PAINTING OF THE MONTH

The Morning Newspaper

Oil on Linen

Image 16 x 24 - Framed 23 x 31

$2100

Is the world we are painting now so different than the one the Old Masters were painting? The light that falls on us today is the same light that lit a Rembrandt portrait. When that light is blocked we experience the same mysterious shadows that Caravaggio painted. The air we breathe and the space we occupy is the same space that Frans Hals' Laughing Cavalier inhabited. The wind that blows through our landscape is the same breeze that animated Corot's trees and our stars also appeared in Van Gogh's Starry Night. Yes there have been advances in science and technology, and we now read the morning newspaper and sip coffee made in a drip coffee maker, but is it really so different?.....

The Painting of the Month is a special offer to my blog readers (click on the image for a larger view). This month The Morning Newspaper, which retails for $3600, is being made available for $2100 (includes shipping, VT residents add 6% sales tax). To purchase this piece contact me at thomastorak@gmail.com. Payment is by check only please, no credit cards. If you prefer you may make 3 monthly payments. This offer is available for 30 days from the date of this post.

Upholding the Classical Tradition

24 x 36 Oil on Linen

Artistic experiences: part 6, Mason’s class
I soon found out I wasn’t the only League student working at Carnegie Hall. Several of the ushers were artists too and we became fast friends. After the evening’s concert was over 4 or 5 of us would go across the street to Carney’s bar and talk for hours over a few pitchers of beer. They had been in New York longer than me and I was anxious to hear what they had to say. The conversation was not just about painting, although there was plenty of that, but also about music and philosophy, politics and history. These were not a bunch of dopey social misfits, as artists sometimes are, they were highly intelligent, well educated and fascinating. I was impressed by their conversation and, even though I had yet to see their work, wanted to know who they were studying with. They all had the same answer, Frank Mason. I knew Mason’s work from an article in American Artist magazine and his full length standing portrait in the League’s Instructors Exhibition was my favorite in the show. They introduced me to their mentor and I signed up for his class without hesitation. My first critique was a little embarrassing but very profound for me. Mason’s class was so popular that it spilled over into a second room. Because I was starting in the middle of the week I had to find a place to paint wherever I could. Both rooms were packed and there was no place for me to set up where I could see the model so I set up near the doorway, opposite the skylight, and started a painting of a plaster cast of Donatello’s David. Mason showed up the next day, quickly glanced at what I was doing, then said “turn your easel around so you can get more light on your painting and get yourself a hat so you won’t be blinded by the skylight. Now follow me around and watch the other crits, you’ll learn much faster that way.” It only took 10 seconds but it was extremely important to me, I was being taken seriously as an artist…..