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.
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.
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