Brandywyeth.

What a holiday treat it was to finally make it out to the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, PA on one of the last days of 2009... lots of Wyeth paintings - from N.C., Andrew, Jamie and others in the family - and other regional artists as well. Beautiful location, too, by the way. Check it out one of these days - I'm not sure I've ever seen so many Andrew Wyeth paintings in person before; it was positively delicious. Delicious! I'll post this photo, but honestly, it can't do justice to the painting, one must see it and others in person:

Night Sleeper, 1979, by Andrew Wyeth.

Clue.

A game of Clue, for the first day of the new year...

It was Ms. Feissel and Ms. El-Bermani...

...in the Philly Museum...

...with the Eakins paintings.

Eakins!

Twenty-ten.

Wow. How did it get to be a new year? Zoikes! 2009 went by with a nearly-audible FWOOOOOSH... but I can't say I'm sad to see it go and to welcome in a shiny new year. More info soon on the happenings chez Feissel... but in the meantime, here's a detail of another portrait commission I recently finished, in time for the new year:

porch (detail), 2009, oil on linen, 16"x20", by me, Diane Feissel

Happy new year!

Philapalooza.

Five groovy things encountered (or revisited) in Philly of late:

1.    John and I went to Johnny Brenda's in mid-December to see local band A Sunny Day in Glasgow: several thumbs-up on both counts. Great band, great venue, and extra points for genuine friendliness on the part of both our waitress and the female bartender – very unusual and very awesome. Thanks, ladies!

2.    On the food/libation/entertainment front, I cannot overemphasize the extreme awesomeness of our friendly neighborhood Memphis Taproom. It even has plenty of tasty, well-crafted vegetarian fare for my more ethically-minded husband. Yay!

3.    We went to see an excellent show - "This Is The Week That Is" - by Philly’s 1812 Productions, an all-comedy theater group. Who can argue with an all-comedy group? Not me, that's for sure. Comedy = funny. Funny = good. And 1812 Productions = funny + good. No joke.

4.    I forgot to mention in a previous post that last month's First Friday gallery walk here in Fishtown brought to my attention a great new gallery/art studio space very close to us on Frankford Avenue called Part Time Studios. It's a pack of talented folk across a range of media, but I fell in love particularly with the work of Adam Smith, who does primarily painting and sculpture. In fact, I particularly crave the following piece:

"Crew Neck, V Neck" by Adam Smith, 4" x 7", acrylic on found paper.

Man, I love that painting. Mmmmm. I vow to make it mine...

5.    Last but not least, we had the great pleasure of meeting writer Maya Sloan, based recently in Philadelphia but relocating to Brooklyn, alas. Anyway, she's a super-great person and extremely funny – she's coming out with a book this summer, entitled "High Before Homeroom." Intrigued? Me too! I'm going to pre-order it at this link, and you should as well... gotta support our literary artist brethren, yo.

That's all for now, folks... more soon on the awesomeness of the Brandywine River Museum in all of its glorious Wyethness. Mmmm, Wyeth paintings... yummy.

Portraitpalooza.

Rounding out 2009 with a bunch of portrait commission projects... here's one I finished and shipped out to California earlier in the month -

...aaaaand now for a close-up...

More soon! Been busy.

Happy Holidays!!

Peace on earth, and on the arm of the comfy chair...

Happy holidays to all, from a very relaxed Feissel household.

Picked a pack of pics.

Oh my, so overwhelmed with urban awesomeness and deeply in love with being back in Philadelphia. Ahhh. I'm going to make this a mostly visual post, as John and I have been paddling around a bit in the city, taking some photos here and there:

This chocolate novelty shop has been at Reading Terminal Market forever, yet this will never stop being funny to me. Noses! HAHA! Funny.

Better be good... radioactive Santa is watching you. Creeeepy.

Urban chickens, yo! In a chorus line, of sorts, at Greensgrow Farm.

Some gorgeous brickwork nestled into a building over at 20th and Sansom or so...

Snowman and Mickey are hangin' tight, bringin' some holiday spirit. While partying on the roof.

More awesome brick, ironwork and mosaics on a building at Broad and Spring Garden...

City Hall and Dilworth Plaza, all busting out in Christmas cheer (via the "Christmas Village" event, which is a nice attempt at an olde-style German Christmas market, but falls *slightly* short due to such vendors as "The Sheet Man.")

Good advice, brought to you by the sidewalk at Cumberland and Gaul, near Greensgrow Farm. Go hug yer mom, whydoncha?