William Wendt Sketchbook

I just got this William Wendt sketchbook full of drawings, color notes, and even poems. I got one of the Wendt drawings earlier and posted it here. The owner of my gallery in La Jolla (K. Nathan Gallery) picked it up at the Moran auction. He has framed up a few of the drawings, then sold me the remainder of the sketchbook. It's an awesome little piece of history. The interior is dated 1909 and is signed by William Wendt in ink. I even matched up a few of the drawings in there with paintings that Wendt executed. I thought it would be a real treat to share, and maybe sell some of the drawings myself. Email me if you're interested... tonypetersart@sbcglobal.net I'm going to continue to post more sketches here over time.

Paint-out with Dan Pinkham

My sketch of Ignat painting "Portuguese Bend".

This last Saturday, the California Art Club had it's first Mentor Member paint out, hosted by Dan Pinkham at his home and studio in Palos Verdes. I stayed at my pal, William Wray's place, and we drove up together. Also in attendance was Ignat Ignatov, Aaron Westerberg, Sergio Sanchez, Stan Prokopenko, Justine Carroll, Leonardo Lambaren, and Ann Lee (who snapped the photos).

I took the opportunity to do a number of sketches while everyone else painted. I posted my favorite sketch above... maybe I'll paint it? Dan Pinkham told us about his method of starting with a sketch, and writing why you want to select a particular view before painting it. It struck a chord in me, the heart of why I paint... to make a connection. What I bring of myself to the painting, and the landscape before me. Dan also made some technical pointers in his demo that will serve as tools to me in my own color mixing.

At Dan's Studio, he showed us boxes and boxes full of his plein-air paintings from the last several decades, all of which he's kept for himself and uses as reference to work up studio paintings. After the paint-out, we we did a critique of everyone's work. Dan then went on to expound brilliantly on painting, and tell colorful stories.

Beyond teaching me some of the mechanics of painting, I felt that Dan, through his example, taught an even greater lesson in humility, and reminded me of the honor in hard work. Nobody wanted to leave at the end of the day, it was totally inspirational. Made me want to get out and work more on location again too!

William Wendt Sketches

William Wendt Sketch "Girl Under a Tree"

William Wendt Sketch "Haystacks"

William Wendt's painting "Haystack" 16 x 20 inches, oil on canvas.

Keith at my gallery in La Jolla (K. Nathan Gallery) just picked up William Wendt's sketchbook at auction, the sketches in it were done somewhere around 1910. He has taken the drawings out and had them each beautifully framed for display. Keith was generous enough to give me a great deal, and I had the pleasure of being able to add this particular double-sided sketch to my personal collection (above).

I really loved the drawing of the girl sitting under a tree in the shade, especially since I have been focusing so much on the figure lately, plus I admire William Wendt's work so much anyway. It appeared to be the only figure in the entire sketchbook. On the reverse was this drawing of a haystack. I was excited to discover this corresponding image to go with it. The sketch appears to be the preliminary drawing for Wendt's painting, "Haystack".

SOUTHWEST ART MAGAZINE and the AMERICAN ART COLLECTOR, April 2009 issues, CAC Gold Medal Exhibition

The new April issue of AMERICAN ART COLLECTOR features an article about the California Art Club's 98th Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition and includes an image of my self-portrait, "Looking Inward" on page 82 with a little write-up about my art.



Also, SOUTHWEST ART MAGAZINE picked me for "Best of the West" in their April issue. There is a full page image of "Looking Inward" on page 30 along with a write up for the CAC Gold Medal Exhibition titled, "The Gold Standard".

These magazines will be on newsstands this week.


I'm excited about going to the Pasadena Museum of California Art for the CAC show, "Looking Inward" oil on canvas, 36 x 48 inches, will be included in the exhibition. The dates for it are April 26 through May 17. It is one of the most prestegious and collector-friendly art events in Southern California. Here's a link... http://www.californiaartclub.org/resources/gm.shtml


I also have a half page ad in the April issue of AMERICAN ART COLLECTOR with my painting, "Looking Outward" on page 79.


"Looking Outward" oil on canvas, 32 x 48 inches