Join artist Lendon Noe for a full-day exploration of abstraction through color, form, gesture, and intuitive mark-making.
This hands-on workshop invites participants to move beyond representation and discover how line, shape, color, texture, and composition can serve as expressive tools. Through guided exercises and studio time, participants will experiment with building abstract images using watercolor and other water-soluble media.
Lendon will guide participants in exploring how artists use layering, repetition, contrast, movement, and visual rhythm to create meaningful compositions. The emphasis is on curiosity and discovery — allowing ideas to develop through the process rather than focusing on perfection.
The day will include instruction, demonstrations, individual guidance, and time to develop personal work in a supportive studio environment.
Participants will leave with new approaches to abstraction, a deeper understanding of abstract art, and one or more original works created during the workshop.
Schedule
10:00 AM–12:00 PM — Introduction, exercises, and exploration
12:00–1:00 PM — Lunch break (bring your own lunch or enjoy one of Sewanee’s local restaurants)
1:00–4:00 PM — Studio time and individual guidance
Who Should Attend
Open to beginners and experienced artists alike. No previous experience with abstract painting is required — only curiosity and a willingness to experiment.
Registration
This workshop is limited to 8 participants, and the $145 registration fee includes supplies.
About the Artist
Lendon Hamilton Noe is a native of Jackson, Tennessee, where she taught art at Lambuth University for 28 years. She completed her MFA in Painting and Mixed Media at Vermont College. For the last 25 years, her work has been focused on natural history and ancestry. She enjoys creating site-specific thematic shows that may include drawings, paintings, mixed media, and assemblage.
Noe has shown her work in galleries and nonprofit spaces across the US and abroad. After her career at Lambuth, Lendon spent 10 years working part-time at the Art Museum of the University of Memphis, producing community-based arts projects for the Lambuth campus in Jackson. Her installation for the City of Jackson’s Bicentennial is on permanent display in the Jackson City Hall.
Lendon continues to teach both in person and online. You can find her classes with Carla Sonheim here: www.carlasonheim.com.