams are provided.

The workshops are proving popular among professional artists, sculptors, and heads of college art departments. They have also attracted art students and beginners in drawing, as well as a cosmetic surgeon, a landscape architect, a potter, a jeweller, a physicist, and a writer. Participants have come from near and far, from Sydney and country NSW, from interstate and one, who had seen Susans exhibition in Cologne, travelled from The Netherlands to attend the intensive 5-day summer workshop held in February 2001.

Susan Dorothea White, a narrative-figurative artist, has gained international recognition through exhibitions around the world, including a recent solo in New York. She is known for The First Supper, a painting that reverses Leonardos Last Supper, and the mixed media sculpture It Cuts both Ways, purchased by a major collection in Washington, DC. She represented Australia in the recent Florence Biennale of Contemporary Art. More of her work may be viewed at http://www.susandwhite.com.au. Brian Freeman has thirty years experience in teaching and research in anatomy, and currently lectures in the Faculty of Medicine, UNSW.

The next weekend workshop will take place on 9-10 March 2002. For further information, please contact Lorraine Brooks (Administration), Department of Anatomy, UNSW (Sydney), tel +61 2 9385 2464, fax +62 2 9313 6252, email: lorraine.brooks@unsw.edu.au

IMAGE:
Susan Dorothea White
Reinventing the Wheel, 2001,
Assemblage

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for Australia

Other Important Exhibitions in Australia