Join us in an engaging slide presentation by artist, Maggie Siner, as she discusses the historical use of fabric in paintings and the important role it plays in composition. Various forms of drapery create shape, gesture, drama and unity. Maggie is a dynamic speaker and her vast knowledge of art history is inspiring and educational for artists of any level. This lecture precedes her workshop: Fabric as a Vehicle of Gesture. Students do not need to register!

If you look over the past 600 years of Western Painting you’ll see drapery everywhere - on classical and religious figures, elegant portraits, genre paintings, still-lives, interiors; drapery covers acres of canvas. Because it captures gravity, weight and movement, it does a great deal of the work in making a convincing dynamic composition. Drapery can be manipulated and altered in ways that bodies can never be, and yet define the forms of the body underneath. As it covers it also reveals. Fabric retains the gesture of movement, giving life to static forms. Changes of color on each turning plane are subtle and dependent on fabric texture. This gives tactile specificity for the sense of touch. Fabric suggests content and drama.