My Robert Liberace Collection (part 1)

Crucifix Study by Robert Liberace

 

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. 

 

Head Study Close Up

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.  

Untitled Figure Study by Robert Liberace

     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.

Male Torso Demo

 

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.  

Untitled, Male Torso Study

    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.

Artist Robert Liberace

Charles by Robert Liberace

I’ve been fortunate enough to study with artist Robert Liberace for a little over a year now. I thought it would be fun to write about an artist I love an respect who is also my teacher. I am a bit prejudiced towards him but this part of Virginia is filled with fans of his work.

Robert Liberace is a master of several genres, he’s a painter, sculptor and superb draftsman. Robert teaches painting and drawing as well as anatomy to both painters and sculptors. He teaches anatomy (ecorche) and he will be teaching silverpoint this year at Nelson Shank’s Studio Incamminati.

I love this portrait of Charles, it graced the cover of the Art League’s catalog several years ago. Here are some additional pictures of the work Roberts painted.

According to the bio at his website, Robert is

contemporary classicist, equally accomplished in drawing, painting, and sculpture. His work is inspired by centuries of knowledge of the old masters. He works in a variety of mediums including pencil, chalk, pen and ink, watercolor, and oil. In the February 2006 Issue of The Artist Magazine, Rob received the honor of being selected as one of the top twenty realist artists under the age of forty.

Orpheus by Robert Liberace

Robert draws and paints from life. In the classed we’ve been fortunate enough to have a few of his favorite models posing for us as well as some other wonderful models with amazing skin tones and features.

Male Study by Robert Liberace

I love the sheer drama of this painting, Male Study. Robert’s accurate depiction of the model’s anatomy is amazing. The coloring and lighting seem subtle up close but the sheer drama of the pose and composition are breathtaking.

Rob currently teaches painting and drawing at the Art League in Alexandria, Virgina. It is difficult to get into the classes and we usually stand in line at 3 or 4 am to get the chance to take his classes (fall and winter terms are very hard to get a spot in. Here is a link to an earlier posting about waiting in the winter for a class slot.

Lina by Robert Liberace

In addition to teaching on Fridays at the Art League, Rob also teaches workshops at the Art League. This past year he taught two workshops on upper and lower anatomy as well as a portrait workshop. For the 2009 Rob will be teaching Fridays as well as presenting the anatomy workshops again and a portrait workshop focusing on painting children. Hopefully I will get into the portrait workshop.

Rob also teaches workshops in Florida, Washington state, Massachusetts and some occasional trip to Europe. the most current information on his schedule may be found on Robert’s website.

Celia by Robert Liberace

The last two paintings I’d like to share with you is the portraits that Rob painted of his wife, Lina, and a delicate pencil drawing of his daughter Celia.

Note-The paintings in this posting are from Robert’s website; I will create an additional posting that shows the works that I am lucky enough to own.

Well He’s Done it Again!

 

Keiser Collector Website

Artist Duane Keiser just announced on his blog  On Painting, his newest experiment.    Duane will be using a social networking application similar to Facebook or Myspace which will allow those who collect Duane’s work to virtually meet.   It’s brilliant. 

In case you weren’t aware, Duane Keiser is the artist who started the Painting A Day movement with his blog  aptly titled A Painting A Day in 2004.  Duane initially started painting one painting each day as a way to  improve and focus on his work and eventually started selling them on his blog.  When that proved difficult (interest became overwhelming due to articles in the New York Times,  USA Today, Domino Magazine and several other articles as well as posting on blogs.  The concept has taken off virally and quite a few artists are successfully selling art using this business model.

In the post announcing the site, Duane states

I thought it would be interesting to have my collectors gather under one roof so that they could meet one another and display their collections. To this end I made a social networking site that is a bit like Facebook or My Space except that it is dedicated to collectors of my work. On this site you get your own page where you can display your collection, start your own blog, make comments, and see all the pages created my other collectors.

So far, it’s been amazing to see the depth and sheer breadth of some of the collections posted.  I’ve found it interesting to see how people have framed their paintings and I hope to learn how they discovered Duane’s artwork.    

I hate to admit it but I am also curious by nature, so it’s also been fun to see exactly who it is that I was bidding against on eBay for some of the paintings.  For example, I didn’t manage to buy a single of Duane’s Santa Fe paintings from several years ago but I have seen the collection of the person who did win them.  It’s like being invited over to someones home to peek at the wonderful works of art they have!

I am excited about the project and also really curious to see what happens with this project as well as if it will spread among other artists both those who adopted his Painting A Day model as well as those who work through the more traditional brick and mortar galleries.

If you are interested, anyone can view the front page of the site by clicking here on Keiser Collectors.  However, to join (and see the semi-private areas) you have to own at least one piece of artwork by Duane.  the specific details on how to join the Keiser Collectors can be found at Duane’s blog On Painting.  Hope to see you all there.

Artist Annie Dover

The Offering by Annie Dover

I love this painting, it was created by an artist from California named Annie Dover

I was fortunate enough to meet Annie Dover at an opening at her show at the Peterson Cody Gallery in Santa Fe, NM. At the time I lived about 50 miles away so it was a beautiful drive up to Santa Fe.

Annie lives in California and according to her bio on the Peterson Cody Gallery website, she has been painting for more than 25 years and is largely self taught. She works with oil glazes, layers upon layers of them. She uses Winsor Newton oil paints but I am uncertain of whose linen she uses.

If you study her work online you will quickly see that she is a master of mood and using color to evoke emotion. Many of her paintings of people who seem utterly alone in a populated place. Weird to think you can be surround by so many other souls and yet feel that alone.

Detail from "The Offering" by Annie Dover

In The Offering I have a difficult time deciding if the two people in the painting are together, I think they are together because of their body language.  I also love how the shadows from the window panes bisect the figures similar to a crucifix behind a church altar. 

I’d like to share a few close ups of the details in this painting.

If I remember correctly Annie said she put about 50 layers of oil glaze on this painting. In case you aren’t aware a glaze is a thin wash of color and it’s a fairly common technique for watercolors and can be used with oils in a similar manner.

Here is close up of the chairs and the sunlight hitting the floor. Hopefully you can get a good sense of the melting layers of glaze and the sense of depth and realism they lend to this painting.

Hopefully you can see what is in this next picture (sorry my camera isn’t up to taking close up shots).  Annie has taken great care with the grain of the wood on the chair backs.

Detail from "The Offering" by Annie Dover

This painting is just amazing and most people, when they first see it assume it’s a photograph printed on linen.

Note- I just bought a new camera, hopefully I can get a few macro shots that can really show what I am talking about.

 

 

New Art in My Tiny Collection

 

Hello David by Leslie Holt

Last Saturday Andrea Pollen, owner of the Curator’s Office  on 14th Street NW in DC hosted a wonderful show titled Mixology I, featured an amazing number or works on paper.  The proceeds benefited Doctors without Borders.  Andrea was able to raise a significant amount to support this worthy endeavor.

I really enjoyed the show and was amazed at the variety of work on display.  Matt Sesow and Leslie Holt, two artists whose work I enjoy were in the show. 

A friend of mine purchased a painting by Matt  and a Leslie Holt painting titled Hello David.  What I love about Leslie’s painting is that Ms. Kitty is holding a rubber ducky.  Not sure if this means she wants to dive in and bathe with poor Mr. Marat or simply if Leslie found the humor in juxtaposing the sweet Ms. Kitty at the scene of Marat’s assassination.  

 

 In case you were wondering, the original was painted by Jacques Louis David and is titled The Death of Marat.  Mr. Marat was one of the architects of the French Revolution.  He has a physical disability which was relieved only by soaking in a tub and he was known for having meetings while ensconced in tub.  Marat was known for making lists of whom to arrest and send to the guillotine for execution.  He was assassinated while soaking in his tub and you can see a list he was making in his hand. His murderer was a peasant girl named Charlotte Corday, she stabbed Marat with a knife while he was in the bath, in David’s painting Marat is dying.

 

Hello Starry Night by Leslie Holt

Leslie Holt attended but I just missed her.  It made me a sad panda since I am a huge fan of her work.  Leslie dropped off a commission for me, say hello to Hello Starry Night.  Isn’t it adorable?

 

I found Matt Sesow’s work at the 2008 Artomatic held last month.  I purchased several paintings by Matt as well as a gorgeous painting  by Gennara Moore A Murder of Crows.

Hillary by Matt Sesow

 

Although I prefer representational work for the most part, but something about this painting really attracted me.  So I bought it along with these two little works by Matt as well.

Matt had a fairly traumatic childhood and it’s shaped his work. I believe he is considered an ‘outsider’ artist because he’s had no formal art training.  I showed a friend of mine this painting (she’s a rabid republican BTW so it’s not because she’s pro-Hillary) she said she though he was disturbed or had some issues.  That made me smile because it confirmed that it’s a painting which evokes a reaction and I think it is a powerful painting.  As for the disturbed part he seems very well adjusted just working through issues like most of us are. 

Untitled by Matt Sesow

This is one of the tiny paintings I also bought from Matt at Artoramtic. I don’t think it had a title, this picture is just a tad smaller than the actual painting.  The colors are also a little brighter in real life.

Andy Moon Wilson, also had several works on display for the show.  Andy is known for his small drawings on the back of business cards.   I really drooled over one and considered purchasing one of his drawings for a bit, but decided to wait since I am going on vacation next month and should be a fiscally conservative.  I have several of his small business card works and they are hysterical but these were larger (the biggest one was gorgeous!) and the mid-sized ones were on color fields so the drawing really popped out.

Non Sequiter– there was an interesting article on art collecting on the cheap in the Express today (July 18th). They had a picture of this amazing black baroque frame that had really depth and would make the right painting come alive

 

Some Silly Photos

I have an iPhone which I love, but it has drawback. The camera takes great pictures if the lighting is good and I am not trying to shoot a really up close macro shot. i wanted to post a few shots that I really liked that came from the camera…

So here goes

This first shot was taken from an Amtrak train window as I was speeding south to North Carolina from Union Station in Washington DC.

View from a South Bound Train

I love the sense of speed, movement and the bedazzlement of the sun in this picture. It makes me feel like I am a child again on the merry-go-round spinning as fast as I can.

This next picture is from further down the line on the trip.

Southboud Tree Tops

This shot was I was biking along the Potomac River last summer.

River Trees

This next picture is the silly one. I saw this notice on the terracotta painted walls at the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. I think I loved it because of the blue one orange background it really jumps out at you.

Which Way?

The final picture was taken on 14th Street NW in Washington DC right outside of Plan B Art Gallery. I believe it was some type of asphalt paving equipment, but I loved how worn and colorful it was.

Street Sign

There are times I am tempted to go out and buy a really good camera since I love to take photographs and I believe I have a good compositional eye (except I should crop the last photo a bit.

Santa Fe Tree

And here are a few of my favorite from New Mexico.

There is some thing so beautiful about the color of the sky in New Mexico. I shot these near the Georgia O’Keefe Museum in Santa Fe. The tourists probably thought I was drunk because I had to lay flat on the ground to get the shot of that beautiful sky between the branches.

Santa Fe Trees 3

This is the Sandia Peak at sunset. It’s beautiful as always. Albuquerque New Mexico sits at just over 5.000 feet above sea level, the peak is at close to 10.000 feet. My favorite time of the day was leaving the office and driving home. I lived on the east side of the city so in the fall this is what I would see every day driving home.

Sandia Peak at Sunset

Rosslyn Buildings

Rosslyn. And here are a couple of shot I took about 3 or 4 years ago when I was in Rosslyn Virginia. I took them from the window of my hotel and there was something very attractive to me about the patterns reflected in the glass