Give your gestural figure drawing skills a whirl with Just Draw It! We will attend a rehearsal at Ballet Tucson where students can practice drawing as the dancers rehearse. All skill levels welcome.

Please bring your own supplies - drawing board, newsprint, paper, pencils, charcoal, pastels (no paints please). 

Welcome to “Beyond 27 Seconds, the How, What, and Why of Looking at Art”.  our NEW and FREE monthly Community Forum where we look at, talk about, and create art!  Do you know that the average time a person views an art piece is a mere 27 seconds?  In that time one may decide “I like it” ,“I don’t get it” “It’s good.” or maybe “My 6-year-old could do that.” But what does one really comprehend in such a short amount of time? In this fun and lively forum, we will learn how to better engage with, enjoy more deeply, and truly appreciate art – and the artist!  Each session, we will focus on such topics as: process, genre, medium, or group of artists, movement, or time period, with the goal of understanding how and why artists create and how we can view art in new ways to better interpret, connect with, and appreciate what we see! Each month one of our teaching artists will share curated works of art to lead the forum, with the first hour exploring concepts like   “What makes a piece of art effective?”  “Do I need to know “what” I am looking at to appreciate it?” “How did they do that?”  Once inspired, we will create a simple, yet exciting art piece relating to the topic of the month.  Join us each month, August through November at The Drawing Studio.  In December, we will have a field trip to a local museum to view real art “in the wild” and practice our new skills of seeing and engaging!   

A monthly process painting session, open to all — no experience, no agenda, no product to produce. Each session is a 3-hour held space where participants paint freely, guided by the principle that the creative process matters more than the outcome. Participants leave feeling more connected to themselves, their body, and a community of people who showed up for the same thing.

Materials provided by The Drawing Studio. 

Welcome in the festive season by creating Fall-inspired greeting cards with drawing, paint, and embellishments to celebrate the harvest season.

Materials provided by The Drawing Studio.

Sunday afternoon live figure drawing with one (long) pose. Each one-day session is for independent study, with no instruction, for ages 18+. You are welcome to paint or draw using whichever medium you prefer. Bring your own supplies. There are easels, chairs, horses and stools available for you to borrow.

Please arrive to Figure Drawing Studio 10-15 minutes early to get set up. Doors close promptly at 1 PM. If you arrive after the doors close, please wait until the first break when the doors open again. 

A collaboration between The Drawing Studio, Raices Taller Gallery, and Roots & Roads Community Hospice, this series will commence with a lecture with renowned ofrenda-builders Antonio C. Estrada and Gloria J. Valenzuela, followed by 3 sessions of building mini-ofrendas taught by guest teaching artists. 

Materials provided by The Drawing Studio. Feel free to bring your own mementos for your Mini-Ofrenda. 

*Please note: This series is intended to support independent artists with a steady practice. 

Seeing abstractly. Explore basic compositional elements, learning how to see abstractly, and experimenting with shapes and colors.

Learn how to tune into your creative child, your intuition, how to dialogue with your painting. Skills learned in drawing and color fundamentals will be applied. This course is a refresher for intermediate and advanced students.

Materials not provided. Please bring the following:

Canvases - no smaller than 24 x 24"

Watercolor paper - no smaller than 24 x 24"

Acrylic paint : Titanium white, Carbon or bone black, Ultramarine Blue Hansa Yellow Med Yellow Ochre Napthol Red Medium Raw Umber Dioxazine Purple Sage Green Phthalo green Any quinacridone of your choice Any Orange of your choice

Bucket

Apron

Gloves

Large brushes number 10’s and up

Large palette knives by liquitex

Freezer paper can be purchased in the baking department in the grocery store.

Spray bottle with water

Any mark making tools you have

Painterpretations, founded in 2019 by Randiesia Fletcher, MEd.,is an intergenerational social and cultural arts class that has gained international attention for its innovative approach to dialogue and creative expression. The program engages participants across generations in critical conversations sparked by culturally relevant topics, guiding them to write and create visual responses—“Painterpretations”—that reflect personal and collective narratives. Through the integration of sound clips, video, poetry, mapping, and the study of artists and techniques from the African Diaspora, Painterpretations creates a dynamic space where storytelling, history, and art converge.