American Masters at SCNY

I was in NYC today for some business and had the opportunity to stop at the Salmagundi Club and see the American Masters show. To my surprise, Nancy Guzik's finished painting of me playing my guitar was in the show.

To see where she had previously left the painting, check out this old post.

Some of the highlights of the show was a portrait by David Leffel, some paintings by Quang Ho, and a few Schmid paintings.

Since I just had a post on Rose Frantzen, I also took some photos of her painting from the show. . . that reflection is pretty cool!

To learn more about the club, go to their site

Close-up of Daniel Gerhartz

Putney Painters - March 29

I had another good day painting with Richard Schmid, Nancy Guzik and the rest of the Putney Painters last Saturday. Our time was focused on the importance of a good block-in, and how it can either be a great painting all by itself, or set the path to a more polished work.

The day before, Richard and Nancy painted our model Jake at their studio, practicing the techniques we were trying to accomplish on Saturday. Below are two of Nancy's, which were each painted in under 2 hours! (Richards was equally impressive, I just didn't have a chance to photograph it)

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Because of this stress on block-ins, we divided the day into two, 2 1/2 hour poses. Our goal was to squint down, paint the largest shapes first, avoid detail, and nail down the important stuff -- like edges, relationships & drawing. The first pose had a light positioned low on the figure which was really fun and something new for me. (a photo of the actual setup is below the images)

 Richard's Study

 Nancy's Study

My Block-In

The second pose was a more traditional set up (see the opening photo). Nancy's painting below was the best of the session, and the light, composition, & technique were working so well together -- I'll be keeping my eye out for this finished painting. Another champion of the day was Dick McNeil who had two nice block-ins. The below photo is of Dick and Richard during the second session, along with his second painting.

 

Putney Painters - March 12th

I had the privilege of painting again with the Putney Painters this past Saturday and there are a lot of great things happening up there. Richard Schmid brought in the finished painting of the Asian doll he worked on a couple months back (check out this old blog post about that day). This painting blew everyone away . . . it's probably the first time I saw a painting of Richards that had such deliberate design elements (usually he will design the subject with paint, but you would never guess he changed or altered anything because it looks so natural -- in this case he created a design and a painting).

Many of us painted Carol Arnold's daughter, Grace, who was the best little model any artist could wish for. She was so still, awake, and pleasant the entire time. It was probably the 100th time she has sat for a painting and she can be seen, along with Carol's other children, in many of Nancy Guzik's paintings. Below is Nancy's painting from this Saturday:

Kathy Anderson, Katie Swatland and Richard all painted still lifes (which was the theme for the day, until Carol's daughter showed up). The below image is Katie's painting that was absolutely amazing, this photo doesn't come close to doing it justice.

Above is Richard's painting (with my silver cup . . . hopefully he'll finish this painting and my cup famous -- I may never be, but at least my cup will!) To wrap up the post, below is another painting of Nancy's that she brought in to show Carol. Sorry about the glare:

 

Another day with Richard and Nancy

Yesterday, I had the amazing privelage of spending the day at Richard Schmid and Nancy Guzik's house. My friend Taaron and I met up with Daniel Keys and Michelle Dunnaway and painted a figure in Nancy's studio.

The painting time was fantastic and a lot more intimate and focused than the Putney Painter days that I have been to. Both Richard and Nancy's studio have great north daylight windows that are about ten feet in the air and 20 or more feet wide. This was the first time that I had painted in pure north daylight . . . most of the time I use 5000k lights that have a similar effect. The light was much softer and diffused than my bulbs, and the shadows were a little brighter and smoother (especially in the morning hours).

During a break, Richard took us into his studio and showed off some recent stuff. We also got to pick through some of the hundreds of paintings he has stacked up. After we finished painting, we persuaded him that we all needed to look through more paintings, and he pulled out two stacks that had about 75 studies that were done over the years at the Putney barn, and at the Palette and Chisel.

If that wasn't enough, we watched a performance by Nancy and her cat Zorro, and spent the rest of the evening talking over dinner at a local restaurant. This kinda stuff gets me so excited about being an artist, about learning and painting in this time period, and about the real value that it holds in our society.

My painting:

Modeling for the Putney Painters

I got to spend another day with the Putney Painters -- but no painting for me, today I was the model.

Below is Richard Schmid's start. He probably painted for 30 minutes total today, he was bouncing around between all the other artists, helping and instructing.

The best of the day was Nancy Guzik. Below is her start and finish. I really love those drawing lines . . .

Here is Katie Swatland and her final painting.

Painting with the Putney Painters!

If life had a check box for "Painting with today's living Master," then tonight I would be cheking it off my list.  I honestly never thought I would have the privilege to paint with Richard Schmid, Nancy Guzik, and the Putney Painters -- to be a part of that vibrant painting environment is just as much an encouragement as it is a learning experience.

To top off the day, the Putney Painters threw Richard a mini birthday party with 3 cakes, a pie, great conversation and apparently Richard's favorite present, jokes.

Here are a few pictures from the day:

Nancy Guzik Painting:

 

Kathy Anderson:

 

Richard's Birthday Bash:

 

My Painting: (Still a little work to do, but not to shabby for having Richard and Nancy across the room!)