Sprick!

My brain is hopelessly full right now from an awesome couple of days – I took a weekend workshop with Daniel Sprick at Studio Incamminati here in Philadelphia. I’m not going to lie: IT WAS AMAZING. His demo was amazing, his lecture about his work was amazing, and he’s an amazing individual to speak with on a personal level as well. Some painter friends of mine flew up from North Carolina for the workshop, and the lovely and talented artist Rachel Constantine was a gracious host for some extra painting and drawing time (and social time) in her studio. There was such a great vibe in the class all around, with some really super-great people in attendance, including PAFA students Mike Manley and Will Sentman, Studio Incamminati instructors and painters Lea Wight, Natalie Italiano, Jen Hagen, Steve Early, Leona Shanks, Vanessa Fenton and Peter Kelsey, North Carolina artists Alia El-Bermani and Sue Lyon, local painters Rachel Constantine, Catherine Carney and Luiz Vilela, Massachusetts painter Stuart Dunkel, and others. Below are some photos from the weekend – and you can click this link for more photos from Will Sentman’s blog, which include photos of Daniel Sprick’s drawing demos:

After painting with Daniel Sprick at Rachel Constantine's studio: Sue Lyon, Daniel Sprick, Rachel Constantine, Alia El-Bermani

After a lunch break on day 1 of the workshop: Rachel Constantine, Sue Lyon, Alia El-Bermani, Lea Wight.

Daniel Sprick's first drawing demo of the morning

Daniel Sprick's second drawing demo

My drawing from the afternoon session, day one

Exhausted artists after the workshop's end, enjoying a visit from painter Alexandra Tyng

Me with two beautiful ladies from North Carolina, Sue Lyon and Alia El-Bermani

Much of his workshop - and what spoke to me in particular from the workshop - had to do with edge quality, and judicious treatment of edges and line. We were also lucky to have enjoyed a presentation by Daniel on his own work... and, seriously? The man is amazing. Here's an example, if you're unfamilar with his work:

  Painting by Colorado artist Daniel Sprick

******


Wait: there's more! Fellow artists and workshop attendees Will Sentman, Mike Manley and Alia El-Bermani have also posted blog entries about the workshop; check them out here, here and here, respectively. Also: check out these works produced by Alia El-Bermani, fellow North Carolina artist Susan Lyon and myself during the workshop:

Ron, drawing from class by Alia El-Bermani

Paint sketch by Susan Lyon

 Drawing by me on day #2 of the workshop

The King.

I had the pleasure of hanging out and painting with fellow Fishtown artist David Ohlerking last week - he has this great studio over the Rocket Cat Cafe, a couple of blocks away from us, so we met up and swapped painting sessions. He is amazingly fast - he got in two large-ish sized paintings of me in about the time it took me to lay down the paint on my palette!! Haha, not quite - but almost. Here are some photos:

 The first painting David did of me.

David with the second painting of me - not life-size, but definitely sizeable. He's speedy

  My sketch of David. Gonna try again soon...

Michael + Michael + cake.

This past week has been a blast! I spent some time up in upstate NY in the Adirondacks with Michael Schoenig, a great painter and one of my old studiomates from San Francisco – what a gorgeous landscape up there, between Lake Champlain and the Adirondack mountains themselves and all the rural goodness in between:

Essex, NY

More tranquil Essex loveliness

Michael at High Falls Gorge. As advertised, the falls were high.

 

More of High Falls Gorge, in all its majesty.

Me with lots and lots of gushing water.

Lovely cloud formations seen from the ferry riding across Lake Champlain.

  Michael 's house! Haha, actually, no.

Wee duckling at Mirror Lake in Lake Placid, snacking on algae.

Moon over Lake Champlain

After that I came back down to NYC to take a week-long drawing workshop focusing on the portrait and structure of the head at the Janus Collaborative. As I mentioned in my previous post, the workshop was taught by artist Michael Grimaldi. Here’s a demo from the class, done by the instructor:

Portrait demo by Michael Grimaldi

And here’s the drawing I came up with over the week - we had a great model:

  

Portrait of Tram, by me

Here's an absolutely adorable and amazingly friendly cat in one of the apartments I stayed in while in NYC - it's the awesome cat of super-awesome photographer Gavin Thomas:

 

 

Here's a view of the East River from the Roosevelt Island tramway, wheeeeeeeeee:

Also: in honor of some recent birthdays, there was some cake with friends, at a great little place in Harlem:

NOM NOM NOM

YAY FOR CAKE!!!!

..and YAY for the great state of New York. HURRAY!

Summer in the City.

Hey Internet, I'm going to be up in NYC all next week, taking a drawing workshop with Michael Grimaldi at the Janus Collaborative. Summertime in the city! Admittedly, not my favorite time of year to be in NYC, but studying with Michael Grimaldi will be so worth it - of this I am certain. My internet access will be limited during that week, so while I may not be able to post immediate updates -  hopefully I'll be able to post a recap soon. I can't in any way guarantee it will be a coherent or well-written recap, however; for that, I turn to my friend Sadie, who is far more adept at processing and articulating what she has taken in from workshops than I will ever be; see this link on her blog with her thoughts from a Michael Grimaldi drawing workshop she took a couple of years ago out at BACAA, out in the the San Francisco Bay Area...  and see below for a painting by Michael Grimaldi (incredible, no?):

Painting by Michael Grimaldi

Manayunk.

Hey there, just wanted to let y'all know, I have two paintings in a juried exhibition at the Manayunk-Roxborough Art Center, in the northwest corner of the City of Brotherly Love, good ole Philly. Manayunk is really interesting, and surprisingly vibrant and charming. It's up a big hill from the Schuylkill River - I love towns built on hills. Anyway, the show is up through July 31 - check it out if you're here in the city.



From what I remember...

Hey there,

Just wanted to give you a heads-up about a group show I will be in next January, with a bunch of exceptional artists, at Principle Gallery in Alexandria, Virginia. The three artists of Broad Street Studios have pulled together an exhibition around the theme of "From What I Remember/From What I Forget..." about personal narratives and memory. Here's the link with examples of work from all of the artists included in the show (not necessarily the work which will be in the show, but just  a representative example):

http://www.thebroadstreetstudio.com/remember.html

Down with the DPC.

Hey there Internet, Happy Fourth! I've been celebrating our nation's independence by... painting!!! Whooop! No fireworks for me, just the explosive magics happening in the art studio! Or... something.

Anyway, on Saturday I did some outdoor landscape painting - definitely still frightening and uncharted territory for me - with a groovy group of people from PAFA, including Mike Manley, David Campbell Wilson, Alina Osipov and Lexi Thomas. Mike has a great recap on the blog for their painting group (the "Dirty Palette Club"), so I'm going to be lazy here and link to his post, add a few photos of my own, below, and then call it a day - an independence day, in fact! Woot!

 Mike in the comfy chair

 Alina and her painting

 Painters in action

David being all arty