Art Stuff Newsletter

the art newsletter about YOU....

OK, let's dive right into the next 8 web sites. If you haven't shared your web site with the rest of us send it to me and I guarantee it will be in the next newsletter.

Web Sites

Here are the figurative and still life paintings of Scottsdale, Arizona artist (and past workshop attendee) Jan Cyr.

Maryland artist Claudia Brooks has a nice series of San Miguel de Allende paintings as well as collections of watercolors and plein air paintings.

This site welcomes you to the 'world's greatest virtual art museum'.. and perhaps you can help me figure out exactly what this is all about. Sure is fascinating though.

Don't miss the colorful paintings of Washington state artist Alfred Currier, and visit his blog as well.

Melbourne artist Rebecca Saunders is getting her web site organized from down under.

Ex-Pat photographer Jeff Berner has a heck of a resume. Originally from California he now makes his home full time in France.

Good friend and Des Moines artist Mary Muller paints landscapes, florals and portraits (and teaches) in her spacious Iowa studio.

Scottish artist Joan Eardley lived only 42 years and was largely unknown in the greater art world.

Miscellaneous

Those of you who know about the Open Box M pochade boxes and accessories ought to know what they've had to deal with in recent months and where they're at now. Here's a letter I received from Doug:

"I just wanted to drop you a line and let you know that Boone, our head craftsman who was in the automobile accident earlier this summer has returned to work as of today. We aren't sure what his limitations will be as of yet. He does have movement in his hand, just not full strength or mobility. I really appreciate your concern and wanted to keep you updated. We are getting close to being back on track as far as getting orders out in a timely manner. I have finally noticed some progress from the many long days I've spent here since his accident. I hope you are doing well on your end." Here's a link to their site.

I am recylcing this from a past newsletter because I find it so interesting: "In her recent book Portrait of a Killer, best-selling author Patricia Cornwell shines the spotlight of suspicion squarely on artist Walter Sickert as a prime candidate for Jack the Ripper.

An Impressionist painter who studied under Degas, Sickert produced a series of "gruesome" paintings some 20 years after the unsolved murders of five prostitutes in Victorian London. The series, titled "Camden Town Murders," bear what some report is a chilling resemblance to the crime scenes from the Jack the Ripper cases. She actually bought 30 of Sickert's paintings and even ripped one apart in a futile search for DNA from the artist! Here are some of his paintings. See if you can find evidence that these models were either some of his victims or resembled them in any way.

I'm leaving tomorrow for the Teresa Vito Bordeaux workshop. Of course we'll be painting but I also have some other cultural things planned for the group - as I usually do. Three of our days are scheduled out of town to the famous wine producing villages of St, Emilion, St. Estephe and Medoc. We'll be either painting in the vineyards themselves or painting in the villages and later taking tours of the wineries. One night we have tickets to a Baroque concert at one of the old Cathedrals in Bordeaux. So just remember that whether you sign up for Timothy Horn in San Miguel de Allende or Kim English in Burgundy, France next year, you'll be getting a total experience!

No matter how long any of us have been painting or how wonderful our paintings can sometimes look we can often benefit from another pair of eyes. The other day I was putting the finishing touches on a painting when a friend/painter (yeah John - that was you!) came by and pointed out something so obvious that wasn't working in the painting. He was right on about it and even though I initially was NOT happy to hear this, I made the significant changes that the painting needed. He gave me a gift that at first I did not want. But now I'm better equipped to deal with similar problems when they come up.

artist quotes

Leonardo da Vinci: "Art is the Queen of all sciences communicating knowledge to all the generations of the world."

Frank Auberbach: "I think that the very earliest influence was a horror of having to work in a bank or an office, a desire for a free and creative life."

Jean Michel Basquiat: "Believe it or not, I can actually draw."

Richard Diebenkorn: "In a successful painting everything is integral.. all the parts belong to the whole. If you remove an aspect or element you are removing its wholeness."

Peter Doig: " I constantly have to negotiate with my doubts."

Phil Levine Workshops, Inc.
69 bank Street #102. NY, NY 10014
phone: 212-414-8875 fax: 866-501-6873
e-mail: philiplevine@earthlink.net