Category Archives: Philadelphia Art Classes

Art classes at locations DoN has visited or studied.

Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition

Barbara Keough Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition

Barbara Keough, Three Out of Four Ain’t Bad, mixed media @ Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition.   The Plastic Club has 36 new members and a low attrition rate due to the warm, welcoming laid back vibe of one of the longest running art clubs in America.  The New Members show is exceptional in the wide variety of media from fiber arts to painting, drawing and photograph; you would think there would be a tipping point but the leadership of The Plastic Club is sensitive to the needs of artists and makes every effort to help them develop through leading workshops, critiques, Salons, and monthly exhibitions including the Downstairs Gallery (the subject of DoN‘s next post on DoNArTNeWs).

Barbara Keough‘s painting embodies the spirit of the new group joining the club, her painting is witty, fun, cheerful and beautiful – a small painting which lights up on it’s own especially in the newly refurbished Plastic Club Gallery.  And the number 42, of course, is the answer to the ultimate question posed in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.  The Plastic Club uses a unique numbering system which requires visitors to refer to a printed guide but also allows seeing the work for itself without being influenced by the cult of personality or reputation of the artist.

Chick Kelly Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition

Chick Kelly @ Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art ExhibitionChick Kelly‘s wonderfully ebullient and erudite character shines through his paintings combining contemplative color palette with stinging symbolism and strong story telling.

Maria Viataki, Alexandra Pinero, Burton Greenspan @ Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition

Maria Viataki, Dreams of Havertown, acrylic, Alexandra Pinero, Amaris Is Hazel, oil, & Burton Greenspan, Sun Lee, oil @ Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition.  Doesn’t this look fabulous?

S.F. Pfaffenbichler Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition

S.F. Pfaffenbichler, Rock I & Rock II, oil @  Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition.

S.F. Pfaffenbichler Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition

S.F. Pfaffenbichler @ Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition.

Bob Jackson & Alan Klawans un-scrolled Sylia Pfaffenbichler‘s action drawing from the Plastic Club‘s on-going series of workshops called the Moving Model, the model slowly changes poses over a period of twenty minutes forcing the artist to quickly see and commit the image to paper, the results are evident in Pfaffenbichler‘s great, joyful paintings of jazzy dancers.

Michael B. Tantaros & Yeoun Lee Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition

Michael B. Tantaros, What, graphite & Yeoun Lee, Over the Rainbow, mixed media – DoN loves seeing these works together, the fine drawing is of Bill Myers, fellow photographer and Yeoun Lee who are both in the group multi-media art show Diverse Perspectives @ Da Vinci Art Alliance, reception February 25th, 2011, 5 – 9:00 PM, featuring the work of eight Da Vinci Art Alliance member artists.  DoN will be presenting Search Engine Optimization for Artists , Saturday, March 5th @ 2:00 PM, as part of the Diverse Perspectives exhibition running throughout March in the historic gallery in South Philly.

Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition

Past president Michael Guinn and current president Bob Jackson address the new members who have joined the Plastic Club, their leadership has improved participation exponentially and upgrades to the historic building are continuous – the back yard parties are infamous, too.

Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition

Jane J. Wilkie, Blue Sky, acrylic, Reta Sweeney, Snow on Stewart Lake, oil, Cara Kendric, Song of the Dawn, mixed media and Denise Romano Bright, Wisteria in Bloom, hand colored photo @ Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition through February 25th, 2011.  Welcome to the New Members and thank you to The Plastic Club team for providing a venue for artists to grow and develop without feeling intimidated.

By the by, DoN has been updating the Album pages on the Plastic Club website, it’s a work in progress but the pictures will bring back many memories.

Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition

Michael B. Tantaros, Who, graphite @ Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition; DoN is particularly drawn (no pun intended) to Tantaros‘ descriptive drawing and atmospheric naturalism.  The Plastic Club is famous for it’s inspiring workshops where artists can work with a live model for 3 hours really cheaply, an important factor in creating great art.

Don McPartland Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition

Don McPartland, Secession man, Weather Report & Free Range, mixed media @ Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition.

Bill Myers Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition

Bill Myers, Dead Squirrel on My Bed, photograph & Robert Heiler, Winter’s Evening, watercolor @ Plastic Club New Members 2011 Art Exhibition.  Bill Myers surrealistic photographs will be on view at Da Vinci Art Alliance February 25th – March 26th, 2011.

Photos by DoN.

Philadelphia Sketch Club’s 2010 Members Exhibition @ Newman Gallery

Philadelphia Sketch Club’s 2010 Members Exhibition @ Newman Gallery

The Plastic Club’s 2010 Members’ Medals Show

Karl Olsen The Plastic Club Members’ Medals Show

Karl Richard Olsen took home the Gold Medal in the Plastic Club’s Members’ Medals Show for “Norge“, graphite & pastel.  Check out the perfect hoop earring, a simple shape created with confidant strokes, anchoring the image in a time, place, personality, style… it’s amazing how charcoal & pastel can look so liquidy & fluid. Olsen has a major installation for MCGOPA @ The Inquirer Building in Conshohocken.

Robert Bohne won the Dorothy Invernizzi Guinn Memorial Prize for his masterpiece, “Crustacean Feast“.  The award honors realist paintings because Dorothy didn’t get abstract art and this oil painting is a timeless example of atmospheric naturalism of the highest achievement.  As an artist, when viewing a painting which speaks of years of observation, practice, study, patience & wisdom, it leaves a sensation of living forever, feasting in the moment and leaving a mark on the world.

The Plastic Club Members’ Medals Show

DoN Brewer, Denmark, photograph, Marie Samohod, Night Still Life, acrylic, Morris Klein, Washington Square, photograph and Eileen Eckstein, Finger Painting, photograph.

The Plastic Club Members’ Medals Show

Tom McCobb, Adirondack Tea Party, oil.

The Plastic Club Members’ Medals Show

Burton Greenspan, Albert, oil.  Honorable Mention Award for The Plastic Club’s Members’ Medals Show.

The Members’ Medals Show presents 130 artworks throughout three gallery spaces, Alan Klawans explained that volunteers organize and hang the show; the organic mix of paintings, drawings, photos & mixed media often is brilliant with quirky juxtapositions, DoN is confused by the placement of Syd Torchio‘s Art Porn, Take 3, a fantastical painting with a grown up fun-house vibe that gets a bit lost in the dim hall, the best view is from the stairs.