Sullivan's Island Painting Expedition, November 2010

It's been nearly a week since I've returned from a week-long painting trip in a beach house on Sullivan's Island, S.C. with 11 other artists. I've been searching for the words to describe how much fun this was, how much camraderie we shared and how much I learned from the intense and talented artists I painted with.

First of all, the artists and the links to their sites:

Sadie Valeri

Alia El-Bermani

Diane Feissel

Alexandra Tyng

Catherine Prescott

Cindy Procious

Catherine Stone

Rachel Constantine

Mia Bergeron

Stefani Tewes

Terry Strickland

The artist who signed up to go, should have been there but couldn't make it:

Lisa Gloria

And two artists who were with us a lot and generously did so much for everyone, Shannon by feeding us an incredible oyster roast and letting us set up easels in her home and Stanka by standing in FREEZING cold while we painted her:

Shannon Runquist

Stanka Kordic

This painting group was set up by Sadie, Alia and Diane, the amazing, hardworking artists who set up the Women Painting Women blog . They've written in their blogs about the group and the terrific show at the Robert Lange Gallery in Charleston, SC . Please, visit their blogs to see more photos and hear more about our group. My heartfelt thanks to these wonderful artists for creating this very special event and to the gallery for making the show such a hit.

My Painting at the "Women Painting Women" Show at the Robert Lange Gallery, starting Nov. 5th, 2010

My painting "Is it Dusk or Dawn?" (oil, 24" x 36") will be shown at the 'Women Painting Women' group show at the Robery Lange Gallery (see the gallery's blog at http://paintdifferent.blogspot.com/2010/08/women-painting-women.html ) in Charleston, S.C.
The show features over 50 invited women artists from all around the world and opens Nov. 5th, 5:30 to 8:30.

The show began as a result of Sadie Valeri's idea for a blog about women painting other women. Sadie writes about the genesis for the show on her own blog here: http://sadievaleri.blogspot.com/2010/09/women-painting-women-show-at-robert.html

A subgroup of women artists will be renting a house on nearby Sullivan's Island for the week of Nov. 5th - Nov. 12th, painting models and plein air landscapes. Sadie includes a list of them on her blog. I'll be there with the group and, I hope, blogging about it. I'm really looking forward to both events, the show and the painting group - there is so much talent and of course it should be a lot of fun as well.

Congratulations, Ilaria Rosselli del Turco!

I don’t want to miss the opportunity to congratulate my friend Ilaria Rosselli del Turco, a wonderful artist who has been recognized for her excellent work by having a painting accepted into the prestigious BP Portrait show at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Ilaria’s painting “Portrait of Geneva “ will be hanging at the BP show through September 19th, 2010. You can read more about the BP Show at http://www.npg.org.uk/. You can read more about Ilaria on her website http://www.ilardt.com/ and on her blog at http://www.ilardt.blogspot.com/.

Workshop at Scottsdale Artist's School, July 6 - 8, 2010

I had a terrific time at my workshop this week at Scottsdale Artists School - it's a treat to paint with such good artists (and nice people) - thanks again, everybody, it was a real honor and a lot of fun to be around you. (Sorry about the 110+ heat here... .)
Pictured Left to Right: Ju Oshiro, Larry Herron, me, Paolo Acuna, Greer Jennison, Nancy Sage, Chris Cook and Doug Bell

William Whitaker Signature Brushes From Trekell

I'm excited to see that Trekell (http://www.trekell.com/) has added a new line of high quality brushes as 'William Whitaker Signature Brushes'. Mr. Whitaker (http://www.williamwhitaker.com/) has been my teacher and is a true master, as well as being a terrific human being. His finely detailed paintings are beautifully crafted. We can't attribute this all to the brushes, but they look good, don't they? Anyway,I plan to order some of these as soon as I can.

Here's the link: http://www.trekell.com/William-Whitaker-Signature-Brushes_c_91.html

Photos from PAOA Workshop, June 19th, 2010

Here are a few photos from my 3-hour workshop last Saturday for the Portrait Artists of Arizona group. We had a terrific, beautiful model (thanks, Jessica).

I'm teaching again in a couple of weeks at Scottsdale Artists School (see info in the right column). I'm looking forward to all of us having a chance to paint a model for three days in the same pose - we'll deal with gesture and design issues as well as the usual portrait concerns. Contact SAS or me if you have any questions.

Art Books: New Book from Dorian Vallejo, "Drawings: Inspired By Life"

Dorian Vallejo is a wonderful artist living in New Jersey who has collected together a volume of his work, "Drawings: Inspired By Life," available at http://www.drawingsfromlife.com/Pages/Book/Book_Page.html . The book is $38.99 plus shipping (this sounds like a fantastic bargain to me).

I can't wait to get a copy of this book - I've been a fan of his for a long time. He has been a huge inspiration to me in my own work. What a treat to see all these in one volume. Bravo, Dorian!