Beginner Drawing *In-Person*

This carefully-planned series of exercises will introduce the beginner to the following elements of observational drawing: perspective, composition, light values, and contour. Students will begin by learning how to accurately measure and observe objects and the world around them. Classes will include instructor demonstrations and exercises in contour drawing, tonal drawing, and gesture drawing with plenty of time to practice in class and receive feedback from the instructor. Instructors: Jason Polins and Geoffrey Halverson

Sections

Instructors

Geoffrey Halverson is a Cambridge native who attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin H.S. and studied art at the Corcoran Museum in Washington DC. He is an experienced painter and multi-media artist with a focus on landscape and still life paintings. He has taught art both privately and with children in after school programs with the City of Cambridge. Geoffrey believes in emphasizing the fundamentals of western art focusing on painting and drawing in a realistic style. His other interests include hiking and travel.

Jason Polins, a Boston-based artist, is inspired by nature and modernity, seeking to express emotions and experiences through narrative and metaphor. His artistic genres include portraiture, figure, still life, landscape, and cityscape. His work, rooted in traditional techniques, combines timelessness with humor, dissolving tension through its subject matter. Continuously discovering new meanings, his work invites viewers to delve deeper and uncover its truth.

Polins holds a BFA from Boston University and a graduate degree from the Florence Academy of Art. He pursued direct studies with renowned painters Nelson Shanks and Gary Hoffmann upon returning to the states.

Beyond painting, Jason teaches oil painting and drawing at his atelier and local art centers.

Nasiri Guzman is a Boston-based painter originally from the Dominican Republic. He earned a BFA in Painting from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and an MFA from Boston University. His work focuses on portraiture, still life, and landscape, with an emphasis on the human figure. He is skilled in observational drawing, composition, and material control, and works in various media, including oil, acrylic, watercolor, pastel, charcoal, ink, and graphite pencil. Influenced by Renaissance painting, Guzman uses a muted palette shaped by childhood blackouts, when forms emerged from darkness and sensitivity to light developed. This use of color and shadow guides the viewer and creates emotional focus. He is committed to arts education, teaching technical skills while mentoring emerging artists as they develop their creative voices.