Portrait Sculpture: Short and Long Studies
Workshop | Available
Alicia Ponzio will be offering a weeklong intensive workshop focusing on portrait modeling from life. The week will begin with quick studies lasting 3 hours each. Students will practice blocking in the portrait and have the opportunity to study from different models, creating quick, energetic sketches. After 3 sketches, they'll settle into a long study of one of the models at ¾-life size scale. The shorter studies allow the students to explore various facial types and practice the important, early stages of the portrait a few times before digging into the longer study, which affords them time to capture more subtlety and form modeling with the clay. Through lecture, demonstration and individual feedback, Alicia will cover basic clay technique, working with an armature, the process for constructing a portrait, as well as relevant anatomical landmarks of the human head and neck. The elements of the "likeness" will be discussed. All experience levels are welcome in the class. Casting or firing the clay will not be covered in class, though students are encouraged to do this independently. In this class, students will work with water-based clay on wooden armatures. www.aliciaponzio.com
Alicia Ponzio
Alicia N. Ponzio (b.1974) began her career as a Lieutenant in the United States' Navy Nurse Corps. After experimenting with various mediums in figurative art, she found her voice in sculpture and made the decision to pursue it. Her pursuit took her to the Florence Academy of Art (FAA) in Florence, Italy, where she completed the Sculpture Program in 2008. She was then the director of the Artistic Anatomy and Écorché Sculpture programs, as well as a figure drawing instructor at the FAA until 2011, when she returned to the United States to set up her creative studio in downtown San Francisco. In 2014 Alicia and her partner, Justin Hess (painter, b. 1981), co-founded a private teaching atelier, also in San Francisco, JHess Studios. Alicia is active in a number of professional organizations including the National Sculpture Society and Portrait Society of America, in addition to creating works for gallery and commission, and maintaining an active teaching schedule at JHess Studios and various other venues in the United States and beyond. Alicia brings life to her bronzes and plasters, focusing on the abstract movement of forms as embodied in the human figure, as well as the subtle shades of human emotion. She favors asymmetry, irregularity, and variety in design: qualities that suggest a human touch. Her figure compositions and portraits have received recognition and honors from several organizations including the Art Renewal Center, the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, The Portrait Society of America, The California Art Club and The National Sculpture Society from which Alicia received the Alex J. Ettl Grant in 2016. Her work ranges from miniature portraits to larger scale single figure and multi-figure compositions. She works extensively in plaster to achieve her effect, and casts the final product in bronze.