Portrait Society of America, Conference

Next week I will spend Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Portrait Society of America Annual Conference in Reston Virginia. I am really looking forward to this event and am fortunate to live close enough to drive each day and not have to have hotel accomodations. I will have a friend sit my gallery while I am away.

At the conference, I will renew some friendships, make a few new ones, and get totally re-engergized and motivated about my portrait work. It is an excellent conference to attend and so informative. I am registered to take the Drawing workshop with Edward Jonas and Anthony Ryder. Both are tops in the field of portraiture and both are fantastic teachers. This workshop will be the highlight of the conference for me.

Artist, Kurt Schwartz

I spent today at The Art League in Alexandria, helping with receiving for the monthly juried show. While there, I went upstairs to the offices to do some copier work for the gallery and happened to see a beautiful study by Kurt Schwartz in the conference room.

The study was of a black German Shepard dog and it was stunning. You can see life in the dog's eyes and I was mesmerized by the fluid beauty in his brushstrokes. This one painting convinced me today, that I will enroll in one of his classes very soon.

Ice House Again

Here is another view of the Ice House Gallery. Tres Chic! This view shows the sales counter and a corner of my easel is just in the lower left of this photo. The baroque red chair is for my male clients sitting for their portrait. The more femine chair was in the previous post.

I am so totally focused when at the studio. Very soothing atmosphere to paint in.

Online Portfolios Again

Hey there fellow artists. I am being bombarded with come ons from every online portfolio or art rep. agency. Seems they all got wind of my quiting the online art rep portfolio that I previously belonged to. Anyway, just wanted to pass on to you again,

Picasso and I

I spent all day yesterday working on the portrait of myself, especially the lower jaw and cheeks. I unfortunately forgot my camera. I will snap a few shots on Friday, since Thursday is my day off. Several folks, writters from San Francisco doing travel articles, stopped in yesterday and were quite interested in the portrait process. They were checking out the shops in Washington for an upcoming artcle.

Ice House Interior

As promised, here is an interior shot of the new Ice House Gallery. I will show more shots later.

My easel is located in the corner oposite this view and is positioned in front of a North Light window. Finally, North Light ! I could not ask for better lighting for the artwork in the gallery or for my easel up front.

Grand Opening at Ice House Gallery

The grand opening celebration of Ice House Gallery on Saturday, March 14th, was a resounding success. Over a hundred attendees came out on a rainy, gloomy day to help me celebrate the new home of my portrait studio and we christened the gallery with a soiree par excellance.

The day's festivities began with the first annual Saint Patricks Day Parade in Little Washington at 11:00 a.m. The parade route went down Main Street right in front of my gallery/studio. We all rushed outside at 11:00 and stood on the lawn of the gallery to enjoy the parade.

Throughout the day gallery guests were served champagne and strawberries while they enjoyed the artwork and warmth of the gallery. Many of the visitors came from Washington DC and one very important couple drove all the way from Charlottesville. It was a wonderful day of seeing old friends and collectors and making new ones.

I would like to pass on a special thank you to Monica Carroll and Jeanne Mitchell for all of their help and making the day so much fun. Also a thank you to Lorraine, the flowers are just beautiful.

I do hope that if you were unable to attend, you will make a point of stopping in to visit when you are in Washington Virginia.