They did not sing about doe or being 16 going on 17, but Tusculum University and local high school students and a professor recently used the locations from the classic movie “The Sound of Music” and other places to enhance their drawing and painting skills.
Bill Bledsoe, assistant professor of art and design, recently led a contingent of students and adults on a trip to Salzburg, Austria, where they drew and painted at the places many of the scenes from the movie were filmed. They also traveled to Germany and drew at the site where atrocious acts occurred – the Dachau concentration camp.
The students have since returned to America and are completing the works they started in Europe. They will unveil their finished projects at an upcoming show. Details are forthcoming.
“This trip was an excellent active and experiential learning opportunity for our students and others to further develop their artistic skills,” Bledsoe said. “It was a great way to take the theory and concepts shared in the classroom and apply them in a live setting. We also incorporated a lot of fun activities that enabled the students and everyone else to absorb the culture of another country and see firsthand places of historical significance.”
Joining him on the trip were Tusculum students Dalton Darr and Hannah Morgan and alumna Ashley Howell. Two other participants were Greeneville High school students Kyndall Brewer and Ellah Brewer, the daughters of Ken and Shannon Brewer. Ken Brewer is an associate professor of psychology at Tusculum. Five older adults also participated in the trip.
Including round-trip travel, the trip lasted 11 days.
In all, the group travel to multiple cities and villages in Austria and Germany, including Salzburg, Munich and Dachau. During their time in Salzburg, everyone saw the church where Maria and Capt. Georg von Trapp were married and the houses used to portray where the couple and the children lived. Bledsoe said he chose Austria for a portion of this trip because of the landscape.
“You can literally go anywhere in Salzburg, and there is something very picturesque to paint,” he said. “Plus, Salzburg is a smaller city, so it’s very conducive to setting everything out and starting to paint. The city is very welcoming to artists.”
The students and Howell participated in en plein air artistry, which consists of sitting outside to paint and draw what their eyes see. But they also drew variations of master works when they were inside museums. At Dachau, the group was permitted to come to the site early to draw before other visitors arrived. They had gone before to take photographs.
“It was solemn, and everybody was serious about what they were doing,” Bledsoe said. “We all drew the same thing, but because we have different styles and aptitudes, the results are totally different. However, they are made to go together like a collection.”
Group members visited a couple of museums a day, building their knowledge of classical and impressionist art as well as post-impressionism and German expressionism. This enabled the students and others to see the evolution of art from a detailed form to abstraction. The museum visits included hearing from Bledsoe and local lecturers, who talked about the craft.
During the trip, the group also enjoyed eating the food in the different cities and learned to bake an Austrian apple strudel.
Viewpoints of Tusculum students
Morgan, a sophomore who is pursuing majors in studio art and visual communications with a career goal of being a working artist, called the trip “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to view art she and the other travelers would not be able to see in the United States. Visiting the museums and seeing all of the art pieces were the biggest highlights for her. Of particular interest was the Franz Marc Museum in Upper Bavaria.
“A lot of his pieces are very famous for expressionism, so a lot of those were amazing to see in person,” said Morgan, who has a great interest in that art form because of the colors.
Morgan also enjoyed en plein air painting. She said it was incredible to paint the Alps and awesome to translate the “Sound of Music” locations from the movie screen to a live, in-person setting.
“I believe the trip has made me a better artist because I have been able to see so many different perspectives that have changed my view on what being an artist really is,” Morgan said. “By being able to view all of the German and Austrian art, I was able to see the different styles and techniques that those artists have used. I can incorporate those styles into my work because that is what Mr. Bledsoe is teaching us.”
Darr, who is also a sophomore, is majoring in studio art. He had never traveled outside the United States prior to this trip. He was particularly interested in visiting Germany to draw some of the sites and make variations of the paintings in the museums. He was amazed by the number of museums people could see in Germany and Austria.
“I definitely picked up a bunch of different ways to draw and paint while I was there,” said Darr, whose career goals are to be a storyboard artist and work in studio art animation. “I like to focus on drawing. I learned extra ideas for drawing things – like trees, fences and buildings.”
He also loved the food there. Upon their return from the trip, he and his mother, Tracy Stanley-Darr, prepared an Austrian apple strudel on local television show “Daytime Tri-Cities.”
Thoughts from the Greeneville High students
The Brewer sisters are currently studying with Bledsoe one hour a week, working on drawings, paintings and watercolors. For Kyndall, the time with Bledsoe has given her structure to her art. He has broken down for her how famous painters have developed their works, and that has enabled her to understand how art is constructed.
Kyndall is a senior at Greeneville High with plans to become an elementary school art teacher. Art has always been a part of her life. She has taken art, ceramics and interior design classes at school and created bust sculptures, vases and pots. She loves to travel, but this trip was focused on enhancing her art skills instead of simply enjoying the tourist elements.
Like Morgan, she considered this trip as a special opportunity. Her favorite part was Salzburg because everywhere she turned, she could see the Alps.
“I wanted to grow my experience in structured art and painting, and I wanted to build my portfolio,” Kyndall said. “The trip helped me learn a different way of drawing.”
Ellah is a sophomore at Greeneville High with aspirations for an art career, but she is uncertain of the exact direction she will take. She took an art class during her freshman year.
“Art has been around my whole life,” Ellah said. “It’s been like an escape. I enjoy painting and watercolor, which Mr. Bledsoe has let us do.”
Bledsoe mentioned to her and Kyndall that he was taking students on the trip and asked if they wanted to go. They were interested, of course. This was the first time Ellah has traveled without her parents, and she thought it would be nice to take a trip with some different people. She believed traveling to Austria and Germany would be a great way to expand her horizons.
This was the first time Kyndall and Ellah had painted en plein air. Kyndall said that style enables her to be more creative. Plus, some things can become visible in that setting that normally would not happen if one were making a painting from a computer screen or photograph, she said.
“I was able to see it and draw it and have it look like real life instead of being viewed from a screen,” she said. “Some unexpected things can happen. I saw 20 deer when I was doing one drawing of the Alps.”
Ellah had similar feelings.
“It was a great experience to see something in front of you,” she said. “You can express a lot more of what you are seeing in that format instead of through a photograph. We did en plein air painting almost every day. It was nice to do it that frequently because practice makes perfect.”
More information about the university is available at www.tusculum.edu.
