Open-Air Drawing Workshops and their Importance in Students Education at the Faculty of Architecture at the Silesian University of Technology, Poland

For many years in the curriculum of the Faculty of Architecture in University of Technology in Gliwice very important place took open-air drawing and painting workshops, which in recent years as a result of program changes have been withdrawn from the learning process. Reducing the number of hours of drawing studies resulted in a drop of artistic skills and aesthetic sensitivity. Having several years of experience in teaching of drawing and painting, the authors of the paper confirm their belief in the importance of teaching drawing by studying the forms from nature (open-air workshops). The authors of the paper who led open-air workshops and analyzed the works carried out by the students, prove that drawing from nature through a meeting with living architecture completed the didactic process. Based on participant observation and analysis of selected works authors prove that drawing from nature through the encounter with the living architecture complemented the teaching process. It also enriched and developed the future artists workshop, allowed to study drawing and enabled cognitive abilities. The observation of objects allowed the analysis and synthesis of form, taught history, sensitivity to the context of the environment and the value of space.