EAC Sketchbook Project Opening Reception

The EAC Sketchbook Project’s inaugural session will conclude with a special event for the public on Saturday, March 30. Project participants—who have included students of 4 local schools and community members—are invited to bring their sketchbooks to the center for a special reception and to be photographed for inclusion in an online exhibition.

A collaboration between Eastport Arts Center and the Eastport Gallery, the 8-week project aimed to help participants stretch their imaginations and to connect them with the creative community. Instructor Alison Ross led weekly Saturday drawing sessions at EAC, which were attended by a mix of children and adults, ages 10 and up; and also worked with students of Cobscook Institute (high school freshmen and sophomores), Edmunds Consolidated School (5th through 8th graders) and Sipayik Elementary(6th graders). Meanwhile, Eastport schools’ art instructor Sara Myrick has been working independently with her elementary and high school students, who also received EAC sketchbooks.

The springboard for all participants has been a booklet of 20 drawing prompts designed by Ross, a multi-faceted artist and president of Eastport Gallery. These ideas for things to draw and ways to go about drawing them endeavored to pull participants out of their comfort zones and explore drawing in new ways. Both schoolchildren and the EAC group began their journey with what Ross describes as “the more loose prompts—‘doodle cats’ and ‘shape faces’; both groups also paid some special attention to figure drawing. “Figure drawing is something that can seem really daunting to new artists of all ages,” noted Ross, who worked with participants to “get past that initial trepidation and begin to have fun getting marks on paper.”

“The response has been wonderful,” said Ross, who hopes that an annual reoccurrence of the EAC-Eastport Gallery sketchbook collaboration will arise from the success of this pilot project.

Project participants are invited to drop off their sketchbooks between 11 am and noon on Saturday, March 30, or to bring them to the reception, which is being held from 1 to 3 p.m. Labels will be provided for participants to affix to the exterior of their books. They will be asked to pick a favorite page or pages, to be photographed for display in an upcoming online exhibition. All are welcome to come and see the sketchbooks during the reception; participants will take their books home at the end of the event. Participants who aren’t able to come to EAC on March 30 are invited to send photographs of a favorite page or pages, to info@eastportartscenter.org for inclusion in the online exhibition.