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
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...]
Masterpiece Copies
"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...]
Looking at Watteau
Five years ago, I spent time in Madrid indulging in the feast of the city and in some of Europe's greatest museums. I carried a sketchbook with me to draw in the galleries. A few pages shown here are of Jean-Antoinne Watteau's paintings at the Thyssen-Bornemisza. Watteau was the progenitor of the 'fêtes galantes' genre, theatrical scenes of idylls and pastorals. Other visitors were kind to me, … [Read more...]
Drawing Bruegel
Drawings from Pieter Bruegel using recently acquired Namiki Pilot Falcon fountain pen with carbon ink in a Moleskine sketchbook, 8x5 inch. Above: Peasants Dancing (1568). Pieter Bruegel, The Dark Day (1565) and other paintings Pieter Bruegel, The Land of Cockaigne (1567) and The Battle Between Carnival and Lent (1559) Pieter Bruegel, The Battle Between Carnival and Lent … [Read more...]
Edwardian Schema
To celebrate the arrival of a new drawing pen, I used my Moleskine sketchbook to copy lessons from Drawing Made Easy by E.G. Lutz, originally published in 1916. His method is simple. He starts with geometric guidelines of outside shapes, then divides big shapes into smaller ones. Instruction in this type of schematic drawing was largely abandoned in the 1950s and 1960s in favor of supposedly more … [Read more...]
Last Color Project
Color aid paper copy of Robert De Niro, Sr, Last Painting, 1985-1993, 60 x 48 inches, oil on canvas. … [Read more...]
BU First Month
Events are moving too quickly to post everything from the graduate school program on the blog. Here are highlights. The photographs are snapshots, hand held, daylight. The city paintings are influenced in part by recently reading Don DeLillo's White Noise. The story concerned an "airborne toxic event" hovering over Somerville, Mass, circa 1985. The next series of paintings use only black and … [Read more...]