TAFA Panel Discussion

4 April, 2015

The Texas Academy of Figurative Art will be hosting a free educational event this weekend at TAFA Studios & Gallery, 415 South Main Street, Fort Worth, TX 76104 On May 1st, 6:30 to 8 pm, there will be a panel discussion about Contemporary Figurative Art Education. Dr. C.D. Dickerson, Curator of European Art; Kimbell Art Museum, Ron Cheek, TAFA Director, and John Hartley, Artist & Professor of Fine Art; Tarrant County College will be the panel speakers. TAFA will also have a figure drawing workshop called Overview of the Academic Approach on Saturday May 2nd, 10 am to 3 pm.

Both of these events are free and open to the public. Reservations are required to ensure a seat. To learn more, please visit the TAFA blog by click here. To reserve your seat, email: tafastudio@me.com.

John Pototschnik Exhibition

3 April, 2015

ARC Associate Living Master™ John Pototschnik will be holding his first solo show at the Southwest Gallery - 4500 Sigma Rd. Dallas, Texas Dallas, TX. The exhibition runs from May 1 - 31, 2015 with the opening reception being held May 9th from 1 to 5 pm. Over 30 paintings will be on display. For more information on this and other exhibitions, please click here.

Benjamin-Constant Exhibition

2 April, 2015

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is holding the first Canadian exhibition on Orientalism. Marvels and Mirages of Orientalism -From Spain to Morocco unveils the forgotten figure of a master of the genre, Benjamin-Constant. Following in the footsteps of artists like Delacroix, the painter's Orientalism is similar to that of Henri Regnault, Mariano Fortuny, Georges Clairin and Jean-Paul Laurens, who also figure largely in the exhibition. The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is located on 1380 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada and the show runs until May 31, 2015. For more information, please visit our events page.

Head of a Moor by Benjamin-Constant

Jacob Collins Exhibition

2 April, 2015

ARC Living Master™ Jacob Collins will be having a one man show at the Adelson Galleries, The Crown Building, 730 Fifth Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, NY from April 28 - May 30, 2015. To view more on this and other exhbitions, please click here.

Florence Academy Grand Opening and Alumni Exhibition

5 April, 2015

The Florence Academy of Art will officially celebrate the opening of its first US branch on May 3, 2015. Visitors will have the opportunity to tour the new facility and view an exhibition of Alumni works, a selection of which will be available for purchase. This event is open to the public. The Florence Academy of Art NJ is located at Mana Contemporary, 888 Newark Avenue, Jersey City, NJ.

Girl with a Poppy Wreathe by Vitaliy Shtanko

Botticelli to Braque: Masterpieces from the National Galleries of Scotland

4 April, 2015

Spanning more than 400 years of artistic production, this exhibition highlights works by many of the greatest painters from the Renaissance to the early 20th century. See this rare presentation of some of the most iconic images in the history of Western art as they travel to San Francisco from the National Galleries of Scotland. Paintings selected from the collection include masterpieces by Sandro Botticelli, Diego Velázquez, Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Sir Henry Raeburn, Frederic Edwin Church, Claude Monet, and more.

The exhibition is being held at the de Young Museum - Golden Gate Park - 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco, CA 94118 and closes May 31, 2015. For more information, visit our Events page.

Ani Art Academy Show

3 April, 2015

ARC Approved™ Ani Art Academies is having an exhibition of student, alumni, and instructor works at the Rehs Gallery on 5 East 57th Street, 8th floor, New York NY 10022. The exhibit runs through May 15th, 2015. The Exhibition, titled “Sexes”, challenges artists to explore the perceptions that surround one of the most debated topics in society today; ideas that relate to gender stereotypes and sexual identity, while touching on culture, religion, and politics. Over 25 Ani artists from 3 countries will share their thoughts on this intriguing topic, while exhibiting some of the finest works of contemporary realism. For more info, please click here.

Queen of Wands by Sharon Hourigan

District-Wide Workshop, Jersey City

2 April, 2015

On April 1st and 2nd, The Da Vinci Initiative (DVI) hosted its first district wide workshop at the Florence Academy of Art, Jersey City. DVI President, Mandy Hallenius, worked with Florence Academy Instructors to educate 62 Jersey City K-12 educators over two days about atelier training and how skill-based education in the visual arts can be implemented into K-12 Classrooms. To learn more about DVI District-Wide Workshops, click here.

Additional ARC Salon Award

1 April, 2015

ARC is pleased to announce a new award being introduced into this year's ARC salon competition. Lessons in Classical Painting Publication Award: This award will be given to up to 7 artists and consists of the winning works being published in Juliette Aristides latest publication, Lessons in Classical Painting, due out in May 2016. Aristides is well known for her instructional books on atelier style painting and drawing which all quickly became best sellers. The books are featured in some of the world's best museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of art in NY, the National Gallery in London, the Rembrandt House in Amsterdam among others. The books are translated into foreign language editions including Japanese and Dutch.

Lessons in Classical Painting brings readers into the art studio allowing them to follow along on with an artist's training. The book pairs some of the best painters working today with great artists from history. Finalists for this award will be selected in time to be announced with the other winners of the ARC Salon and winners of this award will be announced when the layout of the book is completed in August. Inclusion in the book will undoubtedly draw additional attention to the winning artists and their work. Artists who are contenders for this award will be contacted with details about potential participation.

The Da Vinci Initiative Online Course Now for College Credit

5 April, 2015

Great News! Undergraduate and Graduate college credits are now available for the DVI's first online course, Introduction to Advanced Observational Drawing, through a partnership with The Heritage Institute at Antioch University. The course, OBSERVATIONAL DRAWING SKILLS FOR THE TEACHER/ARTIST, involves additional online discussions and assignments and is available through the University for $395 plus the cost of the DVI Introduction to Advanced Observational Drawing videos which are purchased separately through DVI. For more information on how to get college credit for this course and to register for credits through the University, click here.

To view a lesson from our online course, click here. To order the $100 version of the course consisting of just the videos though the DVI, click here.

Artists Share Facebook Group Page

4 April, 2015

New ARC Associate Living Master™

3 April, 2015

An Elderly Woman from Southern Iraq by Ali Ghassan Al-Zobaede

The Art Renewal Center is pleased to welcome Ali Ghassan Al-Zobaede as an ARC Associate Living Master™! Born in Babel, Iraq, Ali Ghassan Al-Zobaede practiced fine art as a professional artist before entering the fine arts faculty. Following the footsteps of the old masters, he can draw and paint using various techniques and using almost any medium. To view his gallery on ARC, please click here.

Richard Lack Lecture

2 April, 2015

Gary Christensen will be conducting an overview of the Classical Realist painter Richard Lack, his life and artworks. The lecture will begin in 1943 when Lack was fifteen and continue through his last series of paintings in 1998. Lack was a master of all genres: portraiture, still life and florals, landscapes, interior and outdoor genre, etching, pastels, and imaginative paintings. Today, April 14, 2015 at The Minneapolis Club - 729 Second Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55402

12pm to 1:30pm. Member cost: $16.95 Guests: $26.00 Inclusive. Parking is complimentary. RSVP: concierge@mplsclub.org or call 612.332.2292

ARC 2015 Scholarship Competition

5 April, 2015

4th place, 2004 Scholarship Winner Cupid by Yee Kang

The 15th Annual ARC Scholarship Competition will soon begin. At ARC, we believe the ARC Scholarship Competition one of the most important programs we offer. ARC Scholarships have been helping some of the most talented emerging realist artists in the world continue their studies at ARC Approved Atelier and Academy Schools™. Entries will be accepted May 1 – 30, 2015. For complete competition rules, please click here to visit the scholarship application page. For general scholarship questions, please visit our Scholarship FAQ page by clicking here.

ARA Boston Competition

4 April, 2015

The Academy of Realist Art Boston, an ARC Approved Atelier, will be hosting a juried figure painting competition in Boston in July. They anticipate drawing on a national pool of high caliber figure painters. ARA Boston will be jurying applicants and selecting only 10 participants. These 10 artists will be painting from the figure model as a group for 35 hours over a period of 5 days in July. They have judges from different level of the Boston art scene as well, so this will be an exciting opportunity! First place prize: $5000 Second Place Prize: $250 Dick Blick Gift Card, as well as a Grand View Confidant New Wave palette Viewers Choice Award (people will vote online): Rosemary Brush set. Deadline for application is May 1st. Click here to learn more.

Virgil Elliott Workshop

3 April, 2015

ARC Living Master™ Virgil Elliott is hosting a three-day Still Life Painting workshop from April 24 – 26, 2015. The workshop will be held at Olde Masters Galleria, 25 Irongate Park Drive, Centerville, Ohio (Dayton Ohio area). The cost for the workshop is $350.00. Enrollment is limited. For more information, please contact Cecilia Brendel cia@donet.com or call (707) 664-8198 or (707) 792-2825.

New ARC Allied Organization

2 April, 2015

ARC is pleased to announce the addition of a new Allied Organization!

The Sculptor's Funeral is the only podcast dedicated to student and professional figurative sculptors living and working today. Hosted by American sculptor Jason Arkles and produced in Florence, Italy, The Sculptor's Funeral discusses significant sculpture and sculptors throughout the Western European figurative tradition, analyses historical and current events relating to the production of sculpture and the culture in which it is made, plus the occasional interview with living sculptors and discussions about technical processes, techniques, and issues of a three dimensional, representational nature. To learn more, click here.

DVI at the WAEA

4 April, 2015

The Da Vinci Initiative recently partnered with The Washington Art Education Association to send Mandy Hallenius, DVI President, to Washington D.C. to lobby for art education funding as part of Arts Advocacy Day /AAD2015. The Da Vinci Initiative was granted this opportunity to meet with congress members about art education due to their increasingly well known and dedicated work for skill-based education in K-12 classrooms.
	About the experience, Hallenus said, "I can't wait to do it again. I couldn't believe what a difference giving elected officials a little bit of art education knowledge makes." The Da Vinci Initiative will continue its efforts to reach elected officials about the importance of art education and skill-based training in the visual arts.
To learn more about the Da Vinci Initiative, please click here. To donate to The Da Vinci Initiative, click here.