Class #300 - Urbs in Horto with Don Colley

Class #300 - Urbs in Horto with Don Colley

Session | Available

9/16/2026-10/7/2026
9:00 AM-12:00 PM CDT on Wed
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$240.00

Class #300 - Urbs in Horto with Don Colley

Session | Available

This class looks to celebrate the botanical diversity of our parks with drawings that distinguish the species and a multitude of shapes. It will concentrate more on nature than buildings, but not exclusively.

Between the gardens of Millenium Park and the ponds of Lincoln Park we have a wealth of plants, some still in bloom.

Treating our sketchbooks as catalogues of inquiry we will make use of comparative studies such that our drawings will distinguish conifers from deciduous trees, varieties of bark, floral specifics, and what to do about grass. You walk on it, lay on it, mow it, water it, clean puppy poo off it. Why not draw it and make it interesting?

Materials are to include wet and dry mediums and A4 or medium-size sketchbooks with gutters that lay flat.

Four classes, the first will be held in the lower level classroom at the Palette & Chisel, the following 3 classes will meet in tbd sites in Lincoln Park and Millenium Park.

  • The first class will be held in the lower-level classroom at the Palette & Chisel.
    The following 3 classes will meet in TBD sites in Lincoln Park and Millenium Park.
  • Wet and dry media
    A4 or medium-size sketchbook with gutters that lay flat
Don Colley

I received a BFA from The University of Texas at Austin in 1981 and have been exhibiting my art in several galleries since 1983 which included Fleisher Ollman Gallery in Philadelphia, George Adams Gallery in NYC and Carl Hammer Gallery in Chicago.

 

I taught drawing at Drexel University School of Design in Philadelphia for 2 semesters in 1998. I’ve had Illustration jobs that included Playboy magazine, Andante Records,  business magazines and book illustrations for several poets,  Robert Fitterman among them. For 17 years I conducted workshops and demos in over 50 art stores throughout the country on my own and on behalf of Faber-Castell. These workshops involve technique demos in store as well as conducting on site/in the field drawing workshops.

 

I have also conducted lectures and workshops as a visiting artist and artist-in-residence in several high schools and over 40 colleges and universities. A partial list of those schools is: Savannah College of Art and Design, University of Oregon, Columbia College of Chicago, Otis College of Art and Design, Dennison University, U of Kansas, Cleveland Institute of Art,  Ecole De Conde Paris, Auburn University Urban School Birmingham, U of Wisconsin, U of Minnesota, and Montana State University.

 

Many of the lessons I give to students come from the lessons I learned as an illustrator working under deadline and experiences I had from an active regimen of drawing in public and during travels for the past 50 years. That practice gave me the ability to draw for media publications in courtrooms when the opportunity arose. I have been an active contributor to the Urban Sketchers community since 2010.