Artist Robert Liberace conducted a three-day workshop which focused on the figure in action, which was hosted by the wonderful folks at the North River Art Society in Marshfield, MA. 

On Day One of the workshop we were free to work with pencil/chalk/charcoal or to paint.  Rob (Liberace) demonstrated how he renders the figure with chalk and pencils. 

As stated throughout this blog in various posts, Rob usually prepares his paper using an wash of ochre watercolor and then covers this with a diluted shellac.  The shellac allows him to get the most out of the prismacolor pencils that he uses and seems to help prevent a waxy buildup.

Rob spent some time discussing how to render the figure and how he works with pencils and chalk to render light and shadow.  The model for the first day was an artist as well as a model so her poses were beautiful.  The second picture is a close-up of Rob's drawing halfway through his demo.

The final drawing this beautiful and sensitive drawing on the left.  This is a close up of the completed drawing.  If you click on the image you should be able to see where Rob added highlights by erasing through the shellac and removing some of the watercolor wash underneath the shellac.  He does this by carefully using a variety of erasers.  Hopefully you can also see how he handled the reflected lights along the left edge of the model's ribcage and breast.

 On Day Two of the workshop we had a male model who was extremely athletic and able to hold some very dynamic and difficult poses. 

Rob placed Emmanual into a beautiful post that showed off his frame and, I think, communicated Emmanual's joyful approach to life and modelling.  He reminded me of what the greek god Mercury would have looked like.

 You can see the amazing modeling he does with just this basic palette. 

[caption id="attachment_720" align="alignleft" width="72" caption="Palette Day 2"][/caption]

This thumbnail of Rob's palette for those who are interested.  He used titanium white, raw umber, burnt sienna and I believe a cadmium orange (light).

On Day Three we were worked again in oils.  The model for this day had an amazing figure was also able to maintain some very difficult poses with ease. 

I guess i should state that each of these demos were painted over three 20-minute poses.  If you look closely at the oil demo on the left I think you get a great sense of how Robert does his initial lay ins as well as how he paints his shadows and mid tones.  If I remember correctly this photo was taken when Rob was at the end of the second of three pose session.

For those who follow Robert's work, I hope this post gives you a sense of what was covered.  I know nothing ever quite beats being there in person.  The wonderful members at the North River Art Society made me feel warmly welcomed and part of their community.  Thank you all for being such kind hosts.

I had fairly mixed results during this trip.  My attempts at plein aire was disastrous.  I am embarrassed to post them, but I thought I should so here goes.

Grrrrr.  So I foolishly wiped that one away as well.  I liked it so I should have left it alone.  Although another friend did say to me, "you know, usually people are afraid to put that much color in their clouds."

It was about a quarter mile away.  The phrase 'quarter mile away' and 'fairly complicated; should indicate how bad the final result was. 

I was aiming for lonely and hopper-esque.  I wound up with something that looked like a 7 year old painted it with a Q-tip swab (saying this is probably denigrating 7 year olds). 

My friend Pat looked at the photo of my painting and liked it  (it was a house on the water in Scituate, MA).  When she saw the painting in person, she looked at me and said, "it photographs better."  I had to agree.  I 'accidently' left it in Boston so they could euthanize it but the host brought it back to me this evening.  I have a feeling it will be a boat anchor/albatross around my neck.  

 On the bright side I did paint some things I liked.  I covered the actual workshop in a separate post but wanted to also show what I'd done so please forgive the abbreviated format here.

This is the drawing I made on the first day.  I sort of like it.  I seemed to have a difficult time getting into the groove for some reason and only really hit my 'groove' the last 30 minutes of the day. 

I have to confess that I cropped the bits and pieces I didn't like out of the picture.  I redrew the model's legs and lower abdomen numerous times but honestly I don't think I got it right. 

On the second day I made several warm up pencil sketches during Rob's demo.  Once the demo was over, Rob had us create two 20-minute sketches of Emmanuel.  We were supposed to spend 10 minutes painting only the darks and a second 10 on just the lights.

I love how the first one (on the left) came out.  The lighting from where I stood was very dramatic on his back and only hit his upper back and a small portion of his legs.  These were painted on 5x7" gessoboards. 

 The model was facing me for the second  second study.   I seemed to have a much harder time with this, probably because I didn't paint the darks and then the lights I got caught up in the details which wasn't the point  of the exercise. 

Here is a close up of the model's back.   The faint stick image on the right is a correction made by Rob. 

The palette for this painting was titanium white, burnt umber, burnt sienna, and cadnium orange (light).

I made his buttocks stick a tad further out than it was, I think that's because I tend to emphasis the area I am working on.  I would have corrected it but the modeling was correct and the emphasis/exaggeration didn't hurt the composition (much).  Mainly I liked where the painting was going and I didn't want to mess it up by mucking with it too much.

 On the third day I made another sketch during the demo.  I couldn't help myself; the model's pose was so beautiful I had to sketch it in the hopes of painting it at a later date.

I sent this picture to my sister so she would have a better idea of the type of drawing I have been doing.  This drawing was done on the last day of the workshop, the model had a wonderful build and chose this difficult post (slightly arched back with weight on her left hand).

The last picture is the painting of the model seated.  I ran into the same problems with her breasts and upper torso that I had on the previous days work. 

I had her learning way too far forward.   Rob stopped by and helped me correct the  Sadly at that point I had about 35 minutes left in the day so I did what I could but frankly I don't think it was enough.  Rob did like her legs, I went in with strong (I thought too strong) shadows and then modeled the shadows and some of the skin tones.  Then I went to work on her upper body-twice. Sigh.

If her lower legs seem odd, its because they were foreshorten in her pose.  She was perched on a stool and her feet were on the two rungs of the stool.

Hope you liked seeing these.  I had made a place holder posting so this looks significantly different than the first one.

 

[caption id="attachment_695" align="alignright" width="270" caption="Beach at Sunrise, Hingham MA"][/caption]

I lived in Boston as a child, and had two flying visits there as an adult.  This trip allowed more time and I have to say that I would live there in a New York minute.  I stayed with two friends who live in Hingham MA and down the road from me in Virginia as well. 

Hingham is about 17 miles from Boston and is easily accessible by road, rail or ferry.  I loved the idea that they could work in the city but that the beach was only a 3-5 minute drive away. 

Each morning they take their dog to the beach and one walks while the other jogs.  Then, once everyone is nicely refreshed, they head to starbucks for coffee.  All this occurs before 6:30 in the morning.

Beach at Hingham MA

Although I am not a subrurbanite by preference, I loved the life they crafted and would love to live in Hingham area.

The main reason for the trip was to relax and attempt plein aire painting (not so successful) and to attend a painting workshop given by Robert Liberace at the North River Art Society in Marshfield MA.  Rob taught a three-day class at the North River Art Society which was attended (for the most part) by professional artists who lived in the area.

The artists who belong to the North River Art Society and attended this workshop were the friendliest and warmest group of people I've had the pleasure of meeting!  They provided a pot luck lunch each day and closed the class with a party on Friday evening at one of the student's home in Marshfield, MA. They were warm and welcoming and it was amazing seeing their artwork (many of the student' s work was awaiting hanging for a society show later this month. 

I went plein aire painting on Sunday at Scituate, MA with my friends.  We hit the Museum of Fine Art in Boston on Monday and the Elizabeth Stewart Gardner Museum on Tuesday.  Both museums had beautiful works by Zorn, Sargent, Beaux, Paxton and others.  The murals by Sargent at the Boston MFA were amazing.  The Gardner had an wide  range of works and architectural elements on display. 

I loved the Gardner but was confused a bit while there.    The museum was built as a private residence there is art EVERYWHERE and it's difficult to find works.  It's kind of like visiting a favorite auntie whose home is stuffed with fun things to look at and explore. 

The works at the Gardner were amazing it's just that you overlooked many treasures simply because you couldn't see them.  When you walk in the main  entrance your attention is immediately arrested by Sargent's El Jaleo, which was wonderful.  I spent most of my time in Blue Room and the Yellow Room but roamed throughout other rooms as well.

I still need to move the pictures over to my computer, once they are all downloaded I will write a new post and include the pictures from the workshop.

I loved this Sargent painting titled, the Daughters of Edward Darley Boit.  Sargent painting it in 1882.  Gazing at the children I wondered how much of each child's personality was reflected in this painting. Here are some close ups of the children, sadly, could not seem to get a good photo of the child in the foreground.

I took this picture on my camera phone while walking in Old Town Alexandria last week.  The sky was so amazing I felt like I was looking at a Maxfield Parish painting.  At some point I will paint it I think.  I seem to be collecting photos of subjects I want to eventually paint.  I have several wall mounted kitchen cabinets with glass doors.  In an effort to make the kitchen seem larger, I placed some mirrors against the back of the cabinet. 

[caption id="attachment_655" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Winks, from postsecrets.com"][/caption]

The post card is from postsecrets.com which is a wonderful site that allows people to reveal their secrets and it delighted and charmed me (that's code for it made me belly laugh).  I think it's a healthy and necessary one, especially if you have a dark one, sharing the tough ones allows you the grace of knowing you're never as bad as you thought you were and that no matter what you've done someone else has probably done it as well.  A dear friend used to say that you were, "only as sick as your secrets." 

 

Sorry for the weird spacing on this post.  I retried posting it twice and no luck with the formating of the photos or paragraphs.  Must be some type of glitch.

Ok I've talked about silverpoint in several posts and happened to mention Pelikan's Plaka which is a water based casein paint that is sold in 1.75 oz glass jars.

I live in the metro DC area (Washington DC and parts of Maryland and Virginia) and have bought this at the Utrecht art store in DC (it's near the National Women's Art Museum) and Plaza Arts (in Fairfax, VA on Nutley Street)both carry the black or white plaka.

I found it by doing a google search of the words "pelikan +plaka" there were several hits.  It looked like quiet a few of the on-line stores carried both the white and black found here but also some wonderful light blue and a gray.  (I've been tinting mine with watercolors). 

 On-line I found it at a ASW, Jerry's Artarama and several other locales.  There was also an art supply store called Island Blue in Victoria, BC that had a great price (I think it was 2.31 a bottle and they had a huge variety of colors) for it  (too bad the shipping was $21. CDN).  There was also an ebay store that had a 'lot' of bottles but the colors were hideous.  If you want to order it online and you live in the states try Mister Art or Utrecht. They have it for $3.21 and 4.39 respectively.

To use Plaka as a ground.  Simply apply one light coat  (using a flat watercolor brush or a hake brush) onto your surface (recommend smoothest paper possible, I use either arches hp watercolor paper or my moleskine sketchbook, but a nice bristol board should work dandy as well).  If the paint is too thick and sludgy don't be shy about adding a small amount of distilled water to it to loosen it up enough to paint with.

I don't always paint to the very edges, I like it when the  paper shows through along the edges; but paint to the edges if you prefer.  The paint dries in about 10-20 minutes.  Make sure it is completely dry before attempting to draw on your surface.

After the plaka dries I usually burnish it with a soft cotton rag or even a nylon.  Robert Liberace recommends just one coat, I've seen books and articles that suggest several layers with buffing in between.  I recommend you try it with various layers and buffing/not buffing and see which one works best for you.  I've considered experimenting with the rabbit skin glue replacement (I think it's called pve size) that is considered a better ground than rabbit skin.  But the idea of having to add the titanium pigment makes me nervous because I would be doing this in my home.  I have pets and some health issues, either of which make it a very bad idea.  If you decide to try it always wear gloves and a commercial quality respirator.  The pigment powders are fine and many of the pigments are toxic.

My sister has a fairly extensive posting about silverpoint/metal point on her blog, Measure by Measure, with recipes for grounds using bones, rabbit skin glue et al.  I just use the plaka but I am not necessarily worried about long term conservation since I am learning and the prepped paper is for class or for drawing at home but not for sale.  We talked yesterday about the cotton used in arches watercolor paper and perhaps she'll comment here about it and explain her reasoning.

If you want to try silverpoint recommend you visit both by sister's blog post as well as the silverpoint web site, which features demos for applying grounds, information on techniques as well as selling supplies (both 24kt gold wire as well as silver wire).

I hope you, the reader, do not think of this as mass advertising or self promoting.  I am just trying to link what I have in one spot so she can see it.  I will probably take this down in a week or so.  So here goes, the ones I really love I will put a narrative down to explain it a bit.

This pencil drawing was made in just under three hours.  The overall image is about 8x10" but I cropped the photo so that you could really see the detail of the model's face.  The model's hair is amazing and you may be able to faintly see the earrings he was wearing, they were like tiny ivory tusks.

The paper is Gutenberg cream laid which was given a wash of ochre and then painted with a diluted solution of shellac.  It probably sounds odd, but we use prismacolors which tend can be waxy.  Using the shellac changes the surface and enables you to really add layers to your drawing with out the wax.

The oil painting on the right is one of my favorites, it was the first one I made in Robert Liberace's class that I actually liked.  I used a RayMar panel (its belgian linen that has been double oil primed) which I love, these are relatively inexpensive, lightweight and the paint just slides right on them.   I use these or unstretched linen taped to a Masonite panel because they are light, easy to transport and don't require a lot of space to store. 

Although the background looks blue it's a blue-grey created by mixing lamp black with titanium white.  The graisselle was made using varying amounts of brunt umber and brunt sienna with white.  No other colors were used.  The model's head is a little large and frankly her chin should be lower, but I decided to stop while I was ahead.  Her belly did pouch like this but that was mainly due to the angle I was at along with her pose.

[caption id="attachment_622" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Silverpoint Torso Study"][/caption]

This silverpoint study was created on the last day of a Robert Liberace Upper Anatomy workshop in April 2008.  The drawing was made in a moleskine sketchbook (the heavy paper one).  The surface was prepared using Pelikan's Plaka an opaque white casein product that is water soluble. 

I love silverpoint although frankly it's difficult to use in classes since many times we only have the model for one evening.

I had a hard time that evening and gave up trying to draw his entire body and just focused on his arm,  It reminds me of the studies of a bird's wing which is outstretched.  As I stated before it's technically lacking and I can't honestly say why I like it so much, I just do.

[caption id="attachment_605" align="alignleft" width="209" caption="Zuleka"][/caption]

The painting on the right is an oil study of a male torso.  I have to say that I love how the right arm of the model turned out.  The left side of his torso looks odd, but he was twisted oddly and he moved a bit.  The main thing I had to learn painting this was to simply be aware of how the smaller sections of light and shadow were interacting across his back.  

I included this close up of his right arm because I really liked how it looks.  It makes me feel good because I can see how the anatomy workshops with Rob (Liberace) are starting to pay off for me.  I may not be able to rattle off the names of the smaller structures (muscles/tendons etc) but I do understand what is below there and am now trying to correctly render what is visible and try to make sense of it.

This one study was completed in one session (3 hours)  so it was a race against the clock.  I've left it mounted on the board I painted it on (and the tape as well) simply because I like how it all looks together.

Finally, here is a charcoal study of a female nude.  I lost it around her abdomen but I liked how her knees looked, I think the lighting was pretty dramatic. 

A friend urged me to stay away from charcoal after this session, since it frustrated me to no end, I didn't enjoy how dirty everything felt and I simply am not that good at it.  

Artist  Robert Liberace teaches classes on Fridays at the Art League in Alexandria Virgina.  He teaches drawing in the morning, oil painting in the afternoon and either a drawing or a painting class in the evening; it switches back and forth each term.

I love that he teaches an evening class because it provides those with traditional day jobs the opportunity to study with Rob.  Additionally, if you are focusing on a specific skill, say you’re working on your figure painting, he will usually accommodate you and your focus. 

All of the work I own by Robert are studies or demonstrations from his class.  I love the raw energy and the fresh feeling of these works.  They are not or finished; they are quick and convey as important information as possible (shadows temperature, flesh tones, what the reflected light is doing to the skin and the shadows etc).
 
The Female Torso Study  was created within about an hours during class.  Rob spent time explaining what he was doing as well as the choices he was making (i.e., what to emphasis, what to edit)  as he drew the model.  If you click on the picture you should be able to see the picture larger and really get a sense of how delicately the drawing was done.
 

Another wonderful drawing I own by Rob is a Untitled Female Head Study done using pencil and chalk.  One of things that might be easy to overlook on the Female Head Study is the egg floating above the model.  Rob will often start both his drawing and painting demonstrations by drawing (or painting) an egg.  Rob uses the eggs to demonstrate how simply we can render the light and shadows as well as the reflected light and cast shadows.

Quite often the eggs are wonderful jewels in their own right, but I find them very instructive sitting next to the figure or portrait.  They allow me to see clearly where the lights/shadows are without getting lost in the details of where to place the model’s features.

 This last drawing is one of my favorites.  The model is one that Rob has used for a number of his drawings.  To really see the range of this model’s abilities I recommend you view Robert’s page at the Arcadia Gallery website.

I have to apologize in advance for the quality of this photo.  It is difficult to photograph silver point because the metal tends to reflect light and throw it back at the camera lens.

If you have never heard of silver point, recommend you take look at this  silver point website, it is a great source of information, forums and resources for those interested this medium.

The basic technique for silver point (or any metal point since you can use gold wire or platinum wire as well)  is to draw using a piece of silver wire on a prepared ground.  It can be time consuming and it takes some skill because once a mark is down on the paper it is there forever.  The silver tarnishes over time, so a well executed silver point drawing will only get lovelier over time.

I have several more drawings, one wonderful ink portrait (a friend gave that to me for a housewarming gift!) as well as a phenomenal leg study.  I will try to get them photographed and posted soon.

During my previous post, I discussed artist Robert Liberace's work and why I study with him.

I am a great admirer of Rob's work, he is a deeply committed artist who has won national awards and is well regarded by other artist.

Most of the paintings and drawings I own of his were created in class as a demo.  First it's pretty exciting owning something you watched the artist create, but mainly they can provide, upon study, a firm example of the lessons Rob is trying to teach us.

Here are a few of Robert's that works I am fortunate enough to own.  I have serveral additional works that I need a ladder to reach (too high up on the wall to safely reach, or they are in storage).  I should have them all photographed and loaded by this weekend. 

The first drawing was a study created by Rob while working on a 14 foot tall crucifix which now hangs at a catholic church in Potomac Maryland.

Head Study Close Up is a simply a  the detailed photo of one of  the head studies.   I believe Rob used prepared paper with pencil and chalk for this study.  In the upper head study there is a small amount of sanguine color on the lips.  The highlights were probably placed with white chalk or pastel.  Rob also occasionally employs a different method to create the lights but it looks like he used chalk for this one.

This next painting is one of my favorites.  Rob painted this in class for a demo.  It was created during two separate class sessions.  

     During the first session, he painted the model on a gray/blue background (lamp black mixed with titanium white) and he used raw umber mixed with very little white to paint the body and face.  For the second class section he applied color but only to the face of the model.

What is remarkable in this painting was how much modeling he was able to accomplish using only raw umber and the small judicious amounts of white paint.

There is no color used from the nexk down, the flesh tones were created by controlling the thickness of the paint and the optical mixing of colors created when the umber is view over the blue/gray background.

I will try to take a better shot of this in natural light so you can get a better sense of how realistic the flesh tones were in the grisaille layer.

This next painting is a fairly simply profile of a male torso.  The first photograph shows the painting underway.  I think you can get a good sense of how Rob starts modeling the form.  In this photograph you can see that he's sketched in the figure and once he was satisfied with it, started applying a mid tone color.  

    Here is the finished study.  Isn't it beautiful?  Robert finished this in one session and I think it's one of the most gorgeous arms I've ever seen painted. 

As Rob is painting, he explains what is happening under the skin, he will call out the muscles and tendons, if there is a slight protrusion he will explain to the class what (literally) lies beneath the surface so that you can make sense of what the skin is doing and perhaps why the light is reflecting or the shadows are moving a certain way.

The color of the painting is spot on in the photo on the left, it seemed to wash  out just a bit for the close up.

Arm Close Up

 Here is a close up of the arm.  I think it's extrodinary and I hope these photos do the painting justice. 

 I will continue this blog in another post, or probably amend this one tomorrow since it is getting late and I have to work tomorrow.  Hope this whets you appetites for the remained of the drawings and the wonderful silver point I own.

I've been AWOL a bit.  I started a new job last month and things have been pretty hectic in my life as a result.  It's like trying to grab a drink of water, from a fire hose.  You can quench your thirst but it's not necessarily a pretty sight.

Hopefully they will settle down a bit so that I can continue blogging and writing about what I am learning in my art classes.

Last month I attended Robert Liberace's Upper Anatomy workshop.  Most of the folks in attendance were either sculptors or painters.  People flew in from all over to learn from Rob.  Sometimes its hard to remember just how well known and well regarded he is, to me he is Rob and I consider myself really lucky to study with him. 

            Untitled Torso Study by Robert Liberace   

In the workshop,   Rob covers everything, the tendons, muscles, bones and ligaments.  One of the items on the materials list was an anatomy book.  I had both Goldfinger's Anatomy as well as Anatomy for Artists.  Both books were helpful.  We all brought anatomy books with us and tried to soak it all in.

Some did better than others;  I was in the others group-and could only remember that the hip bone was connected to the thigh bone.  But everyone learned a great deal.  Adam was the model.  Adam has about 3% body fat and he's a body builder so you could really see the muscles that Rob discussed.  It was funny because Rob would talk about a specific  muscle group (example the terres major) and Adam would flex his.  They were a pretty amazing team.

 This silver point was from the longer pose on the last day of the workshop,  I think we had about 3 hours to complete this. The drawing is silver point on a prepared ground (in this case the plaka)  in a molskinne sketchbook.

I find I love silver point, it's an easy method to use as long as you are subtle and work slowly.  When drawing a small portion of the anatomy I prefer silver point over most mediums.  Hopefully one day I will really master it.  I feel some what condifent with it now but there is so much you can do with it that I have literally just scratched the surface.

My brain is spining from terms like superior, inferior, medial, anterior... well you get the idea. I brought prepped paper but it's not that kind fo class, so I ended up drawing inmy moleskinne for the class.  Adam is out model for the entire class.  I always find his build interesting but distrubing since he has so little body fat.

Most of today was the chest/ab and back and learning were a muscle started, terminated and what its intended purpose is.  The drawings I made at The Bodies exhibit last fall actually helped a lot to try and make sense of what Rob was saying.

I will down load the photos at the end of the course so you can see what he covered.

The model is the beautiful one from the portait painting workshop and her features are wonderful.  She like my painting from the workshop which is kinda nice.

So two more drawing sessions and then painting class starts in 2 weeks.  Next Friday-Sunday I am taking Rob's anatomy workshop at the Arts League.  Should be very interesting since the only muscles I know are those you work on when working out.  Rob tends to really explain the mechanics of what the muscles and tendons and bones are doing under the model's skin.  Reminds me of the Bodies exhibit we all attended last October.

I believe most people like the idea of surrounding themselves with beautiful and attractive things.  I've written several posts on collecting art but many of the artist I love or have discussed (e.g., Robert Liberace, Annie Dover, Duane Keiser -his larger works, Leo Neufeld,  Sonya Skarloff, et al.) may be out of the reach of most budgets.

My background

I started buying artwork several years ago, I was-and still am- on a shoestring budget.  I initially bought only what I loved and could afford but I had no idea how to go about selecting what to buy.  I was fortunate enough to start an email conversation with Gregory Peterson of NYC who is an avid contemporary art collector.  Throughout our correspondence, he was very helpful explaining how he went about buying art and building his extensive collection. 

What I found was that if you want a larger or more expensive work, most galleries will work with you by allowing you to make credit card payments (usually three or four automatic ones) and once it's paid for, they ship it to you or you pick it up.  Mostly it depends on the gallery and your relationship with them or how much they want to sell that particular work. 

Don't be afraid to ask questions and don't be shy about telling them what you can afford.  In fact, if you don't tell them honestly what your price range is, it's doubtful they can steer you towards work you  are confortable about purchasing, I strongly recommend that you never buy work you can't afford (i.e., don't say you have to have something so you use your rent money).  Gregory suggested starting a savings account to use for your art purchases.  I think it's a wonderful idea but I am simply not that disciplined I guess.  So, I am writing this post to help those of you who, like me, love art but are on a limited budget. 

Get Educated

Attend as many openings and art shows as you can.  Many museums have lecture series to teach members and the general public about different types of art.  Often times very well known artists will give presentations about their work, inspiration, and motivation in conjunction with the opening of a show. In addition, there are many galleries who who court new collectors and provide venues where a collector can learn more. 

For example the Arlington Virginia Arts Center will host a "Collector's Talk." which features well known DC area collectors such as Tony and Heather Podesta, Phillip Barlow and Philippa Hughes.  These individuals will discuss their collections on 8 March at 4:30.  They are well known for their impressive and extensive collections, in fact they have co-curated a show which features each unique collection.

I recently attended a lecture by Paige West (click here to read my the blog post) at the Corcoran Museum, in Washington DC.  Paige West owns the Mixed Greens Gallery in NYC.  She discussed collecting contemporary art and talked about who was at the apex (read super hot and  super expensive) and those who were up and coming as well.  She also made some recommendations on places to shop for art that is relatively inexpensive, which I wholeheartedly agree with.

A common theme for many lectures and panel discussions about collecitng art is urging folks to consider limited edition fine art prints (lithography, monotypes etc versus greenwich village workshop type genre) and photographs.  The contemporary prints and photographs by emerging artists and even some well known artist are usually not as expensive as oil paintings.  But they are still not inexpensive. 

I've also found that many inexpensive works are by either emerging artists or established artists who are selling smaller works.  This is the group that I focus on. 

Inexpensive/affordable art

There are some phenomenal sources available for purchasing great quality relatively inexpensive art (say $20 - $500) and one that I know of that is even FREE. 

Recommended inexpensive sources are etsy.com, Daily Painters, 20x200, Tiny Showcase, and Cinders. The free one is the Fine Art Adpotion Network  (FAAN).  Both Tiny Showcase  and 20x200 place new works at their site on Tuesdays and 20x200 also places works on their sites on Wednesdays as well.  Daily painters work is self explanatory.

How they work

Etsy.com-features handmade art, accessories, crafts, beautiful and funky furniture, ceramics and books.  A great article that gives a far more in-depth explaination about etsy can be found at the Real Simple magazine.    According to their website mission statement

"Etsy is an online marketplace for buying & selling all things handmade.  Our mission is to enable people to make a living making things, and to reconnect makers with buyers.  our vision is to build a new economy and present a better choice...." 

A great example of the type of art you can purchase at etsy is the work sold by the Los Angeles artist The Mincing Mockingbird.  This guy's paintings are hysterical and really well done and very inexpensive at $40 for a 6x6" work.  I found this artist through a link at Decor8's great design blog.  Here is an example of one from the Mincing Mockingbird's store, the title is too funny. The second print, based on a watercolor, is by Desert Canyon.

Whiskers The Cat Strikes Terror In The Hearts Of The Residents Of The Lilac, by the Mincing Mockingbird 

Almost Squash Time, Desert Canyon

Poppytalk Handmade.  According to their site, Poppytalk Handmade is a monthly virtual/online street market to showcase, buy and sell handmade goods of emerging design talent from around the world.  They have some amazing work that is very reasonable.

20x200 -20x200 is the brain child of Jen Beckman.  The site places two new works per week at their site, one photo and one work on paper.  They offer the work in three editions based upon size; the smaller the work, the larger the edition.   The largest edition (200) is the smallest size available and is sold for $20, there is also a medium size (edition of 20) sold for $200 and a larger sized edition (edition of 2) which sells for about $2000.  The goal of the site is to make art high quality affordable art available to everyone. 

Daily Painters Gallery-is a juried gallery of daily painting artist.  According to the site, the gallery was founded by artist Micah Condon in 2006 and has over 20,000 paintings available.  I have found the work to be extremely varied.  There are only a few artists whose work really appeals to me there but it's mainly a matter of personal taste.  Kim Roberti is one artist at the Daily Painters Gallery whose work I like (I own one of her paintings).  Many of  the paintings begin around $35 and go up from there.  It takes time to browse here but once you find someone whose work you like you can click on the link to their gallery and find additional works there. I believe I paid around $35-40 for this adorable Kim Roberti oil painting.

[caption id="attachment_560" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Me and My Shadow by Kim Roberti"][/caption]

Cinders Gallery - is located in Brooklyn, NY.  According to their site, Cinders Gallery focuses on drawings but sells other handmade objects as well.  Their goals is to sell affordable art to average person. 

Fine Art Adoption Network.   There are a variety of mediums available for adoption at FAAN:  sculpture, paintings, drawings, photography and even installation work.  FAAN's stated goal is to create an online network

...which uses a gift economy to connect artists and potential collectors. All of the artworks on view are available for adoption. This means acquiring an artwork without purchasing it, through an arrangement between the artist and collector. Our goal is to help increase and diversify the population of art owners and to offer artists new means for engaging their audience.

How FAAN works, you view the available works and then you decide which works to apply to adopt.  Make no mistake it is an adoption process, you apply for it by answering questions about yourself and why you should be the owner of the work.  Some artwork has no strings attached and some have conditions for adoption (e.g., the artist wants it framed or displayed a certain way).  There are some wonderful contemporary works here and it's definitely worth attempting.  I haven't had any luck but I've only applied to adopt two works in the past. I liked this one so much that I applied to adopt it and I've got my fingers crossed.

Subway Sidewalk by Peggy Cyphers 

This is an example of a recent painting up for adoption at FAAN.

 eBay

Trying to sort through the art available at can be an effort worthy of Hercules.  The best thing I can recommend is that you find someone whose work you love adn who uses eBay to sell their works (such as Duane Keiser, and Neil Hollingsworth).  As always with eBay, shop the seller and not the product...that means make sure the seller has as close to 100& positive feedback as they can get. 

I usually look at the following artists at eBay Karin Jurick, Duane Keiser, Neil Hollingsworth, and Michelle Tully.  Speaking of Michelle Tully and Duane Keiser.  Michelle sells work by herself, Tim Stolz and occasionally other artist (Tony Ryder for one) through their eBay store.  Michelle and Tim Stolz run the Studio Escalier in France.  According to the site, they use the

...proceeds go to help our young scholarship students in France, who come to our art school from all over the world. (North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia.)

I've written several posts about artist Duane Keiser which can be found throughout my blog.  Suffice it to say that Duane started the Painting A Day movement and his smaller works are sold through his eBay store.  Depending on subject matter (eggs, food items,  and floral seem to go for between $350-$500) some of his other subjects a little lower.  He also sells very tiny paintings (usually 2.5"x3") he calls oddments at his site for $100.  He only puts the oddments up occasionally so you need to check his site daily if you're interested.

I will go ahead and post this for now, I expect to do several edits before I am happy with it. If you have another source for art that you love which is under $400 or $500 dollars please let me know via a comment.

Compared to all of the entries, I thought overall my work was about a 6 or 7 on a scale of 1-10.  Some of the work was phenomenal and some works had a great deal of heart placed in them. 

Edited to add this note

On the way home with my work, I stopped into a gallery to look around. I placed the drawing on the ground and started browsing.  The gallery manager came up to me and asked me if the drawing was by Robert Liberace.  when I told her know that it was mine, but I was a student of Rob's and I told her about the show.  She asked if I won an award.  When I told  her no, she was surprised and told me that I should have.  That comment made my weekend!

The Alexandria Arts League is hosting a student/teacher art show next month.  I dropped off my entry today and I have my fingers crossed. Not to win or place, just to make it into the show.

Here is a close up of my entry (the picture quality isn't that great I will post better later).

I drew this last Friday night in about two hours.  The really neat thing is that I ran into the model and he saw the entry! He liked it so that made me really happy.

I was surprised by a number of things, number one there were only a few of us from Robert's regular Friday classes and there were a tremendous number of folks who'd travelled from out of town to attend.  Once lady flew in from Cleveland and another came in from Boston I wasn't 100% certain where everyone else was from...but I think there were a few folks from the Zoll Studio in Baltimore there.

Rant...

One of my minor rants about folks taking oil painting classes was aired during the workshop. Please, PLEASE do not attend an oil painting workshop (which covers three days and has 25 students) and complain non-stop about the fumes. If you are allergic to solvent do NOT assume that you can be even remotely accommodated.  Think about it, all of those folks painting are going to generate fumes.  Someone was thoughtless enough to show up with real turpentine versus odorless solvent which did make things much worse.

Bottom line showing up at an oil painting class and complaining about fumes is like showing up at a child's musical recital and complaining that there are sour notes...it's part of the experience.  I have asthma and sometimes things are tough for me, but I cover my solvent and seal it up when I leave the room.  If it gets overwhelming I leave since I am the one with the medical condition.  ok rant over....

The models we used were great, both had very interesting features but to me, the female model had this compelling "Helga" demeanor.  Everyone wanted to paint her  so I was in good company.  We drew for spots, and I was in the middle so I stayed where I was and I lucky enough to paint the female model.

Rob working on his first demo-study

Rob's next two demos, a color/tempeture study and one of his more traditional studies.

I think I did fairly well during this  workshop. We had to do numerous warm up sketches and quick 5-minute paintings and well as some longer poses (20-30 minutes) which focused on color and temperature studies vice accurate rendering.   

For the 2-day pose they placed the female model on a sofa, in the with a dark blue background. It really made her flesh tones pop.  Initially I painted her dress the color it was, but it caused me some problems so I switched it to a yellow green at least for the first part of the painting. 

I still need to do some work on her chest area, to accurately reflect the shadows and work more on her hairline (lower it a tad).  I did like how her flesh (lights, mid tones and shadows) worked. I would need to go back and adjust some of the highlights and shaping of the dress but overall I liked this painting.

My painting, on the final day of the workshop

A closeup of the model's face

Of course, no matter how much I liked my painting and I usually do not like what I produce in a workshop or a class room since I am usually learning a new way of doing things and it shows in the work. 

Of course, I love what Rob did for his final painting and it was gorgeous!

Rob's Final Demo for the workshop

Myself and the usual crowd of Robert Liberace students all met between 03:15 and 4:30 this morning.  Normally we stand in line, get our numbers for registration determines where you are in order of what classes you can get into) and then freeze until the Starbucks or the la Madeline opens. 

This time I invited my friends from class over for breakfast after we picked up our registration numbers.  They brought homemade coffeecake and fruit and I served scrambled eggs, sourdough toast, earl grey tea and casi cielo coffee. 

It was a lot of fun.   I guess I forgot how much I really enjoy having friends over and feeding them.  To add to the insanity-or simply my exhaustion, I forgot to schedule a day off so I had to work early this morning. 

 So, why do we stand in line and freeze for several hours? I do it to ensure I can get a seat in Rob's Friday painting class.  I am learning that much in his class and I can really see the improvement in my work.  Particularly how I render the form.  I will post some pictures of the drawings I've made in the class so far.

Last Friday evening our model was great.  He looked like a normal guy on the street.  The lighting was a bit dramatic on him, he was seated and he had lights above and in front of him as well as a bright light on the floor illuminating his lower back.  I wish we had another session with him, he was that much fun to draw.

I still need to do more work on this, but frankly I'd prefer to leave it.  I actually like this one and I am afraid of taking it too far and ruining it.

This drawing is from the model we had for the third week of class.  He had a very athletic build and for his warm up he stood in some physically difficult poses.  

This is Rob's demo for the class.

It's so much fun taking this class now, I know about 1/3 of the students from other classes and a lovely friend from the art league is taking classes with her husband...so I have the fun of seeing both of them!

I will be out of town on Friday so I won't be able to finish my sketch, makes me a sad panda.  I will take a picture of what I've done so far and post it here tomorrow. It came out really well for an initial sketch, there is lots to refine but since I won't be here I will miss the chance to really work on the shadows.

I am still moving into the condo and it's confusing as all get out. Everything is in boxes still and I can't seem to find anything. I don't have internet or cable at the new place yet so I can only post, catch as catch can. 

I am working on a posting for the three-day painting portrait painting workshop that I took from Robert Liberace in early December.  I actually really like the final painting I did for that class.  It's not any great shakes, but I feel like I really nailed the composition, form and coloring.  I think if I'd have had another sitting to further refine things I would have loved the painting.  But liking isn't a bad thing for a workshop painting.

More later,

The model for this evening was one of my favorites, she's really nice and she has some really dramatic poses. I was very happy with the silver point drawing. In person this image is pale silvery gray. It's difficult to take a picture of this type of drawing because the metal in the silver point reflects light.  I also decided to delete the picture of the drawing until I get a better image.

On the plus side, the model loved the drawing and she also loved the picture I painted of her during Ted's class (I showed her on my camera).  I asked her permission to post the silver point becuase her face would be clearly visible. 

It's late and I am tired so ~it's off to bed.

I would try to level the shammy but the British guy who asked every girl in my old guild to marry him; including a friend who is gay, won't stop bothering me. hence my new little rogue. Got to admit she's fun so far. What is not so fun is a coworker asked me to log on my 70 priest (shadow) to heal during a quest. The shammy sucked, NO totems. None until I asked, how can you play a shammy to the fullest without a few totems? Ya know, windfury, strength, manna for your healer. It made no sense and told me this guy thinks enhanced means he plays like a tank. And sorry, but unless you've got great gear and really know wtf you're doing you should not be tanking as a shammy, especially when we had a warrior in the group. Grrrr.

I liked plinking on the lowbie. But she's just gonna be for the occasional fun thing. Weird thing is I think WoW on our server is still very short on endgame healers (what a surprise) I was invited to several heroic instances when I logged on the priest and several friends did not want to take no for an answer.

Interesting linkage ~~>Blizzcon II

No email confirmation about Rob Liberace's class and workshops, I did see that they process my payment so happy days!

I know I've been all over topic wise the last 10 days, but that seems to be how my life has been. Hopefully things will settle down after I return from Portland OR next weekend.

I was #10 in line. How did I get a number that low? I showed up at 4am and waited until the nice lady handed out numbers. Then we went over to Deena's house for coffee. Now that was fun, talking with Deena and her hubby Joe, along with Jim (and his gorgeous German Shepard Keika). We had wide ranging conversations about where we grew up, artists we loved, real estate in Alexandria VA, and of all things blood sausage and eating cockles and baby eels (Joe eats the eels not me *shudder).

I signed up for a fall painting class (Yippee!), a portrait workshop and two anatomy workshops in the spring. Registration opened for all of these today and it was insane as a result. I heard that for the summer class folks start showing up at midnight!

This is Deena and Joe's beautiful King Charles Cavalier, although it's not a full body shot or even a full face shot, I think you really see her personality in this picture. Blame it on old age, but I can't remember her dog's name, I just remember that her name means "fuzzy slipper" in Italian. She's a sweet and adorable little girl.

Here is are a few non sequiturs for you. Someone actually paid a concierge service to have a young lady wait in line for them and to turn in their registration sheet.

Another person in line in front of me was ranting and raving about the Dulles Toll Road and private highways like E470 around Denver. While he was ranting I asked him one simple question, why does it bother him so much and if it does why use them? After all no one is forcing anyone to drive on those roads. I use the private one in Denver Colorado because it's super fast and convenient. I guess his point was that the government should have done this. My response was again pretty to the point, "but they didn't. A private firm saw the need, funded it and it now relieves some of the congestion on the the heavier traveled free/state roads. Kind of a win-win for everyone I would think.

The guy directly in front of me thought the school should let you pay them a $1000 which would let you bypass the line. Either that or they should have an auction and sell off the slots, to the highest bidder-effectively removing those slots from folks who can barely afford the model fee and classes. So this would make the classes affordable to who? Oh yeah, those with gobs of cash. I mean we have a few younger kids (early 20s and in their teens) who can barely afford the $180 for the class. I asked him how fair was that since at this moment, if you want to attend one of Rob's classes you simply have to get out of bed early and wait in line. The process is fairly democratic if you want to be in class you wait.

I heard another guy ranting (I think he was around #50) that he'd shown up at 7am and there were already a ton of folks in front of him. Sigh. Most of the early birds were after the morning and afternoon slots so trust me-me being in line in front of you actually helped since I was shooting for the evening class :)

I am trying to not work too small or too detailed. Even though this is a drawing class we're working our drawings similar to how you'd construct an oil painting. and it frustrates me to no end since I am trying hard to integrate what I can do with what they are trying to teach me. It's weird but when I watch the demo and really listen to what he's talking about and then work the way I normally do; if I remain conscious of what he discussed it turns out well. When I attempt to do exactly what he did or I get too wrapped up in a precise instruction/technique it goes south pretty quickly.

Tonight out model was a white male named Jiri. I think he's eastern European but it's difficult to tell. When you look at him straight on it's difficult to really see the beauty of his bone structure. Tonight I was to his left at around 40 degrees. I was kind of disappointed at first because there weren't a lot of interesting shadows. But the nice thing was you really got to see his jaw line, nose, eyes and lips without the distraction of the shadows. Jiri has the kind of lips you see on a DaVinci Madonna or a Greek statue. They are very different from what we consider as beautiful lips today but the structure was so interesting. He had very deepset eyes and a prominent nose and it's the eyes that really got me in trouble.

I simply massed them in because I was worry about getting too caught up in the structure (prominent brow/deep set eyes and heavy lids) and it got fairly off kilter in the drawing. I did the same thing with the ears but thought screw it and ruthlessly edited. When Rob saw the ears he loved them (I was brutal and they were not beautiful but they were true to Jiri and you could really see their structure), not so much for the eyes.

At that point I only had 15 minutes left so I started sketching his eye in a corner of the paper. Once class was over I showed that to Rob. He really liked the eye and told me that's what I need to do to the main drawing. So tomorrow I will chamois out the eye and start over. I joked that I should cut out the one eye and glue it over the eye. My poor drawing.

I guess what I really got out of tonight was watch the demo, try to absorb one aspect of the lesson, and at least for the initial lay-in edit ruthlessly and be bolder.

Here is a copy of the DaVinci preliminary (he used chalks, charcoal and some paint) I am working on. So far I am about halfway finished. I am only using the verithins but it's slow going. After looking at it Rob said I was about halfway there-I have some editing to do on it (adjust the nose and it's shadows, rework lips and darken the darks).

Just in case you were wondering....

For class we use either prismacolor verithin pencils or chalks/conte crayons in black, white and sanguine (tera cotta color). We draw on specially prepared paper- you do this at home and bring in your prepped sheets for class, I use Frankfurt cream paper that has been prepared in the following manner:

• Prepare a watercolor wash (use yellow ocher, raw sienna or what ever color you prefer) -keeping it fairly light
• Prepare 1 part amber shellac with 5 parts denatured alcohol, mix and store in airtight container (you can buy these materials for under $10 at Lowe's or Home Depot
• Apply a wash of watercolor, this will be your ground color and allow to try
• Apply coating of shellac/alcohol mixture and allow to dry
• Keep the shellac, alcohol, and shellac/alcohol mixture safely out of reach of children and don't forget it's flammable!

The color of my wash looks similar to parchment once the wash is applied and has dried. You can go darker but remember this serves as your midtone in your drawing so it needs to be fairly neutral. If your drawing the figure I'd suggest the ocher since it looks similar a skin tone. Another color you could try is for more French academy (ala Proudhon) affect by trying a blue-grey instead of the ocher.

A friend recommended I make the following disclaimer on my work. Unless otherwise stated, I own the copyright on all the art work (oil paintings, oil sketches, drawings, and photographs). You do not have the right to download or link the art in this blog without either correctly attributing it to me or asking my permission. Seems like most folks would know that but you just never know.

Although that might sound simple, it is not. I am fortunate because I have doodled my way through elementary, middle and high schools as well as in my working life (the more boring a call the more elaborate the doodles). So at least I can draw, somewhat.

I painted this last winter. The model, Zuleika, is a beautiful young woman who had such grace and sweetness it's difficult to convey without sounding sappy.

Now that I live in Virgina I have the great fortune to be studying with Robert Liberace . Rob's work is phenomenal and when I grow up I hope to paint or draw with his expertise.

The main thing I am learning in his classes is how to see the colors of skin. That might sound fairly simple but it's not. Depending on the base color/complexion light does interesting things when it hits skin.

My favorite coloring to paint is pale white skin, the kind that you usually see on someone with red hair. Last term, one of the model's skin had this gorgeous color; blues, lavenders, pinks, yellows and greens. The transitions were subtle and if you blinked you missed them. She was beautiful. Unfortunately my painting was not but that is ok. The point of studying with someone is to learn how they see and what they see.

I hope that makes sense, I pay very close attention to Rob during demos because I am trying to learn how he views the model, how he renders the form and what he keys in on. I still don't see the colors in the skin tones that he does but I am trying.

Because I was in Florida during the opening of registration for Rob's classes, I couldn't get in. I have been lucky so far in buying someone else's spot or folks telling me, "Hey I won't be here next week, you can have my spot." So my attendance has been sporadic. I've taken one painting class and two of his drawing classes and I will be able to take the last two of his drawing classes of the term. Since I couldn't take Rob's class I signed up for Ted Reed's painting marathon. It's a 5 hour class and it feels like a part time job but it's been amazing as well.

Last week's model was a black male named Alan. He had very light skin and it was difficult painting him because the midtones were slightly muted and grayed orange. Now in realty no one is really orange but that's how he appeared in the light we were using. The thing about painting darker skin tones is how the light dazzles and dances on the skin. For lighter skin tones, light is usually (to my eye) lighter skin tones with occasional highlights. on darker flesh is sizzles and sparkles, it's simply gorgeous.

Rob teaches sculptural anatomy at Studio Incamminati so his demos are peppered with triceps, pectorals, lats, tibia etc. He's made me dig into my anatomy books at home to try and learn more. The main thing I am learning about anatomy is that even if you don't see it (say the ribs-because they are under a great deal of flesh) it will still affect the way the flesh sits on the bones and also how the light and shadows will play across the surface.