Real People 2009

"Do you only paint desserts?" I am often asked. The answer is no, I can and do paint many things and practice in many disciplines. One of those is figure drawing. From Fall to Spring, I spend several evenings with my life drawing group. We are a group of artists that get together a couple of times a month and hire a model to sketch, draw or paint. I create little paintings of the models. The interesting part is that each painting is complete in 25 minutes or less because this is as long as the model poses. And some poses are much shorter.

Having accumulated quite a collection of 25-minute paintings (some of which I really like), I decided to enter Real People 2009, a national juried exhibition. I pulled together 25 paintings (each one is 8"x10") and arranged them into one display, shown here. The title of the complete display is 25 in 25 Minutes or Less.

25 in 25 Minutes or Less, acrylic on 8"x10" panels, $2500

Happily, this work has been accepted. Real People 2009 which is sponsored by the Old Court House Figurative Art League, runs from August 6 to September 27. A Gala reception is this Saturday, August 22, from 6 pm to 9:30 pm. It is located in the Old Court House Arts Center, in Woodstock, "on the square."

This show is featuring artists from around the country. The organizers told me that artists drive in from Tennessee, Florida and other states to bring their artwork. It is a wonderfully diverse show of very high quality. Jurors for this show (jurors are the professionals who select the artwork for display) were Michael Vanzeyl, a portrait artist and teacher at the Palette and Chisel in Chicago; and Marion Kryczka, an associate professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

--Barb
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