Author: Je

Despite all that has happened in the past 2 years, it has been exceptional time for creativity. All of us have different ways of expressing our artistic visions, but I take time to plan and execute paintings that I have in mind. I suppose that’s why I gravitate towards painting from life, because the subject is readily available… 

There are so many possible scenes that can make great paintings, so I generally spend a lot of time sketching and painting things that are right in front me until the undeniable “A-ha” moment reveals itself.

Title: Time
Oil on Canvas
48×24 Inches

I spent 3 weeks painting this portrait.

So much has happened during that time. The war in Ukraine is still raging on, Inflation has been driving up the cost of everything—apparently there is shortage of baby formula, Twitter is slated to be owned by Elon Must, etc.

Despite all that, time moves on.

On the personal front, I began and completed this painting, had a successful class exhibition with fellow artists—One of my painting was recognized with a blue-dot award—and I finished my #100HumanChallenge.

After a series of short poses that range from 1 minute to twenty minutes, I got around to draw a twenty minute portrait from life this afternoon.

Twenty minutes can be spent on doing lots of things: do nothing, watch TV, go for a walk, read, or create something.

The April 2022 issue of Monocle Magazine wrote a story, League of its own, about Art Students League of New York. The article describes the league and includes cool interview commentaries from executive director Michael Hall, and two instructors, one of them being no other than my instructor and mentor Sharon Sprung.

What’s also cool is that the magazine highlights a few photos of our Studio, including a pose of Maria that resulted the featured painting.

Related Links

Monocle preview: April issue, 2022 – Monocle’s April issue features our annual retail survey, a report from France ahead of its presidential elections, an interview with Fiat’s CEO on his electric ambitions and a visit to America’s oldest independent art school, plus much more.

One More Painting – My post from the time that we painted the highlighted photos from the magazine

So I have been thinking. While it is easy to start painting with oil medium, it’s incredibly difficult to become great at oil painting, especially from life. They’re simply so much to learn, not to mention the need to master the draftsmanship required to attempt painting from life models. Then comes a series of oil colors that have all different properties.

And, hundred years of tracing from photos or other mechanisms have ruined—or have enhanced—the entire experience of painting from life.

The pandemic have allowed me to work using digital tools. I have to say I had no desire or inspiration to paint from life before, but I learned that many great artists used photo references to paint, which I found interesting.

Now that we are back in the studio, I now have renewed enthusiasm and appreciation for painting from life and live interaction with professional models and the entire experience.

This particular pose was super interesting, not only because it was all completed from life, but using natural light. You see, because of construction, our studio skylight had been closed for a few years.