Tuesday Model Session: Study of Bilge, Session 4

Figure Study: Bilge Standing
Red/brown pencil and white chalk on buff toned paper

18 x 24 inches

Our lovely model Bilge gave us a standing pose to study for 4 sessions, and we greatly appreciate her for it! 

An update on the current painting and drawing classes I am offering - classes are filling very quickly so please email me ASAP if you want to be on the list for a future class:

10-Day Drawing and Painting Workshop
Jan 17-28, 2011
ONE spot left

Figure Drawing
6 Sundays beginning January 16, 2011
ONE spot left

Oil Painting I (Beginners)
6 Sundays beginning March 27, 2011

Oil Painting II  (Advanced)
6 Saturdays beginning March 26, 2011

Only 3 spots left

For more information about these classes and to register, please visit my Classes page

Also, I have updated my gallery page on my website so it is easier to see currently available paintings

Drawing Lecture Video

This is a recent clip of me teaching a drawing class in my studio.

See a higher quality version of the movie here

Arcadia Small Works Show

Last week I flew to NYC to attend the Arcadia Small Works show. It was a whirlwind 2 days, wedged between my teaching and studio commitments here in SF, and even though New York managed to be sweltering and steamy even in late September this year, I'm so glad I went!

I can't find a list of all the artists represented on the show, but here are several of them: Daniel Sprick, Brad Kunkle, Jeremy Lipking, Nancy Depew, Malcom Liepke, Daniel Adel, Michael Kline, Julio Reyes, Natalie Featherston, Robert Liberace, Joseph Todorovich, Kerry Brooks, Cesar Santader, and many more I'm missing I am sure....

I am lucky enough that one of my best and oldest friends, Kyra, has a fabulous studio flat in Brooklyn and she graciously lets me crash on her pull-out whenever I need a NYC fix, which is a couple times a year. I am also lucky that many old friends have ended up in Brooklyn, so I had a wonderful group of friendly faces to meet me at the door of the show.

My fabulous co-founders of Women Painting Women, Diane and Alia

12 of us have rented a house and are painting for a week in Charleston, SC,

and 4 of the 12 of us  were at the show:

Alia El-Bermani, Alexandra Tyng, me, and Diane Feissel

I feel so amazed and blessed that my impulse last year to create the WPW blog has connected me to such an amazing network of women artists. I look forward to meeting even more of them in person next month in Charleston, SC at Robert Lange's Women Painting Women show!

And thank you Garth Herrick for taking so many great photos and documenting the evening.

Hispanic Society Sarollas, NYC

Last week I flew to New York for a very fast trip to attend the opening of the Small Works show at Arcadia Gallery. My dear friends Diane Feissel and Alia El-Bermani made a daytrip of it by trekking all the way from Philadelphia and Raleigh, NC, respectively, to enjoy the day with me in Manhattan. We decided to take a quick subway trip up to the Hispanic Society to see the Sarolla murals, and what a treat!

The museum is a gem, built expressly to showcase the collection, and best of all it's completely free! Walking into the enormous room of Sarolla murals was jaw-dropping: A panorama of luscious brush strokes expertly capturing the blazing sunlight and dappled shade of the Spanish countryside and traditional festivals. Sarolla was commissioned by the Society to create these murals expressly for this location.

Diane and Alia have both written wonderful blog posts about our day together, they both have more photos of the paintings, check them out here:
Diane's Blog
Alia's Blog

"Black Jug" Sessions 7-11

"Black Jug"

oil on panel

8 x 10 inches

Click here to see the previous post

This is the final stage of the painting I have been documenting step-by step.

Saturday October 9: 3-6pm

Sunday October 10: 4-6pm

Location:
3265 17th St, cross street Mission
San Francisco

Map to my studio address is here

"Message in a Bottle" Sessions 8-12

"Message in a Bottle"

oil on panel

8 x 10 inches

See the previous post here

A tiny bottle wrapped in cream-colored tissue, a larger bottle carrying a message but with no cork to protect it, and finally a fragile shell, so thin a breeze could lift it... water, air, travel, mystery, and adventure are all woven into this simple design of three objects lined up on a shelf.

They seem to tell a story together, of secrets and memories, but we are not sure what it is. These objects seemed to arrange themselves on my shelf, and demand their story be told.

But what I did not realize when I set out to paint this, was what a challenge the glass bottle would turn out to be! What our mind tells us is a solid glass vessel with weight and symmetry, is actually only an arrangement of reflections superimposed on the background. One small mis-step of the brush or the eye, and the reflection wavers and the integrity of the bottle is lost.

Making this ephemeral illusion stand straight and symmetrical was a challenge, it only wanted to lean and warp! But I finally managed to nudge it into a position of solid grandeur, bravely holding its fragment of a note.