Alma Schapiro prize winner Jeffrey Mims

Congratulations to painter and muralist Jeffrey Mims who just won the Alma Schapiro prize! The prize is offered by the Instituted of Classical Architecture and Classical America every other year to advance the career of an artist recipient and to foster the continuity of knowledge of the classical tradition as a vital aspect of contemporary culture around the globe.

The centerpiece of the prize is a three-month affiliated fellowship at the American Academy in Rome, the premier American overseas center for independent study and research in the fine arts and humanities. The total award will include Academy fees, travel allotment and award stipend.

Jacob Collins, founding director of the Grand Central Academy of Art, ICA&CA board member, and Schapiro Prize jury chairman, said, "Jeffrey Mims has been at the forefront of the revival of classical art for the last 20 years. He has made great contributions as an artistic leader as well as a teacher. His school, Mims Studios, plays an important role in the training of young classical artists. We are delighted and honored to be able to offer the Alma Schapiro Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome to him."

Paul Gunther, president of the ICA&CA adds, "I am grateful to Jacob Collins and his fellow jurors for the decision made, despite once again the fierce competition from exemplary classical artists at work across the country today. In particular, the choice for the 2009 Fellowship of Jeffrey Mims reminds us all of the value of a mid-career sojourn at the Academy unfolding as it will among such committed creative trailblazers of many disciplines both artistic and scholarly. I know that both Mims' own work as well as his commitment to teaching will be duly enhanced. Of the Institute's two alternating American Academy prize fellowships, Schapiro in the fine arts and Rieger-Graham in architecture, Mims is the first recipient, who can bring to bear an already well- and long-established career with the prospect of renewed achievement in its promising wake."

A Rediscovered Archive of Spanish Drawings: The Academia de San Fernando de Bellas Artes in Madrid

These 18th & 19th century academic drawings from the Academia de San Fernando we found on art historian Micah Christensen's blog. I've only posted 3 images here, so you should go to beardedroman.com to check out the rest & read about them.

The entire archive can be found online at the Biblioteca Universidad Complutense Madrid website.

The Academia de San Fernando de Bellas Artes was founded in 1752. Based in Madrid, it was one of several art academies in Spain (other cities with academies included Barcelona, Valencia, Zaragosa, and Seville). By the mid-nineteenth century, the Academia de San Fernando had become the dominant art academy in Spain and the model for art education throughout the country.

Anonymous (Spanish, c. 1890) Desnudo masculino en pie y de perfil apoyado en una vara. Graphite and pastel on paper. 61.9 BY 47.9CM. Colección de Bellas Artes, Universidad Complutense, Madrid.

Anonymous (Spanish). Colección de Bellas Artes, Universidad Complutense, Madrid.

G. Ponman (Spanish) Female figure from a Greek Relief Sculpture or Figura femenina (copia de un relieve griego). Pencil and pastel on paper. 62.9 BY 47.7CM. Colección de Bellas Artes, Universidad Complutense, Madrid.

As in Paris, students in Madrid’s arts academy studied, on average, for four years. Some went on to receive scholarships and study at the Spanish School in Rome. (Established in 1873, the Spanish sent winners of an annual competition on the equivalent of the French Prix de Rome.) Students at the Academia began by drawing from castes of isolated portions of statues. Then, they were allowed to study from full statues of classical origins, either from castes made of the Spanish Royal collection or from collections in Rome or Paris. Advanced students, were allowed to study from live models, who were often placed in the poses of classical statuary or from scenes in Old Master paintings. As the century progressed, classical poses increasingly gave way to more natural poses and depictions of the human figure.

Making plaster casts

First year students have been spending a lot of time with these feature casts - practicing drawing, modeling, block-ins & sculpture from them. Last week we took our clay sculptures we've been working on & learned how to make our own plaster molds & casts. It's more complicated than we thought! It takes some patience & precision to mix the plaster just right and make the mold before the plaster solidifies.


Carla Crawford's clay eye, with the plaster cast we've been working from next to it.


Lauren Salm making a plaster mold of her ear


Sarah Hodges plastering up her nose


Instructor Chris Waddell working with Victoria Herrera


Ashley Howell cleaning out her ear mold


Remi Cardenas & Neal Esplin removing a finished plaster mold from the armature


Me & Carla bringing back the art of knitting

Work in progress

Here are some photos I took around the studio today of work in progress:

Elisabeth Ehmann

Amelia Landes

Carol Broman

Instructor Edward Minoff working with figure painting students

Instructor Jacob Collins working with a sculpture class

Instructor Sam Wisneski working on a cast painting demo


Brendan Johnson and his intimidating weaponry of meticulously sharpened HB pencils, ready for action

Studio Talk Alert!

Studio Talks: Artists on Artists

Please join us for informal, afternoon studio talks by artists about artists.
GCA's South Studio
4:00pm - 5:30pm
Refreshments will be served

Richard Cameron talks about THE NEOCLASSICAL DIVIDE
Tuesday, November 18, 2008

rsvp: grandcentralacademy@gmail.com

*Next in December: Patrick Connors on Eakins: Philadelphia School of Painting

Noted architect Richard Cameron will discuss the legacy of Stuart & Revett's seminal work, Antiquities of Athens and its important place in the debate over the 'neo-classical divide'-a debate that continues to influence classical work today.


About Richard Cameron
Richard Cameron is principal at Ariel - The Art of Building, LLC and co-founder of the ICA&CA. Mr. Cameron has taught drawing and the history of architectural theory at the Institute since its founding, and currently serves on the Board of Directors as its Vice-Chairman. He was awarded first prize in the Royal Oak Foundation's Annual Architecture Competition in 1993. His work has appeared in numerous publications including House and Garden, The New York Times, Period Homes, New Old House, and Traditional Building. For more information, please visit www.ariel-llc.com


*A recent reprint of Antiquities of Athens was published by Princeton Architectural Press in association with the ICA&CA's "Series in Art and Architecture."

photos from the studio

Finny working hard in a drawing class.

All students are required to study ecorche sculpture, in which they learn human anatomy by sculpting the human body showing the muscles and bones without skin. This class meets once a week all year long, and is taught by Jiwoong Cheh. Here are some photos of the current ecorche group working on the skeleton.

Hyeseung Marriage-Song

Rebecca Gray

Colleen Barry & Phillip Salamone

Angela Cunningham, Philip Salamone, & Colleen Barry

First year students are learning sculpture by working from the plaster feature casts. Here are some photos of their first sculptures being finished up.

Ken Salaz

Lauren Sansariq

Carla Crawford

Here is Ken Salaz astonishing everybody with a magic trick on a model break. (this guy is the best magician any of us have ever seen)

Nelson Shanks

Last night Nelson Shanks gave a portrait painting demonstration downstairs at the Institute of Classical Architechture & Classical America. Mr. Shanks is a well respected painter and teacher who has played a significant role in keeping realism alive over the past 40 years.

summer announcements

Two announcements for 2009 summer action:
June 8 - 12, 2009 The second annual Classical Figure Sculpture Competition. This exciting event was just covered in an article called "A Little Competition Is a Good Thing" in the nov/dec '08 issue of Fine Art Connoisseur.

June 1-26, 2009 cast & figure drawing intensive with Camie Davis, Nick Hiltner, Sam Wisneski, & Jacob Collins.

Atlanta Art Gallery group show

October 17th was the opening for a group show at the Atlanta Art Gallery: "Jacob Collins and the Water Street Atelier" featuring Jacob's work alongside that of alumni and current students of Water street and Grand Central Academy. Below is a link to an online gallery of some of the work included in the show.

Atlanta Art Gallery group show

Photos from the opening night are posted on the Portrait Society of America blog.

This review of the show came from Jerry Cullum's blog:

"The portraits in particular make one realize the importance of scale in this tradition; the photographs in the little catalogue produced by the gallery sometimes look embarrassingly inconsequential when the paintings themselves are emotion-provoking near-masterworks. When personal style is suppressed in favor of realist representational conventions, small details become crucial and the size of the image even more so. Lacking the metaphysical vigor of the Dutch precursors, these artists present a world as it might yet be, an implicit utopia that might have delighted Ernst Bloch: a sense of reverie that creates space for dreaming and thus, according to Bloch's heretical philosophic vision, for hope.

And these days we can use all the hope we can get, not to mention imaginative space in a world crowded, as Bahouth's show reveals, with conventional images. Sometimes a re-imagining of an unfashionable tradition is the most revolutionary act of all."

Student work

Here are some photos from around the studio. Now that the students from Water Street Atelier have joined the GCA community, we have people working at a range of experience levels - from beginner cast drawing to full color figure painting. Starting this week, second year students take a break from drawing to begin a new element of the curriculum spending 5 hours a day in the sculpture studio for a 2 month block.


Instructor Chris Waddell giving a portrait sculpture demo


Jason Boudreau


Colleen Barry

intro to figure sculpture with Mason Sullivan (night class)


Carol Broman


Arturo Garcia


Gregory Mortenson

Hyeseung Marriage-Song


Nancy Fletcher

Joshua LaRock

Joshua LaRock

Elisabeth Ehmann

Halloween at GCA

Yesterday we had some great costumes for Halloween, and a party with our friends downstairs at the Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America.