Saturday Mornings at PAFA

I'm taking a life-drawing class at PAFA (Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.)  This morning the model didn't show (a perennial problem in art schools), so we drew from the casts in PAFA's famous cast hall.  This is a hall full of casts of famous sculptures, including Michelangelo's David.

Apparently John Wanamaker wanted a cast of David to promote Italian merchandise in his department store.  The plasterer asked him whether he wanted it life-size, and Wanamaker said yes, thinking the cast would be about the size of a man.  Instead, the plasterer made the cast the same size as the original statue, namely 17 feet high.  It was too huge for the department store and wound up in PAFA's cast hall.  At least that's the story I've heard.

So I spent the morning trying to draw it.  That head can't possibly be right, but it's too late now.

Buddy, Can You Spare a Few Million?

If I had a few million clams to spare, I'd be spending them here:

Sotheby's Old Masters Catalogue

In Progress 4

Life Drawing and Painting

For many years now, I've taken life (i.e., there's a live model) drawing and painting  classes.

Taking classes is a good way to spend a chunk of time drawing and painting in the company of other people who care about art.  I'm not Picasso in Paris; I don't have a café where I can hang out with other artists and then wander back to their studios to look at their work.  Classes fill some of that social need for me.

Although my finished paintings have been mostly still lives (so far), I always enjoy drawing the figure.  It's an endless challenge.  It is both extremely complex and extremely familiar, so that if any detail is even slightly off, you'll know immediately.  This is in contrast to a subject like a tree, which might be just as complex, but less familiar, so that if the branch structure is slightly off, no-one's the wiser.   If you can draw the human figure, you can draw anything.

Above is my latest effort from life-drawing class.  It's pretty well developed for me, since it was one three-hour session.  One skill I'm working on is the ability to paint quickly and directly, with minimal fussing and second-guessing.

On Site

Yesterday was the last day of the Play show, so I took a picture of my paintings on site.  They gave me a very good placement -- right by the door as you walk in. 

In Progress 3