TEXT BY
VIRGIL ELLIOTT
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GREG JOHNSON
 ver
650 ASOPA members converged on New York City for the 2000 Portrait Arts
Festival, held June 1-4 at the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, with the National Academy of Design and School of Fine Arts
as the venue for the viewing of the Finalists' paintings and meetings with
portrait agencies' representatives. The selection of this city and these
great venues was a brilliant stroke, in my opinion, as it allowed attendees
access to so many magnificent works of art that no one could have failed
to benefit from the experience for that reason alone. The more Great Art
we are exposed to, the more we are able to understand the essence of art
at its best. This cannot help but make us better artists. Everything was
scheduled in such a way as to allow us all time to tour the various art
museums scattered around the city while we were there.
The only problem with the event might have been information overload, as
brains were taxed to the limit, and perhaps beyond, with more impressions
and bits of knowledge to assimilate than most of us could handle. I expect
it to take several months to sort it all out. We met new people, made new
connections, new friends, learned new tricks, new ways of looking at things,
and perhaps came to the attention of people who might not have known us
or our work before. All in all, a most worthwhile four days.
Distinguished speakers included Richard Ormond, foremost authority on John
Singer Sargent, and Daphne J. Todd, President of the Royal Society of Portrait
Painters, both here from the United Kingdom for the event, and Sandy Carpenter,
Editor-in-Chief of The Artist's Magazine, who spoke on the state of portraiture
today. Allan Banks, President of the American Society of Classical Realism,
gave a presentation on plein air painting, and Chief Justice Perry Hooper,
Associate Justice Irad Ingraham, copyright attorney Kimberly Till and attorney
Mary Ann Fergus discussed legal angles pertaining to art.
|
 
John Howard Sanden demonstrates his painting method with artist/model Allan
Banks. Audience members ask questions. Every one of the 650-plus participants
have an upclose view of the work in progress thanks to stadium seating and
advanced video technology. |
