GCA Blog: August 2010

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

The Drawing Competition Begins!

This week is the drawing competition, ten compeitors will draw from the live model 8 hours a day for 5 days. The judging will go down this Friday at 6 PM. The reception party (with refreshments served) will be from 7:30-9:30 PM, so come join us!

Here are some photos from the first day of the competition:

Judges Michael Klein & Edward Minoff laying down the rules of the competition (Scott Waddell is the 3rd judge)

competitors in the sparkling clean south studio

picking numbers from the lottery to choose easels

Setting up

the competition room

and they're off!

public viewings are from 1-2 PM while the competitors take a lunch break. Come check it out!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Ebauche workshop

A few weeks ago Will St. John taught a workshop on painting the ebauche, or initial stage of laying in a painting. This is the first time GCA has offered a workshop on this subject and it was a huge success! While breezing through facebook the other day I noticed Christienne Cuevas had posted photos and a glowing report about her experience in the workshop and I asked her if we could share them here:

"I am so grateful to Will for teaching what was a tremendously rewarding workshop. I learned so much! And in such a short span of time! I never painted a figure so quickly before and am overjoyed with the results. Will gave an overview of the procedures, provided visual examples of 19th century figure paintings and explained each step as we went along, critiquing as we progressed. But I think the most instructive part of the workshop was the teaching by example. Will and Colleen (our class monitor) were inspiring. It was a dream to have had this opportunity to paint alongside such esteemed and talented artists. Thank you!"

Will St. John doing a demo in class

19th century academic nude from the Academy Julien (if anyone knows who the artists is, let us know!)

Will St. John teaching in class

some examples to look at in class

Christienne Cuevas' painting right after the transfer stage

Will St. John demonstrating how he transfers the drawing to the canvas

Colleen Barry demonstrating the wipe-out stage

The French Academy officially defined the ebauche as:

“The initial stage of the realization of a projected painting; the careful preparation, on broad lines of emphasis, the characteristic masses, forms, action, effect and color-scheme of the scene to be represented.”

-Albert Boime, The Academy & French Painting in the 19th Century

In 19th Century academic practice, the ebauche or lay-in, was considered fundamental to the success of a finished work. With an emphasis on breadth of form, a vigorous handling, and the tout ensemble, a successful ebauche can provide a strong foundation for subsequent re-paintings or stand alone as a finished piece.

First Annual Drawing Competition

The First Annual Drawing Competition hopes to gather together the greatest draftsmen to work on a single figure drawing over the course of 5 days. Drawings will be done from one model and one pose. Competition hours will be from 9am - 6pm with a one hour break for lunch.

If you want to come see how the competition is going, viewings are each day at lunch time from 1:00-2:00pm. The awards ceremony is Friday, September 3 from 7:30-10:00pm. Please come join us!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

A few more field studies from the fellowship

by Lauren Sansaricq

by Erik Koeppel

by Eric March

Friday, August 13, 2010

Group Show at Joshua Liner Gallery

GCA instructor Tony Curanaj has two pieces in this group show at Joshua Liner Gallery in New York City. The opening reception is tomorrow night, saturday 8/14 from 6-9 PM

Monday, August 9, 2010

Landscape Painting Workshop with Thomas Kegler

Thomas Kegler will be teaching this weekend intensive workshop in New Hampshire, putting into practice the techniques he has learned through his three years at the Hudson River Fellowship. Fore more information go to this link or contact thomaskegler@thomaskegler.com

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Until next year ...

The Fellows! Eric March, Cathy Lucas, David Baird, Coulter Prehm, Ken Salaz, Thomas Kegler, Palden Hamilton, Steve Dolan, Anna Youngers, Nick Alm, Amelia Meredith, Nicholas Hiltner, Remi Cardenas, Iris Schnitter, Lauren Sansaricq, Erik Koeppell, Emilie Lee, Cesar Santos.

Visiting Olana

We found a book for $2.98 of Lockwood DeForest's oil sketches in the Olana bookstore. What a deal!

tired fellows, but still psyched

A lecture on optics and water by Henricke Holdrege

optics ... or looking for UFOs ...

Heating things up at the notorious Schoharie Creek house!

Wanted: more band members at next years fellowship. Please include examples of your singing/musical ability in your application

Thomas Kegler, Edward Minoff, and Travis Schlaht doing their thing

Painting with Jacob Collins at artist's rock

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Visiting Olana and Church's oil sketches

On July 28th we went to visit Olana, the home of Frederic Edwin Church. It is now a state historic site, offering guided tours of the house (call in advance if you go). Inside, you can see Church's studies and a few of his larger studio paintings. Right now there is a special exhibition in the gallery of his oil sketches from Jamaica, which we got REALLY excited about. We have spent all month painting in the field and thinking about how best to approach these studies so that they may be useful in the studio when tackling a larger painting. To get up close and see how Church worked was amazing. From afar, these quick oil sketches on paper look almost like finished paintings. Up close, it seems like he painted the whole thing in three quick brush strokes. Except maybe the one below with the vines ... that looks like it took a few days of work. We left inspired and excited to go out and try some new things with our approach to oil sketching.