KC.

Hey! Been busy. More updates soon. In the meantime, here's a recent sketch of a friend from NC:

sketch of KC, oil on canvas, 12"x12"



Loving the City of Brotherly Love.

Now that we're finally having decent weather here in the Northeast (i.e. not 100-degree days with full-on humidity), we've had some occasions in which to enjoy that which spring has to offer here in the City of Brotherly Love. We took some time to enjoy the outdoors a bit this past weekend while Gus – my father-in-law and a talented photographer – was in town, with a little jaunt toward the northwesterly region of the city. A lovely ride along Kelly Drive, right up against the Schuylkill River, led us out to historic Laurel Hill cemetery; below is a view from the heights of the cemetery overlooking the river:

We then ventured out toward the Chestnut Hill region of Philadelphia, driving through the lush overgrowth of Fairmount Park along the way. I love that you don't have to leave city limits to get a great amount of tree exposure. Yay for Fairmount Park! Anyway, in Chestnut Hill we lunched at the French Bakery, grabbed some treats for later from the Night Kitchen, and spent the afternoon wandering the grounds of the lovely Morris Arboretum. Here are some shots:

Identity crisis.

Given all of the recent creepy hoaxes involving bloggers faking their online identities, I just wanted to assure you, dear reader, that I am who I say I am! No fakes! Just as the header to this blog proclaims, I am Diane Feissel, an artist living and painting stuff in Philadelphia. Why, just the other day I had someone take a picture in the studio while I painted our cats, just so I could prove the veracity of my claims, behold:

 A wholly accurate* record of the happenings in the Feissel studio - June 13, 2011.

 *However, I don't usually wear a beret.

Go Fisher!

I can't believe it has taken me more than year and a half since returning to live in Philadelphia once again to discover the fabulous Fisher Fine Arts Library out in West Philadelphia, at the University of Pennsylvania. Besides being housed in a fantastically lovely Furness building, the library has also wooed me considerably with its plethora of monographs on some of my 19th-century favorites: Carolus-Duran, Eugène Carrière, Jules Bastien-Lepage, Gustave Caillebotte, Wilhelm Leibl, Franz von Lenbach, Max Liebermann, John Everett Millais, Gwen John, and oh, so many more. It's like heaven. And it's pretty - check it out:

Sans titre.

Hola Internet, all is pretty busy - and therefore currently pretty sleepy - chez Feissel... but before I turn it in for the night, I just wanted to share a little piece I'm working on currently (amongst many others) - more posts soon, once I get caught up on some sleep and everything else:

as-of-yet untitled painting, 12"x9", oil on linen, by Yours Truly, Diane Feissel.



ACOPAL.

Ladies and gentlemen, I think I may have witnessed the most impressive gathering in one single location of the artwork of more living, talented representational artists than I have seen in a heck of a long time. Though it is on view only very briefly (May 17-28), if you’re near NYC you have this great opportunity to view the inaugural exhibition of the American artists who were invited to exhibit as a part of ACOPAL (America China Oil Painting Artists League) at the National Arts Club, plus the work of the three winners of an international painting competition held by this newly-formed organization. It was definitely an extravaganza of awesomeness… it’s difficult to even start mentioning the names of participants whose work was included, because I know I’ll leave out someone else’s work which was equally amazing. I’ll still highlight a few things, though - including the following, one of my favorite pieces in the show:

Portrait of the Artist's Wife, by Joshua LaRock

Also: there were paintings by Daniel Sprick and Michael Grimaldi, both amazing artists – and YAY, I will be taking workshops with both gentlemen this coming summer. Yipeee!! Speaking of workshops, one of the 3 winners in the ACOPAL competition was the fabulous Michelle Tully of Studio Escalier, where I was fortunate to study for month-long stints in 2007 and 2008. She’s an amazing painter and an amazing teacher, and a truly great person – I was so happy to see her painting get some props, and to see how great it looked in person! Even though online images don’t completely do justice to the original, I will still post it, below:

JMP2 by Nicole Michelle Tully



Also: A shout-out to my former home state of North Carolina, home to the dynamic duo of Scott Burdick and Sue Lyon, who were represented in the show! Here’s an image of Sue’s painting:

Painting by Susan Lyon

Also: A shout-out to my current home state of Pennsylvania, and the amazing Anthony Waichulis of Ani Art Academy. Here I am with Anthony and his painting, with a look of “OMG AMAZING PAINTING RIGHT HERE” on my face. He’s a super-great guy with crazy-amazing painting skills:

Me and Anthony Waichulis

In short: ACOPAL! = GREAT!

Rejection.

A couple of paintings of mine were not accepted (in other words: rejected!) for an upcoming portrait and figurative show (insert sad face here)... so I guess I'll just exhibit them here! Sigh. One of them is a painting I posted in an earlier draft-y form in this post; I worked on it some more since then, and here it is:

leaving California (1), oil on linen, 12"x9", 2011 by me, Diane Feissel

The second is a painting of one of my favorite people to paint, fellow painter and friend Juliette Lemontey:

leaving California (2), oil on linen, 12"x9", 2011, by me, Diane Feissel



Alas, you can't win them all. But you can keep painting! Painting until your hand falls off... or until you finish the 8,000 paintings you have in progress (I may be speaking for myself here).