Richard Schmid at the Salmagundi Club

(image courtesy of John Kilroy)

Richard Schmid has a love of life and a positivity which shines through whenever he speaks. His joy in the moment is reflected in his philosophy of painting alla prima, and is, in addition to his prodigious painting talent, what draws so many other artists to him. When he addressed the audience at the Salmagundi Club on Sunday, June 7th, it was a galvanizing moment, as he used his message of hope for the future of representational art to suggest a course for those assembled.

"We are in a Golden Age;" said Schmid, "a renaissance of excellence in drawing and color perception that will lead to meaningful paintings: art that will look upward, not downward!"

Those in attendance at the sold-out presentation included collectors and members of the art media, but mostly, it was comprised of fellow artists, there to admire Schmid's work and to draw inspiration from this painting icon. In addition to the artists represented in the show Childhood Innocence, members of Schmid's Putney Painters were present, including Katie Swatland, John Smith, Rosemary Ladd, and Kathy Anderson. Young talent, up-and-coming artists, and familiar faces like William Seccombe, Kevin McEvoy, Katie Whipple, Nicole Moné, and Susan Daly Voss were there, with some of these artists, like Mia Bergeron and Stephanie Birdsall, traveling great distances to participate, from as far away as Tennessee and Arizona, respectively. Such is the drawing power of Richard Schmid, that these are only a few of the talented painters that gathered there that day to share in Richard's message.

Schmid feels that we are living in an extremely exciting time for art, as the realist movement continues to gain popularity and re-acceptance in America. It is his hope that the artists working in this style will come together in a community, to share ideas, showcase talents, challenge and inspire each other, and to elevate the arts, with the Salmagudi Club acting as the central gathering place. In his effort to promote this dream, Schmid and West Wind Fine Art donated the proceeds from Richard's presentation to the Salmagundi to help with the club's ongoing repair projects.

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In other news, Richard Schmid gave a revised publication schedule for his new landscape book, pushing the release date up to September of this year.

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I met up with Katie Swatland at the Salmagundi Club and she offered to let me preview her first two installments of "Learning from Richard Schmid".

The June lesson, which will be available to online subscribers today, Monday, June 15, discusses the value of copying masterworks. Swatland was given the rare opportunity to copy several of Richard Schmid's originals, at his request, and in this newsletter, she relates the thought processes she went through in re-creating the painting, Fallen Pine 1991.

The value of copying is that the student must go through the same thought and problem solving process as the artist in order to come up with an identical result. By doing that, you absorb information that either you might never have known, or that might have taken years to arrive at on your own. By going through this analytical thought process yourself, you can then add this to your own library of knowledge and be able to apply it. - Katie Swatland

Downloadable from the lesson page are several high-resolution images, including Schmid's finished painting, Swatland's finished copy, and three other images by Swatland from various stages during her replication of Schmid's work. With each of Swatland's images, she offers the list of materials used, her choices in the pigments used to mix each color, or the questions she asked of herself in determining what Schmid had done before her.

The July lesson features detailed notes taken while Schmid painted an alla prima scene in April of 2007. Swatland describes the colors Schmid uses at each point, and often includes his brush choices and manner of brush handling with the breakdown. I cannot comment on the pictures, however, as they had not yet been included: Richard was still gathering the images that he felt were of the best quality, and planned to add others painted at the same location at different times of year, along with his personal commentary on each photo.

With her online service 'Learning from Richard Schmid', my friend Katie is not only doing me a great favor, but is also providing a valuable flow of information to artists who wish to advance their technical knowledge and skills. During our biweekly painting sessions at the Putney Painters, we deal with many of the same challenges in working from life as painters everywhere do. It is very rewarding for me therefore to know that while I am solving problems in my own painting and offering critiques for my friends in our painting group, that Katie will soon be offering that same information and advice to artists worldwide. I am also pleased that Katie has asked me to personally review everything she quotes and describes for accuracy and meaning. - Richard Schmid

Be sure to look for the article on Katie Swatland in the July/August edition of Fine Art Connoisseur. She is included in their regular feature, "Three to Watch."