Rockport Art Association and Cape Ann Museum, a big art day!

Rockport Art Association

Yesterday I had a great time attending a walk and talk of the Women Artists of New England Show at Rockport MA by the popular art author, Judy Curtis, whose catalog accompanies this show.  Judy is excellent at doing these narrations involving art shows and there will be a power-point lecture on Nov. 6th at 7 as well.  Her famous husband, David P. Curtis, was on-hand to fill in a few points, between them, they have an amazing knowledge which they thankfully share. Over 60 historic women artists and almost 40 contemporary women artists from NAWA (National Association for Women Artists) complete this exhibit.  (Photos below)

There were two other shows up at RAA at this time also:  Paul Ciaramitaro's exciting and almost sold out show see gulls and the New England Chapter of NAWA.

Cape Ann Museum

After a lunch at the delicious mediterranean restaurant, Azorean, with my friend and prize-winning artist, Karen Berger, we headed off to see the Vincent, Weaver & Gorvett Exhibit at the Cape Ann Museum.  Jeff is on  my very short list of favorite artists, and Gorvett's woodblocks and prints are so beautiful that I want to try doing it.  Yup, I just have to live to be 100 to fit everything into my life that I want to do! (Photos below)

Show at Cape Ann Museum

I tried to capture the actual shaving off of the wood and the depth of the cut

Side view of the entire woodblock

See the actual cuts and carvings

Straight on view of the entire wood block

The print itself (under glass with glare, sorry)

Jeff Weaver

Jeff gets the color and light with lose brush strokes and lots of texture and impasto

Garin Baker, Nationally Recognized Muralist Extraordinairre

This morning I luckily happened upon Garin's newsletter which led me to his blog about magnificent murals he did recently with alkyd oils for the large scale Public Art Mural project for the New Ballou High School in Washington, DC. They are masterpieces of work in every sense of the word. How he completed this enormous project in such a relatively short time astonishes me.  

Here is a link to his blog page that details the project with wonderful pictures of the 6 murals.

The full story of this amazing and profound legacy was documented and featured in a wonderfully produced Garden Thieves Pictures titled, "Ballou A Documentary Film", created by Michael Patrei. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJZZV59wMGo 

Here is more information about how he created another mural.

And another!
The paint I used on this project was a Benjamin Moore product called Impervo, Oil Based Alkyd Enamels , Very durable with light fast colors with a polyurethane binder, gloss finish. in a wide range of mixable colors.
This paint is used commonly by exterior sign painters also sometimes applied to US Navy ships and industrial machinery.
The colors I choose range from black to white and cools to warms similar to an impressionist plein air painters palette from light to dark and warm to cool.

And yet ANOTHER!! and the video!

Best Article Ever on the subject of Gallery Representation

Gallery-Artist Relationship- Excellent Article

Excellent article by Chris Sapier.  Scott Jones serves as the General Manager of Legacy Galleries (Scottsdale, AZ, Jackson, WY and Bozeman MT), among the foremost of representational fine art galleries in the country, shares with OPA members some of his insights into the gallery- artist relationship. Scott spoke on this topic at the Portrait Society of America’s annual conference in Atlanta last April.

Just still getting ready....(mural)

I'm still shopping for supplies for the mural.  I went today to buy some spray guns and didn't get them yet because of confusion about nozzle sizes of the smaller guns.  The ones that looked right said you shouldn't use latex.  I have to go online and do some more research.
I heard back by email from my idle for rink murals, Jody Barrio, and he said that I did pick out the right compressor and now I have to go get that.  It weighs 150 lbs. so I'll need the right car, not the Mercedes!  He gave me good ideas about what to use to cut out stencils.
I got the go-ahead on the drawing for the mural so I can move forward.
Next will be, once all is in place equipment-wise, to practice with the guns and various paints.

In the meantime, I'm working on two portraits from photos and that is taking forever.  It's easier from life.

Boston Public Library - The Sargent Paintings

This week I had the opportunity to attend a private tour and lecture of the Sargent Murals at the BPL.  For years I heard about and read about these paintings.  I finally got to see them and under special circumstances as David P. Curtis and Judith Curtis were the presenters.  Video link - Murals.

David is another of my excellent art teachers who promotes plein air painting on Cape Ann, and Judy is his wife and a knowledgeable art historian and writer who has written many books.

The First Operations--famous paintings

I saw a really wonderful movie this week:  The Physician.
Watch trailer here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOj-Pn5WJkw
See photos at bottom of page.

In the movie there was a scene, which is only too quickly and not very well captured here in the trailer, of what signified the first time a living person was cut open to perform an operation--it was rather beautifully done in the movie.  The scene was special to me for a couple of reasons.  In my early art training I was privileged to learn a lot about the artist Thomas Eakins and his techniques.  Eakins painted the famous critically acclaimed painting "The Gross Clinic" which memorialized the rather gory operation and "The Agnew Clinic".  He painted 2 famous paintings about operations.

That art education was at the hands of Joel Babb.  Joel Babb, some 130 years after Eakins, was commissioned to paint "First Successful Organ Transplant", 1996, oil on linen, 70x88" and "Coronary Bypass Operation at Brigham and Women's", Boston 2010, oil on linen, 40x70".  He painted 2 paintings about operations as well.