November 2019 Rapid River Magazine
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310 ART Gallery<br />
New Adventures in Learning at 310 ART<br />
BY FLETA MONAGHAN • RIVER ARTS DISTRICT, ASHEVILLE<br />
Our fine-art school for adults<br />
was founded in 2006 and is now the<br />
oldest independent school of its<br />
type in the WNC region.<br />
If that were not cause for<br />
celebration enough, every year, we<br />
create new courses and learning<br />
opportunities, and this year, with<br />
the creative thinking of three of our<br />
resident artists, we have embarked<br />
on new projects and opportunities!<br />
Some of the new things happening<br />
are unusual, exciting, and only<br />
found at 310 ART.<br />
Nadine Charlsen, our<br />
Experimental Watercolor instructor<br />
Bridget Benton inWax and Light workshop<br />
nonpareil, created a new project that<br />
has taken artists on an exploration<br />
of paper and watercolor. “The Paper<br />
Project” is related to our extensive<br />
experimental watercolor program<br />
and supported by our friends at<br />
Cheap Joes, who provided 11<br />
different papers for each artist.<br />
The results have been a revelation.<br />
Ten artists, starting in a one-day<br />
workshop in June, have worked all<br />
summer to paint a chosen subject<br />
on these<br />
different<br />
papers to<br />
see how the<br />
paint behaved<br />
and which<br />
surface they<br />
liked best. The<br />
results vary<br />
dramatically!<br />
The project<br />
has captured<br />
the interest<br />
of several<br />
publications,<br />
including a national magazine, and<br />
will be published in 2020 as well as<br />
shared with other students at 310<br />
ART.<br />
Bridget Benton, our lead<br />
encaustic instructor, is offering oneon-one<br />
coaching sessions through<br />
310 ART that blend her experience<br />
as an encaustic/mixed-media art<br />
instructor and author of the awardwinning<br />
book on intuitive artmaking<br />
The Creative Conversation. A huge<br />
success, the coaching sessions<br />
focus on helping<br />
emerging artists find<br />
their unique creative<br />
voice, and support<br />
established artists in<br />
addressing blocks,<br />
slumps, or major<br />
style transitions.<br />
Benton says, “I<br />
love helping people<br />
make things. With<br />
the Finding Your<br />
Denise Markbreit’s press Voice sessions,<br />
I want to help<br />
artists access their<br />
authentic creative voice, whether<br />
they’re just starting or have been<br />
working for years as professional<br />
artists. Sometimes the pros need a<br />
10 |RAPIDRIVERMAGAZINE.COM | RAPID RIVER’S ARTS & CULTURE | VOL. 23, NO. 3 NOVEMBER <strong>2019</strong>
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