Local Art Seen: Great Lakes Academy of Fine Art Celebrates Third Year with Style

View from the front entrance of the school.

This past weekend the Great Lakes Academy of Fine Art celebrated its third annual Student/Instructor Exhibition with a weekend open house. It's a fabulous event, showcasing the students' development as they have mastered essential skills as artists. The pictures on this page need no real explanation, each being worth a thousand words.

The school was designed as a three year program, so this group show features students from its first graduating class. Co-founder/instructors Jeffrey T. Larson and son Brock were thrilled not only by the student's progress but also the school itself.

This study of wrinkled paper is all part of "learning how to see."

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Students begin in black and white.

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              "You can only paint truthfully what you can truthfully see."

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Co-founder Jeffrey T. Larson (R)

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"Victor Hugo After Rodin"--Patrick Glander, Graphite on paper.

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Instructor Brock Larson. This is a painting, not a sculpture.

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"Vessel"--Oil on linen, Kelly Schamberger. 21st century Vermeer?

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"Blue"--Oil on canvas, Kelly Schamberger

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Small, still life oil paintings by various fourth year students. 

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Anatomical studies by guest sculptor James Shoop reveal what is beneath the skin.

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Archie Page, pencil on paper

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"Female Figure"--Oil on canvas, Kelly Schamberger

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"Elephant Figurines"--Oil on canvas by Eric Rauvola

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"All that painting is or ever will be is an arrangement of puzzle pieces, each made up of the right relative hue on top of a correct value within a specific shape."

Meantime, art goes on all around you. Get into it.