Sedona AZ (January 13, 2018) – From January 27 through February 5, a unique figure exhibition of drawings, paintings, and other artwork, will be held daily from 10am to 5pm at the Sedona Arts Center Theatre Gallery. The Figure Revealed: Artists and Muse exhibit is intentionally set up to represent a studio setting. It features a collection of art, started in Sedona Art Center’s Monday life drawing sessions over the past four years by 16 regularly attending artists. The show highlights an array of styles, expressions, imaginative responses, and interpretations of the human form, which have been created by artists with various backgrounds and skill levels.
In addition to the informal display of art, there will be opportunities for the public to experience drawing the figure and to watch demonstrations. Featured during the opening reception, from 5pm to 8pm on Friday, January 26, there will be live contact improvisational dance inspired poses that the public is invited to sketch during a “draw-a-thon.” Attendees will be provided with paper and drawing supplies or they may bring their own. Performance artist/model Pash Galbavy and guest model Mark Stevens will offer 5 minute, “quick gesture” poses, that will be based on their work together as performance artists and contact improvisational dancers. Attendees are welcome to draw or to watch. February 2, during the First Friday closing reception from 5pm-8pm, some of the exhibiting artists, including Jim Menzel-Joseph, Charles DeLay, Patty Miller, and Greg Evans, will offer live drawing demonstrations based on the contact dance poses. At both events, there will be a “drawing” for a voucher for free admittance to a Monday life drawing group. Free food and wine will also be served. Musician Richard Salem will offer live music during both receptions.
Saturday, January, 27, from 1:30 to 2:30, artist Charles DeLay will demonstrate wood carving a portrait. And at 3-4pm artist Jim Menzel-Joseph will demonstrate and provide instruction on how to draw “quick gestures,” which are poses that are typically held from 30 seconds to 20 minutes. Bring your own supplies to draw. Suggested donation, $5.
Mondays, January 29 and February 5, participants are invited to experience a version of Sedona Arts Center’s formal Monday life drawing group session. From 10am-1pm, the model will start with short, 30 second to 5-minute poses and continue with 20 minute poses for the duration. January 29, from 2pm-5pm, there will be one single pose for the whole time. Guests are requested to bring their own supplies including paper and drawing tools. Easels are provided. Cost is $15 per session. All skill levels are welcome. Parental discretion is advised at these events where the model will pose partially-clothed.
The Monday life drawing group’s host and sole model is performance artist Pash Galbavy, who has been conducting the weekly sessions for almost 5 years. Pash was originally, asked by SAC’s Director, Vince Fazio, if she wanted to host and model for a life drawing group. The group has been going strong ever since. Pash says: “I mix up our sessions with wigs, props, and varied expressions to try to pretend that I’m a different person every time. We have a lot of fun. Last year, one of our artists suggested the idea of doing a show of works that started in the group and everyone jumped on the idea. I’m excited about the exhibit as I think it’s very different from what Sedona has seen before.”
Ellen Taylor, who is President Emeritus of the Art Students League of New York, is a new attendee of the Monday life drawing group. She says: “Discovering Pash’s Monday drawing session at the Sedona Arts Center was a most pleasant surprise! The quality of the artists’s work and Pash’s modeling talent is something I did not think existed outside of a large metropolitan area. It’s a great place to get inspired and hone your drawing skills. Finding this group of extremely talented, dedicated and friendly artists makes my Sedona experience complete!”
Beginning with ancient cave drawings, early Greek sculptures, through the Renaissance, Middle-Ages, eighteenth through twentieth centuries, and into the present, drawing the unclothed human form, or “life drawing,” has a long history of being key to the development of artists. It requires intense focus of artists’ skills in analysis and execution, while inviting intuitive insights into collective humanity. It develops an ability to interpret emotional and physical aspects of the subject and combines those with creative expression.
Artist Carolyn Ensley, who teaches design at Yavapai college and is a regular Monday life drawing group attendee says, “The emotions that a ‘muse’ shares become the genius of well designed three-dimensional art.”
Jim Menzel-Joseph, who is also a regular attendee of the Monday group, writes in his book, Art and Survival in the Twenty-first Century: “When we peel back the layers of the conditioned mind, we realize that we are not seeing objectively. Each of us has a lens that is influenced by a collective consciousness and through which we edit and censor our experiences….If we want to make progress and grow in our ability as artists, we need to be on a journey of committed, penetrating inquiry. We must be awake and sensitive to what lies before us. Every drawing and painting is a potential teacher…. If we do this and stay with the process, learning our craft becomes an evolution. Eventually, we may find that our art radiates intelligence, beauty, continuity, energy, truth and universality.”
Artists who are displaying their work in the show include: Carolyn Ensley, Charles DeLay, Darleene Nelson, Greg Evans, Jack Proctor, Jim Draves, John Argent, Jim Menzel-Joseph, Marti McNamee, Megan Fyffe, P.M. Bookgarden, Patty Miller, Rafael Ramos, Suzanne Doucette Stebila, Sonja Saban, and Taylor Hellmann.
Come treat yourself to this experience of art as an expression of humanity, and participate in the wonder of the creative experience at The Figure Revealed: Artists and Muse exhibit! The show will open
Friday, January 26 at 5:00 p.m. and run through
February 5 from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm at The Art Barn Theatre Gallery at the Sedona Art Center. Call for more information,
(928) 284-4021.
The Figure Revealed Events Schedule:
• OPENING RECEPTION Draw-a-thon & Performance Art, w/ live music, Friday, January 26, 5-8pm
• EXHIBITION Daily, Saturday, January 27 – Monday, February 5, 10am-5pm
• CARVING THE PORTRAIT IN WOOD Demonstration, w/ Charles DeLay, Saturday, January 27, 1:30-2:30 pm
• GESTURE DRAWING Demonstration & Instruction, w/ Jim Menzel-Joseph, Saturday, January 27, 3-4pm, $5 to draw
• OPEN STUDIO LIFE DRAWING Groups, Monday, January 29 & February 5, 10am-1pm short poses, & January 29, 2pm-5pm long pose, $15/session
• 1ST FRIDAY CLOSING RECEPTION Demonstrations & Performance Art, w/ live music, Friday, February 2, 5-8pm
*All events will take place in the Art Barn Theater Gallery at Sedona Arts Center
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