For recent updates, please bookmark our new blog link.
Guest Instructor Kamille Corry
It is with a great sense of anticipation that Mims Studios welcomes painter and guest instructor Kamille Corry from Salt Lake City, Utah, to its Visiting Artists Program this Fall Quarter. Recognized for her mastery of the human figure, Ms. Corry will be conducting several special courses for students in the Cast Studio and demonstrating her extraordinary approach to classical training through selected projects at the Weymouth Studio. Plans for a public lecture are being arranged and will be announced later this summer.
North Carolina Museum of Art
On a recent tour of the North Carolina Museum of Art, students from Mims Studios were introduced to the permanent collections of European and American paintings on display. Highlights included masterworks by Botticelli, Veronese, Van Dyck, Rubens and Vien. American painting from the 18th and 19th centuries were represented by Copley, Homer, Eakins and Chase. The museum also displays several major works by Andrew Wyeth.
Regretfully, the museum has begun expanding its architectural insult to tradition with a new 127,000 square foot building that almost makes the previous structure appear an object of beauty by comparison.
However, critics of the new North Carolina Museum of Art should at least recognize the seamless integration of design with vernacular architecture… the aesthetic connection to the ubiquitous self storage unit is unmistakable.
New North Carolina Museum of Art
Study of Ornament
A significant focus of an artist’s education in the early academies was the study of ornament, with its basis of geometry and design. The ablilty to understand and create ornamental design was believed to strengthen the intellect and imagination behind figurative work (the study of nature). In turn, it was believed that to master drawing from the figure would, among other things, enhance form and subtlety in the modeling of ornament and confirm the ability to conceptualize geometric solids in space.
The history of Art has been a shifting of emphasis between the two concepts, design and nature.
The images below are taken from a recent class project using examples from the lecture series on the history of Ornament and introduce a project which will be the subject of a future post.
Sin and Salvation
Holman Hunt - Lady of Shallot
Sin and Salvation: William Holman Hunt and the Pre-Raphaelite Vision
Sunday, June 14, 2009—Sunday, September 6, 2009
Target Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Featuring many works never before shown in the United States, this fascinating international exhibition brings to life an important period in English art history and lends fresh insights into the life and work of William Holman Hunt, a founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
Visiting Artist Program, Spring 2009
“The enduring legacy of a classical education is not just an appreciation of great accomplishments and styles of the past, but is realized in providing a crucial foundation from which to develop outside the classroom and, most importantly, for the rest of our lives.” ~ Brandon Soloff
Brandon Soloff demonstrates grisaille at the Weymouth Studio, 2008
Mims Studios Visiting Artists Program is pleased to host two very special events this spring. The first will be a return visit by painter Brandon Soloff, who will be conducting a two week drawing course from March 9th to 20th, to augment the existing curriculum.
Sculptor Stephen Perkins demonstrates an ecorche skull
During this period, on the evening of March 10th , sculptor Stephen Perkins will be delivering an illustrated lecture on the history and artistic influences behind his own work. Both artists bring a wealth of experience to the revival of classical training and offer a unique opportunity to enrich the philosophy that guides our studies.
Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America Announces Rome Prize
Rome Prize 2009
“The creation of the Alma Schapiro Prize introduces a new chapter in the history of the American Academy in Rome, and it is an honor to be selected as the recipient for 2009. I hope to use this period in Rome not only to enrich the direction of my own work in fresco and mural painting, but also to encourage at every opportunity a more cohesive intellectual discourse with the many kindred spirits who share this momentum toward the classical in painting, sculpture and architecture.”
~ D. Jeffrey Mims
The Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America is pleased to announce the winner of its second bi-annual Alma Schapiro Prize: painter and muralist, D. Jeffrey Mims of Southern Pines, North Carolina. The Alma Schapiro Prize is awarded to advance the career of an artist recipient and to foster the continuity of knowledge of the classical tradition as a vital aspect of contemporary culture around the globe.
Mims has been awarded this three-month affiliated fellowship at the American Academy in Rome, the premier American overseas center for independent study and research in the fine arts and humanities. While in Rome, Mims will primarily study and draw inspiration from the rich local collections of Renaissance and Baroque fresco paintings with their unparalleled concentration of decorative traditions, both figurative and ornamental.
Jacob Collins, director of the ICA&CA’s fine arts division, says, “Jeffrey Mims has been at the forefront of the revival of classical art for the last 20 years. He has made great contributions as an artistic leader as well as a teacher. His school, Mims Studios, plays an important role in the training of young classical artists. We are delighted and honored to be able to offer the Alma Schapiro Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome to him.”
The Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America (ICA&CA) is a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to advancing the practice and appreciation of the classical tradition in architecture, urbanism, and the allied arts.
Andrew Newell Wyeth
Andrew Wyeth - Winter 1946. Collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art.
Andrew Wyeth (July 12, 1917 – January 16, 2009)
Andrew Wyeth, master of mood and melancholic beauty, died in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania on January 16, 2009.
In 1977, Wyeth became the first American artist since John Singer Sargent to be elected to the French Academie des Beaux-Arts. He was also an honorary member of the Soviet Academy of the Arts, and the first living American artist to be elected to Britain‘s Royal Academy.
Wyeth was the most renowned US painter of the twentieth century, and remained true to his vision in an era lost to abstract experiments and confusion. His unique realism elevated the particular nature of his subjects into a realm of mystery that was imitated by many and remains entirely his own.
Museo Annigoni Opens in Florence
Annigoni Museum Opens in Florence
This November, the Annigoni Museum opened in Florence, Italy at the historic Villa Bardini. This newly restored landmark, situated in a striking panoramic location is now home to a nucleus of over 6000 works, including drawings, paintings lithographs and sculptures by this incomparable twentieth century master.
Maestros Exhibition
Underpainting for Self Portrait, D. Jeffrey Mims
Maestros opens on Friday November 7th with a reception from 5:30 to 8:30 pm at Ann Long Fine Art Gallery in Charleston, SC. The show’s title honors four master painters who have been teaching classical painting techniques for over thirty years. Charles Cecil (Charles H. Cecil Studios, Florence), Daniel Graves (The Florence Academy of Art, Florence), Ben Long (The Fine Art’s League of Asheville), and Jeffrey Mims (Mims Studios, Southern Pines) have been passing on their painting craft in the atelier tradition to generations of young classical painters. While these four Maestros have similar training and their careers have crossed over the years, never before have they exhibited together as a group. Don’t miss this unprecedented event! Exhibition closes December 1, 2008.
Lord Leighton Addresses to the Royal Academy Republished
Self Portrait by Frederic Leighton
Addresses Delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy by Frederic Leighton, first published in 1897, has just been reprinted by Kessinger Publishing, LLC. Mims Studios recommends this as one of the best books ever published on art education, and it can now be purchased through amazon.com, or read online at Google books.
What you see and what you know
Anatomy of Boucher Arm
The lecture series for this fall quarter will return to the study of artistic anatomy. Plates from the classic Richer / Hale text will be translated into schematic systems and applied to a broad selection of master drawings from the history of art. This unique approach is meant to encourage similar translations with the life work being done at Mims Studios.
Ackland Art Museum Visit
Mims Studios visit to the Ackland Art Museum
On a recent visit to the Ackland Art Museum at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, master paintings from the European collection were studied to demonstrate the versatility of the limited palette with it’s use of warm and cool edges to create the illusion of form.
Weekly Lectures – The Venetians
Venice
This summer’s lecture series takes a look at the artistic heritage that was born in Venice during the Italian Renaissance. From this singular location, where East meets West, came a new emphasis on atmospheric effect, bringing in its wake an innovative language of color and opulence never before imagined. Beginning with the Bellini family, these weekly lectures trace the work and life stories of Giorgione, Titian, and Veronese, among others, culminating with that other famous family of painters led by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, the last of Europe’s great fresco decorators.
Bacchus and Ariadne by Titian
Metropolitan Museum Visit
On a recent visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Jeffrey Mims met with long time artist friends Cheryl Wheat and Edward Schmidt, who helped found the NY Academy of Art in the 1980s. It was during this period, while Mims was living in Rome and Schmidt was at the American Academy, that they met.
Schmidt discussing with Mims the Master Copy program at the Metropolitan Museum, which he developed for the New York Academy of Art.
A visit with Veronese in preparation for an upcoming lecture series on Venetian artists.
Where to Study?
In the May 2008 issue of The Artist’s Magazine, Mims Studios is featured in an article by Robert K. Carsten about choosing art schools. This article advises prospective students to select an environment where they can learn most readily, and consider what options are available. The point is made with images included in the piece juxtaposing Mims Studios with two very different alternatives at the Rhode Island School of Design and the Cooper Union School (below).
Exhibition: Poussin and Nature: Arcadian Visions
“This is the first exhibition to examine the landscapes of this great painter. It brings together about 40 paintings, ranging from his early, lyrical, Venetian-inspired pastorals to his grandly structured and austere works in which the artist meditated upon Nature, its transformations and its renewals. An equal number of drawings are on view, the most luminous of which were done en plein air.”
For more information visit the Exhibition Webpage.
Winter Lecture Series: Mannerist Artists
The focus of this winter’s lecture series is on the generation of Mannerist artists working in Italy during the time of Michelangelo. In these weekly, illustrated talks, director Jeffrey Mims presents a group of majestically creative painters – famous in their own time, but less well known today. Beginning with artists such as Andrea del Sarto, Daniele da Volterra, and Francesco Salviati, each lecture includes drawings and paintings of the individual artist, with biographical anecdotes and historical comparisons to better appreciate this distinctive period of art.
An offshoot to this study of Mannerist artists was a look at one of the distinguishing characteristics used by many of these Italian artists, “cangiantismo”. Used primarily in the painting of drapery, the “cangiante” effect is a system of changing color tones in the shift from dark to light, imitating the effect of iridescence, or shot silk and often used during this period in fresco decoration.
Mims Studios Blog 
