Portrait and figure show, Philadelphia area

[Alexandra Tyng]

First of all, many, many thanks to Garth for acting as photographer! We forgot our camera (this kind of thing always happens to me when I'm trying to be extra efficient and organized), and Garth was the only one (other than the development person from the American College who was taking pictures for the alumni magazine) with a camera. He generously took the time from socializing to take a bunch of pictures to immortalize the event. Thank you, Garth! What would we have done without you? Piety, I want to thank you for coming. It was so nice to finally meet you, especially since we missed you last week.

The opening was very well attended and festive. The American College catered a lovely reception with all kings of elegant cheeses, desserts, and other goodies. It really was like four receptions for the four artists going on at once, with lots of overlap and mingling since there were people that more than one of us, or even all of us, knew. Lots of artists were there, which was fun. I think we accomplished our goal of getting portraiture and figurative work "out there" for people to see, and to explore the boundaries of how we define a portrait and a figure painting, and examining the areas of overlap. Hopefully we will have more shows in the future and gradually include more artists.

[Lisa Ober]

Congratulations, Alexandra! It's so great to see the photos as well so I'm glad Garth was there. Looks like a wonderful event. I wish I lived closer.

[Linda Brandon]

What a terrific show! It looks wonderful - paintings, artists, visitors - gosh I wish I'd been there! I am so happy for all of you

And I love it when subjects stand next to their paintings!

[Alexandra Tyng]

Thanks, Lisa and Linda! I wish both of you could have been there.

I wanted to mention that one of the other artists in the show, Nancy Bea Miller, a PSA member, has now joined the forum!

[Alexandra Tyng]

Not to brag or anything, but I wanted to let you all know that we received excellent local publicity for this show! It was reviewed in three papers, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Main Line Times, and Art Matters. We were also mentioned as a "best bet" in the Inquirer's list of suggested cultural activities on the Main Line (the area where the show was).

I think this says something very positive about the growing enthusiasm for portraiture, which is especially encouraging in the Philadelphia area. Philadelphia has a rich history of famous portrait painters--Cecilia Beaux, Mary Cassat, Andrew Wyeth, Thomas Eakins--even Sargent's parents were Philadelphians. But in recent history Philadelphians have not showed the same interest in commissioning portraits as people in the South and other parts of the U.S. We are hoping for a regeneration of interest!

Below I'm attaching an image of one review. I know it's too small to read, but maybe you can see some of the pictures. All are from our show.

[Linda Brandon]

This is wonderful publicity, congratulations to all of you!

[Chris Saper]

Yes, yes.

[Terri Ficenec]

That's wonderful Alex! I see one of yours in the pictures there

[Lisa Ober]

Fantastic, Alex! I can almost read the article too. I bet if I was 20 again I could. Congratulations.

[Alexandra Tyng]

Yeah, I know what you mean, Lisa! Actually it is blurry, it's not just your eyes, if that's any comfort.

Thanks, everyone, for even bothering to look after the fact. We are going to do this again--there are many more artists in our area that we can add in future years--but I'm hoping someone with better organizational skills might attempt something regional, or even national. Also, I am hoping that this might encourage people in different areas of the country to try similar shows. It wasn't that hard to do with just four people, and it generated a lot of interest.

Alex