Studio Students Cycle 1: Who I Am

Welcome to Studio Students — Miss Ash's most advanced summer program, built for teen artists who are ready to work seriously, think critically, and make art that actually means something.

We begin with Amy Sherald: one of the most significant contemporary portrait painters working today. Best known for her official portrait of Michelle Obama, Sherald's practice is built on a single powerful question — who deserves to be painted with grandeur and dignity? Her answer, rendered in luminous grisaille (grayscale skin tones) against bold flat backgrounds and rich patterned clothing, is: everyone. Especially everyday Black Americans whose stories have been left out of art history for too long.

Over four connected days, Studio Students engage with Sherald's work as both a formal and a political practice.

Day 1 opens with a deep-dive presentation and a formal Feldman method analysis (Describe, Analyze, Interpret, Judge) applied to one Sherald portrait, followed by a sketchbook medium exploration and the beginning of a personal patterned ground.

Day 2 focuses on grisaille technique — building a full value scale in graphite, developing a compositional self-portrait with deliberate symbolic objects, and making intentional decisions about pose, gaze, and negative space.

Day 3 is Full Expression Day — students combine all elements into a finished mixed media portrait and complete their formal written artist statement.

Day 4 is the Art Gallery Opening — families and community are invited, portraits are installed with titles and statements, and Studio Students present their work to a real audience. Students who choose to participate in an optional open Feldman critique receive structured peer feedback in front of (and possibly with) their guests.

This is not a craft class; this is your Studio Students creative workshop.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Miss Ash