As part of our ongoing series of engaging Teaching Studios faculty about what is happening in their careers:
Workshop and Visiting Instructor Patricia Watwood has agreed to share some thoughts about and images of artwork from her solo show at the Forbes Galleries that opens this week. | | |
Patricia Watwood: Myths and Individuals
Notes from the Artist
Myths and narratives are important tools that humans use for sorting out our relationships to each other and to the world. In this body of work, I am seeking the individual and personal contained within our myths, and conversely, seeking the universal within the individual. I construct images that invite the viewer to contemplate, connect, and find relationships. I wish my paintings to be visual poems awaiting your interpretation. | | | | Tradition has nothing to do with the past. To follow a tradition is to embrace a manner of working in which the values and aspirations of the past are continuous with those of the future. I do not chase the past. I chase what artists in the past have also chased—a celebration of the human form, a passion for and humility before nature, a belief that metaphor and narrative can help us puzzle out the mysteries of our time here on earth, and a belief in the emotional power of the common visual language of representation. | | |
| My figures and portraits are designed to convey the beauty and stillness of the visual world. My paintings travel through worlds of mythology, allegory, and contemporary human life. They reflect my search for meaning, and fulfill my desire for spiritual connection with my subjects and viewers.
The exhibit shows over 30 paintings and six drawings, spanning over 10 years of time.
Patricia Watwood: Myths and Individuals
February 17 to June 9, 2012
The Forbes Galleries
60 Fifth Avenue at 12th St. Manhattan
Free, open to the public
10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Tues-Sat.
Thursdays open to groups by appt. 212-206-5548
Catalogues are available from her 2011 solo show at the St Louis Universtity Museum of Art, $20 each (plus tax and shipping). Please contact us at info@teachingstudios.com for more information. |
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As part of our ongoing series of engaging Teaching Studios faculty on what they are working on in their studios, Bennett Vadnais has agreed to share some images and thoughts from one of his latest paintings. This one is still very much in-progress. | |
I began this painting by doing many studies of the subject outdoors. This included quick color studies to capture the light effect as well as several pencil drawings that explore the form and structure of the architecture.
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After gathering this material I enlarged the composition to my canvas and painted it in monochrome. For landscape subjects I’ll often use Mars Violet with white. I work out drawing and value patterns in this monochrome before applying color in many layers that range from transparent to opaque. |
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| The Living Portrait (in graphite)
with Maria Kreyn A workshop at our Brooklyn location on December 17 and 18.
The Living Portrait workshop consisted of two days of drawing from the live model with Maria Kreyn. It was designed for artists of all skill levels.
This workshop focused on creating both the likeness of the model and also emotional expression, bringing the portrait to life using the special beauty and simplicity of the graphite medium.
Pictured: Kreyn beginning her demonstration. | | |
| Kreyn placed emphasis on developing expression, elegant line quality, edges, atmosphere, and internal gesture. By working from general to specific, students learned a process of drawing that focuses on quickly laying down a large amount of information, and then honing and focusing it--like a lens--to a high finish of detail and clarity. Kreyn offered both critiques and an in-class demonstration.
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| The instructor's demo
Jason, by Maria Kreyn
| | The work produced by the workshop artists was of a very high quality.
The Bushwick Poet, by Kate Savage
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Portrait of Jason,
by Rob Zeller |
| Works in progress by Stephan Pokorny and Barbara Leonardi |
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