Finally getting around to editing pictures from the annual St. Louis artists studio open house weekend. It took place over a month ago. I go from place to place, learn about the artists and their work, then ask if I can take some candid portraits in their workspace.
This is my friend Henryk Ptasiewicz, who has appeared in these pages before. I first met him when he was painting en plein air in Citygarden while I was shooting downtown. His style is at once fresh, original and accessible, using loose brushstrokes to create a rhythm of vivid and darker colors.
More of these to come.
I met the painter Henryk Ptasiewicz four years ago. I was taking pictures in Citygarden while he was making an open air watercolor. I asked if I could photograph him at work. He agreed and we've been friendly ever since.
It turns out that Henryk painted the STL250 cake in front of the Old Courthouse, seen in Sunday's post, and several others that are about to hit the street. And, he invited me over to the "cake factory" yesterday afternoon. In the first and second pictures, he's working on a piece for a Jewish congregation in the suburbs. Martin Luther King once stayed in their residence.
Further down, cakes for the Tivoli Theatre in University City with a Vincent Price theme and another for the airport.
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Words sound so much more elegant to Americans when they are expressed in French. Just to say "painting outdoors" seems so bland. You know, you might be barbecuing outdoors or something.
Henryk Ptasiewicz was working hard en plein air when I met him, despite many interruptions from curious passers-by. I was interested by his unusual painting posture, which you can see in the phote below. He was curled up like a discus thrower, ready to spring open. When I took some telephoto shots from a distance, it was fascinating to watch his eyes dart from the subject to canvas and back again. The second picture in yesterday's post shows some of this.If you would like to see the finished painting that Ptasiewicz was working on click here.
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Out trolling for pictures on Saturday. I left my office and drove past Citygarden, intending to go to the river and check the flooding (more about which later). As I passed the corner of 8th and Market, I saw a painter at an easel making an image of my fav, Eros Bendato, and the surrounding cityscape.This bore investigation. I parked the car and introduced myself to Henryk Ptasiewicz. He was born in the north of England to Polish parents and studied art in London. I was trying to stay out of the way of his work and did not learn how he came here. His artistic statement tells us that:My style is realistic, it came about because of the influence of the Surrealists. If you can paint the real world, then you have a chance to illustrate another one. I liked to paint things which only existed in my mind.
You may enjoy seeing some of his work here. A bit more about Ptasiewicz tomorrow.
