Drawing for Painters with Handmade Brushes

with Dawn Stafford
4-day, June 8–11, 10:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.
Tuition: $300
Materials Fee: $30

Inspired by Ox-Bow’s natural landscape, students in this workshop will explore where the technical aspects of drawing meet painting, with attention to line, value, structure, and mark-making in charcoal, conte crayon, and watercolor. To further experiment with mark-making, demonstrations will guide students through the project of designing and building their own brushes and tools using organic materials including beeswax, horsehair, and jute.

Plan to bring: drawing board no smaller than 18 by 24 inches, apron and/or old clothes, masking tape, Sharpie, watercolor brushes (at least 2 sizes), paper towels or soft cotton rags, small watercolor palette, scissors, jar with wide base for water, bug spray, hat, and water bottle.

Location: Main Campus - 3435 Rupprecht Way, Saugatuck, MI 49453

Dawn Stafford (she/her) is a full-time artist working in the Saugatuck/Fennville area of Michigan. Her oil paintings of West Michigan’s landscape, rural fauna and flora, and everyday human objects explore subtle color palettes, rhythms, and harmonies that seek to reduce the noise of the outer world, often using color and scale to effect a sense of intimacy, atmosphere, or presence. A painter, artist, teacher, mother, and gardener, she creates and exhibits her work in a repurposed historic one-room schoolhouse, the Peachbelt Studio (formerly the Peachbelt Schoolhouse, established c. 1867). Since 1996, she has participated as both a student and a staff member at Ox-Bow, serving variously as kitchen staff, teaching assistant, course instructor, and Art on the Meadow facilitator. Originally from New York, she received her BFA from the Swain School of Design in Massachusetts before moving to Michigan in 1992. Her work is widely collected.

Photos from 2025 Brush Making/Drawing Class, Courtesy of artist.