Core Program
Lasting up to four years, GCA’s full-time Core Studies are composed of three consecutive segments. The first year is a Drawing Program. The second year is a Painting Program or a Sculpture Program. An Advanced Studies Program in Drawing and Painting or Sculpture can be undertaken as a third and fourth year.
The first year is offered as potential standalone program. Admission into each subsequent segment will be based on the achievements of the previous year.
Artists study and practice drawing, painting, and sculpture from life. To ensure a deep understanding of classical form, design, practice, and discipline, artists work in a structured, organized studio with the hands on guidance of the studio’s principle artists.
To be considered eligible, artists must demonstrate, through an online application and interviews, a serious work ethic and sincere desire to learn.
Drawing Year
Full-time studies at GCA begin with the Drawing Year, a one-year integrated drawing program in which the students progress from rigorous cast drawing and linear “block-in” drawing through structural analysis of the live model, perspective, sculpture and art history. The year ends with a series of highly finished long pose figure drawings. These drawings are…..More
Painting Year
After the Drawing Year, full-time studies continue with the Painting Year, a year-long accelerated course in figure painting. Artists will begin with a thorough introduction to theory of tonal value. Painting the casts “en grisaille” will be followed by portrait and figure painting in gray scale. The second half of the year begins with a…..More
Sculpture Year
After the Drawing Year, students may enter the Sculpture Year, a full time intensive sculpture curriculum designed to introduce artists through a traditional skill-based approach to a wide range of figurative sculpture practices that will prepare them for advanced work as a professional figurative sculptor. Artists will begin with a series of 1:1 scale portrait…..More
Advanced Study
Following a year of drawing and a year of painting, the Third Year offers students the opportunity to delve more deeply into figure painting with a continuing emphasis on figure structure drawing. While long poses continue all year, afternoons in the second half of the year are devoted to a 5-part series of 8-week professional…..More