Learning from the experts: A Street (I've Never Seen) in Venice

During my fall 2010 oil painting class at Williams, one of our early projects was to select a work at the Clark Art Museum (www.clarkart.edu) or the Williams College Museum of Art and to copy it using various limited color palettes and experimental techniques. My selected piece was John Singer Sargent's oil painting of "A Street in Venice" from 1880-82, which is part of the collection at the Clark.



I produced five copies: 1) black and white,

2) one set of complementary colors (blue and orange),

3) the darker colors of palette with no white allowed,

4) the lighter colors of the palette with no black allowed (which was also executed solely with the palette knife),
and 5) only washes (oil paint thinned with medium) built up over a long working period

A Family Portrait

During the summer of 2010, I spent my time working on this portrait of the children and dog of good family friends. The oil painting was the largest I have done, measuring 48" x 72"!

More cupcakes and charcoal!

Cupcakes and charcoal?

Last fall semester, I took Prof. Epping's Oil Painting class at Williams. One of our first assignments was to paint dozens of representations of a cupcakes (procured from Tunnel City Coffee shop on Spring Street) and a lump of charcoal, supplied by our professor. The exercise was aimed toward exploring the use of our medium in any creative way we chose, resulting in 20 works of art with humble beginnings.

Finally: Time to Update!

I have finally found a few moments to photograph the artwork produced in my last year at Williams. Last fall, I took Professor Epping's Oil Painting class, and in the spring I took Professor Ali's Drawing II class. Over the next few posts, I will share with you some of the work produced in those classes. Thanks for checking out my work!



Self-Portrait after Albrecht Durer
30" x 22"
Charcoal on paper
Fall 2010, ARTS 201, Williams College

This self-portrait was completed after our class saw the exhibition "The Strange World of Albrecht Durer" at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown in the fall of 2010.

Welcome!

Welcome to The Studio of Susannah Eckman (Williams '11)!

To browse the artwork, select a link from the list of posts above.
Click on the works for a larger view!


If you would like to get more information or to commission your own original piece, e-mail me at ste1@williams.edu. I like to paint from photographs, so most of my pieces have been done from my own photos or magazine clips.
Prices vary based upon time and size.

Un cancello italiano

My Aunt Jeanne commissioned me to paint this Italian gate, which she photographed on a sunny day some time ago. This is an 14" x 11" oil painting.

Chloe!

This is an 11" x 14" oil painting from a photograph of my "little sib" - Chloe - from the Big Sib program at school, who is here with me at a picnic in the Berkshires this spring!

Grandad

Click to enlarge!

Artwork around the house

This graphite sketch of our family dog, Rosie, is hanging in our basement.This oil painting is my newest portrait, commissioned by a family friend. The oil painting was done with the help of a handful of photographs.

A chalk drawing of a sunflower!

And last but not least, here's a small oil painting of the Brandywine River, 12" x 16", a view just a few steps past Brinton's Bridge in Chadds Ford, PA.

Yet MORE from Williams

These first 3 charcoal drawings are studies of chairs from the art classroom at Williams. The exercise was a way of looking at the negative and positive spaces created by the unique shapes of the chairs. The shading of the black charcoal took many many many hours!! But the results were very cool. The last drawing in this bunch is a collection of 6 negative/positive space views of the same chair, all pieced together to make an interesting design.

The following charcoal drawing is a still-life of random objects from my dorm room and the studio art closet. Click the picture to enlarge it for a more detailed look!

The final project for Drawing 101 was to create two charcoal drawings from photographs from a magazine or newspaper that had been cut and rearranged. The first is a composite of two photographs of visitors to the Vietname Veterans' Memorial and the second is a composite of a picture of the Memorial and a snapshot of soldiers and civilians.

More from Williams and a Charcoal Childhood

The drawing above, red chalk on black paper, is an in-class sketch of Jimi, the TA for my drawing class at Williams last year.

Another of the projects for Drawing 101 was to complete a series of charcoal sketches with unique perspectives from childhood photographs. The following 6 drawings are composed of Susannah in a tu-tu, asleep on the floor (I had mild narcolepsy as a child), dancing with my cousin Christopher, awestruck by Minnie Mouse, playing with my friend Catherine, and playing in a field hockey game.

A Finished Painting

During the summer, I posted a sketch of a painting I was doing of two black labs, Sybil and Chloe. Here is a picture of the finished painting, 18" x 24", framed by the owner. Accounting for size, time, and materials, this painting was $250.

Work from Williams' Drawing 100

In the fall of 2008, I took the Drawing 101 class at Williams. The following works are primarily charcoal on rough paper.

One of our first assignments was to draw a still-life using all white objects in a series of 3 drawings, progressing from 3 to 5 values. The following drawings are the results!

And this last charcoal drawing was an exercise in looking at textures. The resultant drawing is a compilation of several natural textures, including tree bark, rock, leaves, and asphalt (okay not all completely natural). Enjoy!