Artist Workshops

The art workshops have a split personality too. They are divided up into…

  • Long Pose Workshops (Usually on the weekend and during the day - designed with the painter in mind)
  • Late Night Salons (Fun Drawing workshops for the insomniac – Usually has a DJ and a bar)

History

The Late Night Drawing Salons were the creation of Sara Streeter, who wanted to recreate the fun and feel of Paris in the early 19th Century when you could go to any number of cafes, clubs and bars and find the models and artist hanging out, drinking, drawing and having fun. With LA being so large and so many artists spread out all over, there wasn’t anywhere you could find anything like that. So the first Gathering was formed at a restaurant bar in a great old building on Green Street in Pasadena called Hailes (now called Madaline’s). “Haile’s Hades” was the nickname and it was a huge underground art scene. Wonderful things came from it and all that were a part of it remember it fondly. Couples hooked up, broke up, folks created companies, forged lifelong friendships, etc, etc, all while making a lot of incredible art. We also had some wonderful birthday parties and gallery shows with the work that was created.

After we were escorted out of Pasadena, we found a new home in downtown LA called “Bedlam.” It was in a fabulous, multi-storied warehouse run by the infamous Jim Fitapaldi, and what grew from that relationship became even more renown then the Pasadena salon. It was considered a true Speak Easy and was even written up in the LA Magazine Best of LA, January 2007 as “Best Speak Easy… The granddaddy of them all, Bedlam, draws an artist-heavy crowd several nights a week to the warehouse district east of downtown.” www.lamag.com/bola/article.aspx?id=3636 for full article.

Long Pose Workshops were created after the Late Nights became so famous. Other artists heard about it and wanted to go but couldn’t stay up that late so Jennifer created the first ones at LAAFA (Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art.) These workshops are designed with painters in mind and have fully decorated sets (usually at least two), with at least one model in each room. Each one has a different and unique theme that inspires creativity in any artist. If that wasn’t enough, it is fully catered with food and drinks so the artist only has to think about his or her art.