In an effort to drive interest in portraiture from life, Fine Art Connoisseur publisher B. Eric Rhoads agreed to be painted by three Studio Incamminati instructors on a Facebook live broadcast on Saturday, March 24, 2018. The instructors from the prestigious Philadelphia art school were Kerry Dunn and Nell O’Leary, who each painted Rhoads, and JaFang Lu, who did a drawing. The event was moderated by former instructor Dan Thompson and Natalie Italiano.
Painted in front of a live audience, multiple cameras, and a camera crew, Dunn painted Rhoads using the direct full color painting style, while O’Leary did a color study, pushing color with a palette knife, and Lu demonstrated a fully developed drawing. The intent was to promote the school and show some of the different disciplines potential students would be exposed to.
Last year’s broadcast resulted in 70,000 views, starting with 7,000 on the live event. This year the live event had 11,000 views, and will accumulate more over time. The broadcast took place in two segments over six hours, which was longer than the 2017 broadcast, in order to show paintings at a higher level of development.
Rhoads, who is frequently painted for his Publisher’s Note page, has been painted by more than 30 artists, including Nelson Shanks (1937-2015), the founder of the school, and most of America’s top portrait artists, including Burt Silverman, Max Ginsburg, John Howard Sanden, Daniel Greene, David Leffel, Steven Assail, Timothy Thies (1954-2010), Richard Schmid, and many others. “It was fun watching the different approaches each of these artists used to create their portraits,” said Rhoads. “It’s really a learning experience when you can watch three side by side.”
The broadcast showed every step by each artist from start to finish. Watch the drawing and portrait paintings come to life here:
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