Animal and Ceramic Sculpture

Beginning & Intermediate
March 11, 2023
1 Session (Saturday)
10:00am - 4:00pm

April 8, 2023
1 Session (Saturday)
10:00am - 4:00pm
​Instructor: Marie Luce Van Asten
Class Fee:   $120.00 non-members + $30.00 Supply Fee
         $108.00 BRMAA members + 30.00 Supply Fee                    
     Learn simple methods for creating animal clay sculptures using different hand-building techniques. Choose any animal you want to create in a day and bring a photograph to help you. Basic anatomy and proportions will be discussed. The piece that you create can be as realistic as you wish. Students will learn about coils, slab construction, pinch pot, and his or her pieces will be given one firing during the class, and there will be discussion of how to decorate pieces afterwards. 
March 11, 2023 Registration
Animal & Ceramic Sculpture (March 11, 2023) Registration
April 8, 2023 Registration
Animal & Ceramic Sculpture (April 8, 2023) Registration
Call (706) 632-2144 for questions regarding this course and registration.  Payment is required to register for BRMAA courses. You may pay via PayPal above, over the phone, or visit The Art Center located at 420 West Main Street, Blue Ridge, GA 30513 to pay in person. The Programming Coordinator is in the office from 10 am - 6pm on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday..
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
​
Picture
Instructor
MARIE LUCE VAN ASTEN               
Marie-Luce Van Asten was born in Belgium and lived there for 40 years.  Her parents had a home in the country side where they were growing fruit and vegetables but also chickens, pigeons and rabbits, all in an organic and sustainable way.
 In High School, she decided to take Art Classes as her main focus and then she went to college to become an Art teacher.  At that time, we were exposed to a lot of different art disciplines: painting, ceramics, drawing, photography, sculpture, print making as well as scientific design.  For her year-end project, she chose to focus on Print Making, a discipline she kept practicing through the early years of her married life.
 She graduated in Belgium as an Art teacher in 1983.  When she arrived in the US in 2001, she found Chastain Art Center in Atlanta where she took wheel classes for 2 years.  About that period, she got a full-time job at the Atlanta International School; her new professional life did not allow her to attend the day classes at Chastain anymore so she switched to the evening hand building clay classes.  Luce taught the French language at the Atlanta International School in kindergarten and elementary for 15 years and retired in 2016. 
 During recent summers, Luce has been attending workshops at Arrowmont School of Art in Tennessee and at John Campbell Folk School where she has been developing and fine tuning her style.  She took classes to improve her figurative sculpture techniques and discovered different surface decoration. Furthermore, with the help of her husband, Dominicus, she is fusing her ceramic pieces with wood. All pieces are hand crafted in Blue Ridge and are one of a kind!  She hand-builds the clay pieces using different types of clay depending on the finished piece she wants to create; for each of them they discuss which wood components to use, trying to tell a story through their integration. The wood is used to enhance the piece and to finish it.  
Luce is currently the Vice President of the Southern Appalachian Artist Guild in Blue Ridge, GA.  She teaches clay building and the pottery wheel classes throughout the year at the Blue Ridge Mountains Art Association and Art Center in Blue Ridge, GA.