Coil-Building Narrative Figurative Sculpture

The Clay Studio of Missoula presents
Coil-Building Narrative Figurative Sculpture
A Workshop with Adrian Arleo

This workshop opens for public registration on February 6 at 12PM.

August 11th-15th, 2025. Class meets daily from 10am-5pm
Workshop will take place in the Clay Studio Annex classroom at 1110-C Hawthorne St. in Missoula

Course fee: $925. $35 discount for members (Use code ARLEO35)

Included in class fee: Workshop clay, access to general workshop tools, boards, turntables, plastic
Firing services for completed works can be arranged for an additional fee.
 

Workshop participants should have at least intermediate level experience with clay handbuilding skills. This course is not suitable for beginners.

For information on cancellation policies, basic schedule, recommended tools, and more; check out our Visiting Artist Workshop Page

In this five-day workshop, participants will learn coil-building techniques to turn their creative visions into sculptural forms. Choose to work with human or animal figures, or a combination of the two. In addition to free-standing sculpture, we’ll also consider how sculptural pieces can be designed to go on the wall. Small maquettes and drawings will be used to help develop ideas and content while working out the composition and proportions. Our approach will be expressive, and open to experimentation. By playing with an array of things like gesture, embellishment with texture and sprig molded forms, unique character and narratives can be developed. For inspiration, Adrian will show presentations on contemporary ceramic sculpture, as well as process slides and video demonstrating coil-building, problem solving, sectioning and internal supports. Presentations on basic human and animal anatomy will also be offered. Throughout the five days, Adrian will give frequent demonstrations to help participants with their individual sculptures. The techniques covered for making medium-size pieces in the workshop will be applicable to constructing larger work in the future.

Adrian Arleo has spent the last three decades living and working as a full-time sculptor in Lolo, Montana, with her family and a menagerie of animals. She was born in NY and spent many years on both coasts before making Montana home. Adrian studied Art and Anthropology at Pitzer College and received her M.F.A. in ceramics from Rhode Island School of Design. She was an Artist in Residence at Oregon College of Art and Craft in 1986-87, at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology in 1987-88, and in 2012 was an invited artist for the Jordan Schnitzer Printmaking Residency, also at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology.
 
Adrian’s work is exhibited nationally and internationally, and is in numerous public, private and museum collections. She received awards from the Virginia A. Groot Foundation in 1991 and 1992, and in 1995 was awarded a Montana Arts Council Individual Fellowship. Her work has been widely published in books, magazines, and on the internet. Adrian is a frequent workshop instructor across the US and abroad and enjoys teaching courses on figurative ceramic sculpture.