PAFA MFA 1: Week 6

This was a very good and maybe the busiest week at school so far for me. There were a ton of gallery openings and artists showing all over the city this past First Friday, many of whom either teach, attend or attended PAFA. The weater was great, maybe the last great weekend of the year with warm, balmy temperatures. The drawing above was done for the Drawings Seminar with Michael Moore and is 29 x 35 in charcoal, ink and China marker on Strathmore drawing paper--the kind that comes in a roll.

I had my first crit with Martha Armstrong who is my visiting critic this semester and that went really well. I got some good feedback on the current painting I have going.

Yesterday the gand all rolled out to the Brandywine and the Wyeth museum to see the great art by the Wyeths and to take the tour of Andrew Wyeth's studio which really was a great experience. It was really great to stand in Wyeth's studio, you could really feel his presence---at least I could. They kept it in as close to the same state it was when he was alive and working there for 60years. the ceiling and walls were in a slow and awesome state of decay and looked just like the weathered and textured surfaces of his paintings. It was an awesome fall day and we all enjoyed the fantastic fall day in the museum and on the grounds. We plan on going back in the next weeks or so to paint there.

Andrew Wyeth's studio and the sign he had hanging on the door in case any curious autograph seekers came a' nocking.

The gang ready to take the tour...

I also helped my good buddy David Campbell Wilson set up his first solo show at Rodger LaPelle which opened this First Friday. Its a great show and you should definitely see it, Dave has lots of beautiful and affordable work on display.

In drawing seminar we had the usual good crit and then Mike had us all do a collaborative drawing in class. I felt sort of like a little kid as it was like a drawing you'd do as a kid with your brother or friends. We broke into groups and drew away. We decided to draw moving around in a circle. The final drawing is a real mash-up as they say. Some found this refreshing or fun and some I think much less so. Wenxing one of the students in class is from China and its great to see each week as her English gets better as well as her ability to communicate her ideas. She and Mike had a great exchange this week which was at time pretty funny. One of the things I always find so interesting in class is the poses my fellow artist get into when doing the critique. I'm always watching and observing this, sometimes people mimic each others poses or hand positions and gestures when in agreement.

I should do a drawing of this, everybody's pose is so much more interesting and vital, real, than when you have models pose.

Here is our collaborative drawing--I wonder if any of you can tell what I drew?  The High School program started this week ad we had a record turnout--50+ students from schools all over the city turned out for the college level classes that run each day from 3-5:30. The illustration class was so packed we eneded up in two rooms and I rushed back and forth doing demos in both. This week we will do something different by having expanding the set-up in one of the rooms to handle the number of students into one space to make the class run more effectively.

 I came in to pinch hit with the figure drawing class that had a huge wave of students show up on Thursday--so much so we split the group into two rooms and I ended up volunteering to be the model in the second group as we only had one model scheduled. I have to say, every time I end up modeling I really come to appreciate how tough it can be and how a good model is important. I tried to give the class some cool and fun poses and its always a kick to see what the drawings look like. Everybody had a good time and they turned out some swell drawings.

And to top it all off there is a great exhibit currently at PAFA on William Troust Richards. It is not to be missed as the work is just incredible. I attended the opening and plan on going back often to see the exhibit while its running.