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Watercolor Adventures

with Hilary Doyle

Next session: August 8th to 11th, 2025

$500 More Info

Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

In this exciting workshop students will learn techniques in watercolor, drawing and collage as they draw inspiration from the beautiful Catskill Mountains landscape. Still life rendering within natural spaces (weather permitting) will be explored so that detailing is learned. There will lots of individual attention so that each artist can apply what they’ve learned to their own unique approach. Subjects include observation of the landscape, still life and figure. Subject matter and projects are flexible and open to each artist’s unique interests and needs. Techniques taught in class will include Plein Air Painting, Watercolor Collage, Wet-in-Wet methods, Masking, Texture making and Layering to create a range of painterly abstract and realistic effects in watercolor on paper. All abilities are welcome.

Hilary Doyle is an artist from Worcester, Massachusetts. Recent solo shows include “Probably a Goddess” at Dinner Gallery in New York City, and “On The Way to the Garden” at Taymour Grahne in London. She has exhibited at Mindy Solomon Gallery, Hesse Flatow, and Monya Rowe Gallery. Her most recent exhibition being a two-person show at Galerie LJ in Paris in 2024, Doyle has received press coverage in Two Coats of Paint, Hyperallergic, Bushwick Daily, and New American Paintings Blog. She has taught at Rhode Island School of Design, Brown University, and SUNY Purchase College. She co-founded NYC Crit Club. Doyle was recently co-director at Transmitter Gallery and curates shows independently. Doyle received a MFA from Rhode Island School of Design and BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Currently, Doyle teaches at the College of the Holy Cross.

Course Fee: $400 + $60 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

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Polymorphic Media Exploration: Cyanotype, Paint, Wood

with Annalise Neil

Next session: September 5th to 8th, 2025

$500 More Info

Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

Incorporating diverse materials and mediums, this workshop encourages play, curiosity and boundary-pushing. Students will create cyanotypes using photographic negatives and specimens found in Nature and be taught how to modify their natural blue tones. The class will work with various papers and fabric and learn different mounting and finishing techniques. The integration of water-based paints and collage will be explored, as well as sculptural considerations for wood panels that can support the work. Simple wood-working techniques using manual and rotary tools will be introduced. Come join us while we learn and work with this beautiful process in the fabled Catskill Mountains!

Annalise Neil lives and works in La Mesa, California. With a BFA in Printmaking from the College of Saint Rose, and a minor in Art History (summa cum laude), she has completed residencies at Playa Summer Lake in Oregon, with Mira Schor through the New York City Crit Club, and an artist residency in Motherhood. Her work has been exhibited nationally at galleries and museums including Field Projects, NYC, The Irvine Fine Arts Center, and The Oceanside Museum of Art. Neil’s work has been featured in publications such as ArtMaze Mag, Colossal, The On Being Project, Emergence Magazine, All She Makes, Resurgence, Ecologist Magazine, and New Visionary Magazine. Her work resides in public and private collections across the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

Course Fee: $400 + $60 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

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The Art of Tying Flies

with Judd Weisberg

Next session: June 21st, 2025

$200 More Info

Skill Level: Beginner To Advanced

In this introductory workshop, you'll learn the essential techniques for tying classic trout flies, from the alluring wet patterns that mimic aquatic insects to the vibrant streamers that tempt larger fish. Whether you're a seasoned angler or a curious beginner, this hands-on experience will equip you with the skills to create effective and beautiful lures. Under expert guidance, you'll master the art of tying the Black & Olive Woolly Bugger, a versatile wet fly; the Black-Nosed Dace, a classic dry fly that imitates a small minnow; the Hendrickson, a dry fly designed for mayfly hatches; and assorted nymphs, essential for imitating underwater prey.

Since childhood, fly fisherman Judd Weisberg has been casting lines on the Schoharie Creek and far off destinations such as Montana, Wyoming, and Japan. Each fall, a tradition born in 1966 beckons him back to the vibrant currents of Moosehead Lake. Judd’s creativity flows beyond the riverscape. As an artist, Judd works in various media, exploring the essence of Nature. He recently collaborated with noted pianist, Yi-heng Yang, who teaches at Julliard, creating the "Woven Currents" series. Their collaboration was Inspired by the Schoharie's junction pools.

Course Fee: $100 + $60 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

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Dimensional Felting Intensive

with Renee Baumann

Next session: July 18th to 20th, 2025

$380 More Info

Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

Learn to transform lusciously soft wool felt into three-dimensional forms. Over three days we will explore various contemporary techniques for creating three dimensional shapes, including wet felting on a resist as well as needle felting. While you might assume that your imagination is the limit, you will enjoy being in a supportive and experimental environment where anything is possible. You will create several small projects as well as at least one garment or vessel. This workshop is a first for Sugar Maples, and we are excited to host you and our incredibly talented Instructor for three days of discussions, demonstrations, and in-depth making of objects pertinent to you.

Renee Baumann is a Catskills-based designer, chef, and nature enthusiast with a passion for wild plants and fungi. Trained as an architect and a chef, she brings a creative, interdisciplinary flair to everything she does—whether she’s crafting baskets from local plants, illustrating mushrooms in watercolor, or whipping up delicious meals from foraged ingredients. Renee teaches workshops and techniques working with local fibers, with an emphasis on creating three dimensional forms from bioregional components. Her work varies from traditional basketry to sculptural felt and spinning foraged fibers. Renee teaches workshops on identifying, cooking with, and even weaving with plants and fungi growing in the Catskills.

Course Fee: $300 + $40 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

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Growing Patterns: Design Your Future

with Yael Braha

Next session: August 1st to 5th, 2025

$630 More Info

Beginner – Advanced

Handbuilding exquisite pottery forms is as ancient as the Craft is. This workshop is perfect for students who want to take handbuilding and creating dynamic surface decoration to a new level. Come study with this rising star of ceramics who will lead you through wonderful construction techniques that celebrate minimalist form thereby providing perfect planes for bold surface decoration using digital and analog approaches to pattern-making. Explore the power of line, negative space, contrast, and tension and their relationship to the forms you make. Analog and digital pattern design will be introduced, as well as embossing as an under-overlying detail. It’s complex and that’s exactly where we want to be. There will be demonstrations, discussions, hands-on work in our beautiful studio, firing, and heaps of individual attention. You can apply this to wherever and whatever temperature you want to fire.

Yael Braha is an artist of North African descent who received her BA in Graphic Design and MFA in Cinema. She has been an artist-in-residence at Arrowmont, Watershed, Haystack, Starworks, and in Shigaraki, Japan. Yael’s work has been exhibited in museums and galleries in the United States and Japan and is in permanent collections in the United States. In 2021, Braha received the coveted Multicultural Fellowship Award from the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts.

Course Fee: $500 + $90 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

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Gel Plate Printing & Collage

with Holly Hughes

Next session: June 20th to 22nd, 2025

$380 More Info

Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

Gel plate printing, a user friendly, kitchen table compatible printmaking technique with NO need for a press is applicable to painters, printmakers, ceramic artists, journal keepers, etc. Once the basics of Gel Plate printing are learned, it lends itself to both home, studio and travel purposes with ease and practicality. Fun and open to experimentation and improvisation - this is a method where artists with any experience level can discover new motifs and approaches for their art practice - and make beautiful, finished prints. There will be many demos including an “invisible” collage technique where your vibrant colorful prints can become raw material for larger works on paper. We will use slow drying Golden’s Open Acrylics mostly printed onto mulberry paper.

Holly Hughes is an artist with her own shorthand, developed to describe both nature and the human-made visual world surrounding us. Hughes, Professor Emerita of Painting at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), works in various mediums - always in conversation with one another. Processed by an imagination raised on Disney, the pictures exude both humor and inspiration from modern culture and the decorative arts. Codes for the idyllic and pastoral slam against a play of repossessed abstract language, with sources ranging from painting history through heraldry to domestic linens. Her practice ranges across painting, works on paper, printmaking, and ceramics. Hughes’ work can be found in many corporate, public, and private collections including Citibank, Pepsico, Prudential Bache, Pfizer Collection, Benziger Imagery Collection, Davis Museum, Dorsky Museum, and Museum of Rhode Island School of Design.

Course Fee: $300 + $40 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

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A Constructivist Beauty’s Segmented Beauty

with Kyle Johns

Next session: August 22nd to 24th, 2025

$400 More Info

Skill Level: Beginner – Advanced

This workshop/demonstration will introduce students to an exciting way of building forms using mold making, slip casting, rearrangement of parts, and technical construction. The instructor will lead participants through various industrial techniques that are then utilized to create artistic responses and complex forms. The use of stains and colorants as additions to clays and slips will be covered through this 3-day long demonstration/workshop. This workshop will feature a collective approach to learning Johns’ vivid new ways of construing and building vessels and forms.

Kyle Johns was born and raised in Chicago. He received a BFA from Southern Illinois University and MFA from Ohio University. Johns has been an artist-in-residence at The International Ceramics Center in Kecskemet, Hungary, the Archie Bray Foundation in Montana, and at Kansas State University. He was a Studio Assistant at Arrowmont School for Arts and Crafts and has participated in their Utilitarian Clay symposium. His innovative work has been featured in numerous magazines, national exhibitions, and he is currently an Instructor in Harvard’s Ceramics Program in Cambridge.

Course Fee: $300 + $60 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

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Figure Sculpture: The Thinking Bust

with Arthur Gonzalez

Next session: July 25th to 29th, 2025

$600 More Info

Skill Level: Beginner To Advanced

Concentrating on life-size portrait busts, we will learn to sculpt facial and upper body expressions, depict advanced emotions, and create a narrative. The foundations of academic proportions will be used as a gateway to construct invented figures! Exploring impressionistic gesture and color theory we will underglaze our completed sculptures in the greenware state. Learning the “inside-out” building technique we will endeavor to manipulate the figure from both sides of the clay wall so the artist can express the influence of muscle and bone and skin. Come study with one of the country’s preeminent sculptors.

Arthur Gonzalez is an internationally recognized artist with over 60 solo shows in forty years, including nine in New York. Awards include the Virginia Groot Foundation and a four-time recipient of the National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship. Public collections include the Museum of Modern Ceramic Art in Gifu, Japan and the Smithsonian Archives of American Art. His many Artist-in-Residencies include The Tainan National University in Taiwan, The Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana, and the Pilchuck Glass School in Seattle, Washington. Gonzalez is a Professor of Art at the California College of the Arts.

Course Fee: $500 + $60 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

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Brush Making

with Miles Gracey

Next session: August 1st to 2nd, 2025

$290 More Info

Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

In this exciting 2-day introductory workshop, students will be introduced to the now esoteric art of brush making. While in modern times the brush has been relegated to “the oh so familiar,” this object has enjoyed a beautiful and rich history as one of humanity’s most useful tools. Through emphasis on natural materials and traditional techniques, this class will cover materials, binding methods, and several handle and decorative options to make the humble sweeper both highly useful AND exquisitely aesthetic. The woods of these glorious Catskill Mountains make for the perfect starting point learning this ancient craft.

Miles Gracey is a furniture/cabinet/object maker, working primarily in wood. His work explores storytelling, ornamentation, and narratives amongst objects— all predicated on touch. Miles received a BFA in sculpture from Otis College and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Gracey has been in residence at Houston Center for Contemporary Art, the Center for Furniture, and Haystack. His awards include Anderson Ranch, Berkshire Woodworkers Guild, and the Jackie Romine Scholarship at the Krevov School, among others. Miles has participated in numerous important group exhibitions.

Course Fee: $200 + $50 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

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Weekly Hand-Building Ceramics

Next session: June 18th to August 20th, 2025

$355 More Info

Instructor TBD

Skill Level: Beginner – Advanced

Using clay to create pottery, sculpture, architectural tile and forms, reaches back as far in time as 28,000 years ago when the paleolithic Venus figurines were sculpted. From the magnificent Native American pots to modern tilework, hand-building processes play an important role in artists’ abilities to express their imaginations and traditions through this most malleable medium. During this exciting course students will learn a wide variety of processes, tools, and approaches for realizing forms. There will be demonstrations of pinch, coil, and slab techniques as well as glazing and firing. This is a fun hands-on course!

Course Fee: $250 + $65 Lab Fee (includes first bag of clay and firings) + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee

Waiting list available