Portrait and figurative drawing/painting workshop
Portfolio Website: www.garymlongartist.com
Seeing MIndfully teaching method
The Premier Coup Technique
The purpose of this teaching method which I call "Seeing Mindfully" is built upon the teachings of John Howard Sanden who credits his methodology to his teacher Samuel Edmund Oppenheim, one of the great teachers of painting in America. John and his wife Elizabeth started the Portrait Clubs of America where I became a fully accredited Leader/Instructor in 2003. Our teaching method is based on the single-sitting portrait study from the live model which has been practiced throughout history. Examples of this method would be Valazquez, Hals and Van Dyck in the seventeenth century, Raeburn and Lawrence in the eighteenth and , in the nineteenth century, a host of practitioners including Sargent, Sorolla, Zorn, Serov, Orpen, and many more.
This exciting way to paint, the Premier coup approach is the technique which is taught by me. We attempt to execute a finished painting/drawing from the very first stroke, without such traditional intermediate steps as toning, underpainting, glazing or scumbling. The entire painting/drawing is accomplished in just one sitting. The motto of this method might be, "Get it done; get it done right, get it done right from the beginning". My mission as an Artist/ Instructor is to inspire the artist in each of us to become aware of our capacity to see reality as an artist does and portray it in the medium of pencil and paint.
Seeing Mindfully
Dedicated Teacher and Professional Artist
Gary M. Long is a retired licensed N.Y.C. Dept. of Education Teacher who taught Art and Elementary School for over twenty years in Bushwick, Brooklyn, N.Y.C. He has been drawing and painting portraits and figures since his youth. His approach enables each student to build self-confidence and gain a greater level of visual acuity by learning to see mindfully. He is a also a fully accredited Leader/Instructor of Portrait Clubs of America founded by John Howard Sanden and his wife Elizabeth R. Sanden. Gary accepts commissioned Portraits and landscape figurative paintings which he sells nationally thought his portfolio website. www.garymlongartist.com
Seeing Mindfully
Have you ever wondered how an artist who draws a portrait at a fair does it? This workshop gives the students the necessary tools to achieve a reasonable likeness of his/her subject and learn, "Seeing Mindfully". The students will learn "The Four Valuable Conceptual Aids using the Sight-Size Method of Drawing/Painting". The four conceptual aids applied to this method establishes the foundation of all accurate drawing. Students will begin to focus attention on their subject by drawing /painting with concentration and alertness the shape and character of the model attempting to execute the drawing/painting from the very first stroke and finishing the portrait in one timed sitting.
Seeing Mindfully Painting/Drawing Workshop
The curriculum is based upon the time honored traditions of realistic portrait and figure painting. "Seeing Mindfully" title emphasizes the artist's struggle to give his/her work the necessary emotional quality of the extraordinary. This format has been taught at the Art Students League for decades. It has been said to be the most demanding and inherently valuable training exercise for the painter in oils. Every crucial painting discipline; draftsmanship, value judgement, color discernment, color mixing, character analysis, design and composition, brush handling, treatment of edges, all of these essential disciplines are brought acutely and urgently into play during the single-sitting portrait session. The painter in such a class is on "high alert" with all of his/her faculties functioning at their utmost. It is wonderful training. As students progress on their journey, I provide continued guidance allowing each artist to develop at his/her pace to achieve a higher level of satisfying accomplishments. The reward is a wonderful piece of artwork and a heightened level of self-esteem which adds to each artist's sense of self-worth.
