Online

The Visual Journal

with Michael Napper

Online registration for this program has closed. To check availability, find out about future dates, or if you would like further information, please call 505-983-1400 ext. 111. Also, get the SFW E-Newsletter for updates!

Sign-up for the Newsletter:

Course Description

The unique experience found in keeping a visual journal lies in its role as an ongoing, open-ended “studio” in a portable format, enabling us to collect, explore, and refine our ideas. Acting as a diary, a visual journal records our daily lives and experiences whether new or newly seen. A visual journal also serves as a versatile sketchbook for experimenting with various artistic techniques such as drawing, painting, collage, and photography. Its potential knows no bounds and is limited only by our imaginations.

Throughout the five group sessions of this online workshop, photographer and fine art painter Michael Napper introduces you to multiple techniques and ideas utilized to form dynamic visual journals. He gives visual and written assignments intended to stimulate fresh creative pathways. In addition to exploring writing, drawing, collage, and watercolor, Michael presents various strategies of chance and randomness, and how throughout history they have been used in both writing and the visual arts.

Whether you are relatively new to photography and the visual arts or a seasoned professional, the aim of this inspiring workshop is to join together in a creative community that provides a broad range of exercises within the context of maintaining a visual journal, fostering a renewed perspective and approach to “seeing.”

Additional Information

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:
All are welcome
Policies:

View Withdrawal and Transfer Policies for online programs.

For the convenience of participants, recordings of each class session are posted privately for one month after the end of each session. Santa Fe Workshops takes the recordings down after one month to protect the intellectual property of our instructors.

about
Michael Napper

Michael Napper is a painter and black-and-white film photographer who has kept visual journals since the early 1980s. He has taught numerous classes and workshops throughout the past 20 years. His in-person as well as online teachings range from painting and collage for studio artists and non-profit art centers, to creative writing and journaling for private and public schools, and corporations. 

Michael’s eclectic journals have now amassed to more than fifty dense volumes that not only document personal experiences and daily observances, but are also a time capsule of cultural, political, and social chronicles captured in a visual and tangible object. “I’ve kept journals for more than 35 years, and they have helped me immensely as a painter, as a photographer, and as an artist. They are a place where I can record ideas and feelings about life and art, and also a place where I feel free to experiment without the fear of failure. They serve as a wellspring of ideas whenever I’m in need of creative Inspiration.”

Michael has exhibited his artwork in both southern and northern California, and his paintings are included in private collections in the U.S., Europe, and South America. He was born and raised in Los Angeles and is currently living in the San Francisco Bay area.

Gorman on Gorman: Five Decades

November 17 - 19, 2020

Finding Your Voice

December 15 – 17, 2020

Wild Stories: The Perilous Art of Adventure Writing

December 1 – 4, 2020

Color, Light, and Design

January 4 - 21, 2021

You May Also Like

– Summer Season

Architectural Photography: Beauty and Structure

with Nick Merrick

July 13 – 17, 2026
– Summer Season

The Creative Portrait

with Rania Matar

June 22 – 26, 2026

How to Talk and Write About Your Work

with Jean Miele

April 10 – May 8, 2026
– Summer Season

The Hand-Colored Photographic Print

with Kate Breakey

July 13 – 17, 2026

Theatre of Botanicals

with Leanne Trivett S.

April 6 – 23, 2026

Festival Time in San Miguel de Allende

with Nevada Wier

October 1 – 5, 2026
– Summer Season

The Language of Black and White

with Cira Crowell

June 22 – 26, 2026

Day of the Dead in Oaxaca

with Marcela Taboada

October 29 – November 3, 2026
– Summer Season

The Fine-Art Digital Print

with Cotton Miller

June 29 – July 3, 2026

Silver and Gold Leaf Photography

with Marcy Palmer

April 7 – 28, 2026

The Black-and-White Image

with Carlan Tapp

March 7 – 25, 2026

The Expressive Lens

with Renee Lynn

April 2 – 23, 2026

Scotland: A Journey into Landscape Photography

with Julian Calverley

November 8 – 17, 2026

Making Digital Negatives and Cyanotypes

with Cotton Miller

April 1 – 22, 2026
– Summer Season

Land as Collaborator: Remixing Digital Prints in the Landscape

with Anna Rotty

June 22 – 26, 2026

Emotions and the Ephemeral World of Florals

with Leanne Trivett S.

June 4 – July 2, 2026