Laraine Armenti

student of painting

ANE / Benn — Week 2, Friday

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This is the last day of painting before open studio, held on Friday evening each week of the program. My little paintings are lined up in a row. This is an opportunity to see what everyone else has been doing this week, and to connect with the community of fellow artists, musicians, and visitors from the area. ABOVE: Red Barn, oil on linen panel, 8 x 10 inches (20 x 25 cm), 7/29/11 Open … [Read more...]

ANE / Bennington — Week 2, Thursday

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No painting is an island — good follows bad follows good. I'm doing two paintings a day at ANE. Sometimes the morning's is best, sometimes the afternoon's. Everything is either 8x10 or 9x12 inches. Sometimes the small one is better, sometimes the large one. In my mind's ear I keep hearing George Nick say, "I doubt the tree looked like that. The sky was not that dark. I don't believe the grass was … [Read more...]

ANE / Bennington — Week 2, Wednesday

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"Summer afternoon — summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language." — Henry James, quoted by Edith Wharton, "A Backward Glance", (1934) While painting outside, the constant sound of buzzing, clicking, chirping of bugs and birds can be heard in between the alarming ka-chun-king start-up whirr of a giant air conditioning generator. Men shout … [Read more...]

ANE / Bennington — Week 2, Monday

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Comfortable overcast morning turned into a cold downpour in the afternoon. I set up on the lawn directly behind the house. In the afternoon I found an overhang that proved inadequate for the wind driven rain. Everything was soaked by the time I packed up. All kinds of problems with the drawing in these two paintings. It's the first day back to working outside in oil. The paint felt like clay after … [Read more...]

ANE / Bennington — Week 1, no. 3

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Last painting was done on Friday in the acryla-gouache figure class. The female model alternated between two poses within the same paintin, while the third figure is from a photograph. Saturday we had final critique and discussion of the week's work. ABOVE: 3 figures, acryla-gouache on panel, 16 x 20 inches ( 41 x 51 cm), 07/22/11 Eleven paintings in a week, acryla-gouache on panel, … [Read more...]

ANE / Bennington — Week 1, no. 1

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During my first week at Art New England, I am in a class called "The Figure in Context" taught by Susan Lichtman. The first night we were assigned two homework paintings: a quick twilight landscape and a still-life, leaving space in both to fit the figure. We did a direct painting of the figure on the first morning of class. In the afternoon, we painted her into the still-life using light tones … [Read more...]

Hourglass Lake

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"the secret of durable pigments... the refuge of art," V. Nabokov, Lolita Everything outside is constantly on the move. Clouds, sun, breeze, water, and reflections translate into frequently transformed pattern, shape, color and value. It's difficult enough to make out what one is seeing. Even more challenging to organize paint in response. But it's wonderful to be outside in delightful weather. … [Read more...]