Recent Publications

2011 was an exciting year for me in terms of getting published! My work was published in American Art Collector, Artist’s Magazine, International Artist, Southwest Art Magazine, and I was also featured in American Painting Video Magazine.

In addition, I wrote a “how-to” article for Artist’s Magazine’s Drawing Board column, on “Constructing Vessels”. In upcoming issues of Artist’s Magazine I’ll have two more Drawing Board  column how-to articles published: One on blocking in the figure, and one on modeling form with chalk and charcoal on toned paper.

I’ve recently updated my Publications page with images and PDF’s of recent magazine articles profiling my artwork. You can also find links to order back issues of many of the publications, and watch the American Painting Video Magazine.

Download PDF’s of recent publications

New Studio for the New Year

I am very pleased to announce that I am moving to a larger studio! 

We have been preparing the space for the last couple of weeks, and now I can finally share a sneak peek.

The new studio is 1800 square feet, with 18 foot ceilings and a wall of north light windows. We have painted the walls a classic “atelier gray”, and installed brand new glossy black flooring. There is a separate small space for my own painting studio, and the rest of the space is wide open for classes and workshops.

The studio is just a half mile from my old space. It is located on Bryant Street, just north of 16th street, near the the Protrero shopping center.

With the larger space, we are now offering even more classes and workshops:

Non-Instructed Figure Model Sessions
Tuesday and Thursday evenings
Monday and Wednesday daytime
To see the full schedule and register for the first round of sessions beginning the week of February 6, please visit:
http://www.sadievaleri.com/model-sessions/

Drawing and Painting Classes
There are still a few spots left in our Winter/Spring schedule of classes, see all upcoming classes here: http://www.sadievaleri.com/classes/

Advanced Open Studio
For artists who have completed group painting or drawing classes and wish to practice their skills with Sadie’s help and instruction, we are offering Advanced Open Studio on Sundays.
For more information visit:
http://www.sadievaleri.com/advanced-open-studio/

Easel Assembly / Pizza Party / Champagne Toast
We would like to invite our local studio friends to a sneak previw of the new digs! We invite anyone to drop by the new space on Friday, January 13th, 4pm-9pm.
If you are feeling handy, we would love your help assembling our fresh batch of fancy new easels. And even if you are not particulary adept with assembly, please stop by for a slice of pizza and a glass of champagne anyway!
(Note: Those who arrive on the early side can get a glimpse of our lovely north light before sunset!)
Please RSVP to info@sadievaleri.com and we will send you the address.

I would like to thank everyone who took classes and workshops from me in the last few years. It is through your support and dedication to Realism that this expansion of the Sadie Valeri Atelier is even possible.

I hope you will enjoy the new space in 2012!

-Sadie

Flower Alla Prima Oil Sketches

Orange Dahlias, 9x9, oil on linen

Ever since I got a lesson from Michael Klein in direct-method flower painting a couple months ago I’ve wanted to try it again, and once I got home from France I finally had a chance.

Tiny Rose Arrangement, 8x10, oil on linen

The landscape painting also was a good warm-up for direct method painting in the studio. I usually paint Indirect, or Flemish method - where I work in many layers, allowing each layer to dry completely before applying more paint.

Scattered Flowers, 14x18, oil on linen

With Direct method, wet paint is layered over wet paint, and most of the strokes of paint you make will be visible in the final piece. The goal is to get the correct hue, value, chroma, and edge down in each stroke, without adjusting.

For these paintings I am using New Traditions L600 lead-primed linen which comes in big rolls you can cut to the size you need.

I started each painting with an underpainting just using Burnt Umber to work out the composition, basic values, and placement of the objects.

I used Rosemary brushes which I like a lot, they are totally different than the more controlled Robert Simmons white sable brushes I use for Indirect painting.

Red Lilies, 12x16, oil on linen

All of these paintings were done alla prima, meaning in a single day’s painting session. Direct painting can be done in one session or over many days or weeks, but each stroke is painted as it is meant to be seen in the final painting.

And now I’m back to my regular Indirect method, as I have been working the last few days on a preparatory drawing for a new piece which will take me about a month to complete. I won’t have much time to paint in the next few weeks, between teaching my workshop, various short travels, and attending Weekend with the Masters, but it’s been fun to start at least.

40 in France

This year I turned 40, and to celebrate I planned a month of landscape painting in France, something I have wanted to do since I first visited France at age 16. I chose the Dordogne region in the south-west of France because of it’s reputation for beautiful, varied landscape: rolling green hills, cliff towns, winding rivers, forests, and most important…… castles!!

Chateau Feyrac, 9x12, oil on paper

We rented a house in the gorgeous little town of Beynac-et-Cazenac, which is a network of steep cobblestoned streets and adorable stone houses crowned with a 12th century castle at the top.

Veiw of Chateau Beynac from the Dordogne, 9x12, oil in paper

I decided to paint on paper for a portable, lightweight material perfect for plein air sketches. Before the trip I cut sheets of Rives BFK printing paper in various tones into standard sizes, mostly 5x7 and 9x12. Then I primed the paper with 2 coats of Golden Acrylic Medium. Each day I just taped a piece of paper to a foamcore backing and mounted it on my Open Box M setup. It was a wonderful surface to paint on!

See my previous blog post post describing my plein air setup

As it turned out, it ended up raining for 2 of the 4 weeks we were in Beynac, so I did not get to paint nearly as much as I’d planned. But instead we hung out with visiting friends and family who shared our rental house and rented other houses in the same village.

Chateau Castelnaud, 9x12, oil on paperAt the very end of the trip the rain cleared and I got one last painting day in. I found a beautiful quiet spot next to a field of corn with a view of neighboring Chateau Castelnaud. The day was warm and lazy, and the #1 BEST thing about painting in France is….. NO MOSQUITOS!!!!

To see all of my paintings from France this summer:

Picasa Google+ Album: France Plein Air 2011

Facebook Album: France Plein Air 2011

See my photos of Paris, Beynac, and the Dirdgne region of France:

Facebook Album: Artsy Shots of France 2011

Featured in American Painting Video Magazine

Last month American Painting Video Magazine visited me in my San Francisco studio and interviewed me for their Summer issue, just released yesterday! You can hear an interview with me in my studio and also in-process footage of my newest painting, Undersea.

Download Volume 2, Summer issue here!

Undersea
15.75 x 20 inches, oil on panel 

About the painting:

Walking through San Francisco’s historic North Beach neighborhood, I stopped to look at a shop window full of collectibles and curiosities, and caught sight of a large, barnacle-encrusted bottle. I went in and spoke to the shop owner, who said he he had dredged up the bottle from the bottom of the San Francisco Bay while diving.

We struck a deal, I walked home with my treasure, and the next day the barnacle bottle was perched on my still life shelf, quietly demanding to be painted.

Over the next few days an arrangement evolved which promised to consume my studio time for weeks: A collection of salvaged treasures seemingly dredged up from the bottom of the sea. 

In this painting I have grouped objects with a variety of edges and textures: The waxed paper nearly disappears as it melts into the shadows of the background, while the spiny contours of the crab claw strike a dramatic silhouette. The soft cool highlights of the glass bottle must compete with the warm, sharp whites of the barnacle shells.

To capture this variety requires the most subtle decisions about color, value, and edge control. It takes many layers of thin oil paint to create the final result, as many as seven to ten layers in the most complicated areas.