ATELIER SEÁN PATRICK MCARDLE

Impactful Encounters

2012-02-12T23:02:00.000-08:00

In life a seemingly small impact of an encounter can grow like a seed if nourished. The past few months have been full of chance encounters leading to some immediate appreciation and new friendships while others will sit in the fertile soil until the seed is ready to grow.

This weekend Melissa, Gaia and I spent the weekend admiring art. On Friday night, we attended an art reception to support a group of realist artists at John Pence Gallery. On Saturday, we went to the DeYoung Museum to view the Masters of Venice Exhibition.

Within the past few weeks we have had some of those impactful encounters, some were planned, some were serendipitous, and others were just amusing.

Regarding the amusing, while at the Masters of Venice Exhibition, I was filling up my notebook with museum notes on the great Venetian renaissance painters Titian, Giorgione, Veronese, Tintoretto, and Mantegna. In an exhibition like this, the museum security often must remind me not to get to close to the paintings during viewing, but I was consciously on good behavior this trip. Then I heard museum security ask someone to step back from an Andrea Mantegna Grisaille (term for painting executed entirely in monochrome or near-monochrome, usually in shades of grey). Knowing I was not that close, I turned to the perpetrator and noticed it was Juliette Aristides who exhibited the night before at John Pence Gallery and also wrote the book Classical Painting Atelier. I was pleased that someone other than me was under surveillance. Juliette Aristides and I haven't seen each other since BACAA about two years ago, so we compared notes on the Venetian Masters technique as we cautiously viewed the rest of the exhibition. While I studied in Vicenza Italy in the past, I learned a tremendous amount at the exhibition.

Regarding the serendipitous, we have met some incredible people recently including sculptor Alicia Ponzio and fine artist Justin Hess who both recently moved to San Francisco from attending and teaching at the Florence Academy of Art. Jamen Graves, Board Member of Florence Academy of Art, fine artist Sadie Valleri who recently opened an new Atelier in San Francisco, Eric Rhoads publisher of Fine Art Connoisseur, Vincent Xeus who painted a portrait of Gaia and I'm sure the greater art world will know about soon, and Stephanie Fine who is a generous volunteer and asked me to teach plein air painting for a day to grade school children in Sonoma.

While Melissa and I are interested in nourishing our daughter Gaia's interest in art, ballet and life she is actually introducing us to friendships we would not have known. While I cannot name them all, we recently met Jason Moore, and his family, an artisan of wine making . He wrote a nice blog post about our meeting, so I thought I would share the post and his quote which deeply resonates with me.

"For some, determining one's true purpose in life is accomplished thru following the path of least resistance, and thus relinquishing to passion."

Lapis Lazuli

2012-01-08T22:33:00.000-08:00

Mysister spent some time in Afghanistanon a government forensics contract. Knowing she was there in turbulent times, I merelysuggested she keep an eye out for some genuine Lapis Lazuli. Although I’ve been known to put her in harmsway when we were children, luckily she returned home safe and gifted me a smallhand carved wood vessel filled with the semiprecious blue stone.

Minesin Afghanistanhave been worked for Lapis Lazuli for several thousand years and are among theoldest continually worked set of mines in the world. The mines in the Badakshanarea of Afghanistan, stilloperating today, supplied the sought-after stone to the Pharaohs. The earliestfinds of Lapis Lazuli connected with art were found in a Sumerian mosaic datingfrom the third millennium B.C. Other examples were found in the treasury ofRamses II (1290-1223 B.C.). Lapis Lazuli was mentioned by the Greeks and Romansin early antiquity and in the Bible.

Itsuse as a painting pigment is first reliably recorded by Marco Polo in 1271. Thesemiprecious stone was mined in Afghanistan,purified into the pigment Ultramarine Blue “from beyond the sea”, and imported viaPersia to the Mediterranean. About 1390, Cennino Cennini gives very detailed instructions about theprocess of extracting the speckled yellow-gold color Pyrite and white streaksof Calcite. This resulting pigment was used from 1271 until it almost ceased toexist around 1840s. Its price has always been extremely high, equaling orexceeding that of gold. It is soexpensive that painters usually used to invoice their clients for it separatelyor ask them to supply it. A privilege enjoyed solely by the wealthy, paintersused it for the most important character of their paintings. Leonardo used itfor the sky in his Mona Lisa.

InFrance,a prize was offered for the manufacture of synthetic ultramarine which wasawarded to B. Guimet in 1824. This rapidly reduced to a minimum the supplyof natural Ultramarine Blue. The artificial Ultramarine Blue is made by calcination ofsulfur, sodium carbonate, and kaolin by the so-called soda process. Themanufacturing process is quite complicated and is still carried out in potkilns, experiments with other types of kilns have proved unsuccessful.

Luckilyfor us, artificial Ultramarine Blue is one of the best glazing pigments availableand far less expensive than natural Ultramarine Blue. While I'm glad we do not have to use Cennini's formula for extracting the Pyrite and Calcitefrom the Lapis Lazuli, I do prefer to grind my own paints giving me a deeperappreciation for the pigment and oil for my paintings.

Reference: The Material and Techniques of Painting Kurt Wehlte

A Moment To Dream

2011-12-22T10:06:00.000-08:00

Drawing of Maria Kochetkova, Principal Dancer, San Francisco Ballet.

Inspired by her performance at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. (Instagram @balletrusse)

Black and white charcoal and pastel on Ingress Steel Grey paper by Canson made in France.

Legion of Honor | Gala

2011-12-15T21:06:00.000-08:00

Last night, my beautiful Melissa and I attended An Elegant Evening in the Court of Honor at the Legion of Honor hosted Honorary Chairman, philanthropist, art collector, and champion-for-the-Arts Diane “Dede” Wilsey and Chairman and Mrs. Newton A. Cope. We were graciously invited by Dave Spencer, Art Enthusiast, Entrepreneur, Board of Trustees member of the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, Board of Trustees member of Florence Academy of Art and most important an overall great gentleman.

As we arrived at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, the façade lit up the night sky giving a glimpse of the evening to unfold. Upon arrival. we viewed the current exhibition Pissarro's People. Camille Pissarro had a unique and lifelong interest in the human figure. From his earliest years in the Caribbean and Venezuela until his death in Paris in 1903, Pissarro drew, painted, and made prints featuring human subjects from every walk of life. Pissarro’s People celebrates the painter’s humanism in all its aspects and brings together nearly 100 works of art, including some 37 paintings and numerous works on paper made over the course of his entire career.

After cocktails in the main rotunda among Rodin sculptures, we entered the tented Court of Honor for dinner, music and dancing. Need I say it was a perfect evening?..

The Contemporary Realist Movement

2011-12-10T20:21:00.001-08:00

The Contemporary Realist Movement | The Epoch Times by Kara Lysandra Ross

The term, “Contemporary Art,” has long been associated with the Modernistand Post Modernist Movements because at the time they were created the words“contemporary art” or “modern art” also meant the art of today. However, thesemovements started several decades ago and today the terms have become deceptiveas a new movement of living artists is taking back the word contemporary andassociating it with the traditional techniques of the old masters applied tothe human experience as well as important subjects of the times. Thegeneral public is growing tired of art that needs long explanations andjustifications and more and more people want to recognize what they are lookingat and respond to it on a humanist level rather than a purely conceptual one.

The Contemporary Realist movement first started as a reaction to theModernist and Post-Modernists, who still dominate the art market today. Whenone can take a found object, put it in a museum and call it art, the generalfeeling among this growing movement is that the definition of art has become sobroad that the word “art”, as defined by the current art establishment, ceasesto have meaning. The modernist movement originated in the early 1900s andthe critics of that time noted “the avowed purpose of art has been tamperedwith by introducing the elements of a missing-word composition… Many friends ofart expect that it will meet its fate, but a few champions see a revolution inprogress.[1]” The Modernist underdogs quickly took hold of the art world,completely dominating it by the end of the 1940’s. After the tragedy of twoworld wars and the Great Depression, humanity was left with a heart of cynicismand a mind filled with existentialist thoughts; two qualities Modern andPost-Modern art took to its core. In reaction to this negative view on humanityand its accomplishments, theContemporary Realists felt mankind was best served by depicting through art,the qualities in life that unite us as people rather than the debasement ofcivilization. Nothing says more about a culture then the art it idolizes. Itrepresents what it values, what it thinks about, and essentially what it deemsworth remembering. Art is the representation of a people, encapsulating itsessence on every level, and these artists believe there is more to great artthen Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain, which is really nothing more than atoilet, or Jackson Pollack’s oeuvre, which is nothing more thansplattered paint. Contemporary Realists looked back at the art that pre-datedthese global catastrophes, to the old masters, and especially the classical artistsof the 19^th century, whose works reached their zenith directlybefore the onset of Modernism and was a Renaissance of new themes encapsulatingfreedom of speech through visual storytelling.

The internet has become, as with so many fields, the most important tool forthe Realist Movement. It allowed the movement to gain serious tractionabout 10 years ago by linking those like minded parties together, enabling themto find each other and promote their thoughts to others. Through groups suchas GoodArt, the Art Renewal Center (A.R.C.), was founded as a center forrealism. It became the largest online museum and the only one at that timededicated to traditional art. They searched out the remaining few atelierschools that still used the training methods of the old masters. Beingable to find only 14 in existence at that time with less than 200 students,A.R.C. advertised them to the public. Since that time the atelier schools havegrown dramatically with more and more created every year. On the Art Renewalwebsite 72 Atelier Schools and workshops arenow listed, with many times the number of students and more are out there thatare not listed as well. Other alliances also formed such as the AmericanSociety of Classical Realism, International Guild of Realism, AmericanSociety of Portrait Artists, Oil Painters of America, ChineseInternational Figure Painting, and the California Arts Club amongmany others. Magazines now exist that are dedicated to realism such as FineArt Connoisseur, Plein Air magazine, Artist Advocate, American artsQuarterly, Art of the West, and others. Head instructor of theAni Art Academy Waichulis, Anthony Waichulis states, “Over the past few years Ihave found that applications and program inquiries have increasedtenfold. It seems that this ever-growing resurgence in Realism isencouraging new aspiring artists to enthusiastically pursue fundamental skillbuilding on a scale I have not seen before. This is truly a wonderfulthing as I believe that effective education is one of the most powerful toolswe have to shape the future.”[2] These groups are all united if not literally then figurativelyin their goal to bring realist painting, drawing, and sculpture back to theforefront of modern day art.

The Atelier Schools are the foundation of the movement, they are the sourceof the proper training that is denied in most university and college artcurriculums. For Example, when I was getting my B.A. at DrewUniversity, which has a reputable artsprogram in New Jersey,I took a sculpture course. When I got to the class I learned that it did notinvolve clay, but it did involve found objects. When I asked what level ofsculpture started work with clay, I was told that I would need to take aceramics course if I wanted to make pots. As most realist artists know, clay isa foundational tool in learning how to sculpt the human figure, something thecollege program did not teach. Although this is one example, it is not uncommon,but the norm. At the Art Renewal Center,letters are received almost daily from artists and art lovers who have reportedsimilar experiences. Julian Halsby writes “I am writing from Britain to sayhow much I support your movement for the restoration of traditional values inart. There are many of us here in the UK who believe that modern art isin many ways a confidence trick and that traditional values must be restored inart schools. We have a magazine called The Jackdaw in which David Leeattacks the Art Establishment and… I write for The Artist magazine andoften express views similar to yours.”[3] James Oliver writes “I am an artist who has been disenchantedwith the art world to such a degree that I have pursued a science educationinstead. I think this site is the first real indication that the madness isbeginning to clear as humankind rediscovers the beautiful.”[4] Jean Corbeil writes “As an artist and teacher, I believe thatthe future will only be possible if we infuse the arts back where they alwaysbelonged, at the heart of human education”[5] These are only a small taste of the over 400 letters posted onthe A.R.C. website which have come in from all over the world and which allexpress similar views and experiences.

Unlike “normal” art schools, atelier schools focus entirely onrepresentational art. Their strict training curriculums often require an artistto take one or two years of drawing before being told they can move to paint.In the head Instructor of the Aristides Classical Atelier’s book, Lessonsin Classical Drawing, Juliette Aristides writes, “Your work, whetherdrawing, painting, or sculpture will stand only if it is constructed on a solidfoundation…Drawing is the most basic passageway through which you can access the power of art to express profound universalideas, feelings, beliefs, and truths” At the Angel Academy of Art, Florence,John Angel utilizes methods that have been developed over the last sixcenturies, not allowing them to die out. Over the years he has watched hisschool grow and is convinced “The twenty-first century is seeing a renaissancein Humanism, in the concern for a human way of life and in the figurative-artforms which echo that very thing”.

Atelier schools, organizations, magazines and websites are not the only tellsigns for the re-insurgence of traditional art. Auction prices forrealist paintings and sculpture have increased dramatically in the last 35years, especially for the 19^th century, with artist such as WilliamBouguereau’s paintings going up in some cases 1000 times or 100,000%. Otherartists’ prices, such as Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, have shown a similartrend. Tadema’s Finding of Moses sold for £273 10 shillings in1942 and $35,922,500 in 2010. It does not seem possible that theskyrocketing auction prices of 19^th paintings and thecontinual spread of the Contemporary Realist Movement are unrelated or isolatedin the trend of a global move towards realism. Galleries, including importantones like Hirschl and Adler, NYC, are selling and doing shows for realistartists again. Museums are acceptingrealist pieces into their collections, including those by living artists. JohnAngel recently had his portrait entitled Annigoni 1954, includedin the museum Villa Peyron in Florence, Italy. Thepainting is of Pietro Annigoni, a rare realist from the mid 20^thcentury quoted for saying “Impulse alone does not make a work of art.” and “Iam convinced that the works of today’s avant-garde are the poisoned fruit of aspiritual decadence, with all the consequences that arise from a tragic loss oflove for life.” Living master and sculptor, Richard MacDonald, is currentlyworking on a massive multi-piece installation for the Royal Ballet, England. James Childs was commissioned to create a five meter frieze for The CulturalOrganization of the City of Athens during the Olympic Games of 2004, CodySwanson’s sculpture of Eve is displayed in the courtyard at theSpringville Museum of Art, Utah and Duffy Sheridan just finished a largelandscape commission for the Bahá’í World Centre in Haifa, Israel. These areonly a few examples of a growing trend and desirability for this type of work.

In reaction to more and more people re-appreciating traditional art, peopleare not afraid to say they don’t like modernism. Something that wasshocking to hear when ARC Chairman Fred Ross stated in his 2001 speechaddressing a crowd of over 700 portrait artists, gallery owners and members ofthe press at the Metropolitan Museum in New York saying, “Since most peoplearen’t devoted to or educated in fine art, they have successfully intimidated the bulk of humanity intocowering away in silence, feeling foolish for their inability to understand.The average person shrinks away from believing the reality of his or her ownsenses … what tends to happen to people who haveallowed themselves to be convinced that the emperor is wearing beautifulclothes, is that they have become ego invested due to years of having parrotedthe same falsehoods and the associated humiliation that goes with acknowledgingthat one has been had… If we don’t speak up and tell the world that theEmperor’s naked, nobody else will.”[6] Ross received a standing ovation. Today, more and morepeople are speaking out. For example, the Los Angeles Times reportedthat there recently has been public backlash to a national law in South Koreawhich was enacted 16 years ago and requires builders of large commercialprojects to commission an adjoining piece of art that equals 1% of the overallcost of the project. Since the law was enacted, 10,684 public art works wereerected at a cost of more than $546 million. Some in South Korea were going as far as tosay “the law had created a monster” with ugly and objectionable contemporaryworks being placed all over the country. The National Council was quotedas saying, “Current public art pieces haven’t been serving the public…In fact,the understanding of public art is lost because of this.” This conclusionwas made at an international conference they held to examine both domestic andinternational public art policies.[7] This is yet one more symptom of a global change away frommodernism, where traditional art is starting to capture a larger and largerportion of international hearts.

History has once again taken us full circle with the Contemporary Realistsas the underdogs trying to rise up and war against the tightly held modern artestablishment which has tried to suppress realism for 100 years through itsdevaluation, both as an expression of the human spirit and as a legitimate formof contemporary art. Realism is still a small portion of the work beingdone in the art world, but has found solid roots which continue to grow andflourish in a world desperate for art they can look at, recognize, and relateto without requiring long explanations or justifications. Using traditionalmethods of narrative storytelling, technical prowess, accuratedepictions of reality, beauty, balanced compositions, dramatic lighting, andmost importantly, subjects relating to and expressing mankind’s sharedhumanity, The Contemporary Realist movement has become representative of a fastgrowing global shift in the art world today.

Kara Lysandra Ross is the director of Operations for the Art Renewal Center and an expert in19th century European painting.

[1] Yockney, Alfred. The Art Annual: The Art of E. Blair Leighton, London Virtue & Co, Christmas 1913, introduction

[2] E-maill from Anthony Waichulis to Kara Ross November 2, 2011

[3] Letter from Julian Halsby to Fred Ross, Chairman of the Art Renewal Center, March 11, 2002

[4] Letter from James Oliver to Art Renewal Center, March 26, 2002

[5] Letter from Jeanne Corbeil to Fred Ross, Chairman of the Art Renewal Center, January 14, 2008

[6] Fred Ross, Good Art Bad Art: Pulling Back the Curtain, June 7^th 2001

[7] Jung-yoon Choi, Los Angeles Times, June 27, 2011

URL to article: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/arts-entertainment/the-contemporary-realist-movement-156836.html

A Trek into the Wild

2011-10-17T23:15:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, a friend asked for help with building a deck at his grandfather's cabin. Aside from him advising me on the essential gear, I did not ask too may questions prior to departure. On Thursday, we drove 390 miles North to the Marble Mountain Wilderness in California near Oregon boarder. We arrived around midnight, slept and waited for the horses to arrive in the morning then loaded and balanced the four horses with 150lbs each of food, camping gear, building supplies and fire water of our choosing. We then set off on a 6.5 mile hike over mountain passes and through streams to his grandfather's cabin.

Evidently, my friend's grandfather was an avid fisherman; hence, the reason he and some friends had a log cabin built in the remote wilderness in the 1930s. The following day, we milled a 150-year old Douglas Fir (which had fallen in a 2008 fire) into new deck planks. Luckily, we had chainsaws unlike the two poor chaps who had a hand saw and a mule in 1930s.

Among my favorite moments was sleeping outside every night under an extended roof-line with the stars and a full moon overhead and one evening's soothing downpour. The last day, we rewarded ourselves with a personal activity of our choosing, mine was a plein air watercolor study of the river in my favorite travel journal.

While I was painting, my labor camp mates explored the old care takers cabin upriver and found a fairly old Grumbacher oil artists' oil color set no. 320 - they signed and gave it to me as my parting gift. As we trekked back the 6.5 miles and returned the horses to their owner, the horse's owner turned to me and said; "that hat your wearing is the most disco cowboy hat I've ever seen...you guys have a safe trip home to the city."

Gaia with Seeds

2011-09-20T20:43:00.000-07:00

Gaia with Seeds - oil on linen - 40 x 36 inches

This is a recent painting which is currently on display in the masterfully designed residence mentioned in my last entry. The natural light in the space is exceptional for displaying paintings.

Art + Architecture

2011-09-12T23:49:00.000-07:00

Architects such as Mies van der Rohe found architectural inspiration in works of art while Le Corbusier produced his own paintings and sculptures to work out complex ideas. Leonardo da Vinci was a draftsman, Painter, Sculptor, Architect and Engineer whose genius epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal.

As a trained architect and fine artist, I believe Art and Architecture share the abilities to expand our consciousness and when paired together become very powerful.

I'm honored to have a one-man-show in this masterfully designed residence.

Fountain of Bacchi, muses

2011-08-15T23:12:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year I attended a humorous lecture “Bacchus the Rascal, A Bacchanalian history of wine seen through 4,000 Years of Art.” It is a vibrant, humorous presentation by Jan Shrem, founder of Clos Pegase Winery.

Amused by the presentation, I later visited the winery to view his art collection, have a glass of wine and do a little plein air sketch of this beautiful Fountain of Bacchi, nymphs and muses - made of bronze, 17th century Italy.

The paper is a handmade drawing paper from Ruscombe Paper Mill and a Terra Cotta colored Prismacolor Verithin pencil.

Classic Art Wins Against Modern in an Experiment

2011-08-13T23:03:00.000-07:00

The Epoch Times - Members of the public don’t seem to like looking at modern art or installations and prefer the classics, according to an experiment conducted at the Tate Britain by Philip Hensher.

Instead of conducting a survey, Hensher and eight other observers recorded museumgoers’ genuine reactions. The investigation put modern artists Damien Hirst, Tracy Emin, and Rachel Whiteread, and historic great masters such as Whistler, Hogarth, and Sargent to the test of time.

The article, published in March, ran with the provocative headline “We know what we like, and it’s not modern art!”

The observers spent a day recording how people reacted to four classic paintings versus works by the four famous contemporary British artists, explained the MailOnline article, a British publication. The observers counted how long visitors viewed the paintings and what kind of visitor each work attracted.

“Surprisingly, despite all the controversy and the public promotion of new British artists, they did less well in this test than the 18th and 19th century artists,” according to the report.

For example, the average viewing time of 379 visitors for a Damien Hirst painting, consisting of a large square with small colored dots, was five seconds, while the longest was 30 seconds. The observers noted that most people just walked past the piece….

“Ophelia” by Sir John Everett Millais was a favorite. It depicts Shakespeare’s tragic heroine who slipped into a stream and let herself drown.

“Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose” by John Singer Sargent was another favorite, with an average viewing time of 59 seconds and the longest at 3 minutes, according to the experiment. The painting is a beautiful image of two girls in a garden surrounded by blossoms. They are holding lanterns in what seems to be the light of dusk. Viewers openly expressed their love of the work.

“I was taken by the light and the texture of grass around their feet. I prefer the more traditional works. There is something about the modern pieces which are less hopeful.”

Museum and gallery curators may want to think twice about what they are embracing on the public’s behalf.

Art Renewal Center Chairman Fred Ross said in his speech “Good Art, Bad Art: Pulling Back the Curtain” at a 2001 conference at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York: “Modernism is art about art. It endlessly asks the question, ad nauseam, What is art? What is art? Only those things that expand the boundaries of art are good; all else is bad [in Modernism]. It is art about art. Whereas all the great art in history, my friends, is art about life.”

Inspiring Creativity

2011-08-06T19:48:00.000-07:00

Imagination is the great spring of creative activity ~ the fountain of artistic fantasies which are the daydreams of children grown up. Paradoxical as it may seem, the right way to conceive and practice art, regardless of the degree of efficiency, is with the viewpoint of a child.

~ Edgar Payne Composition of Outdoor Painting

A few weeks ago we attended the Catalan Festival where my daughter, Gaia (3 1/2), painted Sol Flamenco dance troupe. Gaia has her own journal, paintbrush, and watercolors always at the ready for when she feels inspired to paint. As all artists know, its the most difficult of subjects to capture movement and soul of a dance. I thought I was teaching my daughter technique but she reminded me to just paint from your soul when inspired.

La Rose

2011-06-26T22:05:00.000-07:00

La Rose

28 x 40 inches oil on linen

As I wrote in my last post, on June 11^th I had the opportunity to show some of my ballerina paintings at Napa Valley Ballet's premieres of JEUX D'ENFANTS ("Child's Play"), NAPA VALLEY ROMANZA and THE FIREBIRD.

Since the visually inspiring evening, I painted this work titled “La Rose” of the Principal Ballerina of ROMANZA, Emmee LaRose.

First Ballet Slippers

2011-06-10T22:36:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, I have the opportunity to show some of my ballerina paintings at Napa Valley Ballet's premieres of JEUX D'ENFANTS ("Child's Play") based on popular children's games and NAPA VALLEY ROMANZA, with its beautiful score written by Napa Valley composer Louise Canepa. To climax the evening, San Francisco guest artist Joseph Copely will be performing in Stravinsky's THE FIREBIRD set by award-winning choreographer Milissa Bradley.

I would like to thank the ever inspirational promoter of the arts, Judith Caldwell, Chairwoman of the Yountville Arts Committee and Julie Robertson, Creative Director of Napa Valley Ballet.

Blonde Gypsy

2011-05-19T22:08:00.000-07:00

Blonde Gypsy - oil on linen - 30 x 40 inches

Throughout the year I will be adding more paintings and drawings to my new website. Here on the blog I will continue to share my interest in a painting style historically influenced by artists in the Atelier education system in Paris in the mid-late 1800s. They in turn where influenced by technical achievements of 17th Century Spanish painting where bold, gestural application of paint was born. In the Ateliers in Paris, artists blended this influence with the rigid traditions of Academic Realism to create a new form of Expressive Realism that was broad, painterly and dramatic.

These artists created the bridge from Academic Realism to Impressionism which came later. I like the view from this bridge and I hope you will join me on my painting journey.

En Plein Air

2011-05-17T22:28:00.000-07:00

Micaiah Hardison, an artist friend, and his family spent the week with us. We seized the opportunity to paint en plein air together again. Last time we were together we spent a week in Arcos de la Frontera, a small hill town in the province of Cádiz in southern Spain. I couldn't resist this plein air moment capturing a magnificent 300+ year-old olive tree.

Urbane Impressionist

2011-05-06T22:37:00.000-07:00

On a recent trip to Carmel, CA. my wife and I stopped in to visit with Patrick Kraft, Gallery Director at William A. Karges Fine Art specializing in Early California paintings. Patrick showed us this little jewel of an oil on board painting signed - William Henry Clapp 1917, Cuba.

William Henry Clapp (1879-1954) was a notable California Impressionist Painter with Canadian roots who studied in Paris from 1904-08 at Académies Julian, Colarossi, and Grande Chaumière.

Clapp was taken by the Impressionism and Post-Impressionism he found in France. Most of the original Impressionists artists were alive and active, and the next generation was coming on the scene. He was particularly influenced by the work of Seurat and Signac. After his studies he returned to Canada where he appeared as 'a new voice' for Canadian painting, invigorating and inspiring younger painters. His membership in the Royal Canadian Academy was proof that his fellow painters accepted him. The public found him harder to take.

In 1915 Clapp sailed for Cuba, where his father managed a plantation on the Isle of Pines. For two years he painted swampy waterways overhung with palms and hot country roads, sometimes in soft diffused mists, sometimes with sharp, short, piercing glazes that turned paintings into vibrating jewels like this one.

Leaving Cuba in 1917 the year of this painting, he settled permanently in Oakland where he was destined to make an enduring mark on California art. His painting was so far in advance of what was being done that he became a radical pioneer. Clapp and Selden Gile gathered four other painters and constituted The Society of Six, to whom Clapp brought the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist visions that he had learned in France, the only one of the group who had actually been there. Clapp also served as director and curator of the now Oakland Museum for 31 years from 1918-49.

A biographer Lawrence Jeppson is compiling a book on Clapp titled The Joy of Vision!. In Jeppson’s introduction he calls Clapp an "Urbane Impressionist", a title I’m drawn to like this painting.

Image: William Henry Clapp 1917, Cuba. complements of William A. Karges Fine Art

Study of Frank Duveneck's The Guard of the Harem

2011-04-26T23:17:00.000-07:00

Frank Duveneck painted the original in 1879, and it is now part of San Francisco's DeYoung Museum permanent collection. The eyes of this Guard just seem to draw you into his world of power, intrigue, betrayal, and longing.

I sought permission from the DeYoung Museum for an on-site study of this particular Duveneck piece. After finally working my way through the proper chains of command, I was given a few disheartening answers of NO. The reason being was because oil paint mediums fall into a "hazardous solvent" category established by San Francisco's Health and Safety Commission. (However, I was more than welcome to use other drawing/painting materials such as pencils, color pencils, oil crayons or water colors.)

The Louvre and Prado as well as most other European museums have promoted this form of study for centuries and it has proven invaluable to artists.

This obstacle required me get a little more creative making several trips to the DeYoung in order to capture the secrets of this painting (for example, only 5 colors were used in this entire painting). I'm sure Duveneck would not have minded a respectful study of his work. Here is a link to a book a book on Frank Duveneck: Unsuspected Genius: The Art and Life of Frank Duveneck.

[Detail of Sean Patrick McArdle's Study of Frank Duveneck's Guard of the Harem]

Casey Baugh Workshop

2011-04-07T23:48:00.000-07:00

In March I traveled to Casey Baugh’s studio in Chattanooga, TN for a 5-day portrait/figure painting workshop. The workshop focused on creating a painting from a live model while Casey masterfully demonstrated his entire process from preparation to the finishing strokes. Daily discussions included the importance of value, drawing, edge and color as well as compositional theory and design. Casey has Video Tutorials on his website which provides an inspiring look at the layers of his process.

I have attended several other advanced portrait and figure workshops and in comparison I came away from this workshop ranking it the best I have attended. Everyone left inspired with no questions left unanswered. Casey Baugh is a Master and one to watch.

My Girl

2011-02-28T21:57:00.000-08:00

This is a drawing I did for my daughter's third birthday earlier this month. The drawing is done with charcoal, a range of warm to cool grey pastel pencils and chalks and white.

The paper is a handmade drawing paper from Ruscombe Paper Mill. Essential properties of a good drawing paper include the ability to erase and alter without damage to the surface. The blending of cotton, linen and hemp fibers provides the necessary strength and stability.

Happy Birthday Gaia.

To ALL who wield the Brush and Pencil

2011-02-08T22:41:00.000-08:00

While doing some research I found this Dedication page from the 1902 book Master Paintings of the World, edited by Dupont Vicars. The scan of this rare book was part of a touching tribute to the website owners mother and grandmother and for "all of us who learned to love art at a parents' knee."

Happy 3rd Birthday to my daughter Gaia.

The Museums of the World are our playground.

¡Carmencita!

2010-12-02T21:00:00.000-08:00

The second of two exhibitions from the Musée d’Orsay’s permanent collection, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and Beyond: Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay is on display at the de Young Museum in San Francisco.

The Orsay’s collection includes a diverse collection of paintings from the Pont-Aven school to pointillist paintings. As you enter into the exhibit, Carmencita by John Singer Sargent is center stage. Obviously, the painting was placed there to show the shifting of painting styles. In the late 19th century the painting world was suddenly confronted with impressionism. Much is made today of the harsh reception that the Impressionists received at the hand of the Academy. That did happen. But not for very long. Many of the Impressionists became very successful. The Post-Impressionist’s exhibition celebrates the many "isms" that followed.

I have gone back four times for one reason, to visit ¡Carmencita! - John Singer Sargent synthesized some of the lessons of the impressionists while still retaining his foundational academic training. You wouldn't call Sargent an Impressionist or Post-Impressionist, but he did paint alongside Claude Monet who he admired, and he was influenced by the great "eye"of Giverny who had a few landscape paintings hanging along side Carmencita.

Sargent finagled a live Carmencita performance at William Merritt Chase’s New York 10th Street Atelier, and Chase and Sargent both produced an 1890 portrait of Carmencita. Energetically petite, she wears a coppery-gold costume. Sargent had met Carmencita in Paris before her American debut and when he persuaded her to dance at Chase’s Atelier in 1890, he included his patron Mrs. Elizabeth Gardner among the select and fascinated audience.

Sargent smoothed down Carmencita’s then-fashionably “frizzled” hair to suit his own preference and minimized her heavy make-up. The results were Carmencita in a more formal pose. Aside from being immortalized on canvas, Carmencita and her dancing were captured on film in 1894—in fact, Carmencita is said to be the first woman to ever be filmed, this auspicious event taking place at Thomas Edison’s studios using the Edison-developed motion picture camera.

Great American Figurative Artists Exhibition

2010-11-20T19:32:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, I had an opportunity to preview the Great American Figurative Artists Exhibition at the Waterhouse Gallery in Santa Barbara prior to the November 20th opening reception. I visited the impressive exhibition while Dianne and Ralph Waterhouse were busy hanging the nearly 100 original works.

Like the recent Weekend with the Masters I wrote about, Richard Schmid, his daughter Molly Schmid and some of his students Jeremy Lipking and Katie Swatland all had an impressive show. Southwest Art has a good article on the exhibition but I highly recommend visiting before all the work is purchased.

William Bouguereau Catalog Raissoné

2010-10-24T20:24:00.000-07:00

The Art Renewal Center released the anticipated Catalog Raissoné on William Bouguereau, concluding a 30 year effort by a small group of scholars. Having paid in advance a few years ago, I received my copy this week in a heavy box containing the two-volume boxed set illustrating the complete oeuvre of paintings, as well as the entire 600 page biography written by Danien Bartoli with Fred Ross, ARC Chairman.

While I have just completed reading the Introduction of this 900 page catalog, I'm struck by the amount of effort and deep respect they have given to William Bouguereau . As Fred Ross states in his Introduction, Bouguereau is unquestionably one of history's greatest artistic geniuses. Damien Bartoli who dedicated much of his life to research of the life and art of William Bouguereau passed away in 2009 so close to publication.

Art Renewal Center is dedicated to creating the largest on-line Museum on the Internet as well as promoting a return of training, standards and excellence in the visual arts. They recognized the importance of providing information on ateliers, academies, schools and private instructors dedicated to the teaching of art in the traditional manner. For a complete list visit the ARC Approved Ateliers.

Weekend with the Masters | Scott Christensen

2010-10-05T20:36:00.000-07:00

While attending American Artist's Weekend with the Masters, I had the opportunity to view a landscape painting demonstration by Scott Christensen. Christensen is a talented landscape artist who is also a gifted instructor. I also like Scott Christensen because he is a mutual admirer of Anders Zorn. After Christensen visited Zorn's atelier in Mora, Sweden, he simplified his palette which resulted in more harmonious landscapes.

Clear emphasis was placed on the writings of John F. Carlson's four basic value planes (Sky, Ground Plane, Sloped and Vertical planes) and John Singer Sargent’s five types of light (Light, Shadow, Mid-tone, Light Accent and Reflected Light).

Christensen currently resides in Victor, Idaho, where he holds two annual workshops in his craftsman-style atelier and elegant exhibition space. He also just released a new painting instruction video titled Solitary Profession.

Weekend with the Masters | Jeremy Lipking

2010-09-30T21:11:00.000-07:00

Jeremy Lipking was one of the artist instructors at American Artist’s Weekend with the Masters workshop & conference. I participated in his full day figure demonstration which was held in a North-lit atelier at Laguna College of Art & Design.

I have painted with Lipking a few times in the past and he never fails to produce a fine demonstration sketch while imparting direct advice on how he selects and achieves his beautiful subtle relationships of color.
Jeremy Lipking has been influenced by Master Richard Schmid so it was fitting that Richard Schmid painted a portrait sketch of Lipking before the commencement of the conference at Alexey Steele's studio in Los Angeles. Alexey is a Russian born Realist painter now living and working in LA.
Alexey "broke into" Jeremy's hotel room at the Weekend of the Masters conference. click here to see the art thief in action.

Weekend with the Masters | Richard Schmid

2010-09-29T21:00:00.000-07:00

We recently arrived home from the American Artist’s Weekend With the Masters Workshop & Conference in Dana Point, California. In attendance were some top representational painters of our time all coming together to share the principles, knowledge, and understanding that have been handed down from the masters of the past while interacting with the masters of the present who are passing this legacy on.

Exciting and still life demonstrations are not often used in the same sentence but on the first evening of the conference, keynote speaker Richard Schmid masterfully delivered his "secrets to still life painting" to a packed crowd. Schmid's "secrets" were words of encouragement for the artist to focus on painting from real life and second to remember the importance of the ascending act of painting while in front of his/her easel.

If your interested in Schmid's technique, one of the best books on painting is Alla Prima. I'll be sharing more images and details from other artists demonstartions in subsequent posts.

FILOLI

2010-09-21T14:44:00.000-07:00

Last week a very dear friend invited me to attend a lecture on John Singer Sargent at the Filoi Estate located 30 miles south of San Francisco. The lecturer was Margar etta Lovell, Professor of the History of Art at the University of California, Berkeley who is a knowledgeable scholar on John Singer Sargent and author of publications including Venice: The American View.

Filoli Estate was built for Mr. and Mrs. William Bowers Bourn, prominent San Franciscans whose chief source of wealth was the Empire Mine, a hard-rock gold mine in Grass Valley, California. Mr. Bourn arrived at the unusual name Filoli by combining the first two letters from the key words of his credo: “Fight for a just cause; Love your fellow man; Live a good life.”

Mr. Bourn chose longtime friend and prominent San Francisco architect Willis Polk as principal designer for the House. Construction of Filoli began in 1915 the same year Mr. and Mrs. Bourn commissioned John Singer Sargent to draw their portraits. The original charcoals of the Bourn's are on display at Filoli. It was a pleasure to see that the Bourn's profits from gold was used to commission the best architects and artists of his day.

Peter Paul Rubens, Ringling Museum

2010-09-02T19:14:00.000-07:00

The Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida has the only extant large-scale painting cycle by Rubens outside of Europe. John Ringling, the circus magnete, purchased five of the eleven original Eucharist "cartoon" paintings Rubens' masterfully painted for his royal patron, Isabella Clara Eugenia, Infanta of Spain and Portugal and daughter of King Philip II of Spain. The large scale "cartoons" were commissioned as tapestry templates for weavers which are hung in a convent in Madrid.

Aside from these five at the Ringling Museum, two others are in the Louvre and the remaining four were destroyed by fire at the Archducal Palace in Brussels in 1731.

A painter of grandiose cycles glorifying monarchs, heroes, and the faith, Rubens was also a brilliant portraitist and innovative landscape painter. He had a remarkable range of expression, and when painting subjects from history, mythology, religion and life, he was able to convey triumph and tragedy with equal ability. His art was characterized by bravura color and brushwork, grandeur and precision, and a perpetual sense of movement and emotion.

While visiting my family last week, I visited the Ringling Museum twice to absorb the remarkable collection of art and architecture of the Museum and John and Mable Ringling's Venetian inspired winter home. As a circus man, he knew how to put on a grand show.

Salvador Dalí - The Late Work

2010-08-19T19:02:00.000-07:00

Salvador Dalí - The Late Work is a special exhibition at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. The collection included more than 40 paintings, photographs, illustrations and films created in the last forty years of his career.

One of the many interesting details I wanted to share: Dalí's 1948 book 50 secrets of Magic Craftsmanship was inspired by the type of handbooks that were written and used by Renaissance masters. Among the book's many charts is one based on Roger de Piles's seventeenth-century book Balance of Painters, in which Dalí rates himself against the Old Masters as well as his own contemporaries. On a scale of one to ten, he awards the highest scores to Raphael, Vermeer, and Velázquez, then himself while modern artist Piet Mondrian received a string of zeros.

If you have a chance to see the exhibition, you will understand the tag lines for the exhibition: Astonishing. Brilliant. Provocative.

Summer Artist Workshops

2010-08-12T19:29:00.000-07:00

Summer is a good time to pack up your painting supplies and easel and set out to be inspired while gaining knowledge from other talented artists who conduct Summer Artist Workshops. Each year, my family and I set out for a Summer full of inspiration, painting and the unplanned benefit of meeting new artist friends from around the world.

An unforgettable Summer of the recent past began with attending a 3-day portrait drawing workshop followed by a consecutive 3-day portrait painting workshop instructed by Jeff Watts of Watts Atelier of the Arts. The workshops were filled with intense model studies, insightful critiques, and overall generous instruction by Jeff Watts who has the gift of being able to verbally articulate his methods and techniques while masterfully demonstrating in charcoal or oil. It was quickly discovered that Jeff and I share the admiration of Nikolai Fechin, one of Russia’s most important portrait painters of the 20th Century.

In following this great inspiration of past and present artists, we headed east through the desert heat to The Taos Art Museum which is housed in the former home and atelier of Nikolai Fechin. While the collection, of over 300 works of art, is worth the journey to remote Taos, we were headed there for another reason: The Taos Art Museum was hosting a special exhibit titled “Two Nikolai’s”. Nikolai Fechin alongside Nikolai Blokhin, a young Russian master of our era who is inspired by his native born Fechin. This was a 3-day drawing workshop, over the 4th of July weekend, in Nikolai Fechin’s North lit atelier adjacent the Fechin House. While Nikolai Blokhin is an instructor at the prestigious St. Petersburg Academy of Art in Russia, this was the first time he agreed to hold a drawing workshop in the United States. Blokhin conducted this workshop by masterfully drawing in charcoal with an occasional verbal explanation through a translator provided by the Downey Gallery where Blokhin is represented in Santa Fe. Drawing is a universal art, and Blokhin has the remarkable ability of bringing his figures to life and mixing everyday beauty with whimsical artistic themes such as ballerinas, gypsies, Native Americans, and fortune tellers.

After a few weeks back at home, the workshop circuit picked back up in August where in Philadelphia I attended a two-week Advanced Portrait Painting Workshop at the Studio Incamminati with Nelson Shanks. The artistic highlight of this workshop was working with the light and shadow, then refining form and shape and finally interpreting and opening ones eyes to color. The highlight of the two weeks occurred one special evening when Nelson painted his wife Leona Shanks in front of a packed audience who knew they were witnessing a moment which would live on well beyond that warm evening in Philadelphia.

Nearing the end of the summer, we squeezed in one last, could not pass up, 3-day workshop with Jeremy Lipking back at the Watts Atelier. Lipking’s brushwork is impressive, and he is also a mutual admirer of Anders Zorn, John Singer Sargent and Joaquin Sorolla among other late nineteenth century painterly realists. This was a perfect conclusion to a great summer.

At the end of this summer, I'm looking forward to attending American Artist's Weekend with the Masters from September 23rd-26th, 2010.

Impressionist Paris - City of Light

2010-08-05T22:37:00.000-07:00

Paris earned the enduring nickname "La Ville-Lumière" ("The City of Light") during the second half of the nineteenth century, when gas lamps gradually began to light up the city's dark medieval streets. Authors, composers, and especially visual artists - painters, photographers, print makers and sculptors - thrived in this dazzling milieu.

Approximately one hundred prints, drawing, photographs and paintings are on exhibit at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco offering a nineteenth century tour of the cultural capital of Paris.

Image: Jean-Louis Forain, Foyer of the Opéra 1880-1890

Pageant of the Masters

2010-07-22T22:56:00.000-07:00

Each night during the summer in Laguna Beach, California, The Festival of Arts presents its most famous attraction: The Pageant of the Masters.

Ninety minutes of "living pictures" - incredibly faithful art re-creations of classical and contemporary works with real people posing to look exactly like their counterparts in the original pieces. An outdoor amphitheater, professional orchestra, original score, live narration, intricate sets, sophisticated lighting, expert staff, and hundreds of dedicated volunteers have won recognition for the Pageant as the best presentation of its kind.

We had the opportunity to attend this years Festival of Arts, California’s Premier Fine Art Exhibition, in a six-acre canyon park near the ocean. The stars of this summertime tradition, which began here in 1932, are over 140 of Southern California's most accomplished artists. This is a rigorously juried show, requiring exhibitors to demonstrate and maintain high aesthetic standards.

2010 Pageant of the Masters Image by Kate Noelle

Sargent and the Sea

2010-06-29T20:12:00.000-07:00

'Sargent and the Sea' exhibition formally at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. is now set to open in Britain at the Royal Academy of Arts. There will be a collection of more than 80 paintings, drawings and watercolours that reveal a less familiar side of John Singer Sargent. The exhibition, 10 July—26 September 2010, focuses on the seascapes and coastal scene subjects produced in his early career during summer journeys from Paris to Brittany, Normandy and Capri, as well as two transatlantic voyages.

Image: John Singer Sargent, 'En Route pour la pêche (Setting Out to Fish)', 1878.
Oil on canvas, 78.8 x 122.8 cm.

French Painters and the Spanish Style

2010-06-17T22:21:00.000-07:00

This evening, we visited the de Young Museum's special exhibition from the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d'Orsay, which debuted May 22 and runs through September 6, 2010.

The exhibit presents nearly 100 works by the famous Masters who called France their home during the mid- to late-19th century and from whose midst arose the artistic style of Impressionism. The exhibition begins with paintings by the great academic artist Bouguereau and the arch-Realist Courbet then transitions from Realism to Impressionism by showcasing works dating from the 1860s through 1880s by Whistler, Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas and Sisley.

Of particular interest to me was the transition and influence of the Spanish style painting which came into vogue with French painters by the 1830’s based on 17th century Spanish artistic achievements. This broadly brushed style defied the French Academy’s insistence on figural idealization and clarity of form and color before Impressionism. Revival of Spain’s artistic vocabulary, with its promise of fuller technical and emotional expression was inspiration for many French painters. Carolus-Duran, Regnault, Manet, Sargent and others traveled to Spain absorbing first hand the impact of Masters such as Diego Velázquez (1599-1660). The technical lessons of Spanish painting, most importantly, the bold, gestural application of paint became a bridge from Academic Realism to Impressionism. For me, this bridge was the high point of the exhibition.

The Travail of The Dreamer

2010-06-15T23:03:00.000-07:00

The true artist works rather in great gusts of effort, and in smaller gusts of apparent lassitude. He is not laying about "waiting for some inspiration." He is in the travail of the dreamer entering into expression.

Now when you see the artist sitting thoughtfully before his blank canvas, don't call him lazy. Realize what huge gulfs exist between a thing of dreams and the exact science of mathematics. Know that the dream is as necessary to the birth of any idea as mathematics is to the exactness of its consummation.

An artist must neither be too dreamy, nor too mathematical. He must dream and he must paint.

- John F. Carlson, Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting

Image: plein air painting Sean Patrick McArdle, Carmel-by-the-Sea