After Sketching: Evening #3

This time for Sketching in the Gallery at the Dallas Museum of Art, we worked from a small retrospective of paintings, drawings, and lithographs from the Dallas Texas artist Edward g. Eisenlohr (1872 - 1961). The exhibition is situated so that most of the artwork is seen for the first time from across the gallery, about 60 feet away. We stopped at that distance to study the artwork, to focus on what we could see, to study the big shapes, the big blocks of color, light and shadow. We then stepped forwards about 25 feet to see what was now in focus. Then we walked up close to examine the details.

When viewing Edward's artwork in this manor it is very easy to observe the changes that distance has on your perception of a painting, and how subject matter can often overwhelm the experience of looking at art. I also used this process to demonstrate how to drawing the big shapes first, to lay out your composition, and work slowly up to the details.

The next meeting will be the last for me to lead and the very last meeting of the Sketching in the Galleries program. I think the DMA is making a mistake by canceling this program, but I don't run the museum, I just like to draw...

Sketching in the Galleries @ the Dallas Museum of Art: Evening #3

Tonight at the DMA we will be drawing from a great little exhibition of paintings, drawing and lithographs from the little known Dallas artist Edward g. Eisenlohr 1872 - 1961.

According to the history books, this Oak Cliff artist holds the record for producing more drawings and paintings of Dallas than any other artist, and is considered one of the pioneer landscape painters of Texas.

His artwork often reflects the artistic trends and styles of the times, a little impressionism, a little romanticism... But he is a fantastic draftsman, and it is clear that he really loved to draw.

Shown here is"The Water Hole Dallas" 1932, one of the many drawings that the Valley House Gallery has in their inventory.

After Sketching: Evening #2, The end of Sketching in the Galleries

Well the class started with Stacy and Tracy announcing to the drawing group that this will be the last month that the Dallas Museum of Art will host the Sketching in the Gallery program. After September 24th there will be no more drawing program.

This was a shock to all. And for those that have been involved in the program for years and years it is the end of something very important. Of course the DMA is stating that the program is not ending, it's being transformed into an artist lead multi media program to be held each Thursday in the Center for Creative Connections. This sounds nice, but the people that like to draw from the collection will more than likely not participate in a multi media class room setting. It is apples and oranges, oil and water, beer and ice cream.

The removal of the Sketching in the Galleries program will remove a very strong public display of people actually using the museum and it's collection as a tool to study art. When the public sees people sketching from the collection it causes them to slow down and take a second look at the art. It validates the life of the collection.

I do realize that the Sketching from the Collection program is not a big public atraction or a money maker for the DMA. But it is a consistent program where the group usually numbers around 10-22 people EVERY Thursday night. It is one of the only programs in Dallas where creative people can consistently meet and interact with local professional artists. I know I have used this program in the past to meet artists that I was otherwise be to shy to introduce myself to.

Lastly, unlike the programs held in the Center for Creative Connections, Sketching in the Galleries pretty much runs itself. On the first night of the month a member of the DMA staff introduces the artists who will lead the program for that month. After that, the artist runs the program totally by themselves for the rest of the month. Total amount of DMA staff time, about 10 minutes.

Well, I did go on and on about this, but I deleted it because this program has always been close to my heart, and I was just going into an emotional tyrant about it. I still have 2 more nights of drawing to go, so we'll make the best of it.

Please join us if you feel like a bit of sketching.

Sketching in the Galleries @ the Dallas Museum Of Art: Evening 2

Tonight is the 2nd in the 4 nights that I will be hosting the Sketching in the Gallery program. Last week was a lot of fun. A few people even stayed after class to show me their other drawings and to ask my advise about drawing. Now if that sort of thing is not a big artty ego boost you must be dead.

Tonight we will be drawing from a few of the Degas pastels that are in the current show All the World is a Stage. The photo above is not in the exhibit, but it is the same style and subject mater that we will be working from. The focus will be on how Degas warped space to create drama.

After the sketching class

There were 22 people in the group last night. Some were the core group that comes to most of the sessions, some had attended a few times, and some were first timers. There were a few that were new to Dallas and were looking for ways to connect with the Dallas art scene.

As stated in the previous blog, the drawing skill level of the group varied a lot. But everyone seemed to really enjoy the slow looking that copying a painting offers. This act revels how beautifully complex the composition of the paint was. One person commented that he had never noticed there was a wagon sitting on the hill, and that without the wagon the sense of perspective falls apart.

Sketching in the Galleries @ the Dallas Museum of Art

Tonight is my first night to lead the Sketching in the Galleries program at the DMA. I will be leading the drawing group for the next 4 proceeding Thursdays from 7-8:30. The group is usually around 10-25 people, with a wide range of drawing skills.

This will be my 4th time in 4 years to lead this group. I always love doing it because I love being around people that are excited about drawing.

Tonight we are going to be focusing on shadows. I have selected 4 paintings in the European gallery to work from. Alfred Sisely - The Lesson, Daumier - The Print Seller's (very semular to the one shown here), Pissarro - Apple Picking, and Villon - Society. All use large areas of shadow in a graphic and dramatic style.

Substitute Life Drawing Teaching at Creative Art Center

Tonight I will be leading the life drawing class at CAC. I am very excited about this opportunity to talk about drawing the figure and about the way your mind often tells your eyes what they are seeing. To heighten that phenomenon we will be drawing a lot of posses that focus on foreshortening.

Substitute Drawing Teacher @ the Creative Art Center

My very good friend and a really great artist, Susan Giller has asked me to substitute for her while she dashes up the Boston for a bit of northern culture and eating.

The class tonight is called Quick Draw. It focuses on the exploration of all forms of drawing, but leans a bit more towards still life drawing. I'll be carting a few boxes of junk up there to have the class draw from, plus a stack of books too.

End of the Third week at VSC

It's not quite the end of the third week, but things are going so fast around here that by the time I post this it will be dinner time. Eating being the most common way of telling time at VSC.

Above is a figure drawing that I did at one of the daily figure drawing sessions. I am not trying to render the figure in terms of proportions or scale, but in terms of mass pushing against mass. The pencil is used as a sculpting tool to dig out areas and push material together. You can see more of the drawings at my Flickr page.

Rodin @ Vermont

This is a fresh on the wall photo of the Rodin project that I am working on while at VSC. It started with an old art book on Rodin. I removed the photos and then mapped out the sight lines found in each image. Using these sight lines as a guide I created new forms. To see more photos of this project please go to my Flickr page.

Desk Top Drawings Phase 3

I just finished the last drawing for Desk Top Drawings Phase 3. This is a series of drawings on photos that began as doodles on my work desk. So Phase 1 is photographs of the doodles on the work desk. Phase 2 is photos of the doodles that I have drawn on top of. Phase 3 is photos of phase 2 that I have drawn on top of again. Next I'll start phase 4, drawings on top of a photo of a photo of a photo of a photo.

This is a very simple system, but in practice it combines the process of redefining an image while the image is being degraded by photographic reproduction.

For more info on this project go to www.BradFordSmith.us

So... what the hell comes down.

So... Today was the last day of the show. I spent it packing up art work and sending the work that sold to it’s new homes.

This has been a really great event for me. The Janette Kennedy gallery is organized so that the artist is in charge of all most every aspect of putting a show together. And I must admit that it was a lot more work than I thought. Just organizing and sending out the press releases was quite a task. In the future I will be much more thankful for all the hard work that gallery owners put into an art exhibit.