2011 Highlights

2011 was a great year in the atelier. Here is our latest project- our sweet little girl, born in September. We can't wait until she's ready to learn to draw!


We have enjoyed some wonderful full-time and part-time students in the studio over the past year, and are very proud of their many accomplishments. Here is a sample of some of their work:

Students working on old master copies:
Hard at work in the Life Drawing room:



Two students' versions of the same still-life:
A detail of work nearly complete:

Near the end of the first painting in grisaille:

Two studies in grisaille by another student:

A copy of an old master landscape painting, complete!

A beautiful ink drawing from the Historical Techniques of Drawing class:
Wishing everyone a fulfilling and creative year ahead in 2012!

Workshop with Max Ginsburg: May 2011

We are very pleased to announce an alla prima portrait painting workshop with Max Ginsburg on May 13, 14 & 15, 2011. Please see our website or contact us for registration information.

Here are a few portrait sketches Max has done to give a sense of his approach for this workshop:


Max plans to focus on shorter poses of between 1 and 6 hours each with the model. This will encourage students to focus on the broad masses and color relationships that characterize the sitter, rather than getting caught rendering details too soon.

Max has had a long and distinguished career as an illustrator in New York City. His recent artwork has a strong humanitarian component, often portraying interactions between people in the urban environment of New York. Max has also devoted a series of paintings to protesting the Iraq war and examining patriotism in this context.


Max is currently preparing for a retrospective exhibition at the Butler Institute this September. He is a courageous artist who uses his talents to express important statements about our society. It is a privilege to have him return to our studio.

A look into the Atelier

2011 has begun as a busy and productive year at the Atelier. Here's a look at some highlights from our students.

Student finishing a drawing of David's eye:

Cast drawing in progress by one of our full-time students:




Grisaille painting class
A few more drawing classes:


We are looking forward to see what the rest of the year will bring!

Workshop with Dorian Vallejo at Atelier de Bresoles

This past weekend, we were very pleased to welcome master portrait artist Dorian Vallejo for a 3-day portrait painting workshop in our studio. Here are three quick demonstrations, each done in approximately 20 minutes.
In each demonstration, he has placed the general qualities of the sitter in a very loose manner, shaping the forms with masses of colour rather than linear outlines.



Dorian also showed the group some of his finished portraits, which have beautiful colour and a real sense of life. Each is a personal, artistic response to a different person and time.



Here are some more examples of Dorian's work done in faster sittings of approximately an hour, or a couple of hours each:

Many thanks to everyone who attended this workshop, and to Dorian for working so hard for each person. We hope to do this again next year!

Academie Drawings: Alexis Bafcop and Paul Chameron

written by Allana Benham
We are very pleased to share this group of original 19th century academies. These are marvelous examples of the diversity of academic approaches to drawing the figure through the mid-19th century.

The first three drawings are by French artist Alexis Bafcop (1804-1895). Each of these drawings is finished to a different degree, likely using charcoal, black chalk, and in some cases, white chalk. In the above example, circa the late 1830's or early 1840's, he has chosen a warm-toned paper, blocked in the figure, and refined the forms in the upper body. The lower legs and feet remain loose, giving a good indication of his starting process for the drawing as a whole. Bafcop used a sharp point to refine the line quality in the upper body and begin the tonal development of the shadows, and he has begun to add white chalk to develop the light mass.

In this second example, we see a bit more development than in the first, although Bafcop has retained the looseness of the feet here as well. It appears that the head and upper torso are essentially finished, while he has left himself the opportunity to change his mind about the exact placement of the feet. This drawing is on an off-white paper and done entirely in charcoal or black chalk, without the addition of any white. The deep tone in the background is very effective to isolate the whites of the paper within the figure, and his halftones are developed with the utmost sensitivity.

In the final example, we see a fully finished drawing, dated 1846. This drawing was done on a blue paper, reminiscent of Prud'hon a generation before. With the passage of time, the paper has become a more muted greyish blue. The surface of this drawing is carefully worked, likely with some kind of stump first and then a reapplication of tone using hatch marks. In places, the light and dark chalks are blended together; in others, one or the other is predominant.
detail:
Every part of the background and the figure is treated to give a clear impression of a solid, muscular body moving through an atmospheric space. Once again, the forms of the figure are represented in perfect focus, yet with a certain looseness about them. This drawing shows Bafcop's virtuosity and profound understanding of the human body, representing the pinnacle of his achievement in this genre.

Finally, we see another remarkable approach by Paul Chameron (1865-1918) in a drawing made while he was a student of Gerome, likely in the 1880's:

This drawing bears the stamp of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts for a concours d'emulation, a contest among the students for the best rendering from a live model. Chameron placed 6th, indicated by the large '6' in red on the left of the page, which may even be in Gerome's hand. This drawing was considered of high quality by Gerome, and we can appreciate Chameron's deft balance of precise linear drawing and soft, atmospheric tone. The varied tones in the background serve to give relief to the body and imply the space surrounding it.

verso of the drawing:detail:
These drawings have much to teach us about approaches to drawing the figure in the mid-19th century. We often think of academies as somewhat stiff or monolithic in approach, but for both of these artists, we can see that this is not the case. Both Chameron and Bafcop have chosen to emphasize the linear quality of their drawings in some places and de-emphasize it in others. But, each artist retains an open quality that breathes life into these figures. Each of these drawings is made according to the principles and taste of their times, and each is done in a unique way, representing the skill of these artists.