Short long weekend.

Oh man. Where did this (long, allegedly) weekend go? Man, that went by quickly. Fortunately, thanks to Philly’s awesomeness, it was full of goodness. This was the first weekend of the Farmer's Market at the Piazza at Schmidt's, which coincided nicely with A. the first weekend of decent weather this year and B. the first weekend that I have felt relatively normal since coming down with a cold the week before last. Gah. So, tissue stash in tow, we ambled down to the Piazza and were pleasantly surprised – good vendors, good turnout. Pic below:
John and I also did some exploring in West Philly, including Woodlands Cemetery (photos soon). And yes, some painting got done this weekend as well – but everything's still in-progress, so no photos yet, sorry. In the meantime, enjoy this cow painting I did back about 2 years ago, inspired by the charmant cows of Sanzay, France:

Gross disappointment.

So here's the deal: I was left craving some more Thomas Eakins paintings after John, Alia and I discovered the Eakins section of the Philadelphia Museum of Art over a week ago. So I heard about this exhibit "Dissecting the Gross Clinic" out at the University of Pennsylvania, about Eakins' painting The Gross Clinic, and decided to check it out. Now, call me crazy, but I got the notion from the description of the exhibit that the actual painting itself would be a part of the exhibit... alas, no dice – it was pretty much just a display case with some info and a small poster of the painting. Zip ZING! That's it. Silly me, I guess the actual painting is... in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts? (they share ownership of it with the PMA). I'll have to go check it out, and thus continue the wild goose chase. Or, in this case, the wild Gross chase.

In the meantime, here's a photo of the Eakins painting The Agnew Clinic, which was painted more than a decade after The Gross Clinic, in 1889 - and it is actually currently hanging in the Philadelphia Museum:

Thomas Eakins’ The Agnew Clinic, 1889, oil on canvas, in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

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.