Philly under the snow.

Philly! Out and about in the snow:

Snowpocalypse.

Giving a shout-out to the non-snowy world from our little blizzard-y corner of the world. Heyo! I truly can't complain about being housebound, as it's given me some time to work on some painting - updates soon. In the meantime, the freshly blanketed streets of Philly, as seen from my studio window:

Snow day.

Phew! SNOWMAGGEDON, indeed. Being snowed in this weekend has meant I've had some time to paint, though of course never as much time as I'd like... anyway, here's a sketch of Alia that I was working on tonight...

Addendum 2/18/10: maybe this is a better representation of the sketch, below - I'm a terrible photographer! Arg.

Holding pattern.

Trying to find the (headache-free) time to get around to finishing this painting, a commission of a scene in Annecy, France. More soon, when I emerge from the cocoon of headachey/busy-ness:

Painting-in-progress (but almost finished!) by me, Diane Feissel.

Ocupado.

OMG. SO. Busy. How about some photos until I can compose a coherent thought for the blog, and/or find a free moment to compose said thought? Thanks for your patience - on to some Philly photos:

Fishtown fish mosiac

art at U of Penn

This banner? It's posted right across from a branch of Bank of America. I think they're trying to say something, and I think I agree.

More sidewalk fishiness in Fishtown. Just in case you forget what neighborhood you're in.

Diane's fan club. Membership: 1.

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.