Sunday, May 27, 2012

Judge Parker

This week's Judge Parker Sunday

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Beaver Farm Paintout

The other day I was lucky enough to join a local group of painters and spend the day plein air paintings at Beaver Farm a part of the Camphill Special School which boarders French Creek out past valley Forge. Its this amazing bio-dynamic and organic farm which is part of the main school and runs a transitional program for older kids with special needs. It's an amazing place, beautiful grounds and facilities and lots of animals of all types, a great spot for kids and painters! I was invited to join the group by painter Nancy Bea Muller for one of the mini-paintouts which they do and then the big weekend paintout which happens later this summer, They then have a show at Rosenfeld gallery in Philly where half the proceeds of the sales from the paintings done at the event go to help the school.
I set up under a tree to try and keep in the shade while painting, i had my hat and my sunblock on so I was ready to go
I had my brushes and box of paint...but i forgot my liquin, luckily my friend Diane had some.
I decided to start with a smaller piece and hand an already primed board with a warm tone ready.
A bunch of the piggies sleeping...
Nancy gave me a great tour of the place.
Rachel Constantine paints next to me as we race the setting sun to get our last painting done.
Kerry Dunn paints away right in the sun. I took a class with Kerry at Studio Incamminati last year.
My buddy Dave Wilson did and awesome painting of the old pump house.
A pic of me painting away thanks to Diane.
Another pic of me thanks to Nancy B.
Here is my painting of the old pump house and below the last painting of the grazing fields as the sun set. both will be in the Rosenfeld show later this summer.
The group all came together to try and race the sundown and get one more painting in done.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Saturday, May 12, 2012

The Graduate

Yesterday I graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine arts along with the rest of my DPC friends, it was a great day full of families and friends and the culmination of 5 years worth of school, hard work, lots of painting, and memories I'll cherish the rest of my life.
yesterday was also the public opening of the 111th Annual Student Exhibition and the place was jam packed with familes, friends, the media and public. the night before was the annual Woman's Board preview party where the high rollers pay a premium to come in and get a chance to purchase the art and see the show before the public opening. sales were great, I sold several pieces and got a commission and my fellow DPC members all did great with sales as well.
Some perspective buyers checking out my wall.
You also get to see and meet a lot of great friends and fellow artists like Diane Feissel, Angela Cunningham (Cambrideg Street studios)and Rachel Constantine.
Yours truly all gussied up in front of my wall.
Dinner with Will, Alina and Brie and her family.
Lunch with all of our families and friends right before graduation was to start.
The graduate walk up into the Historic landmark Building.
President Bingham presenting an honorary degree to artist and graduation speaker Audrey Flack.
The DPC all happy to be done!
It was a great time and the culmination of a lot of hard work over the years and the last week especially with getting everything up on our walls, the preview night and then graduation. We all celebrated at the end at the best Vietnamese restaurant in the world, Little Saigon! Ewardd, his wife Nancy and his daughters are like family to me and I couldn't think of a better place to end out great day with our families and friends. Congrats to all the graduates of the class of 2012!

Saturday, May 05, 2012

Final Semester--Week 15--the Final Destination

Well my 5 years in the Certificate program at PAFA has come to an end, I had my last class with Scott Noel on Tuesday and my final crit in front of my ASE wall with Renee Foulks on Thursday. I hung my wall for the Annual Student Exhibition on Wednesday, turned in my critic sheet and ordered my post cars and I'm done...it's a wrap---except for the Preview Night where the high rollers pay big bucks to come in and buy our art and then I walk on Friday at commencement. I can easily say that the experience of going back to school has been the best of my life and the best gift I have given to myself, its a gift that will keep on giving.

Here I am in front of my wall for the ASE. I think its much stronger and more cohesive this year than last year. Certainly having to crank out work for my spring solo show at Rodger Lapelle helped keep me full revved up.

Here is my final outside painting assignment from Scott Noel's class. We had to do a painting that was a minimum 30 x 40 and the subject with Scott is usually a figure in some form on interior.I am calling this the annunciation for now but might change it to the visitation and it was painted from life. I decided to not put it in my ASE show as thematically I didn't feel it fit, so it will go in the groups show I will be in at Rodger Lapelle in June.
This painting is the final stage of the class painting in Scott Noel's portrait class.Not really a portrait as Scott really didn't teach the class as a traditional portrait class but the same way he teaches any class, stressing the ideas and themes he's interested in. This was almost his version of an Edwin Dickenson painting. You'll never hear Scott talk about Form Shadows, cast shadows, reflected light or any other term you'd hear in a classical or more typical portrait class. He was never concerned with likeness as most of the poses didn't lend themselves to any sort of classical or typical portrait painting, and certainly nothing like the class I took with Kerry Dunn at Studio Incomminatti.
Instead Scott talks about Shape Mosaic, making colors more evocative, seeing the color of event before you can define the object.The room or space is more important that the figure to Scott and he teaches the portrait class in the same way he taught his last painting class so I knew what he was preaching from the start. I enjoyed the class and the time with Scott who certainly has been the most important teacher as far as my learning curve at PAFA and who has had the biggest impact on me as a painter.
Here Dave and Will talkk about hanging his wall in the ASE.

Brian uses the lift to hang the big painting on my wall.

The rest of the Dirty Palette Club that didn't graduate last year will graduate this year, so Will, Alina, Lexi and Jane will all walk with me this year and we all had fun hanging our walls. My buddy Dave Golas cam back to help bot Will and myself hang our walls and that was a big help.
Lexi hanging her wall.She grew so much as a painter this year!
here Will and I pose with Alina in front of her wall. I spent the whole day helping both of them after my wall was done, that's what friends do and that's what makes the Dirty Palette Club a great gang of peeps!
Alina jumps around trying to set up her wall.
The show looks to be a great show this year and I hope since the economy is better sales will be better as well. Next up is the Travel awards, and non-competition prizes then Thursday the preview night and Friday graduation and the show opens to the public. I'll post more as we go through the week. I have mixed feelings about many recent events like the Spring Prizes and the choices and the way things are done, I will post some thoughts on these later after the who ball of wax is done, but I will miss my old studio and studio mates or seeing them every day. I will be back in the fall and the masters program, so the rhythmm will be different.