Te Uru Demonstration painting workshop 2016

Physicist David Stork Articles and papers refuting Hockney's book "Secret Knowledge"

"I understand the constructed nature of art -- that artists are not photographers," David Stork. Although scholars have been happy to see Stork use science to bring about the demise of Hockney's theory, they've tended to view his work as confirmation of something they'd always insisted on, for all sorts of cogent historical reasons.

View article here

Stills from David Storks computational model calculating Diego Velasquez's painting Las Meninas was painted from life and not created through the use of the camera obscura that Velasquez projected onto a canvas and traced.

Inferring illumination direction estimated from disparate sources in paintings: An investigation into Jan Vermeer’s Girl with a pearl earring

"Stork and Johnson tested for the location of the illuminant, and thereby rejected the claim that an artist used projection optics when executing a particular painting....Our work has addressed the estimation of the direction of the illumination perpendicular to the line of sight; that is, this direction could be described by a single angle with respect to the horizontal."

View paper as PDF here

"Fidelity analysis of mechanically aided copying/enlarging of Jan van Eyck’s Portrait of Niccolò" Albergati" By David Stork & Marco Duarte

View pdf here

2014 ADAM PORTRAIT AWARD WINNER

Congratulations to Henry Christian-Slane for winning the 2014 NZ portrait awards. I had the privilege of tutoring Henry in life drawing on the pictorial design program at the Auckland University of Technology; at the end of his degree Henry attended a realist workshop intensive painting course.

The Power of Patience

A good article from a Havard Art Historian lecurer "... if we want to teach history responsibly, we need to give students an opportunity to understand the formative values of time and delay."  This article can be applied to realist practitioners and students as well.

View her article here.

Radio New Zealand Interview

It was a great doing an interview with Justin Gregory about life drawing in New Zealand; in relation to a class I'm teaching at Pah Homstead on the 21st of February. The class will be an informal evening run in conjunction with the exhibition of male nudes.

The interview will go to air on Radio New Zealand Arts on Sunday 17th of February between 12:30 & 3:30 pm  http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/artsonsunday 

While we talked I was able to do a quick sketch of Justin. Hear the inside story on the 17th.

Justin Gregory, 30 minute rapid sketch, pencil on paper,
297 x 210mm,2013

Graphic Novel and Illustration Artists

Henry attended the 2012 portrait painting class and Maxi Quy attended the January 2012 intensive; as well they attended life drawing classes at AUT as part of the pictorial design programme. Maxi went onto do his post graduate and you can view his latest graphic novel here http://maxiquy.tumblr.com/

Maxi graduated with honours. Well done my man!

They are currently freelancing and exhibiting at their Queen street studios. I had the good fortune of seeing their latest show and expect more great work to come.

January 2013 One Month Intensive Class Demonstration

During the one month intensive I was able to take more time to discuss and demonstrate key principles used in my art practice. Students were able to see how I go about creating my work. They asked questions about my methodology and practice. Its a good way for me to articulate and share my methods; demonstrations clarify a sequence of thoughts within the mind as each step or mark is thoughtfully considered and disscussed in the process of creating a drawing or painting.

Examples of Student work will be coming soon. 

Drawings demonstrating envelope, inner-curve, planarity of form and action.

Poster Study

Ink-in

Form painting

Pathway Demonstration

Hand Demonstration

Munsell Hue Test

 Here is a link to the Munsell hue test developed using the colour system of Albert Munsell

Good luck!

Exhibition of Dean Tersel at Orex Gallery

My good friend Dean is showing a series of drawings at Orex Gallery. You would know Dean from Studio art supplies; he is a great resource on all things relating to art materials.  His current work is inspired by the the spanish realists in particular the drawings of Antonio Lopez Garcia. If you head along to the show you'll be able to obtain a great catalogue and essay by Dean on the history of the carbon pencil.

Exhibition of Susan Ewen, Miriam Verhoef & David Quilan

Miriam Verhoef with one of her paintings

I've known Susan Ewen & Miriam Verhoef for several years and have had the pleasure of working with them in various workshops within that time. They along with their artist friend David Quilan have recently exhibited at the Franklin Arts Centre.

Susans life long connection to horses has provided ample inspiration; Susan specializes in equine. Her experience drawing from the human figure is evident; exploring the subtleties of gesture and structure.

Miriams group of paintings are vibrant with forays into the sensual; flesh, sun and water. What more could one ask for? Her work focuses on summertime and the leisurely pursuits of holiday goers frolicking or relaxing by the seaside in varying poses. Drawn from her own experience it reminded me of the great Spanish painter - with a similar interest in the seaside - Joaquin Sorolla. The picture Miriam posed beside above also reminded me of an allegorical reference to the the three Graces.

David Quinlan exhibited some nice seascapes influenced by his voyages on the open sea.

Thanks for the great work Susan, Miriam & David.

Mother with Foal , oil on Canvas by Susan Ewen