– Thursday, November 30, 2023
– 6:30–8:00 p.m.
– LRMA Interactive Gallery
– Suggested 10$ Donation
Join us at LRMA on November 30th at 6pm as we welcome artist Kevin Grass.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Kevin Grass grew up in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, a small river town about an hour southeast of St. Louis. Since there were no art supply stores nearby, his father, who worked as a grocery clerk, brought brown paper bags home for me to use as drawing paper. Using No. 2 pencils and ball-point pens, he worked obsessively without instruction to master representational drawing skills.
In high school, he created a wide variety of commissioned works, ranging from portraits and landscapes to lettering for campaign signs and car decorations. One of the murals he assisted with in downtown Ste. Genevieve still exists today. It has faded, but shows that he had promise as a representational painter from an early age.
After becoming valedictorian of Ste. Genevieve High School, he began his formal art education at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He received his undergraduate degree in drawing and painting in 1990 from Washington University on a full academic scholarship.
At the University of Georgia, he met his future wife, Michaela Oberlaender, in a Northern Renaissance art class. That course had an extensive impact on his life because it also introduced him to the narrative symbolism and the meticulous techniques of the Flemish masters that influence his work today.
The fall after receiving his graduate degree, he began teaching art full-time at Gordon College in Barnesville, Georgia. In addition to teaching, he pursued corporate art commissions, regional juried shows, and had his first solo museum exhibition.
In August 1997, he moved his family to the Tampa Bay region to accept a teaching post at St. Petersburg College in Florida. He still teaches full-time as an Associate Professor of Art on the Clearwater campus.
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
Just as writers must learn grammar and punctuation, visual artists must first master a basic “vocabulary” of symbols and techniques to successfully express their ideas. Most beginning art students have little familiarity with the fundamental systems for visual communication. When teaching foundation-level art courses, it is best to start with simple elements as the means to explore the basic problems of representational drawing. Line drawings gradually evolve into more sophisticated systems that incorporate perspective and value, increasing the learners’ ability to create the illusion of form on the page. Not only will learners develop basic skills for representing space and form, they will also gain confidence in their abilities. While many students may see the mastery of representational techniques as their ultimate goal, others will use their academic drawing skills to explore more abstract or conceptual approaches to creating artwork.