It was quite the weekend at
The Salmagundi Club here in New York City. It began on Friday night with the opening reception for the members and masters show.
The club members had their paintings displayed in the main gallery. Also on display were paintings from the artists who would be participating in the mentoring event on Sunday.
Self portrait by
Gregg Kreutz
Painting by
Sherrie McGraw
Painting by
Leah Lopez (mentor from the 2013 event).
In the club's upstairs gallery, there was a separate show of paintings from the four artists who would be painting with us on Sunday.
These paintings are by
Jacqueline Kamin. I was unfamiliar with Jackie's work before the show, but she is an amazing painter and a lovely person. As you know I love florals and Jackie's are incredible.
These are some of Gregg's paintings. Of course, I've seen them in his studio, but it was great to see them all framed and hanging in a gallery setting.
And here we have a painting from the man we all descended from,
David Leffel. David is the master artist and teacher and we were so lucky to have him at the club for this event.
There were also some paintings from Sherrie McGraw, but my shots did not come out very well. If you have a chance, check out this exhibit. It was unbelievable to see these four artists exhibiting together.
On Saturday, David Leffel did a portrait demonstration in the gallery. I was devastated to miss this and believe me when I say there is
only one person on the planet who could have kept me from this event. I was very lucky, however, to be able to observe on Sunday when David came back to work on the painting.
You may have noticed some video and lighting equipment around. The demo was being filmed and I hope at some point it will be added to the video library that David Leffel, Sherrie McGraw and Jacqueline Kamin have made available through
The Artist Guild and Brightlight Publishing.
On Sunday morning we arrived at the club bright and early for the Mentoring With The Masters portion of the weekend. The set up was the same as
last year. There were models in several rooms at the club and the mentors and students could move around to paint or observe anything that was going on.
As I did last year, I stayed in the basement pool room the entire time. I'm happy to report that this year I worked on a bigger canvas (11x14 as opposed to 9x12) and got more of the painting done. As you know I am no daily painter, so getting a somewhat finished painting in one shot is unusual for me. It is not finished by any means, but I was happy at the end of the day.
This is the view I was painting. I was lucky that I had some experience after being there last year and I think that made it easier for me.
This was my original block in. As you know, perspective=hell for me, so I spent quite a bit of time just getting the angles of the pool table right.
This is where I ended up at the end of the day. Definitely not my usual fare, but you have to step out of your comfort zone every once in awhile and try something new, right?
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| Painting by Gregg Kreutz |
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| Sherrie McGraw with a student |
When the painting portion of the day was concluded, the instructors gave us a critique and David Leffel talked to us about painting (what an incredible treat, I could have listened all night).
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| Sherrie giving a critique |
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| David Leffel talking to us about art and painting |
Whew! I think this is the longest post I have ever written, but there was so much to tell you I wanted to get it all in. I had a fantastic time and I must give special thanks to Gregg Kreutz, David Leffel, Sherrie McGraw, Jacqueline Kamin,
Robert Pillsbury,
Tim Newton and the staff of the Salmagundi Club for an incredible, art filled weekend!
