Visiting Some Sargents and the Curious Habits of Artists

If you're looking for course listings for the Great Falls School of Art, please see yesterday's post.

On Thursday, I visited the Corcoran's "Sargent and the Sea" exhibit with friends from the Art League. I got there a bit early (they open at 10am) and up the stairs comes Linda Lawler (another artist friend) with her student on an field trip. Lucky coincidence. Then, Linda Wharton (an artist friend who went with me to many workshops in Philadelphia, Easton, Florence (Italy) and Venice (Italy)) arrived. Linda' s the one who invited me there. We met up with Lena and Diane, fellow students from Rob Liberace's class. Once in the gallery, a woman who had come and visited my studio with the Great Falls Newcomers group said hello. She was there with the McLean Newcomers group. Later I'm sketching outside of the exhibit and in walks fellow studiomate, Heidi Mraz. Next in was Diane Falconer (former studiomate) and Joy Jacobsen (still life student). Funny day that definitely reminded me what great friends I've made through my art pursuits.

The Curious Habits of Artists is something I observed at the Corcoran. The Sargent exhibit isn't huge, but I believe we were in there for three and a half hours. Diane and Lena were the main culprits, discussing every inch of every painting. It was fun and informative and funny. I took a few photos in the permanent exhibit (you can't take photos in the special exhibit).

I was examining the paintings and drawings pretty closely myself. Even though John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) grew weary of painting portraits by the end of his career, his portraits are drop-dead gorgeous. My focus was on his brushstrokes, a pearl necklace  (since I just painted a portrait with one), fingers (he is a master of expressive hands) and textures in clothing. I've also included some of the crazy photos I took for my own reference (not for this blog). This gives you a pretty good idea that I have some curious habits of my own. Photos are various views of Sargent's portrait of Margaret Stuyvesant Rutherfurd White (Mrs. Henry White), 1883, oil on canvas, Gift of John Campbell White, 49.4. They are part of the "John Singer Sargent in the Corcoran Collection" exhibit that runs concurrently with the "Sargent and the Sea" exhibit. Both continue until January 3, 2010.

What a great, fun, inspiring day.

The only negative was that I had planned to also view the French drawing exhibit at the National Gallery but ended up missing it. Once we finished lunch and made it to the French drawing exhibit, I realized that I had lost my parking lot (valet) ticket. Since that ticket entitled the recipient to my car and its contents, I left my art buddies to go claim my car. So, I'll have to find another day for my French drawing inspiration. Soon.

Take a look, too, at my web site: www.jillbanks.com. I just added class information and more paintings to the still life gallery (added today) -- including "Fruit and Wine" (my painting of a market in Burano, Italy), "Peonies", "Sunflowers and Gladioli" and "Arance, Oranges", my painting of a Florence, Italy market that is currently hanging in the Allied Artists of America's 96th Annual Exhibition at the National Arts Club in Gramercy Park, NYC. I'll be attending the reception there this coming Sunday, November 29. I'm excited about it!

Web: www.jillbanks.com
Blog: jillbanks.blogspot.com
Email: jillbanks1@aol.com
Phone: 703.403.7435