New ARC Living Master™
We would like to welcome Robert Liberace as an ARC Living Master™. Liberace is known for his inspiring and information-packed teaching style. Through teaching classes and workshops in the U.S. and abroad, and with the addition of his instructional dvd series and even the occasional webinar, Rob encourages artists around the world to explore the wonders of the classic tradition expressed in a fresh and current manner. Both his art and my teaching express the richness and rewards of a life filled with art.
Born and raised in Rockland County, New York, Rob was introduced to the world of art world through an old library copy of Hogarth’s “Dynamic Figure Drawing” almost four decades ago. In the early 2000′s he began devoting time to portraiture and garnered several awards from the Portrait Society of America’s annual International Portrait Competition. His painting “Russell” received “First Honors” in the show in 2001, and then in 2002 the portrait of his friend Robert won “Best in Show”. In 2003 a portrait of Steven Honigberg, cellist for the National Symphony Orchestra, won the “Grand Prize” in the competition. Other commissioned portraits include those of Marc Pachter, director of the National Portrait Gallery, former President George H. Bush, and Ambassador Sol Linowitz.
In recent years his focus has leaned toward figure drawing and painting. His work is represented by the John Pence Gallery in San Francisco, the Legacy Gallery in Scottsdale and the M gallery in Charleston.

To view his new gallery on ARC, click here.

Posted June 18th, 2013

New Book in ARC Store
Sophie An Edwardian Childhood written by Lady Sophie Helen Blair Harding, the daughter of famous 19th century artist Edmund Blair Leighton and published/edited by her decedents, this book is an inside look from a child’s perspective on growing up at the turn of the century in England (1902 – 1918). The book is filled with many comical illustrations by SHBH, who became an artist in her own right, as she depicts growing up in this artistic household. There are also several photographs of the Blair Leighton family, artist studio, and their home in Norfolk.

This book is available through the Topsham Bookshop, UK. To place your order, click here.

Posted June 17th, 2013

Nelson Shanks Solo Exhibition
The Michener Art Museum will be exhibiting the paintings of ARC Living Master™ Nelson Shanks, June 8 through September 8, 2013 in the Putman Smith Gallery. Nelson Shanks: A Brush with Reality brings together more than 20 major paintings from public and private collections around the country and from the artist’s personal collection.
Shanks has an international reputation for portraits of such figures as Presidents William Jefferson Clinton and Ronald Reagan; Diana, Princess of Wales; Pope John Paul II; Luciano Pavarotti; and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Three are in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.
For more on this and other exhibitions, click here.

Posted June 14th, 2013

ARC Approved Grand Central Academy of Art Announces Results of Drawing Competition
GCA hopes that the publicity generated by this event will encourage even more applications next time-especially from the other centers of draftsmanship also dedicated to the teaching and practice of the skills necessary to make classically-inspired works.

Apelles and Protogenes were renowned painters of Ancient Greece during the time of Alexander the Great (4th century BC.) They were rivals and also advocates of each other’s work. Their rivalry tested who could draw the finest, steadiest line and has been famously recorded in Pliny’s Natural History.
First Place
Joshua LaRock was awarded $10,000 and the title Apelles

Second Place
Katie Whipple was awarded $3,000 and the title Protogenes

Third Place
Adrienne Stanger was awarded $2,000.
To view the images of all ten drawings progressing over five days, go to GCA’s Facebook page.

To visit GCA’s page on ARC, click here.

This August they will be holding a smaller prize Portrait Sketch Competition. Alla prima painting has become an exciting feature of the GCA community and they are pleased to host this fun, challenging event. Participants will paint six portraits in three days. The portraits will be judged as a group.

First Place will be awarded $1,500 and Second Place, $500. There is no application fee.

To request an application form, click here.

Posted June 13th, 2013

Indianapolis Museum Acquires Important Bouguerau
Rêve de printemps (Dream of Spring) by William Bouguereau was donated by Melvin and Bren Simon on May 30, 2013. The donation had been in the works since 2008. This is the first significant work by the artist acquired by the museum.
“I just heard the news about the Indianapolis Museum acquiring the Bouguereau, Rêve de printemps. My parents used to own that one. It hung so that I could see it through my bedroom door hanging in the main upstairs hall from the time I was born to the time I was four years old. I remember coming back from day care and it being gone when my father sold it. (I was not informed ahead of time.) As the story goes, when I got upstairs, saw it was gone, and was told it was not coming back, I cried unconsolably. My father said if he knew I was going to be that upset he would not have sold it. I think that may have been when he started taking my art opinion seriously.”

- Kara Lysandra Ross
To see a full list of Bouguereau paintings in American Museums, click here.

Posted June 11th, 2013

The Florence Academy of Art earns Accreditation from the National Association of Schools of Art and Design
During its 22-year history, The Florence Academy of Art, led by ARC Living Master™ , Daniel Graves, has served its mission to train students to become highly skilled painters and sculptors. Success has been so far measured by the quality of the artwork produced by its students and graduates. Today, the Academy accepts with pride, recognition by NASAD as an accredited university level program. It looks forward to continuing to provide students with fundamental skills to produce great art while earning collage credit.

The Power of Wisdom and Beauty by Daniel Graves

Posted June 7th, 2013

California Art Club Announces Winners
As the California Art Club unveiled its hallmark exhibition at an Exposition Park museum after a nearly 70-year absence, the century-old arts organization bestowed honors upon both veteran and emerging artists at the opening for the 102nd Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition, which will be on view through June 23 at the USC Fisher Museum of Art.
Winners include Ruo Li and Cindy Jackson winning Best of Show, Clyde Aspevig winning Best Landscape, C. W. Mundy winning Best Still Life, Warren Chang winning Best Multi Figurative Arrangement, Dennis Doheny winning Best Capture of the Tradition of the Californian Impressionist Movement, David A. Leffel, the Gold Medal for excellence in Art Education, Candice Bohannon, winning two awards of excellence from Southwest Art and Fine Art Connoisseur, and ARC Living Master Max Ginsberg who was presented the President’s Gold Medal for Advancement of Traditional Fine Art.
Candice Bohannon
Ice Flow
This painting was also a
finalist in the 2012/2013
International ARC Salon.

Posted June 6th, 2013

Daniel Greene and Nelson Shanks in Wall Street Journal

Portrait of Jessie
by Daniel Greene		 Congratulations to ARC Living Masters™ Daniel Greene and Nelson Shanks for having their work featured in an article in the Wall Street Journal. The article titled Picture, Picture on the Wall: For people who want their portrait painted, they often want to be seen as the fairest of all, by Daniel Grant, illustrates Greene’s famous Portrait of Jessie.

“Of course most commissioned portraits aren’t of famous and powerful people. They are of family members and destined to hang in private homes. ‘The majority are of children, little girls in dresses’, says Daniel E. Greene, a portrait artist in North Salem, NY. Sittings are more of a challenge with children he says, because ‘It is hard to get them to sit still’. In those cases Mr. Greene might work from a photograph taken on location, though even then, ‘you have to chase the child around’, to get the picture he says.”

The article also mentions ARC Living Master™ Nelson Shanks and quotes him as saying “‘A lot of subjects tell me, make me thin, and they try to make a joke of it, but they really mean it,’ says Nelson Shanks ($85,000-$350,000 per portrait), an artist who has painted Supreme Court Justices, presidents, and one pope, among others.”

Posted June 5th, 2013

New ARC Approved Atelier™
Old Masters Atelier, Hialeah, Florida began as a place for those who love beauty and the great traditions of drawing and painting. Their program continues as a vibrant community where students acquire the foundational skills necessary to become artists. Old Masters Atelier offers instructed private classes, uninstructed open sessions with life models, and instructed workshops with top artists from all over the world.
To learn more about this atelier, click here.
Portrait Drawing by Robert A Rojas

Posted May 30th, 2013

New ARC Living Master™ Marci Oleszkiewicz
Although Oleszkiewicz has been studying art and painting for some time, it wasn’t until 2007 that she began to see what the future might hold for her as an artist. Upon entering several art competitions Marci was not only accepted in two of the top shows, The Oil Painters of America’s national show and the American Impressionist Society’s national show, she also received very substantial awards from both. She received an award of excellence from the OPA and the best of show award from the AIS. Not long after, she was included in Southwest Art Magazine’s 21 under 31 and had her first two man show at Gallery Russia in Scottsdale, AZ. Since then Marci has continued to paint full time, focusing on her annual show that comes up every March at Gallery Russia in Scottsdale, AZ.

To view her new gallery on ARC, click here.


A Polish Christmas by Marci Oleszkiewicz

Posted May 29th, 2013

Memorial Weekend Print Sale
All prints 15% off! Use coupon code arcmem13 for your savings!
All proceeds from purchases at the ARC Store go to maintain ARC’s programs and scholarships. The Foundation for the Art Renewal Center®, a 501(c)3) educational foundation was founded in 1999 to present responsible opposing views to the modernist art establishment. The ARC website, www.artrenewal.org has grown to approximately 5,000,000 visitors per year and is a hub for artists, educators, gallery owners, curators and art lovers alike. Support the Art Renewal Center® Scholarship Program with your purchase from the ARC Store and bring art into the lives of the ones you love!
Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose
by John Singer Sargent
To view our list of most popular prints, click here.
Most images in the ARC Museum are also available.
To search the museum, click here.

Posted May 24th, 2013

ARC Scholarship Deadline Reminder
The deadline for entries for the Art Renewal Center’s 2013 Scholarship Competition is May 31, 2013.

We are now accepting entries for the 2013 ARC Scholarship Competition, designed to help talented students learn proper painting methods and techniques at one of the Art Renewal Center’s ARC Approved™ Schools.

To view the full list of schools, click here.

So far we have given out over $200,000 in scholarships for students attending ARC Approved™ Schools, and this year we will be awarding yet another $30,000.

Please click here to see the prospectus.

Posted May 23rd, 2013

New ARC Living Master™

God’s Gift
by John Buxton		 We would like to welcome John Buxton, a painter of American history and heritage as an ARC Living Master™. Because his paintings are extensively researched, they enjoy an additional status. The images of his paintings are often used in documentary films, in books or articles about history, and in high schools and universities as visual reality to the written word. The original paintings hang in various museums and at historical sites as well as the homes and offices of numerous private collectors.

To learn more about John Buxton or to view his new gallery on ARC, click here.

Posted May 21st, 2013

Atelier Exhibition Opening May 24th
The ARC Approved™ Grand Central Academy of Art presents their Water Street Atelier Student Art Exhibition, free and open to the public. Peruse portrait, figure, cast, still-life and landscape drawings, paintings and sculptures by their full time students. The opening reception will be held Friday, May 24th from 6:30-9:00pm and will be open though out the month of June. Refreshments will be served.

June Viewing Hours:
Monday-Friday 1:00-2:00 pm

20 West 44th Street, 6th floor
New York, NY 10036

To view more on this and other exhibitions, click here.

Posted May 17th, 2013

New ARC Living Master™
He Lihuai was born in Chongqing, China in 1961. He worked as an art designer at Capital Museum from 1985 to 1996 after receiving Art of Bachelor degree in oil painting at Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts in 1984. As a member of Beijing Artists Association and a professional artist, He has been honored as a very talented oil painter in contemporary China.
In today’s art world, where the conceptionism, photography, and image art prevail, He Lihuai, with his flaming zeal for realistic painting, successfully explores his own style – symbolic and imaginative. His work is the product of self awareness. He uses his subtle language of classic realism to describe beautiful and lonely maidens, and creates a surreal dream world through imaginary space and non-reproductive color, expressing the loneliness and melancholy of contemporary people and their aspiration to escape from reality.
- Wang Duanyun, Chinese art critic and professor of Chinese Academy of Arts.

To view his new gallery on ARC, click here.

Posted May 16th, 2013

New DVD in ARC Store
The Artist’s Guide to Perspective with Patrick Connors, is a two disk DVD set that focus on the foundations of perspective. The viewer can gain experience working with vanishing points, picture planes, an Albertian veil, and other essential techniques and materials. It is intended the work be done at the viewer’s own pace to discover how to depict any subject in one, two, and three-point perspective. The DVD is built on simple exercises that will help build one’s skills and put one’s talents to the test in one final still life sketch. Patrick Connors teaches at the New York Academy of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, ARC Approved™ Studio Incamminati, and the ARC Approved™ Institute of Classical Architecture and Art. His work can be found in collections worldwide.
To learn more or order the DVD now, click here.

Posted May 15th, 2013

Golden Gate Atelier, Limited Openings Available
There are limited spaces available for students who are interested in taking classes starting in the Fall of 2013 at the Golden Gate Atelier, San Francisco, CA (Bay Area).

Cast Drawing
by second year student
Annie Cheung		 Both instructors Andrew Ameral and Sean Forester trained at the Florence Academy of Art and taught there for several years. Ameral has also been a professional illustrator and instructor in the San Francisco Academy of Art University graduate program. Forester studied at Cambridge University on a Rotary Scholarship and has lectured on classical art in America and Europe. Like all ARC Approved™ schools they are dedicated to realism. They teach sight-size, constructive drawing, anatomy, écorché, composition, art history, and humanities; a complete classical training for the realist artist that places him or her to succeed as a professional artist.

“I studied figurative art for years, but feel I never really got the education I was looking for until I found the Golden Gate Atelier.” — Tess-Marie White, Golden Gate Scholarship Student
To learn more about the program or to register for classes, click here.

Posted May 14th, 2013

Current Exhibitions
Four museum exhibitions will be closing on May 19th, 2013. The first is The Panoramic River: the Hudson and the Thames at the Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY which focuses on British late 18th century large-scale panorama. The Hudson River Museum’s exhibition explores the panoramic vista as the ideal expression for a new, all-embracing way of seeing the landscape that influenced how the public and artists perceived it as well. Artists in the exhibition consist of Thomas Cole, Jasper Cropsey, Robert Havell Jr, and John Kensett. Also, Piero della Francesca in America is currently running at The Frick Collection, NY. NY. Revered in his own time as a “monarch” of painting, Piero della Francesca is acknowledged today as a founding figure of the Italian Renaissance. The Frick Collection is presenting the first monographic exhibition in the United States on the artist, bringing together seven works, including six panels from the Sant’Agostino altarpiece – the largest number from this masterwork ever reassembled for display. Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough: The Treasures of Kenwood House, London is taking place at the Seattle Art Museum in Seattle, WA. A landmark exhibition of 17th- and 18th-century European art from London makes its only stop on the West Coast. The 48 traveling works that make up this important exhibition were collected by Edward Cecil Guinness (1847-1927), the first Earl of Iveagh and heir to the Guinness Brewery. Many of the displayed works had never left Europe before, including Rembrandt’s late “Portrait of the Artist.”

Laus Veneris
by Burne-Jones		 Lastly, Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design, 1848-1900 which consists of some of the most important Victorian paintings is currently at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The first major survey of the art of the Pre-Raphaelites to be shown in the United States features some 130 paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and decorative art objects. Organized by Tate Britain in collaboration with the National Gallery of Art, Washington. All four of these exhibitions close on May 19th, so if you are able, be sure to see them before they close.
To view more on this and other exhibitions, click here.

Posted May 10th, 2013

New ARC Living Artist™
We would like to welcome Anara Abzhanova as an ARC Living Artist™ . Abzhanova was born in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan. From her early years she knew she wanted to be an artist. Anara has been deaf from childhood and so chose to listen to her heart as she painted the world around her. Her works are full of light and colors that merge into potent impressionistic landscapes.
From when she was a toddler, Anara was interested in drawing. She has since won many awards and since 2006 has exhibited in several solo shows. Anara has never heard the sounds of the world but God gave her the talent to see the world in all its beauty and share it with everyone.

To view her new gallery on ARC, click here.

Posted May 9th, 2013

Studio Incamminati Applications and Scholarship Opportunities

ARC 2012/2013 Salon
Second Place Figurative
Fumiko by Joe Dolderer		 Applications for Studio Incamminati’s acclaimed Professional Program are now being accepted for the 2013-2014 school year. ARC Living Master™ Nelson Shanks is Studio Incamminati’s founder and Artistic Director. Among the accomplished faculty are Joe Dolderer, second-place finisher in this year’s ARC International Salon Competition and Kerry Dunn, who earned Best in Show at the Portrait Society of America’s 2013 International Portrait Competition. They are just part of the Studio Incamminati faculty which for years has garnered numerous awards and recognition. Studio Incamminati is celebrating its 10th anniversary and its growing number of alumni are now teaching and creating art worldwide.
Flexible payment plans and scholarships are available.

Admission application deadline is June 30.
Deadline for scholarship consideration is May 31.

Click here to view the application or apply.

Posted May 8th, 2013

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