Has the book on painting been closed?

[Patricia Joyce]

An interesting dialogue has started in the "Introduce Yourself" (Greetings from Madrid) thread between a new member Carlos Ygoa and Sharon Knettell and Allan Rahbek. It was suggested that the subject move here, at Cafe Guerbois.

Has the book on painting in the style of the Old Masters and realism been closed? Or as Sharon suggested, has it just "not been taken out of the library much in the last 80 years".

This subject is striking home for me lately as I take classes at local art centers and colleges in the Cleveland area.
I am currently taking a sixteen week course in oil painting, a combination second/third/fourth year art class with thirty students. We are tripping over ourselves among our easels. It is woefully discouraging to see that these "serious" art students cannot draw a simple still life, much less paint a representation of form.

When the class participates in the critique some disturbing remarks have been made about my simple paintings (still life's thus far) "You can see that Pat has drawn this subject well, and being able to draw helps in a painting, but it is not necessary". The Associate Professor then goes into this discourse on how the world is so vast now, that being able to draw is not essential to good art.

Now I am working on a copy of Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl and the remarks I have gotten from my instructor is, "Don't worry, by the end of the semester I will get you to loosen up. Why would you choose a masterwork from the 17th century when modern portraiture can be so exciting?"

Ugh, seven more weeks before this class is finished and it was announced we will now move into the "fun" stuff, abstract art.

Herein lies my struggle. I am painfully aware that I am an infant to painting. Yet, I am serious about wanting to study portraiture and realism. And Cleveland seems void of teachers who appreciate realism, much less want to teach it.

When every discretionary penny is going into my education I wonder if I am throwing my money away in classes where there is no support for my determination to learn realism and fine portraiture. At this point I am tempted to drop the class and spend those 15 hours a week painting from life and good reference photos when I do not have a model in front of me?