The Joy of the Quick Sketch

Bennington Center for the Arts

Bennington, VT

802-442-7158

http://www.VermontArtsCenter.org

The Joy of the Quick Sketch

The nation's most honored living artist will exhibit his private portraits for the first time Sept. 23-0ct. 15, 2000, at the Bennington Center for the Arts.

Richard Schmid, this year's winner of the John Singer Sargent Medal for Lifetime Achievement, will display approximately 30 pieces in a show entitled The Joy of the Quick Sketch. (left: Loveland Gentleman, oil)

Schmid's figures, landscapes and still-lifes have won virtually every major honor during the artist's 50-year career, including the American Watercolor Gold Medal and the $100,000 National Arts for the Parks award. The Sargent Medal was presented in June by the American Society of Portrait Artists Foundation during a ceremony at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Schmid's work has appeared in 50 one-man shows and is in the permanent collections of many prestigious museums, including The Smithsonian Institution, The Art Institute of Chicago, The National Academy of Design and the Beijing Exhibition Center in the People's Republic of China. (left: Robin, oil)

Known for his lavish color and precise draftsmanship, Schmid paints in the style of Alla Prima, or Direct Painting, which requires extreme accuracy and speed because each painting is completed in one session. Direct Painting emphasizes remaining true to one's perception of the subject at the moment of painting.

He is also the author of three books, with a fourth, on portrait painting, now being written. His most recent book, Alla Prima: Everything I Know About Painting, is now in its third printing and has been sold in 33 countries.

Schmid will attend the opening reception of his portrait exhibit on Saturday, Sept. 23, from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. He also will conduct a slide presentation on landscape painting on Monday, Sept. 25, at 6:00 p.m., in conjunction with the Plein Air Painters of America workshop, also being held at the Bennington Center for the Arts. Tickets to the slide presentation are $25.00.

For more information on The Joy of the Quick Sketch, or to make a reservation for the slide presentation, call the Bennington Center for the Arts at (802) 442-7158.

Read more about the Bennington Center for the Arts in the Resource Library Magazine

Please click on thumbnail images bordered by a red line to see enlargements.

For further biographical information please see America's Distinguished Artists, a national registry of historic artists.

This page was originally published in Resource Library Magazine. Please see Resource Library's Overview section for more information. rev. 3/23/11

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