Entertaining

I am hosting a housewarming party on Saturday and am trying to figure out my menu.  I will be having about 15 over.

I plan on serving dinner and drinks.  The menu (still fiddling with it) will be:

Homemade Beef Ragu with bow tie pasta

London broil with light soy sauce  

Salad (organic field greens with homemade candied/spicy pecan and crumbled blue cheese -dressing of balsamic vinegar, white truffle oil and organic olive oil)

Some type of starch or some veggies

Variety of cheeses and crackers (I am a huge lover of the whole foods cheese selection).

I will try to make the crackers from scratch if I have the time, if not its Carr’s cracked black pepper and the rosemary/sea-salt ones from whole foods (they are sooo yummy).

Humangous Shrimp and cocktail sauce

A variety of small nibbles (smoked salmon, tiny crab cakes, samosas, sugar snap peas, etc).

Drinks will be:  Sodas (diet/regular), supplies to make Italian cream sodas, wines/ports

I don’t drink and the item besides wine that was requested was grey goose vodka so I will grab a bottle of that as well.

I wonder if I’ve missed anything?

Haven’t figured out dessert may just grab a selection of things from a bakery or whole foods. No idea yet.

If you Love Artist Duane Keiser!

Note, edited to include photo and comments.

 Oysters, by Duane Keiser

Here is photo of the painting Duane Keiser created on February 27th, Duane sent this a few days ago.  I believe he’s still doing some work/adjustments on it.  It was amazing to watch this work being created.  Thank you Duane for sharing this with us.

The email he sent announcing the session quoted Charles Dickens, “Secret and self-contained and solitary as an oyster.” If this was the imagery he was trying to evoke, I believe he succeeded.  

Original Post

Duane will be video streaming the creation of an entire painting tomorrow (27 February 2008)!

For those who are long time fans, he expirmented with this last year.  He would paint an oddment size work (approx 2.5×3″) using streaming video.  The first person to guess the title won the first shot at buying the work. It was creative, it was theater it was exicting!

Here is the link to the video, or through Duane’s Blog.  See you there.

Embedded is here (I hope)

(Note Ii’ve tried to embed the video as well but not sure it worked!)

Leo Neufeld

Leo Neufeld

I thought I’d write about a New Mexican artist Leo Neufeld. Leo is considered a classic realist and he has a pretty amazing background.

Leo initially studied art at University of Wisconsin Madison and graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Painting and Drawing in 1972.  Leo went on to study at the Art Students League of New York (1976-77, 1977-1981, and 1982-1984).  While at the Art Students League he studied with Ted Seth Jacobs, Harvey Dinnerstein, David Leffel and Daniel Greeneas well as taking private studio classes with Burton Silverman.  Leo served as Class Monitor/ASL for both Ted Seth Jacobs and David Leffel.

Note, all of these pictures are from Leo Neufeld’s website.

Leo teaches at the Harwood Art Center in Albuquerque, NM.  He has also taught at the Andreeva Portrait Academy and the Valdez Studio, Santa Fe, NM and  the National Academy of Design and the New York Academy of Art in NYC, NY.

I studied with Leo for a year when I lived in Albuquerque, NM.  I found him to be an amazing teacher, he was a

Leo Neufeld

master at accurately rendering the human form with minimal strokes.  I learned a great deal from him.  Leo was my first instructor in oil painting.

He ran his class along the lines of the Art Students League, staggered easels, live models, lively music and everyone happily concentrating on learning to paint. I was always tied after class but I was also invigorated as well.

One of the greatest treats for us, was when Leo would bring in his sketchbooks  and allow the students to browse through them.  My favorite drawings were always the ones Leo made on the New York City subways.

Leo is a fixture on the New Mexico art scene.  He does a variety of live demos.  I remember watching him work at a live draw event at a local art gallery in Albuquerque and it was amazing what he could do in 20 minutes.

If you are interested in learning how to paint or draw (charcoal or pastel) and you live in the Albuquerque area, look up the Harwood Art Center.

The photographs are courtesy of Leo’s website.

Show Results

Well I didn’t win a prize at the show.  But the thrill of seeing my work up on the wall with my name next to it was slightly intoxicating.

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!

Lunar Eclipse

Didn’t get such a great picture of the eclipse, but it was beautiful.

I was riding the Metro (yellow line) and we came above ground between the Pentagon and L’Enfant plaza stops to cross the Potomac.  And there it was.  So the pic was taken with an iPhone at about 40mph.  It was still beautiful.

 When I arrived at my stop I took a few more pictures and my friends and I talked about it.  Others heard us and stopped to look and take their own pictures.  It made me wish I was in Big Bend National Park in Texas.  There is little light pollution and the view of the eclipse there must have been incredible.

My First Competition!

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.

Vote

Tomorrow there are state primaries in Virginia and Maryland and a caucus in Washington DC. 

If you have an opinion, if you care about the future of this country, regardless of party or affiliation you need to get out and vote.

If you want to look at the candidates and their stand on issues this is a great starting point [click me].

If you don’t know where  your voting/polling/caucus locations are click on these links:

Virginia

Maryland

Washington DC

Super Tuesday

“Our Chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.”

 Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

I spent Super Tuesday with a friend at a party where we watched the results of the primaries roll in.  It was interesting being a former republican (I’ve decided I am an independent) in a room full of democrats.

There was a potluck, everyone brought a food dish from a state that had a primary or a caucus.  I had to bring food from North Dakota, hooray.  Since I was arriving from my office, I couldn’t make anything from scratch; so I brought cupcakes from Starbucks.  Not very North Dakota-ish but my father was from North Dakota and he loved chocolate so I figured it wasn’t too far of a stretch. 

The evening was interesting, there were a ton of folks young and old pigging out and really enjoying themselves. During the evening I talked with someone who is involved with the democrats outreach efforts to the christian communities.   This wasn’t the first time I’d heard some discussions about it, but it’s the first chance I had to really sit down and ask someone some questions and to share my concerns.

I told the lady I spoke with about what I’d seen happen in the republican party when they started courting the far right Christians (morale majority folks) .  Keep in mind that I am simply a voter so my opinions are not made as political commentary so much as what I saw happen in my party.

I believe that the decision to court this block of voters and welcome them into the republican party destroyed the party that I knew and joined in the 80s.  Why do you ask? Well the republicans, just like the democrats have a membership that runs the gamut from extremely liberal to extremely conservative.  Sadly, I’ve watched the far right membership of the republican party become so dominant and have such an influence, that some like me who is extremely liberal in my outlook no longer has a voice within the my own party.  I keep wondering, who let these people in and WHY are they still here? 

To see what I am talking about take a look at the republican presidential candidates.  The only way to get the support to be on the ticket is to be pro-life.  Period.  Look at Rudy Giuliani…he ran on a pro-choice ticket as mayor and now suddenly he’s pro-life?  So when did that happen?  If you looked at the CNN political ticker before the Iowa Caucus you would have read similar views on roe v wade by all the republican candidates. All of the statements were cookie cutter and you could tell they’d been wordsmithed to death.

I felt so disgusted with the republican candidates, that I went to the democratic side and looked at what their candidates were saying.  After reading everything, I’d decided on Senator Joe Biden and volunteered to help his campaign accordingly.  I guess that was the beginning of the end for me and the republican party.  Since Senator Biden didn’t make it past Iowa I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching about where my loyalties now lie (as far as political parties). 

I originally chose the republicans when I was in the military.  I am a fiscal conservative and I believe in a strong military and strong industrial base.  But I feel that in the last 10 or so years that the republicans have pillaged this country, between NAFTA (yes I know President Clinton did that one) shipping jobs overseas, the current administration allowing our natural resources to be pillaged (timber harvesting in the Northwest is an example), and the morass of Iraq. 

I think the best hope for our country is a democrat.  I’ve also decided that the best place for me (for now at least) is as an independent, although I believe the day is coming when I will rejoin the dems. 

 

 

Robert Liberace December Workshop

I was fortunate enough to attend a  three-day portrait workshop taught by Robert Liberace in early December 2007. 

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.   

 My painting, towards the end of the second day 

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

The Cupboard of Good Things

I am still unpacking and rearranging things at the new condo. 

So far, I’ve placed all of my smaller paintings, fragile tiny pottery, a kachina, some 1st edition books I love, and other debetage inside of it. I’ve been calling it the cupboard of goodness.

So for a tour (from top to bottom) here goes….

The top shelf contains, three ivory netsukes purchased in Biloxi Missippi in the mid 1980s, a wooden box I bought in Morocco in 1990, a horn box from Jordan, a small piece of pottery purchased last year at the Governor’s Palace in Santa Fe, NM and a Hopi Kachina I purchased in Albuquerque, NM.   The paintings are a Duane Keiser egg painting and a Peter Holbrook oil study of the Grand Canyon.  I purchased the egg painting from Duane Keiser and I purchased Peter Holbrook’s landscape through the Peterson-Cody Gallery in Santa Fe, NM.

 

A closeup of the cupboard

Here is a close up of the netsukes

     

The Second shelf contains four more of Duane Keiser egg paintings.  I love these paintings and I am such a huge fan of Duane’s work!  Here is a close up of my favorite egg painting (it’s the dark one).

The third shelf contains three painting by Leslie Holt from her Hello Masterpiece series, Hello Olympia, Hello Botticelli and Hello Van Gogh (Self Portrait) as well as a wooden cow I carved in the 1980s and a cat ornament which reminds me of my poor lost cat Tripp (he escaped when I lived in Albuquerque and I’ve never seen again).

The fourth shelf contains some books that I love; none are particularly valuable, but I love them all the same.  The House of Exile by Nora Waln, I married Adventure by Osa Johnson,  and three Gene Stratton Porter books: Her Father’s Daughter, Freckles, and my absolute favorite Laddie.

The House of Exile is story written by a Philidelphia quaker girl whose family had trade connections with the Lin familiy in Hopei (Canton area) China.  Ms. Waln was invited to visit the Lin familiy and travelled to China in the 1920s.  In her book, she gives an indepth account of what like was like in an upper middle class family (the Lins were Mandarin scholars which is was the ruling class).   I read this while in college in the 80s and it took me years to find another copy of it.

Gene Stratton Porter is another of my favorites.  I love her book Laddie and I think it demonstrates the mindset of the truly civic minded individualist in the late 19th century.  I love the Osa Johnson book because of it’s beautiful cover…I am still looking for a 1st edition of her Safari book where the cover is a giraffe pattern. 

The bottom shelf contains an oil study (I did) of pussy-willows, an Andrew Moon business card drawing that I love, and a study of my manx cat, Wyatt.    There is also a burl-wood and ebony box I bought in morocco, and a beautiful mercury glass vase I was received as a Christmas gift.

Although these things were initially placed in the cupboard for safety’s sake while I unpacked and moved things around- I love the idea of a cupboard of curiosities so I may leave it as is for now.