Studio Incamminati Celebrates Decade of Teaching Realist Painters

NEW YORK—Studio Incamminati, a school for contemporary realist painters, celebrated their 10th anniversary at The National Arts Club in Manhattan on Jan. 11 with a painting demonstration and exhibition. Six of their senior artists, all teaching fellows at the studio, painted a live model using different techniques as an audience followed each brushstroke with intense interest.

Studio Incamminati artists and alumni exhibited 50 works alongside art by studio founder Nelson Shanks, from Jan. 3 to Jan. 14. The school, located in Philadelphia, was founded by Shanks and his wife Leona with the mission of developing highly skilled painters.

“People walk into galleries, see beautiful paintings, and wonder, ‘How did they do that?’” National Arts Club president Dianne Bernhard said. “We heard this comment so often that we wanted to show you. We are so proud to have Nelson and Leona Shanks’ team here—they are the change-makers in the art world today, the ones who are keeping the tradition alive.”

Fundamentals Are Paramount

The painters of the evening were studio co-founder Leona Shanks, Lea Wight, Joe Dolderer, Peter Kelsey, Jason Espey, and Alisyn Blake. Each demonstrated one or more of the following techniques: full color (alla prima) painting, charcoal, open grisaille, closed grisaille or a value study, and color study.

“The different techniques are learned independently and then you would use the same ways of looking no matter what you are painting,” explained Wight. “You first lay down the most easily seen color notes, and then adjust and relate the different values.”

Blake, first demonstrating a charcoal study, used vine charcoal, a paper towel, a shammy, and a kneaded eraser for the lightest highlights. She put down dark values on a gray ground and wiped away the light areas.

“It can take 12 hours for charcoal portrait, depending on what you want to get out of it,” she said.

Students of the studio undergo rigorous training to cement the traditional techniques and skills of the old masters…

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Featured Image: Teachers from Studio Incamminati show the step-by-step making of a portrait at The National Arts Club in New York on Jan. 11 2013.  (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)