Lectures and Demos

A FREE Zoom lecture presented by John Cino,

Thursday, May 14th at 7PM

One of the most significant artists of the 20th century,

Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) was devoted to creating imagery

that expressed what she called “the wideness and wonder of

the world as I live in it.” Her art and life were deeply influenced

by transcendentalism, mirroring the philosophies of Emerson and

Thoreau through her spiritual connection to nature, solitude,

and the American Southwest landscape. Using abstract forms,

she captured the "essential" spirit of subjects like flowers and bones, reflecting a search for deeper meaning, self-reliance, and emotional purity.

Though a New York resident, she traveled to Taos, New Mexico, in 1929 where expansive skies and distinct desert landscapes transformed her vision and connected her with artists of the

Transcendental Painting Group (TPG), who explored abstraction as a spiritual and modern response to the Southwest. Though TPG was short lived, functioning as a group from 1938 to 1941, its members where influential from the late 1920s through the 20th century. 

Transcendentalism emphasizes the importance of being close to nature.  Many of O’Keeffe’s most famous paintings are of flowers and other plants and objects found in nature. She traveled to different parts of the United States and found inspiration in what she saw while exploring. Georgia O’Keeffe was also a nonconformist and she preferred to work alone. These

ideas of nonconformity and self-reliance are also important tenets of Transcendentalism.

This lecture is presented by John Cino, a sculptor, art educator and curator. He graduated from Hunter College of the City University of New with a Masters Degree in Fine Arts and from Stony Brook University with a BA in Fine Arts. After holding positions as a gallery assistant for noted NY artist Ed Buonagurio and as an art teacher for the NYC public Schools, John began teaching

on the collegiate level. He is currently teaching sculpture and three-dimensial design at Nassau Community College and Farmingdale State College. He has curated many exhibitions in New York City and Long Island, including 14 Sculptors Gallery, Adelphi University, the Islip Museum and Nassau Community College. He is the senior curator of the Patchogue Arts Council Gallery, now the Museum of Contemporary Art, Long Island and has been since its inception in 2008.

A FREE Zoom lecture presented by Atelier instructor Liz Fusco ,

Thursday, June 11th at 7PM

Oscar-Claude Monet was a French painter and founder of Impressionism who is seen as a key precursor to Modernism. During his long career, he was the most consistent and prolific practitioner of Impressionism's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions of nature, especially as applied to plein air (outdoor) landscape painting.  

Monet's ambition to document the French countryside led to a method of painting the same scene many times to capture the changing of light and the passing of the seasons. The term "Impressionism" is derived from the title of his painting Impressionism, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant), which was exhibited in 1874 at the First Impressionism Exhibit initiated by Monet.

Among the best-known examples are his series of haystacks (1890–1891), paintings of Rouen Cathedral (1892–1894), and the paintings of water lilies in his garden in Giverny, which occupied him for the last 20 years of his life. Frequently exhibited and successful during his lifetime, Monet's fame and popularity soared in the second half of the 20th century when he became one of the world's most famous painters and a source of inspiration for a burgeoning group of artists.

Presenting this lecture is Liz Fusco, an award-winning, Long Island artist and New York State Certified Art Educator who has been painting and drawing for most of her life. Liz began painting in oils and her subjects were typically landscape and nature scenes. She loves plein-air painting in oil and watercolor. Being an avid gardener and lover of plants and flowers, Liz had always wanted to learn the skill of Botanical Illustration. After completing a three year long process at the New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx, New York, Liz added Certified Botanical Illustration to her other education credentials.

This lecture will take place, in the comfort of your home, via Zoom, on Thursday, June 11th at 7PM and is FREE. Upon registration you will receive the Zoom link as well as a reminder the morning of.