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Exhibition of Italian Baroque Paintings Coming to Tallahassee

The Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, will be bringing 50 Italian Baroque paintings to Tallahassee, Florida, next spring.  Last night, Studio b. hosted the “b+b@b” event to celebrate the upcoming exhibition and to introduce the community to the Brogan Museum.  Several staff members were there from the Brogan Museum, including Chucha Barber, CEO of the Brogan.  Also attending, and sharing a film, was Paul Cohen, independent motion picture executive and Director of the Torchlight Program at Florida State University.  Prints of the Baroque masterpieces that are currently being restored were available for viewing, awaiting “adoption” by patrons.  Colleen Duffley presided over the event, offering delectable fare and cocktails to guests while they visited and perused installations by several new artists at Studio b.

It being some 30 years since my art history studies, I was unable to identify the Italian Baroque artists, but the lighting and drama of the Baroque period were unmistakable in the prints the Brogan Museum had on display.  It’s a thrill that our community is the beneficiary of this exposure to the masters, thanks to Studio b.  I’m looking forward to the February event and the exhibition.

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Open Studio Figure Drawing at Studio b.

Top half of standing pose pictured below

This week we had a new model and open studio figure drawing.  Creativity was a-buzzing!

There are many decisions to be made when starting a new drawing, and having a new unfamiliar model adds to the mix.  After looking at the model and deciding whether the pose is good for me or whether I need to move to a different vantage point, then I have to decide what medium I am going to use, which then helps me decide what paper to use for that medium.  I take a big art-box with me to the drawing sessions, and a board with several different papers clipped to it, and sometimes I bring a watercolor pad as well.  I don’t necessarily have a favorite medium that I work with all the time.  Most certainly, I prefer graphite , but it’s fun to use different media.  My art-box also contains black and brown permanent pens, water soluble blue and black pens, charcoal, tinted charcoal, washable graphtint (tinted graphite) pencils, conte, wax crayons, watercolor pencils, and nupastels.

After I pick my media, next I face the choice of approach.  Here’s where I usually just jump in and start working the gesture, without thought for whether my initial marks are going to contribute to or detract from the end result.  Since every pose is timed, the immediacy of working from a live model requires some quick decision-making and the guts to just go for it, not worrying too much about whether I am going to turn out a masterpiece or not.  In the end, there is usually something about every drawing that I like, even if there are proportional inaccuracies or places where I got something completely wrong.  That is why I keep coming back to Studio b. for Wednesday night Figure Drawing.

Some of our group’s drawings will be on display at Studio b. this-coming Thursday, November 4, 2010, for the b+b@b event to announce  Studio b.’s partnering with the Brogan Museum of Art and Science to celebrate the exhibition of 50 Baroque Italian masterpieces, which will be debuting in Tallahassee in March of 2011.

Some of our group’s drawings will be on display at Studio b. for the b+b@b event this-coming Thursday, November 4, 2010, for the celebration of Studio b.’s partnering with the Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science promoting Food, Art, Film, and Fashion.