Kim English Workshop

In February I attended a Kim English workshop at the Easton Studio and School in Maryland.  I love Kim's paintings and would love to do more paintings with people in an environment.  Kim had us practice painting the figures over and over again, wiping them out after each painting.  He started us out with 5 minute poses and eventually we had some 20 minute poses. It was a good experience.  Kim did several demos in class, but after the class he sent us some pictures of a step-by-step demo.  Steps 1 and 2 were about 5-7 minutes each.  Steps 3 and 4 were about 20 minutes each and Step 5 was about an hour.   

Kim English Step 1

Kim English Step 2

                                                             

Kim English Step 3

Kim English Step 4

Kim English Step 5

                                                   

Trip to Paris

Just spent a very inspirational week over Thanksgiving in Paris with Eric and both daughters. We stayed at a small luxury hotel called the Hotel St. James near the Arc de Triomphe that was perfect for us. Our suite was big with two bathrooms and it was located right near a metro stop. It was low season so the only things we had to stand in line for were the Monet show for about 45 minutes and the Eiffel Tower for about 20 minutes. It was colder than D.C. but with our coats we were fine, it was never bitter cold.

We saw many of the main attractions: The Louvre, Tuileries Gardens, Musee d'Orsay, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Pompidou Center, Champs-Elysees, Montmartre, Sacre Coeur, Bon Marche (famous department store), Rue Cler (really cute open market street) and fortunately for us the huge Monet show at the Grand Palais.

It was really amazing to distill the imagery that we saw in the Louvre with most women bare-breasted no matter what else was going on in the painting and they were either touching themselves or another woman. If there was a child they were either sucking on their mother's breast or they had their hand there. There were many dead hares, raw meat and we lost count of how many dogs there were sniffing, licking, fighting and just hanging around. Oh, and I think we saw a baby Jesus with a mohawk. Of course we saw the Mona Lisa, but you can't really get an up-close look at her because she is glassed-in and roped-off. It was an overwhelming and mind-opening experience because everything was so beautiful and nothing seemed off-limits. My favorite sculpture was Psyche and Cupid by A. Canova. The Musee d'Orsay was the favorite gallery of the trip with so many impressionist paintings but I was excited to see a huge very intense Bouguereau painting called Dante et Virgile and happy to see an Antonio Mancini painting in person.

In addition to the in-town attractions, we took a day trip out to Versailles and went through the palace and gardens. There was a Murakami show going on and the sculptures provided a striking contrast to the centuries old rooms in which they were displayed. I wish we had allowed more time to wander around. It is so huge and we didn't have enough time to see Marie Antoinette's Estate where she would go to get privacy. The grounds went on and on. What a treat it would be to have time to wander around different parts of the garden each day.

We also had a very creepy trip to the catacombs. In 1785, the council of state issued a decree requiring the removal of all human remains from the cemeteries because of a public-health issue and they decided to store all the remains in the disused limestone quarries. This went on until 1860. It is a 45 minute walk through endless tunnels of human bones and skulls arranged in different patterns, very dark and sometimes wet with water dripping on your clothes, but totally fascinating.

On a miscellaneous note, we ate a traditional Thanksgiving dinner at the Joe Allen restaurant which is the Paris branch of the restaurant we go to in New York near Broadway. It was fun and very relaxing to celebrate an American holiday in Paris. We had some really excellent food in Paris, but our favorite restaurant (recommended by the Lukeman family) was Chez Janou. It was crowded and lively with old tiles on the walls and just felt very French and not touristy.

My daily vocation as a suicide

How inspirational it was to hear a lecture over at George Mason University yesterday by Sandra Ramos, a well-known Cuban artist. There has been a change in policy that allows Cuban artists like Sanda to travel in the U.S. which made this a real treat. Sandra gave a slide show titled Cuban Contemporary Art from 2000-2010. Many of the themes have to do with political and social issues such as migration, water and isolation, lack of freedom and other harsh realities of living in Cuban society. She showed some artist's images of bodegas and explained that they do not have large grocery stores in Cuba. Everyone goes to their local bodega (like a corner store) to get their rations. She mentioned several artists that try to incorporate art and society by connecting with different families and doing art-related projects for them, like painting a mural or embroidering a pillow. The galleries in Cuba are run by the government so there is a limit to what they will show. It is strange to realize that we can see controversial art works in books on Cuban art, that have never been shown in Cuba. When asked about the other arts, she said that it is hard for many of the arts because for instance if you are a poet, you need someone to publish your work and no one would take that chance. It's not the artist who gets punished, it's the publisher, or art gallery or theater who gets in trouble. In addition, Cubans do not have access to the internet so that is not a source of information or an outlet for creative expressions.

When asked what advice she would give to art students who are struggling with the issue of what subject to paint, she said that not all art should be political, art should be what is interesting to you.

Click here to see the youtube video of the Sandra Ramos Exodus show opening in Norfolk, VA at Mayer Fine Art.

Sherrie McGraw Workshop

I attended the 5 day Sherrie McGraw workshop sponsered by the Council for the Arts of Herndon. It was held in Herndon at the Coomber School of Music which is this great old building space attached to a Barn. Sherrie did demos for figure and still life and students in the class could choose to work on either or both. I choose to work on figure the whole week. Sherrie is a good teacher. She took the time to talk to each one of us individually and worked with us on the things that were important to us. I was working on giving more space around the figure so it draws the viewer into the scene instead of my usual close-up view. I was also using Sherrie's palette of colors and the medium Maroger to see how it felt. I like using Maroger but I can't really use it in my studio at home or at open-life classes at the Art League because of it's strong smell.

At the end of the week there was a reception and Sherrie gave a slide show talk about the progress of her career throuhout the years. It was a great week.

Trip to California

I just got back from a trip with my husband and youngest daughter to San Diego and Laguna Beach. We stayed in La Jolla at the Valencia Hotel for the first few days and then the Laguna Cliffs hotel at Dana Point. It was a great trip because we had a variety of experiences.

In La Jolla we really enjoyed walking along the beautiful rocky beach. There is a seal beach and we saw many fat baby seals (pups?). We had great weather so we hung out by the pool.

The picture is from the day we took the ferry over to Catalina Island. We took the bus up to the airport on the top of the island and walked back to town. It was a beautiful walk, but we were afraid we were going to miss the ferry back so we didn't slow down. Every time I stopped to take a picture I had to run to catch up! Apparently they brought over 14 buffalo in the 1920's for a movie and then let them stay. Now there are over 400 and they roam all over the island.

Elephants in D.C.

This week I was feeling a little depleted so I decided on a whim to go into D.C. to see the elephants walk through town on their way to the Verizon Center for the circus. I don't know why seeing things out of their element is so exciting, but it is. They stopped in front of the Capitol so we could take pictures. They were also joined by clowns and horses. It was just what I needed.

Chester Dale Show at the National Gallery

I love Washington D.C. because most of the museums are free. It is so nice to be able to pop in to see a show without feeling like you need to stay all day. I went into to see the paintings from the Chester Dale collection. There are paintings by Degas, Van Gogh, Manet, Picasso, Matisse, etc. and currently you can see the images on the National Gallery web site. For this exhibit I was allowed to take pictures so I took a close-up of Degas's Four Dancers. I love the way Degas doesn't feel the need to fill in every detail like on the dancer's arm.

Over the holiday I went with my family to see the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition at the National Portrait Gallery. The winning piece by Dave Woody is a photograph with the most beautiful light and color, but my favorite piece is a painting by Margaret Bowland called Portrait of Kenyetta. There is a youtube video of some of the award winners on the competition site and Margaret talks about how the painting came about. She talks about the different influences like the model putting on the wedding dress, thoughts about the Murakami show she had just seen and thoughts about our wedding rituals. I liked the part where she said that it is upsetting that women continue to participate in telling young women they aren't lovable enough as they are and that they have to make themselves more saleable by dressing up and purifying themselves. (photo of Margaret Bowland's painting from the portrait competition site)

A few weeks ago I went to the Corcoran Gallery of Art to see the Sargent at the Sea exhibit. It was great to see the key painting, En Route pour la peche (Setting out to fish), with many of the supporting paintings that John Singer Sargent did as studies. I've seen most of them in books, but it's just not the same as seeing them in person. As a realist painter, one of the things I struggle with is whether it is okay to paint a composite of different images in one painting and this is an example where it was successful. Another example in this show was the Neapolitan Children Bathing. This is the painting of the four naked boys on the beach, one with water-wings. The show had the separate studies that he did of the boys, so you could see how he put them all together for the final painting. (photo is from the Corcoran web site)

Art saves lives. For Halloween we usually make our own costumes. For my 12 year old daughter we were talking about a tornado with lots of tulle and cows, etc., but it just wasn't feeling right and things were a little tense around the Olson house. So, with about three hours to go I came up with an idea based on some artwork I had just seen at the Arlington Arts Center by Cynthia Hron. Cynthia had these large anamorphic shapes made out of zip ties that were very cool. I explained it to my husband and daughter and they took it from there to create a porcupine-ish costume. It was a big hit and everyone wanted to touch it. Once again, art saves lives.

(Cynthia Hron photo is from the bmoreart.blogspot.com)

In September I attended a Carolyn Anderson workshop in Easton, Maryland. It was held at the Easton Studio and School through the South Street Art Gallery. Carolyn gave several demos throughout the class and of course made it look so easy. This was a good class for me because I have been trying to loosen up and be more painterly. Carolyn said that we need to change our mentality so that instead of painting a painting of a model, we should use the model to create a painting. (Photo is one of Carolyn's demos)

Trip to Italy

I went to Italy in August with my husband and daughters for about 10 days. We started by staying outside of Florence in the Raffaello Family suite at the Villa Poggo Merili. It was so beautiful. There was a pool right up the hill from our patio that was surrounded by olive trees. We went into Florence usually twice each day and parked outside one of the main walls. We saw the Duomo (see photo of the ceiling), Uffizi, Boboli Gardens and Ponte Vecchio Bridge. I loved seeing the Birth of Venus by Botticelli in the Uffizi.

One day we went to Cinque Terre which is five coastal towns linked by a walking path and a train. We started in Monterosso al Mare and walked to the next town of Vernazza. It was a stunning view. We ate lunch there, swam for a few hours and then took the train back.

We spent the last part of the trip in Rome. We stayed at the Kolbe Hotel in Rome which had a contemporary interior and was located in the heart of ancient Rome. People can tell you about Rome, but you just have to go and see it yourself. There is no way to describe how enriched you feel after seeing all of the history and art. My favorite day was when we went over to the Vatican. In the Vatican musuem we went through the Raphael rooms and saw the School of Athens. Then we saw Michelangelo's ceiling in the Sistine Chapel which was for me the best part of the trip. Afterwards we walked over to St. Peter's Square and then over to the Castel St. Angelo. When we walked across the bridge with all of the angels on it, Ponte S'Angelo, they were filming a movie so we had to walk through all of the paparazzi to get across. On the way back to the hotel we stopped by the Pantheon and we just sat inside for a while.

I went to see the "Paint Made Flesh" show at the Phillips Collection today. I was very excited to see the show because it has paintings by many of my favorite figurative painters..Lucian Freud, Jenny Saville, Eric Fischl, Michael Borremans and Alice Neel. The show is up until September 13th, 2009. It's always great to see paintings up close that you've only seen in books. (photo is from the Phillips Collection web site of a Jenny Saville painting)

At the end of February I attended Jeremy Lipking's workshop at the Scottsdale Art School. It was an excellent experience for many reasons. The workshop itself was great because Jeremy paints differently than any teacher I've ever had and I learned so much from watching him. The students in the class were also top-notch. A few had work in the local galleries so I was able to walk over after class to see their paintings and several students were also teachers. The school itself is in the heart of Old Town Scottsdale with many restaurants, shops, galleries and hotels. The weather was perfect so I could walk around at lunch and after class. It felt good to get away from winter for a while.

Rob Liberace took his classes (I'm in his painting class) to the National Gallery to see some drawings that he selected from their collection. We went up to the Prints and Drawings room to view them up close. What a treat to see them up close with no glass.

In the afternoon some of us got to go with Rob through the conservation rooms. Kristen gave us a tour. This is a picture of an Edouard Manet painting that they just cleaned laying on a large table. Now they are trying to figure out Manet's process and the models, etc. They think that the man on the right with the top hat was inserted later and is the same figure he used in the painting The Absinthe Drinker. Someone told us that the painting on the table was in Manet's studio when he died and his widow wanted to sell it. A potential buyer came and wanted to know if he could buy just the two young boys in the middle for a reduced price!

Battle of Gettysburg

This past weekend my husband, daughter and I went to tour the Gettysburg battlefield. We started with the auto tour and stopped at various places along the way to climb the viewing tower and climb on the rocks at Little Roundtop. Then we went through the museum and saw the movie, but my favorite part was seeing the cyclorama oil painting completed in 1884 by French artist Paul Philippoteaux.

The "Battle of Gettysburg" depicts the battle called Pickett's charge that took place on July 3, 1863. He had a team of assistants help him finish it in a year and a-half. The painting is 359 feet long, 27 feet high and weighs 3 tons! I have never seen a circular painting before so this was a new experience for me. When you go up into the room, the lights are low and then they use lights to direct your attention to the various events of the day. There are so many dead soldiers and horses... it is really overwhelming. (photo from national park service)

Rembrandt and Lievens

I just finished reading Rembrandt The Painter at Work by Ernst Van de Wetering, so when I saw that the National Gallery was having a show called Jan Lievens, A Dutch Master Rediscovered, I recognized the name. Lievens started out as a friendly rival to Rembrandt and they shared many of the same techniques. It was great to go see some of the techniques up-close. One of the techniques that they shared was to use the other end of the brush to create embossed lines, squiggles, in the hair and beard. It is just so surprising to see it. It's like they were having fun and that's just not something that I would ever imagine. It was also great to see the textures up-close like the fur and gold-embossed capes. Also, there were some really beautiful etchings of old men. (photo from nga)