California Art Club winter symposium, San Francisco

 David Gallup's head studies

oil on canvas

closeup, David Gallup's head study 

oil on canvas

David 's plein air demo

waiting to capture birds en plein air

note:  all the photos are mine with the exception of the image from Kim Lordier's upcoming show

The California Art Club held a Winter Symposium last weekend, January 21st and 22nd at Fort Mason.  It was a great turnout . . . any more and it would've been hard to meet artists and mingle.  Fun to establish who you know and have in common and since I paint both in southern California and northern, I do get around!!  I've followed David Gallup's work: he paints the Channel Islands off of the Central Coast of California, is the artist in residence for the NPS and leads painting expeditions on a chartered boat out to the islands  . . .ummmmm I might mention how jealous I am of that whole thing but it can't be easy.  He paints head studies from life constantly in order to stay tuned up and ready to paint wildlife.  His bird paintings are beautiful!  The third photo shows David's outdoors demo on the first day . . . we all tried tossing out bagel bits to lure in a huge raven to act as a model, but the wildlife were stubbornly shy.

I had the chance to talk with David, Joseph Paquet, and Kim Lordier whose beautiful work is shown below, although I didn't get any shots of her demo because I sat too close. Master of  the medium and using exquisite design in her paintings, Kim spoke about strokes and marks in pastel paintings during a critique, i.e. don't be too choppy - her gesture when she is painting in pastel is beautiful to watch. I was able to put that into some of my work much sooner than I thought possible - see the next post! 

Kim Lordier's pastel; 

"Lavender at Matanzas", announcement for upcoming show 

Marin Outdoors Art Club

Kim's work is dramatic and has amazing expression; I have looked at her work and accomplishments in awe.

Joe Paquet in front of the big monitor

the painting was made up out of his head (no photo references)

oil on canvas

nearly done

Joe, or Joseph Paquet was the featured speaker on Sunday.  He presented a talk about his life, his early training and mentors, the highs (and lows) of being an artist.  His words all made mountains of sense and the presentation was reinforced with literary refernces .. .a piece by Rainer Maria Rielke, "Letters to a Young Poet" was poignant and backed his point. The presentation added depth of meaning to the conference.

The notes, written and visual, that I took from the conference will resonate with me for a while.  Continuing learning is what I heard from Joe Paquet and that reinforces what I find addicting and driving me forward - the continual acquisition of skills, refinement and learning.  The California Art Club is growing!  We have a new chapter in the Sacramento / Sierra region, and a new chapter for the Coachella Valley . . .couldn't be better than that.  The landscape and artists of California and the history of painting in this state are intertwined within the California Art Club.  And its an evolving, changing history.

http://www.californiaartclub.org/education-events/