TRADITIONAL & CONTEMPORARY REALIST ART AND TEACHING STUDIO
A contemporary realist painter, Linda studied at the South Australia TAFE-School of Art and Design, and worked as a commercial artist before moving to the US in '94. She continued to develop her foundational skills seeking out master artists working today in the traditional method studying with them at various ateliers in the US and France. In her private studio Linda had immersed herself in painting and continued to develop her vision of a creative environment where traditional art could be taught as a practiced discipline where students could work in a structured, organized studio with the hands on guidance of the studio’s principle artists. Linda opened Russian River Atelier in 2015 to the community, seeking highly qualified artists to teach their methods of traditional drawing and painting and to support the local visual arts community.
Artist Statement
Linda Schroeter (b. 1963, Australia)
In 2014 I re-named my studio, Russian River Atelier, after developing it as a collaborative teaching space, dedicated to teaching the traditional fundamental skills to anyone interested in realist/representational academic art. I sought out instructors who all have graduated from three of the highly rigorous classical ateliers in Florence that were living locally giving them a space to teach and to pass onto others a time honored tradition.
My Art
Allegory and symbolism in the paintings of the Dutch artists of the 16th and 17th century intrigue and inspire me. Their skillfully rendered Still Lives are able to hold the viewers attention, portraying exquisite beauty. Learning these skills were almost forgotten in academia institutions of the last century, but there has been a growing interest in this genre of painting now making resurgence and I believe it to be a very exciting time for artists to delve more deeply into this area of study. Nothing excites me more than visiting the paintings in Amsterdam’s historic Antiques and art district where this traditional art practice still thrives.
My preferred technique is working from life in the traditional In-direct painting method used by painters throughout history such as Vermeer, of light manipulation through paint layers, pushing forms and elements to create the sense of three-dimensional space. I begin with under-painting the grisaille, followed by building the color layers, glazing and finally scumbling.
A graduate of the illustration program at Sheridan College in Ontario, Canada, Jay worked as an architect’s assistant before he began his studies with John Michael Angel in Toronto, Canada. Moving to Florence in 2005 as an instructor, and continuing his study of traditional painting methods at the Angel Academy of Art in Italy, Jay remained as a full-time painting and drawing instructor for many years after he graduated. He currently resides in Northern California with his talented wife, artist Naomi Marino, and their beautiful daughter. His main focus is on still-life painting as well as teaching figure and old master copy painting at the Russian River Atelier, Geyserville.
In his intensive figure workshops, Jay will be presenting a system that will develop the student's ability to paint the human figure with accuracy and force.
Naomi Marino is a contemporary realist painter based in Northern California. After studying art in a university setting as well as apprenticing at a private atelier, Naomi’s interest in Dutch still life, Renaissance art and 19th century master paintings led her to relocate to Florence, Italy, in pursuit of a strong foundation of technical mastery in painting and drawing. There she studied under Maestro Michael John Angel at the Angel Academy of Art, and honed her craft through rigorous training, workshops, teaching, and independent study. Naomi’s work has earned various awards and scholarships, and can be found in private and public collections in Europe, North America, and Australia.
James Judson Monroe is a painter with a lifetime interest in representational art and traditional approaches to painting. Many helpful influences that crossed Judson's path as a young man intrigued and inspired him to investigate the possibility of a traditional art education abroad. At a very young age he began his training in representational drawing after taking his first class in academic figure drawing from Charles Cecil.
Years later and still hooked, after having discovered the lack of traditional painting skills common to university art instruction, Judson decided to return to Italy. The community of classically trained artists, coupled with the country’s vast wealth of art history, proved to be the perfect environment to allow him to take on the truly hard work of painting.. To supplement his FAA education he also took classes in plein air painting and portraiture in private studios around Florence, as well as assisting with FAA’s own portrait painting workshops. Any free time he found, Judson spent traveling to art museums and sketching around the rest of Europe. After graduating from the Florence Academy of Art he went on to become their Director of Art History with a special interest in 19th century Italian painting, a fantastic era in art history he continues to passionately explore.
Upon his return to the United States Judson painted in several places for extended periods before eventually settling down in Breckenridge, CO. Currently he is focused on painting out-of-doors and composing genre scenes, while occasionally doing demos and workshops.
In 2001, I was fortunate to be accepted into Charles Cecil Studios in Florence, Italy. For three glorious years, I studied drawing/painting the figure and portrait using sight-size. This term describes a method of seeing and drawing that was used by Velasquez, Rubens, Van Dyck, and Sargent, among others. It can be used for portraits, figures, still-lifes or landscapes - wherever accuracy is the goal. Sight-size is a systematic way to see and measure in order to closely reproduce nature.
I'm delighted to offer a class in the basics of the sight-size method. A drawing or painting made from life is a record of thousands of artistic perceptions and feelings. This dialogue with nature was central to the old masters and is the core of using sight-size.
