Paul Rahilly 1933 - 2024 RIP

Paul Rahilly, artist, teacher and good friend to many aspiring artists in the Boston area, died yesterday, July 15, 2024. He was one the few keeping the flame of figurative art alive during the late 20th century, and taught several generations of students the figure drawing and painting skills to build their own styles and approaches. I first encountered him at a life drawing class at Mass Art night school in the early 80's, and immediately realized that he was offering the knowledge and attitude to art that I had been seeking. It could be summarized as a method for identifying the intuitive, gestural sense of a pose and relating it to an armature, a "system of lines," that made it possible to record the essentials with verve and accuracy without wasting energy on aimless scribbling or getting bogged down in compulsive recording of detail. I went on to take his classes repeatedly, and with a few fellow recidivists established a painting group (the "Rahilloids") to continue to develop our skills with this knowledge. He became a good friend to all of us, and his influence is present with me to this day, as are the close friendships I found in his classes.

 Three Women

etching

8 5/8" x 10"

Loosely based on my painting of the same name.

I fixed a few things that bothered me, mostly places where the the lines were either etched too deep or had run together to create blotches. The grandmother's right eye is probably the most noticeable example.

The way I made the corrections is something I hit on myself. They were too deep to scrape and burnish in the traditional manner, so I carefully applied epoxy to the offending lines, let it harden, and then sanded it down and burnished the area. Seems to work pretty well. I don't know if other etchers do something like this.

"Backyard Snow" in situ at the Academic Artist Association 74th Annual Exhibition of Traditional Realism. There's a lot of great artwork on view by excellent artists with whom I am honored to be sharing a wall. Well worth a visit if you're in the area.

June 16 – July 14, 2024

Thursday - Sunday, 1 to 5 PM

Arts Center East

709 Hartford Turnpike, Vernon, CT ~ 860-871-8222

https://www.academicartistsassociation.org/

Horseshoe Crab

 On our last morning at the Cape I found this recently deceased horseshoe crab on the beach. It was studded with little white shells.

Pen, ink wash, white ink on toned paper

4" x 6"

Atlantic Spice Company Pallets

 Atlantic Spice Company Pallets

Pen, ink wash, and white pen on toned paper

4" x 6"

Long Point Lighthouse from Truro, MA

 Long Point Lighthouse from Truro, MA

Watercolor
4" x 6"

Truro Breakwater sketch

 First 2024 Cape sketch as well as first sketch in new Montanapolitancroptic sketchbook. I've done this breakwater many times before, but this time I was trying to work methodically with the reality of the constantly changing tide. The problem is that there is no stable baseline to use as a reference, and the overall visible size of the subject is changing, making it hard to judge proportions. I knew that the tide was going out, and that I had about an hour and a half before it reached low tide, so I made sure to use the parts that were visible and that would remain constant as my reference points, and gradually added to the drawing as more of the subject was revealed by the receding waters.

The gull showed about about halfway through, and I was of two minds whether to include it. Would it make the image too hokey? However, the way it stayed there posing for so long made me think it really wanted me to put it in the picture, so I did. I think it provides a nice accent.