Notes on the Atelier

I studied with Richard Lack from 1976-1980. The training I received at Atelier Lack was the difference, in my case, between actually learning the craft of painting, and giving up and pursuing a different profession. The experiences I endured in seeking a proper education in painting were sufficiently discouraging as to cause a young student to feel the search hopeless. I am quite indebted to Richard Lack for his diligence in operating Atelier Lack.

I have become aware, in this age of instant communication and anonymous authority, of real confusion concerning the concept of training at an atelier, and of that training's value. Many disagree as to the worth of what is taught at "ateliers" as though they are all identical. I have read the words of many who brashly condemn the atelier without having experienced the training therein, reminding one of the words of William Morris Hunt who aptly identified art critics as 'self-constituted judges of an occupation of which they are not masters." The truth of the atelier is this: atelier is simply a designation for a teaching studio operated by one artist, who acts as master to a small group of students. Each atelier is different and is as excellent or poor as its teacher and students. Therefore, I cannot speak with any certainty to the value of any specific atelier with which I have no personal involvement or knowledge. I can, however, attest to the value of the concept of the curriculum generally accepted in the ateliers derived from the Boston/Minneapolis schools, best exemplified by R.H. Ives Gammell and his pupil Richard Lack. I will briefly outline the projects used in this curriculum, their purposes and their value to the serious student. From this information one can ascertain the place of these studies in one's own artistic pursuit and determine if the atelier holds the key to that same one's artistic advancement. In doing so I will borrow heavily from the writing of my teacher, Richard Lack, in his excellent book, On the Training of Painters. All quotes attributed to Richard Lack in the following paragraphs will be taken from that work. Much information concerning exercises, studies, and extracurricular projects will be excluded. I choose to focus instead on the core disciplines of the atelier training in hopes of making the purpose and value of these studies more clear.

Kirk Richards April 2003

Richard and Katherine Lack

The first job of the student is to learn how to see. Everyone blessed with sight assumes that seeing is a natural and simple function- you merely look at something. But the training of the eye is the student's first and last concern. The student at Atelier Lack would expect to spend an average of 3 to 4 years in the serious pursuit of gaining this ability. In his book, On the Training of Painters, Richard Lack said,

"If ever there was a secret to the old masters, it was surely their ability to see...Seeing, however, requires the most diligent and tireless effort and should be given top priority. I can do no better then quote from Daniel B. Parkhurst's The Painter in Oil,

'The student's first aim is to learn to see and represent nature's facts, to distinguish justly between relations. It is the training of the eye and the judgment. Imitation is not the highest art, but the highest art requires the ability to imitate as a mere power of representation... To bring out the beauty which may lie in the fact is the aim of the artist. To acquire the ability to do this is the aim of the student.'"

Student Cast Drawing

by Tom Mairs

Cast Drawing The process of training the eye to see takes its place practically in the student's training through a logical progression of projects. The first among these projects is the practice known as cast studies. The cast is a plaster replica of a sculpture which is painstakingly drawn for a very specific purpose. As stated by Richard Lack,

"Seeing proportions correctly and modeling the effects of light and shadow are the first tasks facing the student in his quest towards becoming an accomplished draftsman. Accurate shape relationships and firm, correct modeling remain the backbone of good drawing. Traditionally, cast drawing has provided an excellent means by which the study of shapes and modeling can be initially undertaken. Once set up, plaster casts remain stationary and can be drawn from day to day under the same lighting condition. Cast drawing should be done in charcoal using the sight-size method, using every available measuring device, including a plumb line, ruler or level, and continually checking results in a mirror."

Sight-Size arrangement of 

Student Cast Drawing by

Mark Balma

After the student has executed a competent cast drawing in charcoal, a very important project designed to make the transition from drawing to painting more logical is undertaken. The student paints a cast in black and white oil paint, thereby making that transition more natural. This provides an introduction to the facility necessary to paint with the brush while at the same time providing a foundation to future painting in color. Lack continues,

Student Cast Painting

by Michael Wodnick

"A mixture of Flake White, Ivory Black or Mars Black and the addition of a small amount of Raw Umber for warmth are all the pigments necessary for a grisaille study. Besides being useful as an introduction to oil painting, the practice of painting casts in grisaille aids the student in his later creative work as underpainting his pictures in grey or monochrome as a preparation for glazing with color."

Student still life by Kirk Richards

Still Life The next step in the student's training is the painting in full color of a still life. Having already painted a cast study in black and white oil the student should be fairly comfortable with the use of paints and brushes, and at this time the difficult aspect of color is introduced. As Lack said,

"The Study of true color as opposed to decorative color is best undertaken by still life painting, again using the sight-size method. The student's first still life arrangements should not be cluttered...The value scheme and keying must be well thought out, including good strong contrasts of light and shadow on the objects...As skill and experience develop, more elaborate designs can be attempted. Still life painting not only provides a fine way of learning to see color but is also an admirable method of developing a personal sense of composition."

A preliminary drawing in charcoal is usually a good idea in beginning a still life, as this allows the student to work out compositional and drawing elements in an easier and more forgiving medium, and it allows the student to begin the painting with confidence in the spotting of values and general arrangement.

"The student transfers the drawing to canvas and proceeds to paint directly the shapes, colors and values of the objects, paying close attention to the correct relationship of the parts to the whole."

Student head study

by Kirk Richards

Head Studies Once a student has finished a competent still life in oil and has demonstrated that he or she can see color notes accurately, the next project to attempt is the head study in oil. Lack is careful to emphasize that this is not a portrait, but a study,

"Portraits require a whole set of additional skills, such as gesture, interpretation of the sitter's personality, and subtle compositional effects all beyond the range of the neophyte...Surer progress will be made if a student concentrates on making a study rather than a finished picture...A preliminary charcoal sketch working out problems of placement and shape must precede the painting of the head study."

Student Portrait

by James Coston

In my own time at atelier Lack, I observed that each student painted several head studies until he or she demonstrated an understanding of the study of a human head, and a reasonable ability to render one successfully. After this accomplishment, a portrait, complete with the previously mentioned difficulties, is attempted. This usually resulted in several attempts before the student completed a well seen, well executed portrait. If time remained in the students term of study, figures painted in interior settings, such as the well known paintings of Vermeer demonstrate masterfully, are attempted. This required the utmost effort of the student as the interior includes elements of all the preceding disciplines- drawing, form, sound composition, still life and portrait. There is one other element in the student's course of study, upon which all the preceding studies hinge. This is the profound study of the human figure.

Student Charcoal 

figure drawing by

Stephen Gjertson

Figure Drawing For the duration of the student's stay at Atelier Lack, while the afore mentioned projects were being done for three hours every afternoon, five days a week, The three hours of the morning were dedicated to figure drawing. As Lack states,

"For centuries painters have used the human form not only as a primary basis for great works of art, but also as the ultimate means of teaching drawing to their students. It goes without saying that a student cannot fulfill his or her talent without a thorough study of the nude. Moreover, the study of the nude should be divided equally between mass drawing and line drawing...Mass drawing from the figure, that is, the study of shape through tone relation, is best done in charcoal on white or ivory paper...Pencil, on the other hand, provided the best means of studying line."

Exercises and elements of an atelier training that won't be examined here include color studies, head sketching in oil, nude studies in oil-both black and white and color, landscape painting, composition exercises, creative composition, anatomy, memory drawing, and copying.

Please realize that I have just touched the surface of the painter's training, and that this may be just enough to whet the appetite of some, and be unbearably too much for others. I would simply add that there has been voluminous information compiled and made available to the serious student, and for those who would like to become serious students of the craft of painting. While painting per se cannot be easily taught or learned from books alone, there can be much help available in philosophical and practical information for the painter. This article is intended only to give a brief overview of the elements and purpose for the projects done at an atelier

Is there a downside to this training? After having taught in my own atelier from 1982-88, and being a professional painter since 1980, I have found the danger of this kind of training, and it is a real danger for a percentage of those who attend any atelier of the kind described above. The elements of the painter's education, which I listed above, are not in themselves art. They are studies designed to give the discriminating student the means necessary to create art. It is essential that students develop their craft, but for their work to have any value apart from exercises in rendering, there must be a creative application of those lessons which separates the student from the artist. Creativity is derived from several sources including imagination, the development of tasteful artistic sensibilities from study of great art, and from awareness of the past. It must also incorporate personal vision and passion. But these are things which can only be encouraged, not taught. The difference between a fine technical violinist and Itzhak Perlman is not in the sounding of different notes, but in the artistry, the poetry of art. This should always be our goal, and studies should never be confused with art. But let there be no mistake, without the arsenal of a sound training at the artist's disposal, creativity and passion may never find an avenue of communication to others, and amateurish technical work exposes the artist's lamentable foundation.

The potential downside is far outweighed by the enormous benefits of learning your craft, being freed from technical constraints by mastering an artistic vocabulary. As stated so eloquently by J.L.Gérome, 

"It is austere and profound studies that make great painters and great sculptors; one lives all one's life on that foundation and if it is lacking one will only be mediocre."