Jacob Collins Exhibition at Adelson

Jacob Collins has a show opening tonight at Adelson Gallery in New York City. Jacob Collins is the founder and tireless leader of the Water Street Atelier, the Grand Central Academy of Art, and the Hudson River Fellowship. If you plan on attending, Please RSVP to (212) 439-6800 or Juliette@adelsongalleries.com.


Glasses, 2011, Oil on canvas, 15 x 27 3/4 inches


Richard, 2011, Oil on canvas, 26 x 26 inches


Algae Pond Catskills, 2010, Oil on panel, 14 x 11 inches

This exhibition ends July 28 2011

Jacob Collins talks about his Eastholm Project

The Hen Islands from Eastholm, 2008
Oil on canvas, 50 x 120 inches

One of the most educational lectures we've had so far has been this presentation by Jacob Collins about his Eastholm Project. He showed us all the studies he did to prepare for the studio painting and he talked about the different questions he encountered along the way. For instance, when you do a small plein air painting, a smooshy brush stroke can describe the water in a beautiful way. But when you take that study back to the studio and try to recreate the scene on a 7 foot wide canvas, you have a lot more space to fill and need more specific information to describe the water. At the heart of this approach is an insatiable curiosity about the world around us and a desire to understand not just the way things look, but the way they are. Jacob talked about looking up topographical maps to understand the distances between land masses; studying the movement of water and how light reacts on water forms; different cloud patterns and why they form; and learning about the geology of the area to understand why the rocks all tilt at a certain angle. All the studies from this project can be viewed online at the Hirschl & Adler website.


Cloud Study II, 2007
Oil on panel, 3 1/4 x 12 inches


Ocean Waves with Storm Clouds, 2007
Oil on canvas, 9 x 12 inches


Field Study, Foggy View from the Ice House, 2007
Oil on panel, 6 x 8 inches


Maple Leaf, 2007
Oil on panel, 5 x 7 inches


Hen Islands, 2007
Graphite on paper, 8 x 13 1/2 inches

"There can be no dissent from the maxim, that a knowledge of integral parts is essential for the construction of a whole - that the alphabet must be understood before learning to spell, and the meaning of words before being able to read" --From Asher B. Durand's 1855 Letters on Landscape Painting

American Painting Video Magazine

This is the trailer for Michael Klein's new American Painting Video Magazine. For $10 you can download over two hours of content that includes a still life painting demo with Travis Schlaht and an interview with Jacob Collins. This is a fairly new project but it has recieved some great reviews on facebook from people who have watched the first issue. Michael Klein and Travis Schlaht both studied with Jacob Collins at the Water Street Atelier and now teach at GCA.

Portrait Society of America Panel Discussion

Jacob Collins will be among the panel members of this discussion to be held at the Portrait Society of America Conference next month. The panel discussion is called Contemporary Art: Realist revolution and critical relevance: Is Main Stream Media Missing an Important Cultural Trend? It will be moderated by Jeremy Lipking.

Friday April 23rd 2010 4:00pm

Hyatt Regency Reston, VA

Premises:

There is an actually existing, wide-spread, multi-faceted Realist movement in the Art world today. It is functioning as a set of specific tools, philosophy and practice. As any major art movement in history - it is a common visual language based on a common world view.
This movement is current, relevant and forward - looking
This movement is part of presently existing contemporary Art
This movement is a reflection of an important aspect of our modern world - democratization of cultural plane.

Panel Members:

Jacob Collins:

Artist & Founder of Grand Central Academy

Alexey Steele:

Artist & Recipient of the 2009 Gusi Peace Prize

James Panero:

Writer & Managing Editor of The New Criterion

Vern Swanson:

Author, expert on Academic and Realist Art &Director of the Springville Museum

The event is part of the PSOA Art of the Portrait conference (April 22 – 25, 2010) and will be free of charge and open to the public. (reservations required) contact Christine Egnoski at info@portraitsociety.org or call 877-772-4321

Jacob Collins demo, day 19

Here is the last day of Jacob's demo. We got some professional lighting for this photo and it makes a big difference! Sorry for the poor quality on all the other photos, we are hoping to set up a better situation for photographing the artwork done at GCA. I usually just point & shoot the work while it's still on the easel. Some of the students have forbidden me to post their work on the blog because the photos come out so poorly, so we are working on a solution.

Jacob Collins demo, day 18

Jacob Collins demo, day 17

There is some white chalk drawn on certain areas where he wants to go back and do some more work.

Jacob Collins demo, day 15

Figure show at John Pence

Coming up at the John Pence Gallery in San Francisco is "The Human Figure" running from 2/26 - 4/10. This group show includes several former students of the Water Street Atelier (before it merged with the GCA last year) including current GCA instructors Edward Minoff, Tony Curanaj, Sam Wisneski, Jacob Collins, Nicholas Hiltner, John deMartin, and Travis Schlaht.


David by Jacob Collins. oil on canvas, 48"x48"

Jacob Collins demo, day 13 & 14

day 13


day 13


day 14

Jacob Collins demo, day 12

Jacob Collins demo, day 11

Jacob Collins demo, day 10 + Valentines Day Pot Luck

Here is what Jacob did on Friday.




Here is the amazing pot luck feast we had on Friday.


The occasion was Valentine's Day ...


Ken did some mind-reading magic on Mark


While everyone else had a beer, Spencer kept painting.


Carla got a tattoo


kind of gruesome ...


Katie got attacked by a vampire ... you can't see but there's a lot of blood under there

Jacob Collins demo, day 9

On day 9 Jacob started painting the arm. He's using some low chroma flesh tones that he pre-mixed which he combines with other colors to achieve subtle gradations.

Jacob Collins demo, day 8

Yesterday Jacob painted this ébauche working fast and turning the form with thinned paint. He describes this process as "a fast, thin version what you are about to do next"


In this photo you can see how thin the paint is at this stage.

Jacob Collins demo, day 7

Yesterday Jacob painted this small color study - about 8"x10" to map out the general color & value scheme for the painting.


On the lightest areas of the figure, he worked over the dry under painting with some white paint. If you compare these photos to day 6 you can see it's pretty minimal, but enough to bring out the form on the face and shoulder.

Jacob Collins demo, day 6

Over the weekend, Jacob enlarged his drawing from day 5 and transferred it to a canvas. Using a thinned layer of paint, he did this under painting, wiping out the light areas to reveal the white of the canvas. His original drawing was around 16"x20" and the canvas is approximately 20"x 28"

Jacob Collins demo, week 1

For the month of February, Jacob Collins is working alongside the students in the south studio. The pose is 4 hours each morning for 1 month and we will watch and ask questions as he takes this drawing all the way to a finished painting. Here is how the first week went:


day 1


day 2


day 3


day 4


day 5


detail of day 5

check back soon for what happens next!