Across the pond from Kirby's Mill

Photograph, digitally edited with GIMP

Upcoming two man show!

 

Come visit me at my new webiste to find out more!

www.davidgolas.com

quick sketches

The catfish is digital from a photo but the rest of these are in oil from life.

Preview party, graduation and opening night at PAFA's ASE

The whole thing went by in the blink of an eye. The picture above is from the Preview party. Word to the wise folks...comfortable shoes...cuz mine were not. I guess I was a bit tense that night. It is, after all, the first time I have presented a body of my work to the public and for sale. I can't say that it went well, I didn't sell a thing and by the end of the night my pride and my feet hurt... but, there were three groups of people that kept things in perspective for me. 

 Here are some of the core members of the DPC, from the left: Mike Manley, Jane Winter, myself and Joel Shambe.The actual public opening was even busier. Everyone looked fantastic and I am so glad to have shared the event my friends, their support means everything to me. I talked with a few teachers that I hadn't seen in awhile and I generally tried to remember that it was a social event and an opportunity to meet new people who appreciate the arts. I still didn't sell anything but I received so much positive feedback that I felt somewhat vindicated for my efforts, besides I had graduated from college that morning which is something that I was afraid I would never be able to accomplish 10 years ago. 

This is my family. I am the first child in my family to graduate from college and my parents drove from Ohio to bear witness to the event or perhaps it was to make sure that I wasn't just printing a diploma off of the internet :)

Anyway, my beautiful wife and her parents, my lovely daughter, my parents and my brother all came to the graduation. This is another group of people whom I am very thankful for.

These last three pictures are paintings from two of my fellow students:

 Christina Weaver's paintings and drawings of dresses were absolutely stunning. 

Nicole Michaud had a powerful and vivid wall. Her paintings are beautifully designed and with such great color. 

So they represent a small fraction of the last group. Those are my fellow students and friends who had a deservedly successful night. There were lots of students exhibiting strong and intriguing work. I am proud of them and I learn from them and I am challenged by them. School has been a great experience and now that it is over I hope to: stay connected, find new challenges and continue to grow as an artist.  

Hanging the ASE wall at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Tonight I am attending an exclusive preview party for our Annual Student Exhibition. Tomorrow I graduate from college and the show opens to the public. I began taking classes while I was still in the Air Force over 5 years ago and by Saturday it will all be over.

Since the guests at the preview party will be able to see this tonight, I thought I could give anyone interested in my work the same benefit. This post will publish at the beginning of the party today.

Here are my paintings all stacked up at the bottom of my exhibition space. I suppose for some people it might have been daunting to look at the empty wall and actually design the exhibition but for me, the hard work, making the paintings, was already over.

I laid out a fairly accurate footprint of the wall on the floor so that I could roughly design the placement of the paintings. I ended up eliminating one for aesthetic reasons. The two pieces of foam core are place markers for paintings that were being touched up. Afterward I used this picture and the dimensions of the paintings to create a measured drawing and a much more accurate plan.

The actual process of hanging went relatively smoothly and aside from a few inaccurate measurements, which were easily corrected, I got the paintings up on the wall with plenty of time left in the day to help others. I I gave Mike, Joel and Christina Weaver hang their paintings and although I will not show them here, trust me.... their work puts mine to shame. I am proud to be part of a show with such high quality work on the walls.

I am a competitive person and I have to admit that I really did not approach this show in a productive way. I wanted my abilities to progress faster than they have and my goals for the ASE may not have been reasonable. I wanted to bring my a-game and show professional level work that would wow people. I knew awhile ago that I didn't have it together enough to do that yet and I needed some more time to mature as a painter. Certificate students will show at the ASE twice during their time at the school but for me, as a BFA student, I knew that I had only one shot and I felt as if there were an awful lot riding on it. However, after putting up my wall and getting a look around at what other people brought, I found myself invigorated. There is quite honestly work that is much stronger than mine going up on other walls, but seeing that didn't fill me with despair....instead I am inspired and I can't wait to go back to work already. I am in this for the long haul and the ASE is just the beginning for me. In short, I think this ASE is gonna be great. I think I will be able to approach the next big show very differently and I can't wait for the opportunity.

Yup, I accidentally deleted my internet profile.

If you found this address, thank you for taking time to hunt me down. At the top of the page I have inserted a link to a temporary gallery space which I will add to during the short time until my website can get up an running. Thank you for your patience. My email address is still good you can contact me here. I am a recent graduate of the BFA program at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. I would be happy to accept commissions for paintings, portraits or illustrations in oil, charcoal or gouache. I price by the size of the work to be accomplished and the medium. I am interested in any local teaching opportunities in which I might gain experience in drawing or painting instruction.

I accidentally deleted my old blog which ran for about a year and the entire Google account attached to it which I had used since 2008 when I ran "Blocking things In", a blog with multiple contributors from The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Unfortunately, Google was unable to help recover the account. I  also lost my connection to the Dirty Palette Club blog, which is the internet home for the group of friends and artists that help to improve my work and life everyday. I hope to reforge these connections in the near future.  I will selectively repost some things from the old blog in the near future.