Try It: Basquiat and Mark Making

Dougherty Arts Center is hosting a painting workshop, Try It: Basquiat and Mark Making, on Thursday, October 8, from 6 to 9 PM. It's built around the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, and the whole session is pitched at a beginner skill level, so you don't need any prior experience to sign up.

The focus is on how Basquiat used marks and text as part of his painting. You'll spend the evening experimenting with spontaneous mark-making, symbolic language, and layered text—the kind of energetic visual vocabulary that defined his style. It's less about getting a perfect result and more about working through those elements and seeing how they fit together on the canvas.

One detail worth noting is the approach to materials. The Dougherty Arts Center provides the supplies, and they run the session with an eye toward sustainability, working with select reused or alternative surfaces rather than just fresh, store-bought canvas. It's a nice nod to the way Basquiat himself often painted on found materials.

The workshop runs from 6 to 9 PM at the Dougherty Arts Center, 1110 Barton Springs Rd., and costs between $58 and $68.