I stopped by here yesterday after @Bruce Hancock recommended it in a post. It was wonderful! I posted about the Bouguereau and Gerome paintings in the other thread, but I wanted to share about the Leyendeckers and others too. There are scans of a lot of the museum’s art on their webpage: https://hagginmuseum.org/our_collections/artists/ It was awesome seeing these in person! On some you can see every stroke and it feels like an amazing connection to the artist :D

Hi everyone. We’re excited to launch our first SOFA community art project: Humans Are Beautiful 💫 The goals of this group project are: - To celebrate beauty in art — especially the beauty of everyday people - To honor the tradition of realism from Paris to America (see examples in comments) - To build community, accountability, and excellence — together* *Many of you have asked for more structure and motivation... now you have 300+ artists counting on you to draw and paint!🔥 At the end of August, the best works will be selected for an online group exhibition and featured on my website and YouTube channel 🖼️🎥 📌 All info, posts, comments, resources, and questions go in this thread 👇 🔹 What is the Project? Humans Are Beautiful – A community-wide art project Subject: Portraits or figures of ordinary people in your local city, town, or culture. Examples for inspiration: - Humans of New York - Earthsworld Mediums: Drawing, painting, or sculpture 🔹 How to Join To participate, you must: 1. Make at least one post AND... 2. Leave at least one helpful comment 🔹 What to Post ✅ 1) Image Post = Your original artwork + a thoughtful comment Types of artwork that are welcome: - Sketchbook drawing or quick sketch - Finished, ambitious drawings or paintings - Color sketches or thumbnails - Master copies (sketch or finished) - WIPs (works in progress) - Composition studies - Homages to a master in the American realist lineage (see comments for ideas) Thoughtful comments that ask a question, share a learning, invite feedback or spark conversation are encouraged. ✅ 2) Value Post = Share something useful or insightful Examples: - Link to reference photos or books - Review or recommend photo books, collections, or art tools - Tips, tutorials, or process breakdowns - Share your personal breakthroughs, struggles, or lessons - Highlight a master artist or works in the lineage that inspire you - Share art supplies or studio hacks that help your process

My vision for The Society is to showcase the most beautiful art in the world, AND be a center of culture, taste and aesthetics (think ARC but interactive:)). This month, I want to honor the lineage of American realism, specifically the lineage of the great Steve Huston. Is Steve related to the great masters of the 19th Century like Bouguereau? And if so, how? Discover Steve's linage and more in this presentation with our resident Art History expert and professor @Steven Kloepfer. To our Steve Huston fans, students and mentees, what have you learned from Steve? Are you familiar with his teachers and mentors? Do you have any information or details about his lineage? Share your thoughts in the comments.👇 PS. the video is the raw (unedited) recording, please forgive the long pauses 🙏

Since Chris just introduced Bryce Cameron Liston, artist and photographer of art figure references, I thought I'd post two fairly recent projects done with references obtained though Bryce's monthly Patreon download. Do yourself a favor...sign up for Bryce's monthly photo packs. (See Chris's post for the link.)

UPDATE Aug 8th 2025: As if this post isn't long enough! I heard form Classen's Art Gallery. They have posted the correct image on their website! On top of that, they apologized for the delay caused by everything related to getting the show installed, etc. As readers of this post know, the screw up was all mine. I thank them for graciously helping me clean it up! (Chris did ask me to submit something on this subject; however, he has not seen this post. So it’s only partly his fault.) Several months ago I came across a call for entries to the 26th Annual American Impressionist Society National Juried Exhibition. This is a fairly prestigious event, drawing nationally recognized artists. As is typical for these large art organizations, entrants must be a member and pay an entry fee based on the number of works entered. I don’t often submit to such national shows because the competition is pretty stiff not to mention intimidating. I was on the verge of passing on yet another expensive opportunity to be humiliated, when a particular painting popped to mind. For some reason, I had a strong feeling it might fit in an impressionistic show. Oddly, it had recently come back into my possession after being purchased by a patron. He had also become a dear friend over the years. I’ll digress for just a moment…it’s part of the adventure. This patron, I’ll call him Doctor, (although he wasn’t) is one of the most unique individuals I’ve ever met. He grew up in the “hippie days”, as did I, but unlike me, he really was one. He was also a singer, composer, musician, poet, design teacher, artist and way more. Kind, gentle, and original in every way, he lived his entire life surrounded by art and artists. He read poetry with Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Jim Morrison (yes, that one), played briefly in a band opening for the Everly Brothers, has a needle point in the Smithsonian collection, and on and on. I’m not kidding. Like many true artists, he lived a very modest life, although he continued to purchase art, including mine, with what little money he had. He loved being surrounded by it.