NEW YORK—In New York City’s rich and shifting art world is a fixed point of classical learning—the Grand Central Academy of Art (GCA). Founded by Jacob Collins in 2006, GCA held its first ever open-studio night on Thursday, Feb. 22.
Students, instructors, and the public absorbed four rooms packed with examples of student sketches, paintings, and sculptures. The evening was as much an organic exchange of ideas as it was a flood of eye candy.
We spoke to students of various media and two instructors to piece together a collage of what it’s like to immerse oneself in the pursuit of creating fine art.
Looking around the four rooms of artwork from first-year to seasoned artists, all of excellent quality, it is clear that GCA students are trained to closely observe physical forms. Many sketches and paintings are displayed right next to the actual objects, and the life-likeness is so striking that the viewer does a double take.
Patrick Byrnes, a third-year student who studied for a year at the Florence Academy of Art before coming to GCA, emphasized the necessity of drawing and painting from life.
“Drawing from life is essential. It’s a quintessential part of the philosophy and history of this kind of art. It’s what gives it that humanistic element,” he said. “Some of the newer realists paint from photos, but without that connection to the subject.”
