Currier post.

John and I made an extremely pleasant day trip up to Manchester, NH this past Wednesday to visit some family; while there, we checked out the Currier Art Museum. It's a pretty small little collection, but a nice one - here's the photo recap of some of the highlights from the museum:

Did you know that Alma-Tadema's second wife was also a painter? I didn't. Live and learn! This is a painting by Laura Alma-Tadema, "A Knock at the Door":

 I have recently become aware of Joseph DeCamp, and I realize that I love his work. This one above is "Carnation and Black"

 Robert Henri, always a delight.

 A somewhat unusual-seeming (to me, at least) Edward Hopper painting - entitled "The Bootleggers." Shady stuff going on here.

 My father with a painting by William Merritt Chase.

 I've only ever seen one other painting by Lilla Cabot Perry at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, in DC... it was nice to see another. This one is called "The Black Hat," though maybe it should be called "The Surreptitious Middle Finger," given the funny position of the subject's right hand... 

 Raeburn! I love me some Sir Henry... let's hear it for the Scot.
 

 Rothko! I lked this one less that most Rothko paintings I've seen, but it was still nice to see, nonetheless.

 Sargent! Jackpot. From the description, it sounds as though this was the last portrait Sargent completed before his death.

 A close-up of that groovy Sargent painting, of "Grace Elvina, Marchioness Curzon of Kedleston" (that's quite a title, no?)

 Another close-up of that groovy Sargent painting, of "Grace Elvina, Marchioness Curzon of Kedleston"

 A painting by Philadelphian John F. Francis, entitled "A Squirrel Eating a Nut." SQUIRREL!

 Edmund Charles Tarbell - "Mercie Cutting Flowers"

 Edmund Charles Tarbell - "Summer Breeze." I challenge you to not get that Seals & Crofts song stuck in your head.
 

WYETH!!! Boooyeah. Andrew, that is. Beautiful. Haunting.

It’s not late, it’s Early.

Fun things of late: been doing a bit of modeling at Studio Incamminati, where there are a good number of super-talented painters roaming around, between the students and instructors. Here’s a painting done by Stephen Early, one of the Studio Incamminati instructors:

Painting by Stephen Early

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.