Last month, we were very glad to welcome back Georgina Mills, a figurative realist sculptor and TBSSS guest teacher from Tarntanya/Adelaide, to run two ¾ Life-Size Torso Workshops. Georgina had previously run this workshop in 2024, and it was extremely popular with the group of students who were lucky enough to participate. The workshop was an intensive 5-day course, working with a life model to develop students' observational skills, sculpture techniques, and knowledge of human anatomy and form.
Below, Merridth Zagami reflects on her experience of the workshop:
Patience with the outlined process was well rewarded. Day 2 was a challenge, like being in a labyrinth. By Day 3, Georgina's reinforcement of the key points was beginning to 'make sense'. The process of gradually developing the figure involved paying close visual attention to the underpinning structures of bones and muscles, external contours, planes, angles, light and shade, and then linking them all together in a coherent manner. This process rapidly turned from despair to pleasure as my understanding of it realised itself in the clay form.
Georgina Mills' introductory words, "We are here to learn... the reward will be the journey, not the finished work" encapsulate my experience of this exciting course, where my individuality was gently acknowledged while the learning process was reinforced, and unfolded to become the next layer of my identity as a sculptor.
Meanwhile, Consuelo Coy writes:
It was a very interesting and educational workshop. During this time, I felt totally absorbed by the modelling process and very focused on this activity. It was like being somewhere else, where there is no chance to think about everyday pressures and stressors. I experienced being relieved from daily worries, and it was like a brief break from the rest of the world.
Georgina is an artist who was interested in teaching and assisting us during the whole process of the workshop. She was very dedicated to supporting and guiding every participant during the duration of this activity. She dedicated equal time to all the participants during the workshop and always answered all the questions and provided support to every participant request on a timely manner.
For me, her approach to sculpting was different to what I had experienced before, and she spent the first part of every daily session (approximately one hour) introducing us to the new concepts and processes and by the end of the workshop we all were pleased to have sculpted a complete torso in clay. Thanks Georgina for your guidance and your teaching. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this workshop.
Finally, Georgina Mills' reflects on her experience teaching the class:
Teaching at TBSSS is an absolute pleasure, the team is very supportive and everything is always organised and ready to go. I ask a lot from the students and am always pleasantly surprised how they rise to the challenge and produce fantastic sculptures in such a short amount of time.
Thank you to Georgina for such a great workshop, to Lulu and Kat - our excellent life models, and to Merridth and Consuelo for your reflections!
You can read more about Georgina in this interview we did with her on the Sculpture Club blog, and she'll be exhibiting work in Melbourne and Sydney soon—see below for details.
