Mischa Milosevic

Where have you trained?


Some years ago a elderly gent from Australia, Hal, came to spend four months in beautiful Italy. Three of those months he spent at the Angel Art Academe. While he was at the academy copying, his choice, from one of the basic Bargue drawings, his wife was visiting the many museums of Florence. The evenings and the weekends Hal and his wife spent visiting the country side and spent many evening meals at the local traditional restaurants.

Let me share a little about Hal. He and his wife live and work in Australia. For the past thirty years or more Hal has been Australia's recognized professional landscape painter. The point of interest, at least to me, is that Hal celebrated his 76th birthday with a surprise birthday cake, Italian stile, at the Angel Academy, doing his Bargue drawing. He struggled like the rest of us, grumbled a little when the critiques came but he better understood and appreciated the rigorous training that the Bargue drawings demand. He did finish his Bargue drawing and studied with us while working from the model.

It was sad to see Hal and his wife go for he and his wife are such wonderful people. We loved his and he loved our company.
These are some of Hals from Italy paintings. Also, attached are Bargue drawings done by me while at the academy.

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Mischa Milosevic

Hal is, on the most part, a self taught artist. Even though he was quite along in years and a artist of many years he decided to spend a few months at a academy.

Is it important where one trains?

I think it is interesting to notice that all the academies of today, in many respects, are not the same. In what way are they different? That depends on what one is looking for or what one is able to notice while looking. This principle on how we see can be applied on a artists work as well.

When searching for a academy where to study my main criteria was the students work. The question I asked was, how does the students work compare to the work of the instructor. Still before even asking the previous questions, I spent months and months in the library absorbing the works of the Old Masters trying my best to understand what it is they learn't. Then and only then I had some idea what one is to look for in a teacher. For my idea of what I thought is good art compared drastically with what the Masters expressed to be solid training.

I have heard it said that academy training, that is vigorous academy training, will stump an individuals creativity. This to me is a typical response of a individual that has no idea what they are talking about. It is like saying to a student of architecture 'you do not need to be perfect in your measurements for that will hinder your creativity'. It is my experience that with proper training and only then one has the tools and is able to express one self in any direction he or she wishes. Until then one struggles and limps not able to do what the heart desires.

If one is not able to attend a academy there is ways one can teach one self but it is a longer road that one must travel. Along the way there are many pitfalls and shortcomings one is not aware of being that one has not been trained to see. If one takes this road, for what ever reason, it is rare that such a one will ever reach his or her potential. I think it is important to understand this in order to calculate the cost. One does not wish to start building a house and has not calculated the cost.

This forum has many nuggets of gold and precious instructional materials. One will do well and profit in instruction if one is to invest the time and search for these precious nuggets. When I was in Downieville CA, panning and sniping for gold, this was some years ago while in my youth, my first lesson was to distinguish between fools gold and the real thing. Both shine, especially when in the light, but only true gold has any value. The next lesson was where I would look in order to find the nuggets. There are curtain rocks in the river, for example, that will expand and trap the gold, hold the gold. One lesson is to recognize these rocks and where they can be found. Like previously mentioned the road to teaching one self is a long and winding road and all uphill.

I will miss Hal and his wife and spending time with them has taught me many a important life's lessons. My sincere hope is that each finds what they are looking for in life. Don't forget to ask the question when you find it 'what will I do with it?'

Steven Sweeney

It’s perhaps not as “contemporary” a problem as we think, how so many have felt that the training they need is offered only somewhere else. As schools come and go, instructors’ careers wax and wane, wars and economic boom and bust interrupt the cultural life, any given aspiring student could no doubt have found a dearth of local opportunities and struck out for Florence, or Boston, or even Minneapolis, in search of a master, or at least a classically-based curriculum.

When I researched the Australian impressionist Sir Arthur Streeton for an article in the Classical Realism Journal, I was actually surprised to learn that beginning in 1882 he had enrolled in evening classes (an apprentice lithographer by day) at the National Gallery School of Design (in Melbourne, if I recall correctly), where he was taught traditional academic methods, “progressing from outline copying to three-dimensional drawings of plaster casts and the human figure.” Mind you, this pre-dated the federation of the Australian colonies. (Streeton always struggled with the figure, never completely mastering it, and envying that ability in his fellow artists in the close-knit group of impressionists known as the Heidelberg School (for their little art school in Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia).)

The Julian Ashton School of Art, founded in Sydney over a century ago and still going (and apparently expanding) today, continues to offer anatomy and structured life drawing classes, and includes in its current brochure the information that the school “has a large number of plaster casts & artists skeletons perfect for use when initially learning the finer points of the human anatomy including bone structure, muscle structure and light.”

This isn’t new. Another famed Australian artist, Grace Crowley, went to the Julian Ashton school around 1905, but was of another mind when it came to her artistic ambitions. One account reports that “she remembered that her early time at Ashton’s ‘had bored me to death as a school kid.’ She had wanted to paint pictures, but Ashton started beginners in the cast room, where they spent many hours making precisely rendered drawings of plaster casts. Crowley only attended the school for two terms[.]”

In any event, Mischa, the training is available in Australia, though no doubt in limited venues -- Australia is a huge country with few large cities – so that your friend simply decided to go back to “the source” for his instruction. No doubt he was rewarded for the trouble.

I do think it would behoove any serious student to do the homework on the local art instruction scene, not just the commercial schools, but the masters working here and there, some of whom will take on a disciplined apprentice. That is how classical realist Richard Lack came to study in Boston under R.H. Ives Gammell, whose mentor in turn had been William Paxton, and with ateliers and academic studios throughout the country and Europe producing a new class of masterful artisans every year in this era of resurgence, the ranks of such instruction can’t help but swell. Even if a search for a teacher but a year ago was for naught, a new one should be undertaken. The teachers, many of them masters in the making, are available. There’s no harm in going to Florence, but you don’t have to anymore.

The most telling detail is that the training is not for the timid or the undisciplined.

Of course, you don’t want to undergo brain surgery by a self-taught physician, but the truth is, there is probably more information available to any student right now in books and on instructional DVDs than most Old Masters had access to in their entire lives. The caveat being, it’s not all sound advice.

I can't place "Hal." Can you provide a last name?

__________________
Steven Sweeney
Paint4Real@aol.com

"You must be present to win."

Mischa Milosevic

Steven, my point exactly. In todays world one does not need to travel far to find what they are looking for, In this case professional atelier training.

Let me clarify, Hal Barton and his wife wanted to visit family in a near by country and at the same time wished to experience Italy. Their choice being Florence had a molty purpose, first being they wanted to spend time in Florence together and everything else came second. Hal, as you guessed, wanted the academy experience in Florence Italy. His wife wanted to share this time with him where else but in Italy.

You see, the years of our life dwindle away ever so quickly and Hal, Hal had a wish and this wish he shared with his life long partner and friend.

As for the training, I agree, one need not travel far rather the excellent art training maybe in our home town. One point I wish to stress, reason being why I shared Hal's experience, is that life on this earth is a precious gift and we should do well to plan our time wisely. I say this not to discriminate whether one starts early or late in life. One can be sixty and decide to invest time in formal art training or one can be sixteen but get the best art training available.

My best to all

Mischa Milosevic

Here is a photo of my first charcoal cast. I am sure all recognize Michelangelo's David. This was my first charcoal cast ever and it was quite the challenge.
I add a crop that one may have a hint on how refined one can get in their work. All other details, as to the size, can be found on my web page.

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Mischa Milosevic

Sorry, my mistake with the previous small crop. I would appreciate if the moderator would remove the small crop. Thank you.

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SB Wang

Mischa:
This is for you:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/langua...sy_riddles.html

__________________
www.portraitartist.com/wang

Mischa Milosevic

Wang hello! Thank you for the link. Sorry but I was not able to view much of the page, not sure why? Thanx anyway.


Art competition and artist attempting to prove their mastery is evident and is all around us. My exhibiting work in this thread is not at all to prove my skill level. My sole purpose is to share the possibilities within a given medium.

I can honestly say that I am far from reaching my goals in the practical and art understanding. However, I strongly feel and personally experience, every day, what it means to have the practical knowledge. One may have, as we say, text book knowledge, some practical understanding but unless the practical is pushed to new levels there will and is a void. That is the truth and there is no way of getting around it. So, I must role up my sleeves and get to work.

The things I share with you on the forum is mostly practical and for the benefit of others, those that would love to do what I did but just cannot for what ever reason.
I have heard many say that such perfection would stagnate ones creativity. Not true! Ones understanding and practical perfection will give freedom to absolute creativity. Think about it. Here is a simple example. If one can masterfully hold a hammer in ones hand and drive them nails with precision but has no practical knowledge in building a house what is the end result? But, if one perfects these two and what ever it takes to be a master builder is there a limit of what one can do?

I laugh when I hear people say "one must let go and be in a mindless state to create". That is a lie! One must have the skill and understanding and only then be able and have the freedom to create. Sure there is the occidental experience of creativity but should we run after accidents all our life? Think about it.

So, my dear friends and art lovers honesty within one self is a good start. It is ok to say I do not know but it is not ok to say that one cannot improve and be the best that one can be.

All the best.