LARAINE ARMENTI

Student of Painting

Summer Series

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In July I went to Vermont with a plan to paint landscapes in the remaining pages of a book I made in 2016. I painted new gouache landscapes but also worked back into several earlier pages. The result is that there are still blank pages in the book, leaving me with the same reason to return again. My trip coincided with the 73rd annual Bennington Chamber Music Conference held on the college … [Read more...]

Little Gems Show

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My painted paper collage are included in a group exhibition of small artworks by fifteen contemporary artists. Currently up through the end of July at Gladstone, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. Read about the inspiration for the show here. Little Gems May 29 – July 28, 2018 Gladstone 36 1/2 Union Street, Manchester-by-the-Sea, … [Read more...]

Spring Teaching 2018

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Registration is now open for my spring teaching schedule beginning April 2 at ccae.org and April 10 at www.danforth.org. This post contains examples of student art from three classes I teach in painting and drawing. Below are descriptions of each class and the schools where the classes are offered. From Copies to Life at the Cambridge Center Studio School. This class alternates between copying … [Read more...]

Teaching Winter Session 2018

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My winter teaching schedule begins January 8 & 9, 2018. Register at ccae.org and www.danforth.org. Copies Then and Now at the Cambridge Center Studio School. In this course European masterpieces of the 17th-20th centuries are used to develop both craft and personal expression. Each week we alternate between copying a masterpiece and painting from still-lifes inspired by the masterpiece. We … [Read more...]

Tempus Fugit

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This month marks ten years since I stopped working as a graphic designer for international meetings to devote more time to painting. My hectic pace of life, of client deadlines and to-do lists, kept interrupting painting. The change led to forks in myriad unmarked roads. I had wanted to discover what might be possible, to cultivate my potential, and I was motivated to make the change by nearing … [Read more...]

New from Vermont

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Bennington, Vermont continues to inspire me as an artist. This year I returned to Art New England, a Mass College of Art workshop program that convenes on the Bennington College campus each summer. It is a remarkable gift to work every day for two weeks without other responsibilities, far from the madding crowd. The focus yields incremental but essential changes in my work, especially while guided … [Read more...]

NdS Collage

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My recent collage series is inspired by the great paintings of Nicholas de Staël who was a pioneering figure in mid-century painting. He directed his gaze outward at a time when New York artists and critics were obsessed with solitary struggles of the inner-Man. In his work he reveled in the convergence of sky, sea, and land on the Mediterranean coast of Morocco, Algiers, and Antibes. His … [Read more...]

Masterpiece Copies

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"Paris offers... the museums in which you can study the old masters;... from 12 to 4 you copy, in the Louvre or the Luxembourg, whatever masterpiece you like." — Zola’s letter to Cezanne, 1858 ~~ Art made in eras that are historically and culturally different from our own provides a limitless source of instruction and inspiration. For the artist, the process of copying masterpieces internalizes … [Read more...]