Juliette Aristides

Juliette Aristides was one again delighted to teach at the Bay Area Classical Artist Atelier this August. During an intensive 2-week workshop, students delved into painting related issues while exploring an artist's most fascinating subject matter: the human figure.

I am at the stage now where the time I spent in San Francisco is something I wonder  - was I there or did I dream it?  I am sure the class learned a ton from you this week. I wanted to send you a quote which describes the best kind of teacher:  "the mediocre teacher tells, the good teacher explains, the superior teacher demonstrates, the great teacher inspires." Thank you for being a great teacher and artist. - Ann H

Following images are couresty of The Bay Area Classical Artist Atelier and include drawing from Rodin sculptures at the Cantor Museum at Stanford University. The group also did drawings in a private room from Menzel, Geracault, and others. Other photographs show discussions of masterworks, Ms. Aristides demonstrating from the life model, and everything else in between. To view the full set, please visit the BACCA gallery.

Please enjoy a select group of images from Juliette Aristides's solo opening at the John Pence Gallery in San Francisco. The show, which ran February 10 - March 10 of 2012, was packed to the brim and offered a stunning body of still life and figural paintings from Ms. Aristides.

Opening attendees view Bendheim Rememberance.

In celebration of Juliette Aristides's highly anticipated third book, Lessons in Classical Drawing: Essential Techniques from Inside the Atelier, Gage Academy of Art was thrilled to host a release party, book signing, and a gallery exhibition that highlighted works both from the book and examples of drawings that put the fundamental drawing principles into practice.

In October of 2011, Juliette Aristides was delighted to instruct a two-day intensive Master Class at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

On Wednesday the Atelier went to see an exhibition of eighteenth and nineteenth century Japanese prints at the Seattle Asian Art museum. The show tied in with our studies on the graphic power of flat shapes. We have been studying value composition- how tone leads our eye throughout a picture.

I just came back from a beautiful wedding in Victoria. It was a tiny wedding, aside from the bride and groom there were two guests and I was one of them. I accompanied the bride from her room in an upper floor of the Empress Hotel to the library where the ceremony was held. She was radiant. On the way to the ceremony we passed a number of people -housecleaning in the lobby, a boyfriend and girlfriend in baseball caps walking briskly out to the street.

Richard West, director emeritus from the Frye Museum, visited the Atelier to discuss his thoughts on art. He touched on many different subjects one of them being the importance of failure. I was surprised to hear him mention a subject rarely discussed, unless it is behind closed doors with a close friend over a pint of ale.

It is easy for me to forget the great power of words because they are so common. The voice of support and confidence can, at times, be the only thing that makes a difficultly seem possible to overcome. A harsh word can be all it takes to steer us away from ever fulfilling our calling. There is enough discouragement inherent in the challenges of life, serving as the voice of reason, more important is the often lone voice of motivation.

Today I visited the Michelangelo show at the Seattle Art museum. There were a few excellent pieces including a wonderful terracotta sculpture of a male torso. The show is tiny comprised of only a few mostly minor drawings. Yet it is impossible not to be moved by them. I feel more humanity eminating from those few unfinished scribbles than in the whole  rooms of large scale, ambitious contemporary paintings.