OK, let's dive right into the next 10 web sites. If you haven't shared your web site with the rest of us send it to me and I guarantee it will be in the next newsletter.

But before going into the web sites I wanted to relate a chance meeting in the streets I had today. There was a guy painting outside. Not a very unusual thing except that 1) he was painting a 48" square canvas 2) he had 30 hours into it with another 30 hours estimated to finish it and 3) in order to keep his easel from blowing away he drilled a couple of holes in the street, screwed in some eye hooks and wired his easel to those! Well, his name is John van Rens and here is a link to a page with some images that can be clicked to see larger versions.

Bob Bryant of Washington state is recognized for his strength as a marine artist.

Read how many awards Canada artist Jean Pederson has won - amazing!

Award winning, classical still life and portrait painter, Carol Vogel paints out of Washington DC.

Check out the charming, colorful and imaginative images of NYC friend Andrea Daquino.

Got to love the energy and strength of Canadian artist Brian Simons.

Denver artist RJ (Ron) Collins does a heck of a good job painting kids (and more).

Virginia artist Jack Pardue, Past President of the Maryland Pastel Society, actually has a portrait of Sitting Bull hanging in the White House!

NYC painter, and friend, Jessica Dalrymple, is having a show with the Hudson Valley Art Association in July. Although a city girl Jessica also paints relaxing and calming scenes in the country and is planning a meditative plein air workshop in September.

Texas artist Mary Wiley paints landscapes, garden scenes and florals in both oils and watercolors.

I just found the most interesting (and new) site for plein air painters. Yeah, and even for studio painters - we're not discriminating here. It's http://pleinairartists.ning.com/. Very user friendly, fun to navigate around and just a good feeling to it. You can sign up for membership at no cost and post some images and get involved in some forums.

Starting UR Story! Here are the links to your first UR STORIES... that is, something in your words about your own personal path in art. First one is from Paula and the second from Judy and the third from Lynn.

Shelli told me about the fact that Google is allowing artists to use Google's maps and city highlights for reference information to do paintings. Read about it here.

Miscellaneous

Here's the most interesting painting called "Discussing the Divine Comedy with Dante". Move your cursor around the painting and then click on each person to read about their life.

Bordeaux workshop! I've reserved 12 rooms to keep the size of the workshop small and 6 of those rooms are already spoken for so... don't delay. As of today (May 25) round trip fares start from $740 from Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago, Los Angeles and Memphis. All these fares include the transfer from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris to the Bordeaux airport. Worried about the economy before signing up? I read this today on Reuters: "Perceptions that the worst of the 17-month old downturn was over pushed consumer confidence to its highest level in eight months in May".

I found this story on Reuters from Paris– True to their reputation as leisure-loving gourmets, the French spend more time sleeping and eating than anyone else among the world's wealthy nations. The average French person sleeps almost nine hours every night, more than Americans, who sleep more than 8.5 hours. And while more and more French people grab a bite at fast-food chains these days or wolf down a sandwich at their desk, they still spend more than two hours a day eating.

Speaking of the French, here I am in Paris teaching my first workshop on putting people in your paintings and have been learning lots from working with this group of painters. A couple of points:

1) it's probably an inescapable fact that the more time you spend painting the figure from life the more convincing your figures will be when painted from photographs.

2) If the figure is going to be central in your composition then the figure should always be kept one step ahead of the rest of the painting. And the head should be kept one step ahead of the rest of the figure.

3) We painted the figure in a variety of situations: from a model I hired to pose for us in the Jardin du Luxembourg; from photos that we took in the streets one day and painted from the next day; self portraits we painted while standing in front of a bar-restaurant window, painting people directly from life playing chess also in the Luxembourg Gardens and finally, the great nude statues in the Tuileries. Here is a link to a scrapbook of our Paris experience.

Here's my brief take on co op galleries vs commercial galleries. Commercial galleries are generally considered more prestigious but co op galleries have a dynamic energy about them and allow the artist freedom to paint what they want - to truly follow their heart. Commerical galleries will want to determine for you what you should be showing with them. As for everything else in the world, for every positive point for one type of gallery there is the other side to consider. That being said, Pleiades Gallery currently has two openings. I'm a member there and love it! Contact our president by e-mail.

Artists' Quotes ( a few more than usual)

These first three are submitted by Raearth (well, that's the first part of his/her email address - not sure of their name)..

Frank Auerbach "It seems to me madness to wake up in the morning and do something other than paint, considering that one may not wake up the following morning."|

Edward Hopper "If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint."

Renoir "They tell you that a tree is only a combination of chemical elements. I prefer to believe that God created it and it is inhabited by a nymph."

Monet: "Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment".

Alice Neel: "Whether I'm painting or not, I have this overweening interest in humanity. Even if I'm not working, I'm still analyzing people".

Phil Levine Workshops, Inc.
69 bank Street #102. NY, NY 10014
phone: 212-414-8875 fax: 866-501-6873
e-mail: philiplevine@earthlink.net