Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Race Brook Lodge

I’m back from the awesome Race Brook Lodge. Twenty-plus artists friends and I were there for a week -- some working on assignments, others working on personal projects, and then there was me, doing absolutely nothing but hanging out, eating, and sleeping.

Sadly, the waterfall was sans water, but a lovely hike nonetheless. The pizza was amazing...until Baba Louie's burned down. (I swear we had nothing to do with it.) And teaching whiffle ball to the Hungarian artist duo Zoltan Boros and Gabor Szikszai was more amusing than the actual game. It also seems that I am an excellent first-game bowler but suck at any subsequent rounds.


Unfortunately I can’t show any of the work that was done since some clients are more sensitive about that than others. But a quick run down of a few of the projects:


Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell were working on their next calendar. This time they will be telling a visual story throughout the months.


Tony Palumbo was working on a few “sword” cards for a tarot deck that he, Julie, Boris, and Dave Palumbo are all collaborating on. (It was fun to hear Julie talk about being in the art director’s seat on the project.) The set is being published three cards at a time in Heavy Metal magazine, starting now, and will take three years to complete.


Dan Dos Santos was working on a Tor cover, the sequel to Dark Warrior Rising. When the painting is done I’ll post a few shots in progress.


Greg Manchess was finessing a few sketches of Egyptian pharaohs for National Geographic -- a cover plus two large scale interior paintings that will run in the February edition. (Progressions on that, once published.)


The only bit of work that I did was to go through a few Spectrum books and start making a first pass stab at curating the next Spectrum exhibit. Based on the post-it notes, we are not in for an easy ride. Somehow we’ll need to select just 150ish works of art out of four editions.


Everyone else was working on private commissions and personal works. Some stunning pieces that I am very much looking forward to seeing done.

Our "Free To Be You and Me" photo::

TOP: Dave Palumbo, Ben Foster, Dave Seeley, Scot Brundage.

MIDDLE:
Dan Dos Santos, Donato Giancola, Christine, Tiffany Prothero, me, Rebecca Guay.

BOTTOM
STANDING: Steph Laberis, Wesley Allsbrook, Greg Manchess, Tony Palumbo, Julie Bell.

KNEELING
: Arkady Roytman, Zoltan Boros and Gabor Szikszai .

THERE
IN SPIRIT but sensible to get out before people started climbing on the rafters: Boris Vallejo, Steven Stroud, Lars Grant-West, Cyril Van Der Hagen, Giancola’s Carrie, Naomi, and Cecilia, and Dos Santos’ Chris and Uno.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

It looks like an amazing gathering - What a setting for a murder mystery!

Thanks for the report from Olympus.
-lee moyer

Irene Gallo said...

Hey Lee,
It’s not so much Olympus as it is living in and around NY. It’s hotbed of illustrators. (Although becoming less so since everything is delivered through email these days.) Add Dos Santos’ motivational skills and some fall leaves and you’ve got yourself a retreat.

Mike Dutton said...

I'm so jealous of the East Coast Illustration circle! Tiffany's been encouraging me to start a west coast retreat though, so look out. ;)

Howard Lyon said...

What a blast. I can't wait to see the work from it. I am with Mister Dutton, extremely envious! What fun time!

Tracy Flynn Art said...

I am extremely envous as well, I think we need a mid-west evnet like that as well!

Tracy

Tristan Elwell said...

So, how does one get an invite to one of these shindigs? ;)

Tony Shasteen said...

Looks like it was a great time! What an amazing opportunity for everyone involved!

As far as bowling goes, I understand. I'm also an excellent first-game bowler and suck at any subsequent rounds, although I think my decline in skill is tied to the amount of cheap bowling alley beer I drink while playing. That's my story anyway...

Anonymous said...

It sounds truly inspired and inspiring (of many things, including envy).

Any group with those headliners has to be considered the Crème de la Crème.

-lee again

Carl V. Anderson said...

Love to see the Spectrum with all the sticky notes in it. That is what mine looks like when I'm looking up artists and trying to find new books whenever I get a new Spectrum book.

capprotti said...

I don't think I've ever been more jealous in my life! :-P But it's so great to see the art world coming together in such a cool way. It will only help the industry grow in all the best ways :-P Keep it up!

Unknown said...

Come on, Dutton - I live up the street from you and I was there! You gotta stop being a bum about missing the Sunday night sketch jams anyway ;)

Irene, thanks for the recap, the week flew by so quickly and like you, I succumbed to the vile temptresses of good food, late nights and snoozing under falling leaves. Come to think of it, I think I covered all 7 deadly sins at the retreat, so then I know it was a good trip!

Anonymous said...

Hi Irene,
I got a wonderful chance to meet you at Donato's back in April - I found your blog thru Eric Fortune's myspace, and I have to say it's photos like that first one that make me wish I hadn't moved back to Virginia!!!

And how is Arkady still wearing that same shirt??? :P

take care!
Cynthia Sheppard