Morbid Sketchbook Revival: Troubled Times Edition with Artist Eleanor Crook, Begins June 3
4 week, 7 session class taught online via zoom
Lectures: Tuesdays, June 3, 10, 17, 24 2025
Informal Group Studio Session: Mondays, June 9, 16, 23
6pm – 8pm ET (NYC Time)
$145 Paid Patreon Members / $165 General Admission
PLEASE NOTE: Classes will be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time
When troubled times arrive, what do artists and writers do? They document, satirize, fantasize, resist, rage, pacify and form utopian plans. They explore how the situation affects them, their community, their ambitions, their personality. They become conduits for the times to tell later generations how it was, how they coped, what they hoped, how to recognise it again.
In these four weeks, Eleanor Crook invites you to revive your sketchbooks to make private work, plot plots, express your hopes fears and frustrations as we navigate…. Troubled Times. The online group will keep each other company, share concerns and develop strategies for turning the current situation into art. What troubles you? The weather? The news? The economy? The future? The Gods and whether they are angry? It’s all an occasion for art.
And, when the world looks different in a decade or two and people ask, where were the artists? We will know that we recorded, transformed and mediated the situation for people to come.
What will the class look like?
On the Tuesday sessions, Eleanor will present slides, readings and prompts, then there will be a work—together session with music from the Troubled Times playlist.
On the Monday sessions, there will be an informal chat, share and work together , with music again from the playlist to which we all contribute.
Each slideshow will present some inspiration—sketchbooks of the famous, clues from troubled times in art history, the morbid pages of our ancestors—and set an atmosphere in the form of troubled literature and music, then we will all work together in our books and then there will be time for sharing and discussing how best to use these tools to grease the wheels of our imaginations and productiveness. Our “mentors from days of strife” will include George Grosz, Käthe Kollwicz, Francisco Goya, Victor Hugo, satirists like Hogarth, Grandville, Gerald Scarfe, war artists such as Wilfrid Owen, Nguyễn Ðức Thọ, John Heartfield, visionaries like John Martin, activists like the Vienna Actionists, and many others who have seen the world as it is and dreamed how it might be.
There will be an online sharing page private to the group and weekly homework. Seven sessions in all—lots of working online as a group for accountability and morbid togetherness. Your sketchbooks will flourish!
MATERIALS SUGGESTIONS
If you are anything like me you will have a number of sketchbooks lurking in your house—some half full, some (probably the most beautifully made ones)—untouched! And all manner of art materials. Now, the times are troubled enough without buying and spending even more, so I heartily encourage everyone to use what they already have. I use quite a variety of materials and processes in my own sketchbooks , especially:
Ink and water washes
Watercolours
Collage so lots of glue sticks , sharp scissors
Graphite, charcoal, compressed charcoal, chalks, pastels, "red chalk"
A range of brushes some for fine detail some for sploshing inks
We all love art materials so bring your favourites to show off.
Eleanor Crook is a sculptor and wax modeler who works between the UK and several international medical museums. She was an art tutor a number of UK’s major art schools and an art educator in various European medical museums. She trained in sculpture at Central St Martins and the Royal Academy Schools, working from life and as a medical artist in the dissecting room.
She is artist in residence at King’s College’s Gordon Museum of Pathology and the Vrolik Museum Amsterdam. Her work is in the collections of the Science Museum London, Gordon Museum of Pathology Guy’s Hospital, the Museum of Pathology at the University of Padua, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society London and the Hunterian Museum Royal College of Surgeons of England. Most recently she was an artist in residence for the lying-in-state of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and is making new work arising from that occasion.
Her specialism is handmade effigies, baroque bronze and eerie lifelike waxes.
Images:
The Great Day of His Wrath, John Martin
Sad presentiments of what must come to pass (Tristes presentimientos de lo que ha de acontecer), Francisco Goya, Etching from Disasters of War 1810 - 15
Four men whose distorted shadows are cast on the wall:a an apothecary casting the shadow of a clyster, a censor casting the shadow of a devil,an earl casting the shadow of a pig, and a Jesuit casting the shadow of a turkey. Coloured lithograph by J.J. Grandville, 1830.
Eleanor Crook's sketchbook pile
4 week, 7 session class taught online via zoom
Lectures: Tuesdays, June 3, 10, 17, 24 2025
Informal Group Studio Session: Mondays, June 9, 16, 23
6pm – 8pm ET (NYC Time)
$145 Paid Patreon Members / $165 General Admission
PLEASE NOTE: Classes will be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time
When troubled times arrive, what do artists and writers do? They document, satirize, fantasize, resist, rage, pacify and form utopian plans. They explore how the situation affects them, their community, their ambitions, their personality. They become conduits for the times to tell later generations how it was, how they coped, what they hoped, how to recognise it again.
In these four weeks, Eleanor Crook invites you to revive your sketchbooks to make private work, plot plots, express your hopes fears and frustrations as we navigate…. Troubled Times. The online group will keep each other company, share concerns and develop strategies for turning the current situation into art. What troubles you? The weather? The news? The economy? The future? The Gods and whether they are angry? It’s all an occasion for art.
And, when the world looks different in a decade or two and people ask, where were the artists? We will know that we recorded, transformed and mediated the situation for people to come.
What will the class look like?
On the Tuesday sessions, Eleanor will present slides, readings and prompts, then there will be a work—together session with music from the Troubled Times playlist.
On the Monday sessions, there will be an informal chat, share and work together , with music again from the playlist to which we all contribute.
Each slideshow will present some inspiration—sketchbooks of the famous, clues from troubled times in art history, the morbid pages of our ancestors—and set an atmosphere in the form of troubled literature and music, then we will all work together in our books and then there will be time for sharing and discussing how best to use these tools to grease the wheels of our imaginations and productiveness. Our “mentors from days of strife” will include George Grosz, Käthe Kollwicz, Francisco Goya, Victor Hugo, satirists like Hogarth, Grandville, Gerald Scarfe, war artists such as Wilfrid Owen, Nguyễn Ðức Thọ, John Heartfield, visionaries like John Martin, activists like the Vienna Actionists, and many others who have seen the world as it is and dreamed how it might be.
There will be an online sharing page private to the group and weekly homework. Seven sessions in all—lots of working online as a group for accountability and morbid togetherness. Your sketchbooks will flourish!
MATERIALS SUGGESTIONS
If you are anything like me you will have a number of sketchbooks lurking in your house—some half full, some (probably the most beautifully made ones)—untouched! And all manner of art materials. Now, the times are troubled enough without buying and spending even more, so I heartily encourage everyone to use what they already have. I use quite a variety of materials and processes in my own sketchbooks , especially:
Ink and water washes
Watercolours
Collage so lots of glue sticks , sharp scissors
Graphite, charcoal, compressed charcoal, chalks, pastels, "red chalk"
A range of brushes some for fine detail some for sploshing inks
We all love art materials so bring your favourites to show off.
Eleanor Crook is a sculptor and wax modeler who works between the UK and several international medical museums. She was an art tutor a number of UK’s major art schools and an art educator in various European medical museums. She trained in sculpture at Central St Martins and the Royal Academy Schools, working from life and as a medical artist in the dissecting room.
She is artist in residence at King’s College’s Gordon Museum of Pathology and the Vrolik Museum Amsterdam. Her work is in the collections of the Science Museum London, Gordon Museum of Pathology Guy’s Hospital, the Museum of Pathology at the University of Padua, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society London and the Hunterian Museum Royal College of Surgeons of England. Most recently she was an artist in residence for the lying-in-state of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and is making new work arising from that occasion.
Her specialism is handmade effigies, baroque bronze and eerie lifelike waxes.
Images:
The Great Day of His Wrath, John Martin
Sad presentiments of what must come to pass (Tristes presentimientos de lo que ha de acontecer), Francisco Goya, Etching from Disasters of War 1810 - 15
Four men whose distorted shadows are cast on the wall:a an apothecary casting the shadow of a clyster, a censor casting the shadow of a devil,an earl casting the shadow of a pig, and a Jesuit casting the shadow of a turkey. Coloured lithograph by J.J. Grandville, 1830.
Eleanor Crook's sketchbook pile
4 week, 7 session class taught online via zoom
Lectures: Tuesdays, June 3, 10, 17, 24 2025
Informal Group Studio Session: Mondays, June 9, 16, 23
6pm – 8pm ET (NYC Time)
$145 Paid Patreon Members / $165 General Admission
PLEASE NOTE: Classes will be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time
When troubled times arrive, what do artists and writers do? They document, satirize, fantasize, resist, rage, pacify and form utopian plans. They explore how the situation affects them, their community, their ambitions, their personality. They become conduits for the times to tell later generations how it was, how they coped, what they hoped, how to recognise it again.
In these four weeks, Eleanor Crook invites you to revive your sketchbooks to make private work, plot plots, express your hopes fears and frustrations as we navigate…. Troubled Times. The online group will keep each other company, share concerns and develop strategies for turning the current situation into art. What troubles you? The weather? The news? The economy? The future? The Gods and whether they are angry? It’s all an occasion for art.
And, when the world looks different in a decade or two and people ask, where were the artists? We will know that we recorded, transformed and mediated the situation for people to come.
What will the class look like?
On the Tuesday sessions, Eleanor will present slides, readings and prompts, then there will be a work—together session with music from the Troubled Times playlist.
On the Monday sessions, there will be an informal chat, share and work together , with music again from the playlist to which we all contribute.
Each slideshow will present some inspiration—sketchbooks of the famous, clues from troubled times in art history, the morbid pages of our ancestors—and set an atmosphere in the form of troubled literature and music, then we will all work together in our books and then there will be time for sharing and discussing how best to use these tools to grease the wheels of our imaginations and productiveness. Our “mentors from days of strife” will include George Grosz, Käthe Kollwicz, Francisco Goya, Victor Hugo, satirists like Hogarth, Grandville, Gerald Scarfe, war artists such as Wilfrid Owen, Nguyễn Ðức Thọ, John Heartfield, visionaries like John Martin, activists like the Vienna Actionists, and many others who have seen the world as it is and dreamed how it might be.
There will be an online sharing page private to the group and weekly homework. Seven sessions in all—lots of working online as a group for accountability and morbid togetherness. Your sketchbooks will flourish!
MATERIALS SUGGESTIONS
If you are anything like me you will have a number of sketchbooks lurking in your house—some half full, some (probably the most beautifully made ones)—untouched! And all manner of art materials. Now, the times are troubled enough without buying and spending even more, so I heartily encourage everyone to use what they already have. I use quite a variety of materials and processes in my own sketchbooks , especially:
Ink and water washes
Watercolours
Collage so lots of glue sticks , sharp scissors
Graphite, charcoal, compressed charcoal, chalks, pastels, "red chalk"
A range of brushes some for fine detail some for sploshing inks
We all love art materials so bring your favourites to show off.
Eleanor Crook is a sculptor and wax modeler who works between the UK and several international medical museums. She was an art tutor a number of UK’s major art schools and an art educator in various European medical museums. She trained in sculpture at Central St Martins and the Royal Academy Schools, working from life and as a medical artist in the dissecting room.
She is artist in residence at King’s College’s Gordon Museum of Pathology and the Vrolik Museum Amsterdam. Her work is in the collections of the Science Museum London, Gordon Museum of Pathology Guy’s Hospital, the Museum of Pathology at the University of Padua, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society London and the Hunterian Museum Royal College of Surgeons of England. Most recently she was an artist in residence for the lying-in-state of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and is making new work arising from that occasion.
Her specialism is handmade effigies, baroque bronze and eerie lifelike waxes.
Images:
The Great Day of His Wrath, John Martin
Sad presentiments of what must come to pass (Tristes presentimientos de lo que ha de acontecer), Francisco Goya, Etching from Disasters of War 1810 - 15
Four men whose distorted shadows are cast on the wall:a an apothecary casting the shadow of a clyster, a censor casting the shadow of a devil,an earl casting the shadow of a pig, and a Jesuit casting the shadow of a turkey. Coloured lithograph by J.J. Grandville, 1830.
Eleanor Crook's sketchbook pile