Current artists: Amon Azizov, Wei Chen, Qiao Fu, Gao Min, Guo Kun Sheug, Artashes Karslian, Ji Yin Jin, Li Qun, Lin Ruo, Dean Lu, Ren Jien-Guo, Jorge Rivera, Sharif Sadiq, Peter Walsh, Xiang Yue Chuan, Dario Zapata, Zhuang Xuemin

Organized by Peter Walsh.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Success!

The first three portrait exchanges were completed this morning on the lovely tree-lined path leading up to the Central Park Zoo. Artists Wei Chen, Ren Jien-Guo, Peter Walsh and Zhuang Xuemin traded sketches to get the Exchange off to a great start. Each drawing took about 15-20 minutes, first with Walsh posing and then, switching chairs, with Walsh drawing. Each full exchange - with two drawings, discussions and interviews - took about an hour. Photos, slides shows and video will be posted soon!

Comments by Peter Walsh:
“The first drawings are very interesting. The portraits I did of Zhuang, Ren and Chen, drawn in that order, are fine although I really didn’t hit my stride till the third drawing – of Wei Chen! It’s brutally difficult to keep up with these professionals. In general, my drawings seem a little bit flat still. I’ll have to work on building depth. Each portrait of me is unique, which I find exciting. Each of the artists captured a different aspect of how I look. I think that Chen, Ren and Zhuang had a better grasp of capturing a likeness than I do and they certainly work amazingly quickly. The only real drawback for the day is that the paper I chose – Rives BFK – has too strong of a tooth. We all struggled with it. I may see if I can find a smoother paper for the next session.”

Kathy Brew and Roberto Guerra were on hand to shoot video and do interviews with both the artists and passersby. Louise Ma multi-tasked doing fantastic Mandarin-English translations, taking photos and explaining the project to interested park goers. Alex Ramirez-Mallis was also on site taking photos. 

Many thanks to everyone! Stay tuned for updates, news and schedule announcements.

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