John Morra Solo Show at Eleanor Ettinger - Nov. 8th

John Morra, still life painter and annual GCA summer workshop instructor, has a solo show opening at Eleanor Ettinger Gallery (57th St) on Thursday, November 8th. The reception will take place from 6:00 to 8:00 PM, with the show running until December 1st. John Morra is a very talented still life painter; this will certainly be an excellent chance to see his work in person.

Mertz 14: At Sunset
Oil on Canvas
28 X 36 inches

RSVP at 212 925 7474 by November 6th if you wish to attend the reception.

GCA Salon this Friday: Dissecting Drawings

Anthony Baus, Museum Copying Salon, charcoal & graphite on paper

Join us this Friday, October 26th from 5:30 - 6:30pm in GCA's North Studio for our next Salon. Water Street Atelier 4th year student, Victor Chong will do a presentation on Dissecting Drawings.

Raphael, Head of a Youth, red chalk on white paper

From the initial sketch to the finished work, drawing was once a consistently essential element in the creation of a painting or sculpture.
By studying examples from the Western tradition of drawing from the Renaissance to pre-Impressionism, drawing enthusiasts and students can learn a great deal about the various ways artists in the past saw the world and translated it into art. What functions did drawing play? What were the artist's priorities and interests? What sort of symbols or conventions were used? How did the materials and techniques used reflect or affect the way the artist drew? There are just a few of the questions that may allow us to improve our draftsmanship and gain a better understanding of drawing.

The GCA Salon is an informal gathering to "aut delectare aut prodesse est" (either to please or to educate). The Salon is open to the public and free to attend. Participants are encouraged, but not required, to bring a bottle of wine or something sweet or savory to share. 
RSVP here (also not required, but helpful!)

Save the Date: Our Friday, November 9th Salon will feature a demo by the sculptor, Chad Fisher. More details to come.

Post-Salon: Visit the Morgan
After our Salon we encourage you to go to The Morgan Library and Museum. They recently opened the exhibition, Dürer to de Kooning: 100 Master Drawings from Munich. This Friday there will be a gallery talk at 7pm. There will also be some festive Oktoberfest celebrations of German beer and food for purchase in the Morgan Cafe and music by the German band Zum Biergarten. Admission on Fridays from 7-9pm are always free. Several Water Street Atelier students attended the opening of this exhibition after our Museum Copying Salon.

GCA students awarded ARC Scholarships!

The 12th Annual ARC Scholarship Awards have been announced!
Five GCA students are among this year's winners.  Katie Whipple won a first place award of $3,500. Samuel Hung won a second place award of $1,800. Anthony Baus, Devin Cecil-Wishing and Niki Covington all won third place awards of $1,000 each.

Congratulations!!!!!

See their winning works below:

John Pulling, by Katie Whipple, clay, 24 inches

Gumby, Pokey, and Spilled Gumballs by Samuel Hung, oil on canvas, 18 x 22 inches 

Untitled, by Anthony Baus, graphite, 24 x 18 inches

Samir, by Devin Cecil-Wishing, graphite, 13 x 9 inches

Figure Study-male, by Niki Covington, charcoal, 28 inches

October Monday Portraits

Here are some new four hour portrait sketches from the previous two Mondays.

Edward Minoff

Liz Beard

Charlie Mostow

Grant Perry

Audrey Rodriguez

Rick Piloco

Brendan Johnston

Katie Engberg

Rick Piloco

Adrienne Stanger

Edward Minoff

Emilie Lee

Sarah Bird

Leanna Chipana

James Morren

Connor de Jong

Anthony Baus

Will St. John lecture this Friday

            Will St. John copying Caravaggio's St. John the Baptist in the Corsini Palace in Rome

Will St. John winner of the 2011 Alma Schapiro Prize will give a lecture this Friday, October 19th on Learning from the Old Masters in Rome. The fellowship inspired Will to extend his stay in Europe studying and copying paintings at museums including:

Rome: The Corsini Palace, Capitoline, Villa Borghese
Florence: Accademia Gallery, The Pitti Palace, The Medici Chapel in the Basilica of San Lorenzo
Naples: Capodimonte Museum
Paris: The Louvre

The paintings he copied include two by Caravaggio of St. John the Baptist, Judith by Allori and Titian's The Entombment.

The reception is at 6:30pm and the lecture starts at 7pm. Both are held in the Library of the General Society on the first floor at 20 West 44th Street. The lecture is free to current GCA students. To RSVP please call the reservations line at 212-730-9646 ext.109.

Will is an alum of the Water Street Atelier and currently teaches our Structure Drawing class with fellow Water Street Atelier alum, Colleen Barry.

The deadline for the 2013 Alma Schapiro Prize is fast approaching on November 1st! This three-month fellowship affiliated with The American Academy in Rome is for painters and sculptors with a commitment to the classical tradition and its contemporary practice. The proposed three-month stay must begin between September 2013 and March 2014 and conclude no later than May 31, 2014. To apply you must be a US citizen over the age of 21.

Be sure to stop by the Beaux Arts Atelier Exhibition/Open House also on Friday from 6-8pm on the 3rd floor. Work by current students, alumni and faculty as well as from the permanent collection of the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art will be on view.

Works in Progress Around the Studio

Jon Brogie working on his skull block-in.

Rebecca Gray working on her eye cast.

Anthony Baus working on an imagined sketch for the GCA Salon

Katie Engert working on her lip cast

Katie Whipple's ebauche sketch for figure painting

Niki Covington's figure drawing

Grant Perry's eye cast

Connor de Jong's  cast painting of Hestia

Sara Bird's cast painting of St Andrew

Edward Minoff's Sketch Critiques

In the figure room at GCA, the teachers will often draw one to two minute diagram/reference drawings as a demonstration of a certain principle or mechanic of the figure. These little sketches are useful visual reminders during the drawing process, especially once the teacher has finished his critique and the student is left to his/her own devices. By the end of the month a figure drawing can be surrounded by these little pieces of wisdom, gathered over multiple critique sessions. Here are a few that Edward Minoff has drawn on students' pages.

Joints, limbs, hands, bone structure, facial structure!

Wrapping of the features around the column of the head in perspective

Vanderpoel-esque expression of the crunch and stretch of the rib cage to the pelvis

Wrapping of the sternocleidomastoid muscle around the neck - planes of the torso

Next Salon: Museum Copying Demo by Mark Tennant

GCA Salon by Anthony Baus, red pencil & white chalk on toned paper

Join us in one week on Friday, October 12th from 5:00-6:30pm in GCA's North Studio for our next Salon. Mark Tennant will demonstrate his approach to Museum Copying. He will focus on the beginning stages of copying starting with a block-in and an open grisaille. Below is a copy of Beggar Boy by Murillo that Mark painted at The Louvre.

Beggar Boy by Murillo - copy by Mark Tennant

Mark teaches GCA's Museum Copying class at the MET. The class is held on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. The next session starts on Tuesday, October 16th. For more information, click here. 

Mark Tennant received a B.F.A. from the Maryland Institute College of Art, in Baltimore, and an M.F.A. from the New York Academy of Art, in New York City. In addition to spending decades as a successful artist, he has taught art for more than 30 years. For the years 2008 and 2009, he was the Director of Graduate Fine Art Painting and Illustration at Academy of Art University, in San Francisco, where he had been an instructor since 1998. Among other exhibitions, his paintings have twice been displayed in the Salon d'Automne, in Paris. He has taught Museum Copying at the Louvre, Paris, at the Metropolitan in New York, and the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. 

The GCA Salon is an informal gathering to "aut delectare aut prodesse est" (either to please or to educate). The Salon is open to the public and free to attend. Participants are encouraged, but not required, to bring a bottle of wine or something sweet or savory to share.
RSVP here (also not required, but helpful!)

Save the Date! Our Friday October 26th Salon will be a presentation by Water Street Atelier student Victor Chong on "Dissecting Drawings" exploring the Western tradition of drawing from the Renaissance to Pre-Impressionism.

Salmagundi Shows feature Water Street Atelier work

"Ennis" by Devin Cecil-Wishing, graphite on paper, 2012

Head to the Salmagundi Club tomorrow, Friday, October 5th from 5:00-7:00pm and celebrate during the closing reception for two shows that include the work of current students and recent alumni of the Water Street Atelier. "Drawings" is in the lower gallery while "Sunrise, Sunset" is in the main gallery and features a silent auction.

Emilie Lee, Michelle Palatnik and Devin Cecil-Wishing all have work in the "Drawings" show. Devin's drawing, "Ennis" shown above, was awarded first place in the exhibition. Devin drew the portrait during GCA's core program morning pose in May.

Emilie Lee also has three recent landscapes up for auction in the "Sunrise, Sunset" exhibition. You can view the auction online here. Bidding closes at 6:30pm. Winners are announced at the reception.

Both Emilie Lee and Devin Cecil-Wishing are current instructors in our evening Cast Hall class.

The Salmagundi Club is located at 47 Fifth Avenue between 11th & 12th Streets in NYC.

Monday Portraits

Another batch of quick portraits from the Monday session -

Charlie Mostow

Sally Cochrane

Sam Hung

Edward Minoff

Connor de Jong