Ana Pacella-Crespo/Contributing Writer
Professor Emeritus Clive King from the department of fine arts at FIU is helping artists convert their self-expression into physical form with his Intuitive Drawing Workshop. The workshop’s original intention was to focus on drawings, but it has resulted in students working on a cultivated collection of paint on canvases using different textures, collages and even 3D constructions.
This kind of artistic activity requires complete physical and mental commitment from the student artists. According to King, students must give all their creative selves to shape their feelings onto the canvas.
The workshop was spread across two days. On the first day, they covered different series of approaches, interactions and interpretations that developed the idea behind their work.
Music played an important role in the process; it was used as a tool to clarify the students’ minds. In turn, it helped guide the process of producing their pieces. A variety of music also helped them drive the pace of the workshop. The students became immersed in the tunes and produced work that danced with emotion and conviction. The second day focused on shaping their art onto the paper and exhibiting it.
King is an artist and a former Chair of the FIU art history department. He has participated in different exhibitions throughout the US and Europe such as in the Museum of Modern Art and within FIU. He studied at the Goldsmiths College of art in London and the Exeter College of art, finishing his studies in 1966. He has received different awards and recognitions such as the “Wales Now” and FIU Provost’s Research Award. He used to be a full-time professor and retired in 2010.
“The workshops initially developed from my own practice which is developing the theme of drawing I was working on at the time through a series of spontaneous images on a scale larger than myself so I could work almost within the picture surface,” Professor King said. “I constructed a course for students when I worked in Oxford Brooks University, Oxford, U.K. and continued initially at F.I.U. when I came to work here in 2002.
Since then I have taken the workshop to many colleges across the country and am still doing so.” Since then, King devotes his time to preparing for new exhibitions and running the intuitive drawing workshops in different institutions throughout the country. Besides the one at Florida International University, he has also worked at Kansas City Art Institute and the University of Utah.
King created the workshops for students to freely express themselves through their art pieces by using different techniques and materials. People that have practiced it confirm that it is a good outlet to free their minds and hone in on their artistic expression. The best thing about this technique is that no experience is required since it is all about doing scrawls until the artwork starts to shape itself through the artist’s feelings and emotions.
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