Go West.

Just back from a great little trip to the West Coast – in San Francisco, to be more specific – hanging out at the studio of fellow artist (and fellow Women Painting Women blogger) Sadie Valeri. Sadie invited a guest artist to hold a workshop at her studio; that artist was Timothy Jahn, who also made the trek across the country to San Francisco to give this workshop - in his case, from New Jersey. Tim studied with Anthony Waichulis at his studio and will soon be heading up the Anguilla location of Waichulis’ Ani Art Academy. Here is my favorite painting of Tim’s, though he has many, many other amazing paintings and drawings at his website here: http://www.jahnstudios.com/

The Transported Man, 11"x14", oil on panel by Timothy Jahn

Here are some photos from the painting demo the night of October 13^th and the workshop itself on Friday, October 14^th:

 Tim setting up for the demo, with Sadie's dog Ripley helping out.

 Tim explaining his painting methods in the still life demo.

 Tim's painting demo of a still life.

Attendees at Tim's demo in Sadie's studio.

An in-progress shot of Tim's still life demo.

 Tim's examples of the exercises we learned in the Friday workshop, all part of the methods of the Ani Art Academy Waichulis.

Tim Jahn, Sadie Valeri, and Anthony Waichulis, who was also in town for the weekend...

While out west, I got to see the Trompe L’oeil show at John Pence Gallery in downtown San Francisco, with work by many wonderful artists, including Anthony Waichulis and some artists who have studied with him. Check out more info on the show here: http://www.johnpence.com/visuals/painters/trompe.htm

 Four paintings by Anthony Waichulis.

Painting by Adam Vinson.

 Painting by Carl Dobsky.

Paintings by Zack Zdrale.

Painting by Helen Crispino.

It was a great workshop, a greta show at Pence, and it was great finally seeing Sadie’s beautiful studio, (link is here: http://sadievaleri.squarespace.com/studio-photos/) and to have a wee bit of leisure/ painting time back in San Francisco. I lived there for nine wonderful years, but it’s been a while since I’ve been back to visit. Here’s a little photographic recap:

 The stairway leading to the apartment building in Russian Hill, where John and I lived in the early 2000s. We were living here when we got married, and when we met our beloved cat Huey. Good memories associated with this place! Yep.

 Possibly rabid raccoon - fortunately taxidermied and therefore harmless - at Loved to Death on Haight Street.

 Sadie's crazy cute little dog, Ripley.

 Tim Jahn channels The Fly at Will Wilson's studio

 One of two decidedly sub-par little paint sketches I did on the streets of San Francisco - this one is on board, about 4"x4"

 Me with that wonderful ole San Francisco Bay. Ah, the Bay.

 You know you're in California when the trees start looking like this.

 The Curious Sofa, anyone?

Some of Sadie's amazing work, on the wall of her studio.

En plein air.

The weather here in Philly has been wonderfully, gorgeously, truly beautifully amazing lately… so where better to paint and draw than outside in this beautiful weather, right? Right ON!

I've been obsessed with this one tree on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, not far from the lovely Fisher Fine Arts library. It's a fantastic tree, really, very shapely, really, for lack of a better word. Here are a couple of sketches I've done of this tree - a painting will have to come soon:

There's this beautiful church here in Fishtown, on Girard Avenue - it's a Presbyterian church, I believe, but it has the most unusual dome atop the church, with a very distinctive shape which can be seen from a great distance away. It's lovely, and I've begun trying to capture it:

In addition to these sketches I’ve done on my own, I also participated in the first of this year’s painting sessions to benefit the Camphill Special School (see my blog post on the 2010 show here). A group of artists is invited out to paint on the grounds of the school and the school’s working farm out in Phoenixville, PA, with the end result being a show of the painter’s work, with proceeds benefitting the School. It was a great day, with a ton of artists including Joe Sweeney, Richard Ranck, Alex Tyng, Alyce Grunt, Kerry Dunn, Patrick King, Garth Herrick, Charles Newman, David Lee and many others whose names I did not catch (oops). Here are some of the painting sketches I came up with from the day; I’m hoping to go back for more painting later in the year:

Philly's phinest pheatures.

So, I think every time I have friends or family in town to visit, I need to take a photo of them in front of the Shepard Fairey mural near our house, on the exterior of Rocket Cat Cafe, like so:

The other option, of course, is to take them all over to the newly-minted Lenfest Plaza, next to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), just north of City Hall in our phair city of Philadelphia. As you may have heard, artist Claes Oldenburg - he of the giant clothespin (also here in Philly) and other delights - has installed a giant paintbrush on this plaza. Aaaaaaand here it is:

I still think that paint blob on the ground is highly suspect. Not sure it "works." Really not sure the whole thing "works," actually... please come to Philly to visit and give us your honest critique on our latest public art product. 

Crossing the (state line over to) Delaware.

Hey Internet! Just wanted to share with you that I had a fantastic time last week trading portrait poses with a really great person and fellow painter, PAFA grad David Shevlino. I hopped on the train (thank goodness for SEPTA! When it shows up on time, that is) to travel down to David's studio in Wilmington, Delware, and we had a great time painting - here's what we came up with:

David Shevlino's painting of me

 

 

My painting of David Shevlino

This was totally fun! And challenging! I so rarely get the chance to paint a portrait from life these days, so that was a definite treat.

It's always a pleasure to hang out with other artists, and the Philadelphia/NJ/Delaware area has a lot of them. David's work is particularly gorgeous - you can see some more of his work on his website, of course; also, he has two great videos outlining his painting approach - you can find them at this link on his website. You can get a preview of these videos on his YouTube channel, at this link.

Viva Nueva York.

Hey there Internet! Long time no see. I wanted to let you know: I had a really lovely day in NYC this past Thursday started with a trip to the Met – always a good way to start any day, in my opinion. In addition to visiting some old favorites - such as Jules Bastien-Lepage’s “Joan of Arc”, Franz von Lenbach’s “Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria” and Eugene Carriere's self-portrait - I found a few gems I had somehow missed on my past visits. Particularly because I missed the recent show of his work at the Neue Galerie, I was thrilled to find one of Messerschmidt’s crazy head studies:

 Sculpture head in tin alloy by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt

In the process of trying to hunt down another old favorite – Sargent’s Madame X (which was not actually on view, sadly) – I found some Thomas Wilmer Dewing pieces, and these two Sargent sketches in the compressed mezzanine space where they were housing the American collection during construction on the 2^nd floor:

Sargent painting

 Sargent painting of the same subject

Also: I really liked seeing this painting from Irish painter William Orpen: 

Self-portrait by William Orpen

Next: on to the main reason for the trip northward to NY: two really great shows of contemporary painters! First, I met up with some friends from PAFA and we headed up to see the Jenny Saville show at GagosianGallery. Our posse - consisting of Mike Manley, David Campbell Wilson, Lexi Thomas, Will Sentman, Alina Osipov and myself -  made our way uptown from Chelsea and were lucky enough to arrive at the opening early and have some quiet, up-close time with some of the drawings and paintings. Also: Chuck Close was at the opening! How exciting. Anyway, here are some photos from the opening, bravely taken by othermembers of our posse other than myself:

Paintings by Jenny Saville at Gagosian in NYC

Last was the Vincent Desiderio show at Marlborough Gallery in Chelsea. It was PACKED. But, it was also amazing. Absolutely gorgeous, compelling pieces – the magic combination of technical skill and depth of content. Hurray. I was brave enough to sneak a few shots at this opening, so here are some photos… you should really go see them in person yourself, though!

Painting: Dumb Mouths by Vincent Desiderio - Marlborough Gallery, Chelea, NYC

Painting: Sink by Vincent Desiderio - Marlborough Gallery, Chelea, NYC

Afterwards we refueled and headed back to Philly. Good times! Here's Lexi sketching Alina in the burger joint we stopped at for dinner:

PAFA students never rest.

For more recap on the day (and more photos), please visit Will Sentman's blog over here, and Mike Manley's blog over here.

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...