Shane Wolf has just been awarded (by a unanimous decision from the jury) the prestigeous Taylor Foundation prize for his powerful painting Soumission, which is currently hanging in the Grand Palais in Paris in a show called Art en Capital (artencapital.fr). For a painter to have his/her work in the Grand Palais is a huge honour.

He writes, “… it’s hard to explain to those outside of our ‘world’ how symbolic and meaningful it is for a painter … to enter the halls of the Grand Palais, participate in this salon, and even be decorated with an award. On top of all that, the public’s reaction to my painting has been amazing: all ages (even a 5-year old), men and women alike have stood, admired, returned with friends, returned again, gasped, interrogated [and] praised … the painting.” Many people have commented that it’s THE painting of the show (of more than 2500 works). Bravo Shane!!

Shane is represented by his Parisian gallery, L’Œil du Prince (www.loeilduprince.com), and 29 of his small-format paintings (all painted in the last month!!!) will be in the show Small is Beautiful (www.loeilduprince.com/la_galerie.html), opening on Dec. 1st.

Shane is American, but has lived in Paris for years now. More of his brilliant paintings can be seen at his website: shane-wolf.com

Shane Wolfe "Soumission"

Damir Simic

Another major article has come out on Damir Simic and his work, this time in Art of England magazine. Bravo Damir!

Damir’s painting With Mandolin is featured in the Christmas Exhibition at the W.H. Patterson Gallery, London. The exhibition runs from the 30th November to the 23rd December 2011.

Damir’s paintings and drawings can be seen at his site: damirart.com

Article on Damir Simic in Art of England magazine

Damir Simic "With Mandolin"

Matthew Grabelsky

After graduating from the Angel Academy, Matthew Grabelsky returned to New York for a year, but then returned to live in Europe — first Rome and then Paris. Through his Parisian gallery, Matthew entered a show, Go West, that includes works by 64 artists, half from France and half from Texas (in which Matthew was counted as a French artist!). The show opened last September at the UNESCO world headquarters in Paris and then moved to Houston; it contains works by many big-name artists with work in prestigious collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.

Matthew writes, “The piece that I had in the show was bought by an important Houston collector and as a result of the exhibition I was approached by a big contemporary art gallery here called Deborah Colton Gallery (www.deborahcoltongallery.com/2011/content/matthew-grabelsky), which is now representing me. They just introduced me to their collectors this week in a show that featured seven of my recent paintings.”

While in Houston for the opening of Go West, Matthew was invited to lecture to the senior painting class at one of the big universities by the director of their painting programme. He loved Matthew’s work and thought that it would be beneficial to their students to hear about the work and about his training. He gave a slide presentation of his recent paintings and then went through the sequence of projects that he did at the Angel Academy, Florence, and discussed the the skills learned through them. The students were very excited and asked a lot of questions about the work, the technique and about studying with us in Italy.

More of Matthew’s paintings can be seen at his website: www.grabelsky.com

Matthew Grabelsky "Satyr's Glance"

Matthew Grabelsky "Alleyway Masquerade"

Nancy Fletcher

Nancy Fletcher is currently working on three full-size portrait commissions, along with several other works, and her painting The Portrait Painter was selected for a finalist award in this year’s annual Art Renewal Center’s Salon Competition.

More of Nancy’s work is visible at www.fletcherfineart.com/Gallery/Gallery.html

Nancy Fletcher updates

Nancy Fletcher updates

Emile Klein

Angel alumnus Emile Klein is cycling across America, painting portraits to use, as he states it, “…arts and craftsmanship to discover the modern American people.” His basic formula is to spend a week with each carefully chosen subject. During that time he paints a portrait in oils in a style he describes as “Old Masterly naturalism.” At the end of the week, he records an audio interview with his subject. He also gathers lots of information to pass along to his freelance writers to boil down into a 350-word bio on each person.

There are three elements for each subject. These elements will be displayed in two ways—on a website and as an exhibition that will travel around the country in the winter of 2013-14. To make this happen, Emile will borrow back all the portraits he has given to his many hosts.

You can read more about Emile’s unusual project at www.nj.com/hunterdon-county-democrat/index.ssf/2011/11/itinerant_artist_puts_clinton.html and at www.nj.com/salem/index.ssf/2011/11/artist_emile_klein_pays_a_visi.html and www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2011/11/traveling_portrait_artist_make.html

Emile Klein

Emile Klein painting Ken Nerger

The Angel Academy of Art is very pleased to announce that two new instructors, two very gifted alumni, Inga Loyeva and Mandy Boursicot, have joined our staff. They have both found their feet with us very quickly and are brilliant teachers.

More can be read about each of them on our Faculty page: www.angelartschool.com/faculty.html

Mandy Boursicot

Inga Loyeva

Martinho Correira

Martinho Correia, Angel Academy of Art, Florence, instructor, has been commissioned to paint seven portraits by the Athol Murray College of Notre Dame in Canada (www.notredame.sk.ca/index.php). Founded in 1920, the school focuses on developing great scholars and athletes through equal emphasis on the disciplines of academics, athletics and faith.

These are to be seven portraits of past school presidents and they are to be made into prints, with the originals being hung in the school itself.

Athol Murray College of Notre Dame

Article on Athol Murray College of Notre Dame in Alberta Report

Michael John Angel

An unexpected article on John Angel and the Angel Academy of Art, Florence, has recently come out in an Eastern European art magazine.
One of MJA’s drawings is reproduced on page 144 of Juliette Aristides’s brilliant new book Lessons in Classical Drawing. On page 54, there is a photo of two students at the Angel Academy working sight-size on a charcoal cast drawing.

Article on Michael John Angel in Art Magazin Kontura

Page excerpt from "Lessons in Classical Drawing"

1. A thin coat of fairly lean oil paint is spread over the white canvas. The colour of this coat of paint is a greyed golden-brown, which was Rembrandt’s preferred field colour (the field colour is the unifying colour that pervades the whole painting, giving it a strong mood). This is left to dry thoroughly.

2. The darks are massed in, using a very dark grey-brown.

3. The lights are impastoed, using a light-value version of the field colour. This creates the basic three-value field-colour underpainting.

4. The darks are now elaborated by wiping-back and by opaque painting. Please note that steps 2 to 4 are done before the drawing stage dries.

5. Once the light shapes in stage 3 have dried thoroughly, the lighter lights are added, using thick paint.

6. When this is all thoroughly dry, the main value notes of the head, hair and white clothing are roughed in, using fairly thick paint; however, the paint is thinner in the transition tones and thin in the shadows. The colour of this roughing-in is the field colour (various values of greyed golden-brown), and the result is a monochrome underpainting, with strong, simplified form. This used to be called the dead-colouring.

7. When step 6 is thoroughly dry, the head and clothing can be painted in full detail using thin paint and full colour. Please note that the painter concentrates on the face and on the light draperies—the dark clothing is left as it was in step 4 (unless some tweaking is needed). A few extra thick highlights can be added here and there in the lights to strengthen the impastoes.

8. Last of all, the background is finished.

Paint your own Rembrandt: step-by-step

Our heartiest congratulations go to Louis Smith for taking second place in the London National Portrait Gallery’s BP awards for his stunning painting, Holly. We think he should have won first place!

For more information on the Holly project, see Louis’s site at: louissmithportraits.co.uk

Gary Louis Smith and "Holly"

closeup of Gary Louis Smith's "Holly"

Damir Simic

Damir Simic unveiled a huge 200 x 275 cm painting called First Day. His June 16th exhibition in the City Museum of Sisak, Croatia, represents the culmination of an exciting project that lasted a year and a half—our photo shows Damir’s daughter sitting in front of the painting, to give an idea of its size. The catalogue for this exhibition was written by Bishop Vlado Kosic.

In May of this year, Damir’s extremely successful show Forgotten Beauty opened in the W.H. Patterson gallery in London, England. The show was visited in Damir’s studio by the Croatian President, Ivo Josipovic and was opened in London by H.E. Tomic, the Ambassador of the Croatian Republic to the United Kingdom.

The December 2010 issue of Playboy features an article on Damir and his beautiful nudes.

damirart.com

Damir Simic "First Day"

LifeStyle Magazine article on Damir Simic

Naomi Marino

Naomi Marino, alumnus and former instructor at the Angel Academy, received a prestigious commission to paint the portrait of Dutch vascular surgeon and professor Bert Eikelboom. On the 31st of May, Naomi travelled to Utrecht for the unveiling of the portrait at an event to honour Professor Eikelboom’s achievements in his field. The painting now hangs in the permanent collection in Utrecht’s internationally acclaimed UMC (Universitair Medisch Centrum). The portrait was a glowing success!

naomimarino.com

Naomi Marino and Bert Eikelboom at Universitair Medisch Centrum

Christina Mastrangelo

Christina Mastrangelo held a three-month solo show of her work at the Michelle and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts in Springfield, Massachusetts. The reception had a huge number of people in attendance and her lovely still life Perishables quickly sold to a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

christinamastrangelo.com

Poster for Christina Mastrangelo solo show

Cesar Santos

Cesar Santos recently enjoyed his first one-man solo exhibition in New York City at the Eleanor Ettinger Gallery. Entitled Syncretism, the show is a collection of over 20 new paintings that explore the future of contemporary realism as it evolves from contradictory genres of art.

Cesar’s website is under construction for the moment, but you can see his work at: artlibre.net

Cesar Santos "Chicho in red"

Cesar Santos "3 Graces"

Nancy Fletcher

Nancy Fletcher was selected to paint the portrait of the Bishop of Lincoln, Dr John Saxbee. Bishop Saxbee expressed a wish to have a quietly understated portrait, wanting only a couple of items of personal significance featured in the painting.

As well as this, Nancy’s painting The Portrait Artist was selected for the Windsor & Newton Painting Award at this year’s annual exhibition for The Royal Society of British Artists, held at Mall Galleries in London.

fletcherfineart.com

post on Nancy Fletcher "Bishop of Lincoln"

Nancy Fletcher "The Portrait Artist"

Mark Cummings

Mark Cummings’s painting, Donnie Hawley of Hawleywood’s Barbershop was selected as a finalist by The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery for the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009. The juried exhibition included 49 works that were on view from Oct. 23, 2009 through Sept 6, 2010 at The National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. The competition received 3,300 entries in a variety of visual arts media, from digital animation and video to large-scale drawings, prints and photographs and a plethora of painted and sculpted portraits.

http://www.npg.si.edu/competition/site2/exhibition2009/AllFinalists.html

Mark Cummings and "Donnie Hawley of Hawleywood’s Barbershop"

MarkCummings "Saving Me From Myself"

Cyril de Chambrier

Cyril de Chambrier has had great success and critical acclaim with his first solo show in Genolier, Switzerland. Subtitled The Homecoming of an Art that Transcends Nature, the exhibition includes paintings of landscape, still life and the figure.

http://www.autempsquipasse.com/index.php/20070606100/Peintres/De-Chambrier.html

Cyril de Chambrier

After many incredible years with the Angel Academy as students, teachers and friends, Naomi Marino and Jay Blums have left Florence to pursue their careers as full-time artists in California.

They are in process of renovating their new studio and home in Sebastopol, which has been converted from an old apple-drying barn in an idyllic country setting, close to the art community in San Francisco. They are very excited about their new life, but they also miss what they left behind and hope/plan to make regular returns to Florence whenever they can.

Naomi and Jay have been together since 2007 and they became engaged in the fall of 2010; they plan to marry soon after their move to the U.S.A. We at Angel’s wish them the very best in their new life and careers: they deserve every success.

Naomi Marino and Jay Blums

Gary Louis Smith is receiving a lot of well deserved publicity in England as one of the four finalists for this year’s BP Award. His beautiful and huge (in every sense!) painting Holly (below) is short-listed for this much coveted award and is causing quite a stir. Here are links to two articles in The Guardian:

www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/apr/13/bp-portrait-award-shortlist-praised

www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/14/bp-portrait-award-louis-smith-holly

Louis’s website can be found at http://paintaportrait.org/

Gary Louis Smith and "Holly"

Gary Louis Smith and his "St Dismas"

Andrea Mosley

Andrea Mosley has been awarded the extremely important commission to paint the portrait of Stan Lee, the co-creator and writer of Spiderman, The Hulk, X-Men, Iron Man, Daredevil and many others. Mr Lee will be 90 years old next year. Andrea is a brilliant painter and will create a fabulous portrait. Below, you can see her her signing herSelf-Portrait and her group portrait of Lynne Barton, Michael John Angel and Jered Woznicki.

Andrea’s website address is: andreanmosley.com/

Andrea Mosley signing her "Self-Portrait"

Andrea Mosley, "Lynne Barton, Michael John Angel and Jered Woznicki"

Teresa Oaxaca

Teresa Oaxaca has won 2nd-place in the prestigious Portrait Society of America’s annual competition. Teresa’s portrait of her grandfather, titled Father Time (below), is beautiful and profound, as is all her work.
Teresa’s website address is: www.teresaoaxaca.com/

Teresa Oaxaca, "Father Time"

Teresa Oaxaca, "Remembrance"

Cesar Santos

Cesar Santos has won 1st-place in the recently formed ACOPAL (the America China Oil Painting Artists League at http://acopal.org/) annual show with his dynamite portrait Out of the Square (below, top). You can see more of Cesar’s beautiful, visionary paintings at www.santocesar.com

Cesar Santos "Out of the Square"

Cesar Santos painting his “The Art Collector”

Mark Stahmann
Shane Wolf

Mark Stahmann and Shane Wolf were each finalists in the ACOPAL show: Mark with his subtly powerful The Worth of a Soul (below, top), and Shane with his brilliant, jazzy sketch Inception (below, bottom).

Mark Stahmann’s website is at www.markstahmann.com/

Shane Wolf’s website is at www.shane-wolf.com/

Mark Stahmann, "The Worth of a Soul"

Shane Wolf, "Inception"

Damir Simic is now a very successful professional artist in Europe and the United States, and there is a book, Forgotten Beauty, recently published on his work. He is currently showing in London at W.H.Patterson (www.whpatterson.com).

Damir’s website is at www.damirart.com

Damir Simic "Daphne"

Michael John Angel, Lynne Barton, Damir Simic

Brian MacNeil

Our congratuations to Brian MacNeil for the recent article (www.royalgalleryri.com) on him, on his work and on his teaching in the American Art Collector magazine’s May issue.

Brian’s website can be found at http://brianmacneil.com/home.html

Brian MacNeil "Francesco"

On Friday, March 25, 2011,  Martinho Correia’s painting Anastasis was accepted into the collection of Cardinal Mauro Paicenza. The work is a painting of the resurrection of Christ and was a result of Martinho’s 60-page Master’s Degree thesis, which looked at the influence of theology on the development of Christian Art and on the liturgy. This is Correia’s first work of art to go in the Holy See.

Martinho Correia "Anastasia"

Martino Correia (right) and Cardinal Mauro Paicenza

Michael John Angel

Michael John Angel’s painting Annigoni 1954—Angel’s portrait of the great painter, Pietro Annigoni, under whom he studied in the late 1960s—is now part of the collection of the Villa Peyron Museum. The portrait was commissioned by the Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, for the show that opened the year-long celebration of Annigoni’s birth.

The Villa Peyron Museum is dedicated to the foreign artists who made their home in Florence and who dedicated their lives to the artistic principles that made Florence famous.

There is an announcement about this on the ARC home page (www.artrenewal.org/) with some lovely and provocative, brief quotations from Annigoni.

Michael John Angel, "Annigoni, 1954"

Villa Peyron Museum

There are tonnes of theories about about how Caravaggio underpainted his paintings. Below is a PhotoShop version of one of the many—each based on the available evidence—but MJA thinks that this is the most likely one. It’s certainly efficient. (Click on the image for a larger version.)

Essentially, this method comprises a three- or four-tone golden-brown field-colour underpainting onto which the main elements (the people) are worked up en grisaille, using black-&-white greys. This produces a very light base and cool, bluish transition tones onto which the semi-opaque, semi-transparent local flesh colours are broadly painted. This light grey underpainting causes the overpainting colours to glow, in a way that direct painting cannot match, and its “blueness” counteracts to a large degree the browning of the oils as the painting dries over the years.