Greetings, you are receiving this newsletter because you are registered for our Artist Round Table Bi-Monthly Zoom Sessions. We will be sending a follow-up newsletter like this after each session to highlight the key points discussed during the roundtable.
Congratulations, Julie Beck! She has received the Audrey Love Memorial Award from the Allied Artists of America for her painting You Can Do Anything, Magic Skeleton ( 16x16", Oil on panel). Allied Artists of America is a non-profit National Art Society composed of artists, sculptors, elected active members, and sustaining associate members from across the country.
If you have a chance, check out Debra’s work that was juried into the American Artists Professional League Realism on the Hudson show. The show represents the finest in representational and traditional realism art. The league announced its first in-person exhibition at the historic Howland Cultural Center in Beacon, NY, it will be on display from August 26 through October 1, 2023. Realism on the Hudson is an event that should not be missed!
This week ended up on a more “esoteric” note with conversations about the art experience itself and our assignments of value. Anthony mentioned Pinker’s essay on why we make art. It can be found HERE.
Several resources were also mentioned in regard to empirical aesthetics and neuroesthetics:
Visual perception and aesthetics
Neuroesthetics
Your Brain on Art: The Case for Neuroaesthetics
Semir Zeki - Neuroaesthetics: How the Brain Explains Art
A Darwinian theory of beauty
Mentioned this week:
The $12 Million Stuffed Shark by Don Thompson
The Art Instinct by Denis Dutton
How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker
Over the next two weeks, Jamie Lindholm will be exploring the world of Carbon Fiber Panels and Carbon Fiber fabric as a support for the painting. She will be testing them out in a variety of ways and will report back the findings. Good Luck, Jamie!
Supplies she will be experimenting with:
Kinlop Carbon Fiber Sheet Pure Carbon Fiber Fabric
Carbon Fiber Sheet
This October, Denver’s Gallery 1261 proudly presents a special showcase of contemporary artworks that explores the realm of high-definition realism. Curated by Anthony Waichulis, this new exhibition aims a spotlight on works some may often describe as “tight.” The exhibition will open on October 21, and the opening reception will be from 4 -6 PM. Don’t miss this opportunity to see some of the best in realism in person!
Representational painters have long had their efforts categorized along a spectrum of definition or abstraction. On one end of that spectrum, dubbed loose, we tend to find artwork with wonderfully bold abstractions and incredibly masterful brevity. In contrast, the other end, dubbed tight, is populated with impressive realizations of great complexity and meticulous precision. Virtuosity can be found equally across the entirety of this spectrum; in the artists that can abstract a subject down to ten brushstrokes, the artists that choose to manifest that same subject with a thousand, and the countless artists chasing their own blend of definition and abstraction in between.
Tight celebrates those that continue to redefine the landscape on the high-definition end of this spectrum of representation. The artists selected for this special showcase continue to awe and inspire with their endeavors, achieving levels of resolution and depth that elicit experiences of wonder and fascination for any viewer. Demonstrable virtuosity, compelling subject matter, and mind-blowing levels of resolution are sure to be present in many combinations—so do not miss this amazing collection of work.
Participating artists include Julie Beck, Helen Crispino, Tony Curanaj, Rodney O’Dell Davis, Natalie Featherston, Scott Fraser, Serge Marshennikov, Kevin A. Moore, Renato Muccillo, Duffy Sheridan, Joseph Todorovitch, Anthony Waichulis (among others.)
Exhibition Dates: October 21 - November 4, 2023
Join instructor Anthony Waichulis for his lecture, “Building a Better Artist,” which he will present at the 16th Annual Imaginative Realism art show in Reading PA. The talk will be about a basic framework to better navigate the ever-growing ocean of art education resources out there.
“From the many different formal curricula/programs to “how-to” books to YouTube videos—the amount of information for aspiring artists to sift through can be staggering. Consider joining me this October to explore how one might better illuminate an ideal development path by examining several aspects of the art experience and how different resources can impact your engagement with it.”
Date and time: Thursday, October 19th at 11 am.
Photoshop 101 and Basic Digital Imaging for Artists.
In this 12-week course, Anthony covers a number of topics related to digital imaging of traditional artworks, the development of reference materials and promotional imagery, navigating image submission protocols, along a host of other practical concerns. Registration for this course will open on September 15th. We are currently planning for this class to take the same spot as this past year’s Alla Prima Challenge (Thursdays at 2 PM EST.) Please forward any additional questions to Anya Dribas, at aaaw.anydrs@gmail.com.
Online Alla Prima Challenges 2024.
20 live painting alla prima sessions over 20 weeks (plus an introductory orientation) beginning on January 4th (orientation), 2024! (Registration starts December 5th!) For all my painter pals–I’m once again going to be hosting 20 weekly alla prima challenges via Zoom starting in January 2024. Sessions will be carried out each Thursday at 2 p.m. EST. Each session will last about 1 hour, which includes 30-45 minutes of painting time (depending on the challenge for that week) and 15-20 minutes of discussion about the goals of the exercise and some tips to make the effort more successful. After each session, participants will have one hour to share a photograph of their effort in a shared Dropbox folder that will serve as a private learning gallery for all participants. Links to the folder will be made available in an email like this one that precedes the session.
Prior to the first painting session, I will be hosting an “Orientation” session on January 4th. This will serve as an introduction to the challenges, a walkthrough of the primary goals, what is needed to participate, the role of the Dropbox gallery, and a general Q&A to ensure everyone is ready to go on January 11th!
If you are interested in learning about each challenge ahead of time, you can see the full schedule here: Alla Prima Challenges. Also, if you are interested, Smartermarx has additional info on the general strategies that I often use to approach the alla prima (specifically the SNAG concept – Survey, Notan, Anchors, and Gradations.) If you wish to join us, please sign up today! (You can unsubscribe from the list at any time.) To subscribe, follow the LINK. Please forward any additional questions to Anya Dribas, at aaaw.anydrs@gmail.com.
In between our bi-weekly Artist Round Table Sessions feel free to come and join the discussions on Smartermarx.