Part One: The Connecticut Society of Portrait Artists presents A Daniel Greene Festival 2012

After attending another excellent Weekend Symposium given by CSOPA, (The Connecticut Society of Portrait Artists),I thought that I should blog about the fine experience and to commend the President and Founder of the Society, Jeanine Jackson, CSOPA CoChairs Deborah Howland Murray and Nancy Stember, the Event Chairs, Patricia Boes and Joel Spector and the many others who put this event together and volunteered for one job or another.

For those artists interested in Portraiture, it is a must to attend an event like this. It is a marathon of talks, lectures, demonstrations, and visits by significant members of the art community in this state as well as throughout the United States. Jeanine Jackson succeeded in presenting to the Portrait Community a most interesting and thought provoking look into the portrait and the portrait painter.

For those of you who missed this great weekend I would like to recap some of the activities and events that I benefited the most from.

The Weekend began with a  portrait exhibition juried by Artist Steven Assael , known for his contemporary realism and figurative work. The opening reception was on Friday Feb. 3, 2012 and began only after a fine "Paint off Trio Demo" that took place at 4:30 by artists Joel Spector, William Nathans, and Jesus Emmanuel Villarreal.

Each stood at their easels painting the same model from different angles in the corridor of the UCONN Campus just outside of the main exhibition called "Faces of Winter 2012". Artists came early to watch the artists demonstrate and to kick off the Opening of the Portrait Exhibition which began at 6pm. Many wore red or at least a bit of red for the occasion being so close to Valentine's Day.

Each artist painted in their own style, using their own unique palette and all painted in oil here. One artist on the right used a pochade box style easel that has a palette that drops down right in front of the artist almost at a right angle so that you can look at your paint and mixing right below the painting you are working on. Many of the artists in the crowd came from all over our state of CT. as well as several other states. Most artists were older with a great deal of experience, but there were some young talents there in attendance as well. The portrait demos were sold to the highest bidder when the working time finished.

 The show was hung by Artists Sandra Wakeen and Diane Aeschliman and was well attended. The far wall was hung with paintings by faculty members of CSOPA chosen by Ms. Jackson for their noted accomplishments as instructors and painters. The middle of the faculty wall hung a beautiful intense oil painting of two young women by Daniel Greene, who was chosen to receive a lifetime achievement award that weekend. The oil painting on the right side of the wall of a young woman in intense blue with her hands folded was painted by Dan's talented wife and artist Wendy Caporale. I couldn't keep my eyes off of these two paintings. They sang to me!

At the opening reception of the show I met "Facebook Artist Friend" Alan Dingman and his lovely wife. In the photo above, me, Alan's wife and my artist/friend Jan Blencowe  who came down for the opening and brought with her two of my young talented atelier students.

This is Artist and Pastelist Alain Picard from CT. with me, my student Anna, artist/friend Jan and her daughter and my fine atelier student Shannon Blencowe.

These were this years award winners for the "Faces of Winter 2012" Exhibition and you can find me in there back row on left in back. I painted Dan Greene's portrait in pastel for my entry into the show this year to pay my appreciation and respect to him as the artist who was most important in my career of over 45 yrs now. I did not have him to sit for the pastel portrait I did of him and found it necessary to paint it from a small snapshot I took just two years ago while he was at a portrait event. It was well received and most importantly by Dan himself.

This is my husband Daryl and I standing in front of my portrait of Daniel Greene called "The Mentor"

It was a thrill to stand in front of my pastel painting "The Mentor" and have Dan Greene right along side of me. One of my pastel paintings I painted of him years ago is in Dan's own private collection.

Part Two next week