Portrait and figure show, Philadelphia area
 

I wanted to let forum members know that some of my portraits will be shown at the American College in Bryn Mawr.

The opening reception is Friday, September 16, from 5:30 to 8:30. If you live in the area and you can get there, please come! It will be fun to meet in person.

Three artists in the show, including myself, are members of the PSA. The others are Nancy Bea Miller and Eliza Drake Auth. You might recognize my portrait of Nancy Bea on the invitation. It's posted in this forum.

Here's the image.

Alexandra,

Congratulations! That show bears a great title! It makes me wish I could be there and see your work in person. When my ship comes in I will be able to do things like that. In the meantime I wish you the very best at the show. Please take photos and post them!

I will definitely be there!
 

I know right where the Gregg Center is, too. You can count on me, I can't wait!
I'll bring my camera along. ;)

Alexandra, that's terrific! Good luck at the show!

Dear Alex, Congratulations!
 

ME TOO! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Garth

Alexandra,

Congratulation and good luck with the show. I

Thanks, everyone!
 

You are all so encouraging, and I can't wait to see/meet those of you who are able to attend! Molly and Garth, glad you are bringing your cameras because I know I will forget to take photos.

Molly, my kids will be in school next week, too, but let's wait till after the show to get together--I'm just too frazzled getting things framed and my daughter off to college. We can talk at the opening.

Alex

Congratulations Alexandra! I won't be able to be there so I'll just sit here content and enjoy your work online. "Nancy" is one of my favorite portaits, it has so much heart..


Jean

Jean, thanks so much for your support. As you probably have noticed, the real Nancy Bea will be there as well as her portrait.

I'll let everyone know how the opening goes!

Congratulations Alexandra,
I wish I could attend, I am very excited for you. I too, am very fond of your portrait and wish I could see it in person.

Best of Luck, enjoy the time!!

How exciting! Congratulations!

Congratulations, I wish I could be there for the opening!

I just wanted to mention that you might want to consider videotaping your opening. Just have a camera on a tripod running in a corner if you can't find anybody to handhold one. I didn't do this for my show but I wish I had thought of it. It will be a nice record for you to have.

If Garth shows up you will be sure to have lots of alarming, wild vortex photographs.

Meanwhile, I've just read a book called "How to Get Hung" (I'll search for the author) which talks about what to wear at your opening. I'd hate to think that people judge the art by what the artist looks like, but apparently it matters.

Great idea for unveilings too!

Congratulations!
 

Congratulations, Alexandra!

I wish you the best of luck! :)

Rui.

Pat, Julie, Linda, Michele and Rui--thanks for your kind words!

Michele and Linda, the videotaping idea is really good. I'll mention it to my husband and son. I think our camera needs a new battery, but other than that it should be easy to set it up.

Linda, I am so glad you mentioned the problem of what to wear! When I read it, I laughed because that's the one thing I usually forget until right before an event. I'm one of those people who likes to be well-dressed, but hates to shop! So someone has actually analyzed how one's style affects sales? Amazing! I'll have to read this book. And I'm going shopping (ugh) early this time.

Alex. I met the sculptor Lousie Nevelson many years ago at an opening/unveiling and while I couldn't begin to describe her unveiled artwork to you these many years later I can tell you exactly what Louise looked like - every inch The Artist. Apparently she thought that appearances, including clothing, were very important and not merely surface issues; here's an interesting converation with her on this website.

Louise Nevelson interview
 

What a gem! I loved the whole interview, not just the part about clothes.

The Review!
 

For Alex and her co-exhibiting friends, this is a fabulous blockbuster show! New Forum member, Nancy Bea Miller, Eliza Auth, and Carla Tudor are also exhibiting. Together they test the boundaries of contemporary portraiture with their compelling compositions and original conceptualizations. If you can visit before this show closes October 26th, DO!

At the well attended opening tonight, I found a number of reinactors present whom I was able to hire to bring Alex's paintings to life :D There were also a number of friends present at the opening, including Piety Choi from this Forum!

Wow! Enjoy the pictures.

1. I watercolor filtered this pic of Alex in her main lobby exhibit space.

2. Piety Choi with Alex stand beneath Alex's penetrating portrait of her filmmaker brother Nathaniel.

3. Look! It's Steve!

4. Meet Nancy Bea!

Garth

More of Alex's work:
 

I need to share a few more of Alex's portraits. In person she is very humble, yet once all her portraits are seen in one place, it quiokly becomes apparent how very accomplished and versatile she is at her craft. There is a remarkable degree of presence, sence of place, and penetrating depth to each of her portraits. These portraits have a beautiful luminosity. I am glad to have seen them, and applaud Alex for her accomplishments.

1. A huge and colorfully complex group portrait, the "Mitteldorf-Ballard Family" is 46 by 64 inches in scale.

2. Becca- Becca!

3. Air- Violin!

4. Apparently, the same shirt!

Garth

Day-after report
 

First of all, many, many thanks to Garth for acting as photographer! We forgot our camera (this kind of thing always happens to me when I'm trying to be extra efficient and organized), and Garth was the only one (other than the development person from the American College who was taking pictures for the alumni magazine) with a camera. He generously took the time from socializing to take a bunch of pictures to immortalize the event. Thank you, Garth! What would we have done without you? Piety, I want to thank you for coming. It was so nice to finally meet you, especially since we missed you last week.

The opening was very well attended and festive. The American College catered a lovely reception with all kings of elegant cheeses, desserts, and other goodies. It really was like four receptions for the four artists going on at once, with lots of overlap and mingling since there were people that more than one of us, or even all of us, knew. Lots of artists were there, which was fun. I think we accomplished our goal of getting portraiture and figurative work "out there" for people to see, and to explore the boundaries of how we define a portrait and a figure painting, and examining the areas of overlap. Hopefully we will have more shows in the future and gradually include more artists.

Congratulations, Alexandra! It's so great to see the photos as well so I'm glad Garth was there. Looks like a wonderful event. I wish I lived closer.

What a terrific show! It looks wonderful - paintings, artists, visitors - gosh I wish I'd been there! I am so happy for all of you :exclamati

And I love it when subjects stand next to their paintings!

Thanks, Lisa and Linda! I wish both of you could have been there.

I wanted to mention that one of the other artists in the show, Nancy Bea Miller, a PSA member, has now joined the forum!

Press coverage!
 

Not to brag or anything, but I wanted to let you all know that we received excellent local publicity for this show! It was reviewed in three papers, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Main Line Times, and Art Matters. We were also mentioned as a "best bet" in the Inquirer's list of suggested cultural activities on the Main Line (the area where the show was).

I think this says something very positive about the growing enthusiasm for portraiture, which is especially encouraging in the Philadelphia area. Philadelphia has a rich history of famous portrait painters--Cecilia Beaux, Mary Cassat, Andrew Wyeth, Thomas Eakins--even Sargent's parents were Philadelphians. But in recent history Philadelphians have not showed the same interest in commissioning portraits as people in the South and other parts of the U.S. We are hoping for a regeneration of interest!

Below I'm attaching an image of one review. I know it's too small to read, but maybe you can see some of the pictures. All are from our show.

This is wonderful publicity, congratulations to all of you!

Yes, yes.

That's wonderful Alex! I see one of yours in the pictures there :)

Fantastic, Alex! I can almost read the article too. I bet if I was 20 again I could. Congratulations.

Yeah, I know what you mean, Lisa! Actually it is blurry, it's not just your eyes, if that's any comfort.

Thanks, everyone, for even bothering to look after the fact. We are going to do this again--there are many more artists in our area that we can add in future years--but I'm hoping someone with better organizational skills might attempt something regional, or even national. Also, I am hoping that this might encourage people in different areas of the country to try similar shows. It wasn't that hard to do with just four people, and it generated a lot of interest.

Alex