For anyone who might be interested I’d like to share some news about some ongoing and upcoming happenings with this blog and some other related blogs that should be of interest to readers here.
A frequent commenter here to Painting Perceptions, is the painter Rebecca Harp who currently lives in Israel working with the Jerusalem Studio School (JSS), an art school founded by artist Israel Hershberg which is considered by many to be one of the top figurative training programs in the world. She has been working with the JSS as a consultant and recently launched a blog which will feature interviews and highlight various concerns related to figurative art. Today she sent me a link to this recent post about her impressions of the first day of a master class with Israel Hershberg. I hope keep close watch on this blog and may post excerpts from and link to the interviews with and articles about the many terrific painters planned to visit the JSS. I am particularly intrigued by the JSS summer study program in Italy. (I confess my first thought beside how much? was is there some unwritten age limit that keeps old guys like me from signing up?)
I mentioned before that I have an article about Sangram Majumdar in the works where he has agreed to discuss his work briefly – however the article is postponed for a bit as he has been very busy with his current shows at the Steven Harvey Fine Art Project in NYC When he has the free time for this article I will post it shortly after.
In a few days I am flying to Minneapolis to make a video interview with Michael Kareken about his paintings and current show at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Not being a videographer, the newness of making a video interview pushes me further out of my comfort zone than I’d prefer, maybe chanting over and over “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” will keep anxiety demons away! Seriously, I would love to incorporate video interviews more – a great venue for painters to discuss their work. Having intelligent painters share insight into their painting approaches and concerns would be a valuable resource. After this interview, I’ll need to figure out a ways to expand my travel budget, until then I will need to limit my interviews and studio visits to artists closer to home here in Southern California.
I’ve been staying in LA and Pasadena over the past few days where I saw some fabulous shows that I hope to post about soon, Heat Waves in a Swamp: The Paintings of Charles Burchfield at the UCLA Hammer Museum and the Wayne Thiebaud, 70 Years of Painting at the Pasadena Museum of California Art.
Painting Perceptions was started in 2009 by Larry Groff to promote the ideas, practice and experience of painters working from observation in a modernist vein from around the world through interviews, essays, videos and community. It later evolved to include imagination-based and abstract painting as well.
thanks for the updates larry. as usual, i look forward to every post. i wasn’t aware of the jss blog. i have been looking at a lot of their work for a few years now. the faculty and student work is truly incredible.
i love the idea of video interviews. one of my past day jobs was working for this small internet company that did video interviews of business execs and lawyers on various areas of their expertise. anyway, one of the ways they began to expand was to set up a small network of people around the country who would record the interviews then send them in to the office in boston for editing. maybe this is a solution for overcoming your travel budget? i would be willing to volunteer to do them in boston or nyc for instance. perhaps there are more of us willing to pick up other areas? just a thought. all the best!
Hey Eric, great idea about having “video correspondents in various areas around the country/world. I am very open to this idea as well as being open to people who would like to write a review of a show, interview an artist or even to discuss some aspect of perceptual painting.
Of course, I’d encourage looking at work of accomplished painters that would be of interest to the reader here and I would need to agree with the idea of an article or video. Perhaps someday I can figure out a way to generate income from this blog – and pay people to do what you are suggesting. I think that is the best way to do it. But for now it has to be a labor of love.
Perhaps one way people could be encouraged to make this contribution of writing or video, is how the process of writing and interviewing could benefit their own work by the heightened focus and attention about another artist’s process and aesthetic concerns.
I have learned a great deal by the research and thinking about the artists I look at here, it has opened up my own painting tremendously in ways I would have never expected before this blog.
Thank you Larry! I truly appreciate your blog for it opens doors that I would never have known about. It feeds my hunger for knowledge and growth. Your blog maybe connects that small percentage who finds beauty in the arts. This is the Masters I was not able to afford.
Thank you, Thank You!
I’ve been reading this blog for a while, but never commented. I just wanted to say that I’ve been to the Italy program and it was FANTASTIC!! Definitely worth it. I would recommend it to anyone who really likes painting. Their main website is http://www.giotto.us
Thanks Paula and Jimmy Craig. Katerina. I will consider looking into writing a brief article on that program at the International Studio School