Portrait Sculpture night class

This sculpture by Lauren Sansaricq is a great example of how students in this class start out by copying the plaster head seen to the right.

Beginning Portrait Sculpture, taught by Jiwoong Cheh is open for enrollment. The class meets on Wednesday nights from 6:30-9:30 PM. For more information click here.


Once students have completed a copy of the plaster head, they begin sculpting from the live model, seen here.

redecorating

Over the weekend Chris, our amazing fix-everything-guy (and full time core student) organzied a crew to put up bulletin boards in every studio so we could hang up all our drawings and paintings. Today all kinds of great work was coming out of the closets and I took these photos to share on the blog. Now if you visit the school you'll be able to see a lot more student work on the walls.





by Emilie Lee


by Philip Salamone


by Connie Netherton


Brandon Beckstron working on a still life


by Arturo Garcia (in progress)


detail of Arturo's still life

Studio Talks: Artists on Artists (open to the public!)

Join us for informal, afternoon studio talks by artists about artists.

GCA's South Studio
4:00pm - 5:30pm
Refreshments will be served

Patrick Connors talks about THE PHILADELPHIA SCHOOL OF PAINTING
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
rsvp: grandcentralacademy@gmail.com

Altercation by Walter Stuempfig

The Philadelphia School of Painting
Western Art's schools of painting, starting in Trecento Sienna and continuing through to those of the 19th and early 20th centuries, reflect temporal and regional influences in classic illusionistic pictorial space. The vitality and longevity of this nearly 700-year tradition was possible because it transmitted a body of knowledge, based on a tested and true intellectual foundation, which could be taught, learnt, and expanded upon. Within any particular "academy" of visual thought is the individual "eye", those persons who re-present Renaissance thought in a personal expression and without who there would be no school. This lecture examines the individual imaginations of some of the proponents of the 19th- and 20th-century Philadelphia School of Painting, including, although not limited to: Thomas Eakins, Susan McDowell Eakins, Cecilia Beaux, Walter Stuempfig, and Arthur DeCosta.


About Patrick Connors
Patrick Connors is a 1980 graduate of the Certificate Program of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. There, he studied primarily under Arthur DeCosta and was awarded the Perspective Prize. In 1982 he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. His work is exhibited internationally and is included in both private and public collections.
He has lectured at Yale University Art Gallery, Water Street Atelier, Drexel School of Medicine, Classical America [Philadelphia Chapter], and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He is the published author of the following articles: "Through the Picture Plane: The Poetry in the Pictorial Space of Thomas Eakins"; "The Chiaroscuro and the Ambiguity of Gloom"; "The Oil Sketch and Representationist Thought in the Philadelphia School of Painting"; "The Art of Sacred Devotion," and "The Legacy of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts."

connorsfinearts.com

Ecorche class

The ecorche sculptures are getting some muscle action. This class, taught by Jiwoong Cheh meets once a week for advanced painting students.

Scott Waddell painting

Here is a recent painting by GCA instructor Scott Waddell
Scott teaches in the core program on a weekly basis. He also teaches long pose figure painting on Thursday nights for part time students and a summer workshop on figure painting from July 20-31.

Luciana by Scott Waddell, oil on canvas 2009

Daily Figure Sculpture, week 2

Here are photos from the morning sculpture class at the end of week 2. Taught by Mason Sullivan, this class meets for 4 hours every morning and is part of the core program curriculum. Most of the students in this class are painters, but we have a few who are strictly sculpture students.

Student work - mid february

We're about half way through February, here's an update on some of the studies in progress. Theres about 8 days left on all the figure poses, so I'll post more photos at the end of the month.


Danny Grant


Angela Cunningham finishing the underpainting last week

Angela's cast painting at the end of today


Still life Demo in progress by instructor Tony Curanaj


Joshua LaRock


Angela Cunningham

Sculptures in progress

This month I will be posting photos of the figure sculptures as they progress. These are from day 6 of the class which meets 4 hours each morning with Mason Sullivan. Students in this class are mostly painters and will spend a few months doing sculpture in the mornings to deepen their understanding of the human form.

Met Holiday Mondays

The Metropolitan Museum of Art opens the doors of its main building to the public on Presidents' Day, February 16. (The next Met Holiday Monday will be Memorial Day, May 25.) Before the Met Holiday Mondays were initiated in 2003, the Museum was closed to the public every Monday for 30 years.
If you go, check out the special exhibit “Raphael to Renoir: Drawings from the Collection of Jean Bonna”
Ranging through 500 years of art history, from the Renaissance to 1900, and representing a diversity of artistic schools in Italy, Northern Europe, France, and Great Britain, among other regions. The selection includes works by famous artists—such as Carpaccio, Raphael, Andrea del Sarto, Parmigianino, Canaletto, Rembrandt, Claude Lorrain, Watteau, Chardin, Boucher, Fragonard, Goya, Ingres, Gericault, Delacroix, Manet, Burne-Jones, Whistler, Degas, Cézanne, Renoir, Gauguin, Van Gogh, and Seurat—as well as superb and poignant drawings by others less well-known.

Trompe L'oeil at John Pence Gallery

February 12th to March 21st
Reception for Artists: Thursday, Feb. 12th 6-8 pm
750 Post Street, San Francisco
(415)441-1138

The John Pence Gallery in San Francisco has a great show opening this week that includes several Grand Central Academy instructors and former Water Street Atelier students: Camie Davis, Sarah Lamb, Kate Lehman, Juliette Aristides, Tony Curanaj, Douglas Flynt, Nicholas Hiltner, Edward Minoff, and Sam Wisneski.

Tony Curanaj, Nom De Plume, Oil on Canvas, 39 x 24 inches, 2007

Photo of the week

Random group photo, to send off with Nancy Fletcher on her next adventure! We'll miss you Nancy

Monday's portrait class

Here are a few of the portraits from the Monday afternoon class taught by Camie Davis.

by Carla Crawford

by Brandon Beckstrom

by Kenneth Salaz

by Emilie Lee

Daily Figure Sculpture

Here are January's finished sculptures from the morning class. This was a month long pose that met for 4 hours a day, taught by Mason Sullivan.

Mark Porter

Angela Cunningham

Mark Porter

Hyeseung Marriage-Song

Sam Wisneski

Angela Cunningham

Rebecca Gray