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.

Michael + Michael + cake.

This past week has been a blast! I spent some time up in upstate NY in the Adirondacks with Michael Schoenig, a great painter and one of my old studiomates from San Francisco – what a gorgeous landscape up there, between Lake Champlain and the Adirondack mountains themselves and all the rural goodness in between:

Essex, NY

More tranquil Essex loveliness

Michael at High Falls Gorge. As advertised, the falls were high.

 

More of High Falls Gorge, in all its majesty.

Me with lots and lots of gushing water.

Lovely cloud formations seen from the ferry riding across Lake Champlain.

  Michael 's house! Haha, actually, no.

Wee duckling at Mirror Lake in Lake Placid, snacking on algae.

Moon over Lake Champlain

After that I came back down to NYC to take a week-long drawing workshop focusing on the portrait and structure of the head at the Janus Collaborative. As I mentioned in my previous post, the workshop was taught by artist Michael Grimaldi. Here’s a demo from the class, done by the instructor:

Portrait demo by Michael Grimaldi

And here’s the drawing I came up with over the week - we had a great model:

  

Portrait of Tram, by me

Here's an absolutely adorable and amazingly friendly cat in one of the apartments I stayed in while in NYC - it's the awesome cat of super-awesome photographer Gavin Thomas:

 

 

Here's a view of the East River from the Roosevelt Island tramway, wheeeeeeeeee:

Also: in honor of some recent birthdays, there was some cake with friends, at a great little place in Harlem:

NOM NOM NOM

YAY FOR CAKE!!!!

..and YAY for the great state of New York. HURRAY!

Summer in the City.

Hey Internet, I'm going to be up in NYC all next week, taking a drawing workshop with Michael Grimaldi at the Janus Collaborative. Summertime in the city! Admittedly, not my favorite time of year to be in NYC, but studying with Michael Grimaldi will be so worth it - of this I am certain. My internet access will be limited during that week, so while I may not be able to post immediate updates -  hopefully I'll be able to post a recap soon. I can't in any way guarantee it will be a coherent or well-written recap, however; for that, I turn to my friend Sadie, who is far more adept at processing and articulating what she has taken in from workshops than I will ever be; see this link on her blog with her thoughts from a Michael Grimaldi drawing workshop she took a couple of years ago out at BACAA, out in the the San Francisco Bay Area...  and see below for a painting by Michael Grimaldi (incredible, no?):

Painting by Michael Grimaldi

ACOPAL.

Ladies and gentlemen, I think I may have witnessed the most impressive gathering in one single location of the artwork of more living, talented representational artists than I have seen in a heck of a long time. Though it is on view only very briefly (May 17-28), if you’re near NYC you have this great opportunity to view the inaugural exhibition of the American artists who were invited to exhibit as a part of ACOPAL (America China Oil Painting Artists League) at the National Arts Club, plus the work of the three winners of an international painting competition held by this newly-formed organization. It was definitely an extravaganza of awesomeness… it’s difficult to even start mentioning the names of participants whose work was included, because I know I’ll leave out someone else’s work which was equally amazing. I’ll still highlight a few things, though - including the following, one of my favorite pieces in the show:

Portrait of the Artist's Wife, by Joshua LaRock

Also: there were paintings by Daniel Sprick and Michael Grimaldi, both amazing artists – and YAY, I will be taking workshops with both gentlemen this coming summer. Yipeee!! Speaking of workshops, one of the 3 winners in the ACOPAL competition was the fabulous Michelle Tully of Studio Escalier, where I was fortunate to study for month-long stints in 2007 and 2008. She’s an amazing painter and an amazing teacher, and a truly great person – I was so happy to see her painting get some props, and to see how great it looked in person! Even though online images don’t completely do justice to the original, I will still post it, below:

JMP2 by Nicole Michelle Tully



Also: A shout-out to my former home state of North Carolina, home to the dynamic duo of Scott Burdick and Sue Lyon, who were represented in the show! Here’s an image of Sue’s painting:

Painting by Susan Lyon

Also: A shout-out to my current home state of Pennsylvania, and the amazing Anthony Waichulis of Ani Art Academy. Here I am with Anthony and his painting, with a look of “OMG AMAZING PAINTING RIGHT HERE” on my face. He’s a super-great guy with crazy-amazing painting skills:

Me and Anthony Waichulis

In short: ACOPAL! = GREAT!

Dacia Gallery opening! A brief review in pictures.

Hey there, so I mentioned in this previous blog post that I was going to have some paintings in a group landscape show in NYC this month. John and I toddled up to the opening reception this past Saturday, and it was great - lots of things happening on the lower east side this weekend in particular and these days in general - lots and lots of galleries, restaurants, and generally cool places to hang out. John and I tried this tea place/eatery called "Teany" and we highly recommend it, if you ever find yourself in the neighborhood (checking out my work in Dacia Gallery, of course. Haha.) Anyway, here are a couple of photos from the show...

Dacia Gallery owner Lee Vasu addressing the gallery visitors

Dacia Gallery! Check it out.

Some critics discuss my painting of Alex in the Irish landscape (critics = friend and fellow Philadelphia painter David Campbell Wilson, and John)

Check out the show if you have a chance! It's up through May 28.





Dacia, dahhling.

I have a ton of things I want to blog about – including last weekend’s Portrait Society of America conference in Atlanta, GA - but first I want to mention that I will have three paintings in a landscape show at Dacia Gallery in NYC this month. The opening reception is this coming Saturday, May 7 from 6-10pm; if you are in Manhattan, please stop by and say hello!

Here’s one of the paintings which will be in the show:

the high road, oil on panel, 16”x20’, by me, Diane Feissel.

Sprick in the spring.

Hello there! Spring is finally here, and my chilly fingers are thawing out and here to bring you some more blog-related goodness. The latest: a quick trip up to NYC (again), this time to re-visit the Sorolla murals at the Hispanic Society with friend and fellow painter Alia El-Bermani, and to check out some gallery shows, including the opening for the Daniel Sprick exhibition at Arcadia Fine Arts. Here's a quick photo recap:

Artist friends Greg Baldwin and Alia El-Bermani in front of the Sorolla murals at the Hispanic Society

Time, 12"x12" oil on panel painting by Justin Taylor, found at Eleanor Ettinger's gallery location in Chelsea

Man in Profile, oil on panel, 5"x7", by Zack Zdrale, also found at Eleanor Ettinger

I finally got to see a painting by Lucong in person - this one is Tabitha #8, oil on panel, 18"x18", found at Gallery Henoch

This one is a David Kassan piece - Artist's Mother, oil on paper on panel, 25" x 24", also found at Gallery Henoch

We ended the trip with the opening of Daniel Sprick's show "Flesh and Bone" at Arcadia Fine Arts - a combination of mind-blowingly good still lifes, figurative paintings and interior scenes.

OMG NYC FTW!

Along with everyone else, their brother, their Mom, their dog and their 50 closest friends, John and I went to the Armory show in NYC on Saturday. Boy, was it packed. Yikes! Before we headed to the Armory we actually went to Pulse first, mostly to check out my former studiomate Michelle Muldrow's work at the booth for Jen Bekman projects:

Delirium, 10" x 20", casein on clay panel, by Michelle Muldrow



Great stuff! Pulse was definitely more manageable size-wise than the Armory... and out of the eight thousand million gazillion booths at the Armory, I can easily narrow down my magical favorite moments to just a couple of pieces:

I got to see a painting by British artist Justin Mortimer, at the booth for Mihai Nicodim Gallery - amazing in person.

I can't believe I had never heard of this artist before, a Belgian artist named Michaël Borremans

This is only the second time I've seen a Kehinde Wiley in person...

And here are some other works in the show:

This one really spoke to me.