Ellsworth Adult and Community Education

Students will learn the fundamentals of portrait drawing. You will study individual features, learn proportions, and anatomical structure.  You will be challenged to make decisions as you work to express your perspective and personal interpretation, culminating in a life-size portrait. This class will also involve sketching from a live model, drawing the full forms, learning about movement, volume, and composition.  This is an in-person class.  No class 02/19/25; makeup class, if needed, 03/19/25.

For supplies, we will use large drawing pads, pencils, pens and charcoal.  

France Hilbert has taught classes at College of the Atlantic since 2018. She is a professional artist and art educator with an extensive resume of training and experience including major commissions and installations. Her artistic education began at the age of seven, when she was taught by her grandfather, the late artist Jaro Hilbert. From him, she received a thorough education in the classical tradition. She pursued her formal education at the National Fine Art Academy of Paris, France, (ENSBA), was an artist in residence in Copenhagen, studied German Expressionism in Berlin, and traveled extensively to paint and study around Europe and abroad. At the Art Students League of New York, she received a Merit Scholarship to master portraiture in painting and completed a Certificate in Sculpture. She was selected for “Model to Monument”, a sculpture program at The Academy of Art, Newington Cropsey Foundation, Hastings on Hudson, NY and received an Edward G. McDowell Travel Grant from the Art Students League of New York. Of her many public and private commissions, some are permanent installations. “Talma”, a 7-foot bronze sculpture is installed in the public square of the Theatre of the Valley of L’Yerres, in Brunoy, France. A pair of 4-foot bronze relief sculptures entitled ”The Calling” are installed at the Georgetown University Medical School building in Washington, DC.