Field Illustration
with Josh Dihle
PAINTING & DRAWING 678 001 | 1.5 credits | $50 Lab Fee
July 28 - August 3, 2024
Inspired by the landscape and wildlife of Ox-Bow, this class invites students to develop an illustrative portfolio in pencil, ink, watercolor, and gouache. Students will build effective and inventive travel easels to explore campus and, working both outside and in the studio, will develop a personal approach to rendering and responding to the plants and animals that call Ox-Bow home. Demonstrations will cover methods for effective color mixing and composing in the field as well as techniques for recreating botanical structure, basic animal anatomy, and biological textures including bark, shell, and feathers. We will review the work of John James Audubon, Walton Ford, Evelyn Statsinger, and Kiki Smith and students will carry a naturalist pocket guide for reference. Onsite and studio drawing assignments will be accompanied by readings and discussions of naturalist poetry by Mary Oliver, Seamus Heaney, and Sharon Olds. Assignments will challenge students to notice the nuance in nature and will include a bug hunt, with invertebrates sketched in graphite, and a watercolor assignment that gives visual expression to a work of poetry or literature. Students will be encouraged to propose a final project inspired by their observations.
With a hand for detail and an eye on the natural world, Josh Dihle blends painting, carving, drawing, and sculpture to open visionary portals into the heart. He is the cofounder of experimental art/performance platforms Color Club and Barely Fair and teaches painting and drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Dihle has had solo exhibitions at M+B (Los Angeles, CA), Andrew Rafacz (Chicago, IL), 4th Ward Project Space (Chicago, IL), McAninch Arts Center (Chicago, IL) and Valerie Carberry Gallery (Chicago, IL). Dihle's work has been exhibited in group shows nationally and internationally, including MASSIMODECARLO Vspace (Milan, Italy), University of Maine Museum of Art (Bangor, ME), Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago, IL), Rover (Chicago, IL), Elmhurst Art Museum (Elmhurst, IL), IAM Gallery (New York, NY), Flyweight Projects (New York, NY), Essex Flowers Gallery (New York, NY), Ruschman (Mexico City, Mexico) and Annarumma Gallery (Naples, Italy). His work and curatorial projects have been written about in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, New City, Artspace, The Washington Post, and Artsy, among others. Dihle lives and works in Chicago, IL.
Josh Dihle, Peaceable Kingdom, 2023, mixed media, 60 x 44 x 5 in.