Dwight Saves the Day!

Disaster struck this morning. The originally scheduled model had massive car trouble on the way over. Panic-stricken, I called several models knowing that finding a model for the next seven hours was a long shot. But I had been looking forward to painting from life all week and to abandon the day was too painful to accept. So I persevered. I called Dwight, who – sort of like Superman – immediately ducked into a phone booth, took off all his clothes, and rushed over to salvage the session. We were relieved and excited and it showed in the work. Many thanks to Dwight. Wanna hear something weird? Earlier in the week, Dwight said he was going to call me in case I ever had a model not show as he lives close by now.

Wanna hear something even more weird? As we waited on Dwight to come over, Steve came up with that idea to put him in a pose similar to the statue The Dying Gaul.  When we told Dwight our idea, he informed us that he had ordered a replica of The Dying Gaul just this week to put in his house and he had it with him.  After the session, we asked Dwight to give us stock tips…

Reminder – The Cedars Grand Opening is Friday. See previous post for details.

Jame Ross:  Steve Armes (in progress):  

Ken Michelson:  Sandy Ibach:  

John Kuehne:  Don Thacker (in progress) :

Cedars Art Gallery Grand Opening

The Cedars Art Gallery is having its Grand Opening Friday from 6-9. I’ll have several pieces in the show, along with over a dozen other artists, including several that frequent the Sunday life drawing sessions. Cedars owner David Terry is a staple member of the Three Martini life drawing and we wish him the best of luck with his gallery. Especially with our paintings. For more information, visit www.cedarsartgallery.com.

Martini Weekend

Saturday, we had a fun evening congratulating Lauren on finishing residency and wishing her good luck with her fellowship in Atlanta. The martinis were flowing, and it was a great time catching up with old friends.  Unfortunately, Lauren accidentally took my camera, so I don’t have photos from the life drawing session today except of my own work. It was a light crowd, but some great work was done. Doug, Ken and John showed up and Danielle was the model. My painting doesn’t look like Danielle very much, but I was focused on other things besides likeness today. I tried to capture in oils some of what I did digitally with my Dwight paintings. I had moments, although only having five hours with the pose didn’t allow me to experiment as much as a longer session would. So in two weeks, we’ll start a three week pose with Jill. I can’t wait.

        

When I Paint My Mooseterpiece

I had to go to Boston last week, so I decided to take the plein air kit and check out “Down East” Maine while I was there. On Friday, I drove up the coastline of Maine and my destination was Bar Harbor, which really sounded like my kind of town. The most amazing thing about Bar Harbor is that the locals can pronounce it without ever using the letter “R”.  It is located on Mount Desert Island, which is also the home of Acadia National Park. Fabulous part of the world, I highly recommend going. From what I can tell, lobster and moose are to Maine what armadillos and longhorns are to Texas. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any moose, so my moose life drawing will have to wait until next time. I arrived late on Friday and was trying to figure out how to fit in as much painting into the weekend as I could. Saturday morning, I awoke to a bright daylit room and was at first very upset, thinking I had overslept. Then I looked at my watch – it was only 4:45! I forgot that daylight comes quite early up there. In fact, one of the mountains on Mount Desert is the first part of the U.S. to see sunrise. So my panic turned to excitement, and I got going and had my first painting finished by 7:30am. I repeated the morning routine the next day, finishing by 7am, right in time to pack up and drive back to Logan to catch my flight. Add in a great hike up a cliff, a couple of steamed lobsters and the best blueberry pie I’ve ever had and the weekend was all smiles.

  

Gettin’ Reel

A few weeks ago I went to an art opening at Reel FX (www.reelfx.com).  It is a great show, and I believe the pieces are still hanging up in their lobby. I got to meet a few of the artists and they invited me to draw with them at their life drawing sessions. It is great to get in more life drawing and an opportunity to meet some new artists.  Thanks to Ronnie for allowing me to join them.