Weekend with the Masters

The second week of September I am taking a four day intensive seminar called Weekend With the Masters, organized by American Artist magazine.

The seminar is in Monterey, California, which is about a three hour drive from San Francisco. The location is a major plus because the seminar weekend is expensive, running about $1200 for four days plus the hotel and materials; saving on the additional airfare makes it more in the affordable range.

It is going to be a grand weekend and a reunion of sorts too. Some of the painters teaching at the seminar are friends that I went to school with at the American Academy of Art and the Palette and Chisel - artists who really raise the bar for this kind of intensive. It will be so great to see my friends who have gone on to lead successful fine art careers and catch up, while also learning a little more of their well honed painting skills. As you can imagine, I had a difficult time choosing who I would study with.

In the end, I chose to mix it up a bit with artists I am already well familiar with and artists that are entirely new to me, who come from differing schools of thought than what I have been trained in. 

Here are a few of the artists I will be studying with:

A full day lecture by Jacob Collins, the founder of the Water Street Atelier, The Grand Central Academy of Art and Hudson River Fellowship. I am so excited to finally be able to meet him and attend this lecture. He will be lecturing with Daniel Graves of the Florence Academy  and Joseph McGurl:

An evening painting demo by master alla prima painter Richard Schmid. I had the honor of attending the Palette and Chisel in Chicago while Richard Schmid was president of the art league. Schmid's lectures and demos changed my life...what more can I say? Richard will be painting artist Alexy Steele:

A full day of quick pose paintings with Sue Lyon. I have been a fan of Sue's since meeting her back in art school. She was always a really nice friend and even helped get me into the Palette and Chisel long ago. How could I ever forget! She was a great painter then and even better now (I even have a watercolor portrait she painted of me in art school. I'll post it someday.):

Drawing the portrait with David Kassan. Who can forget the famous you tube demo David did on the ipad  - http://www.youtube.com/user/DavidJonKassan#p/a/u/0/5OLP4nbAVA4. It will be really cool to learn from him. I love his work:

Lecture with Quang Ho. Of all the direct/alla prima painters out there, Quang Ho is one of my favorites. His still life paintings have not only a fresh feel but also incredible composition and sense of Zen. I dream of owning one of his works someday. Listening to his unusual philosophy about painting is bound to be an amazing learning experience.

Here is a little of his biography, in his own words:

"Realism and abstraction—it's all the same to me. The real essence of painting is the dialogue between shapes, tones, colors, textures, edges, and line. Everything else follows—including light, form, concepts, personal beliefs, and inspirations. For me, painting is a marriage between the mastery of those basic visual elements, the discoveries and understanding of visual statements (the search for what is true on a personal level artistically), and the trust in one’s own intuition and inspiration. Understanding gives rise to higher understanding. Working this way allows me to open the door to new ideas and inspirations. One day I may be interested in a color statement, the next perhaps a relationship of simple shapes, and the next an extremely complex arrangement of texture and edges—with every painting there is a singular visual thought to be completed." :

A full day of painting the figure with Daniel Sprick. Sprick is another of my favorite painters. I am really excited to paint with him!

I will break down my notes on this blog and show the work I did for each day. If we are allowed to take photos, I will post those too. I am eager to learn about the different philosophies and approaches to observational painting.

I am still continuing to work on my "Spring" painting, but my busy schedule has forced me to put it on hold until after this course. I have booked a model for the pose and will be taking reference photos. I am interpreting the form into an stylized figure with some bits of fantasy, which is my intention with this subject, but will explain why I need reference for this particular painting.

I also have two sculptures in the works, which I will post about once they are complete. One is a portrait of an older man and the other a greyhound - the first animal sculpture I've ever attempted. I'm not sure if either will turn out to be successful sculptures, but I'll post about it regardless.

I am eager to continue sharing the things I learn and experience on my blog.
Thank you for visiting!