Large Piece of Lawn – Drawing the World of Plants

The Participants examine historical plant specimens, explore the botanical garden, study arthistorical illustrations and discover structures under the microscope. They develop the
knowledge gathered into a graphic interpretation of the plant world.

In my workshop, you will have the opportunity to engage intensively with botanical phenomena. We will not stray far, but will take a particularly close look at aspects of the world that enable us to exist on our planet.

For his watercolour painting ‘The Large Piece of Lawn’ (1503), Albrecht Dürer probably drew and studied each plant individually before assembling them in his studio to create this small landscape. We, too, will put ourselves on an equal footing with nature. With the basic equipment of a draughtsman or draughtswoman – pencil, paper, coloured pencils and watercolours – we will examine the forms and variations of plant life and attempt to develop and unfold our own artistic concerns from this exploration.

The workshop will take us on excursions to four locations, each of which will reveal different aspects of the plant world. We will visit special research facilities and collections in Berlin and examine the plant world in different ways: systematics and stylisation based on historical models in the drawing laboratory of the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK), Rich variety and complexity in the Botanical Garden, illustrative and study material in the form of original art-historical graphics in the collection of the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin, and surface structures in the Microscopy Centre of Humboldt University in Berlin.

Repeated work with reference works, in nature and under the microscope will enable participants to gather intense impressions, develop an awareness of systematics and variations, acquire drawing strategies and gain insight into the natural world. Visual artists, architects, designers, and self-taught individuals with previous drawing experience who wish to deepen their engagement with nature and jointly open up new perspectives for their respective artistic practices are invited to apply.

Schedule

Day 1 - Study of plant models from the 19th century in the UdK Laboratory
Day 2 - Study of plants in the Dahlem Botanical Garden
Day 3 - Studying plants in the Dahlem Botanical Garden
Day 4 - Study and drawing from original drawings and prints from the 17th to 19th centuries in the Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings) of the Gemäldegalerie Berlin
Day 5 - Drawing under the microscope in the microscopy laboratory at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Day 6 - Drawing under the microscope in the microscopy laboratory at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Kerstin Hille is a visual artist and head of the laboratory for drawing at the Berlin University of the Arts. After graduating as a master student in 2001 at the weissensee kunsthochschule berlin, she worked at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin in 2004, where she made scientific drawings in the zoology department. As an artist, she works in parallel with drawing and printmaking, forming intersections here and experimentally exploring the possibilities of these two media. Together with Angela Nikolai (née Bösl), she published PFLANZEN FORMEN LEHRE in 2016, which brings together historical and current positions in the study of plants in drawing at the Berlin University of the Arts.

www.kerstinhille.de / instagram: @kerstin.h.hille und @udk_zeichnung