The League held a "Fabulous Fakes" exhibit of paintings by members in the style of old and not-so-old masters. Art historian Gabriele Hoffman commented on each entry for a videotape record of the event. Her presentation was shown as a member Zoom meeting in May 2021.
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Watch the March 7th Meeting
Kara Ashley-Gilmore
Sam Uhl
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Ann Vasilik Meeting Video
Watch the Ann Vasilik Video |
Ann Vasilik, presenter at the March 2020 meeting, has provided images of the work in progress and finished painting which she showed at the meeting. The finished piece is below. Here are Ann's thoughts on the commission process.....
"On doing a commission, my job is to provide to the client what they have asked for. In this case, they wanted the Asheville skyline, the Grove Park Inn and Mt. Pisgah as seen from their house in fall colors. Obstacles: the view of Asheville was often shrouded in haze or back lit, the GP I was seen from the back with all the ugly white additions, a huge tree cut the cut the view in half and Mt. Pisgah was far out of the view. In composing the painting I chose a clear morning lighting with strong highlights on the city buildings, reduced the height of the mountains, moved Mt. Pisgah into view and reduced the big tree and moved it to hide the ugly side of the GPI. The GPI with its bright orange roofs became the focal point. There was a jumble of grey shrubs in the lower right corner that I wasn't sure how to handle. Beginning the painting, the city buildings were masked with frisket along with the trunks of the big tree. This allowed the loose underwashes of the mountains, sky and trees to be painted freely. I was careful to make the direction of light constant. The frisket was removed and the washes were painted on the city with mid values applied on the rest of the painting. That lower right corner still bothered me and I decided to scrub it out and replace the grey shrubs with a pattern of tree shapes. What remained to paint were the darks in the shadows of the foreground trees and GPI, a few darker shadows in the middle ground trees and a few suggestions of windows in the city. The end result was a nice sense of perspective keeping the values and details of the city subdued, the cool mountains in the distance to contrast with the bright, warm fall colors in the middle ground and the darkest darks in the foreground. It's a pretty busy painting with lots to look at without all the dull, dead features and areas found in the photo resources that I was working from. Can't wait to see the reaction of the client when it's matted and framed. " |