Laraine Armenti

student of painting

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 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...]

ANE / Bennington — Week 2

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Week 2 of Art New England / Mass Art workshop at Bennington College, Vermont. After all this time, I was thrilled to finally be in a class called "Advanced Painting." As a complementary medium to working in oil, we were shown methods of using pencil and a slurry of graphite powder in stand oil/OMS on mylar. It's a deliciously slippery medium to use for filmy values. The drawing/paintings have … [Read more...]

Still-life Series

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Paintings shown here were done during a one week independent study at Art New England / Mass Art summer program, Bennington College, Vermont. ABOVE: Chicken, oil on linen (mounted panel), 9.75 x 7.75 inch (25 x 20 cm), 07/21/2010 Oil Jars, oil on linen (mounted panel), 7.75 x 7.75 inch (20 x 20 cm), 07/20/2010 Apples and Oil, oil on linen (mounted panel), 7.75 x 7.75 inch (20 x 20 … [Read more...]

ANE / Benn Workshops

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In July I completed two weeks of workshops at Art New England in Bennington, Vermont, offered by Mass College of Art: "Book Arts" taught by Valerie Carrigan and "Rethinking Landscape" taught by Emily Eveleth. I strongly recommend the ANE program to anyone interested in packing a semester's worth of study into one week, instructed by world-class artists. Here is the Facebook ANE link. ABOVE:  … [Read more...]