Just a month after retiring from 24 years at Allen County Community College, Steve Greenwall is back in the classroom.
Greenwall is teaching a figure drawing class at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center. The five-week course is part of its adult summer program.
An inveterate teacher, nothing pleases him more than triggering interest, casual to consuming, from the very young to … well, no one is too old to be exposed to the world of art.
He has definite ideas for kids.
“Don’t give them a coloring book,” he said, allowing it stifles their creativity. “Give them a blank piece of paper and let them draw whatever they want. Just let them go.”
The current class is one of several Greenwall has scheduled. A landscape class will run five weeks on Wednesday evenings, 5:30 to 7:30, in the Bowlus art room starting July 13. Enrollment is $10, plus cost of materials.
“We start with basic techniques and as students build on them, their ability level increases,” he said.
WEDNESDAY evening eight women in his figure-drawing class listened intently, including what might have been a shocking command if heard by a casual passerby.
“Take off your clothes,” Greenwall told two teenagers, a college-age boy and a high school girl, who had agreed to model for the class; they wore swimwear under street clothes. Only so much can be taught in the abstract; real flesh and blood are required for students to get the “feel” of drawing the human figure, he observed.
Greenwall sketched each of the models with a stick of charcoal, his hand flying over the paper as it took on a remarkably well- defined image of the human form.
Then, it was the students’ turn.
Greenwall told them a handy technique was to start with a large capital I, with the bar at the top representing the figure’s shoulders, the bottom one the hips. Very soon each had renditions of the models, although facial features weren’t fleshed out.
Greenwall said the models were necessary so that the basics of human form could be seen and visualized. Also, the gender difference is important, he added, because “there are structural differences.”
“I want them (students) to do gesture drawing, kind of like drawing stick figures, of the shoulder, spine, hips, arms, legs. That gives them a feel for the figure,” he said.
IN JULY Greenwall’s classes on landscape drawing might appeal more to the novice.
“You can mess up a tree and it still looks like a tree,” Greenwall said. “Not so with people. You can end up with something that looks like it came from outer space.”
He will instruct an art appreciation class at the Bowlus in the fall and will offer oil painting instruction in the spring. He also gives private lessons from a home studio. Call him at 365-6210 for more information, including costs.
Greenwall anticipates other teaching opportunities, but also intends to spend more time developing commercial aspects of his talent.
“I’m going to do more marketing and I want to get my work out more in the public eye,” he said.
He has paintings and drawings hanging in several places in Iola, as well as other southeast Kansas cities, and intends to expand that presence.
Greenwall has had an exhibit at the Mary L. Martin Art Gallery in the Bowlus and venues elsewhere. He is a frequent winner in state, national and international competitions. His works are found in private and public collections worldwide.
Greenwall is an eclectic artist, doing portraits, landscapes, figures and still-life in oils, water color and other mediums. His website, www.stevengreenwall.com, includes a gallery.
GREENWALL was born and raised in Salt Lake City and earned a bachelor of arts degree, with a major in art education, from Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, in 1976.
After teaching art in public schools for 10 years, he returned to BYU to earn a master of fine arts degree prior to joining the ACCC faculty.
