Meet your neighbor, Cambridge Street Studios (the place where super powers are made).
At the 1500 block of Cambridge Street near 15th and W Girard Avenue sits Cambridge Street Studios, a boutique Philadelphia Art School devoted to teaching academic drawing, painting, and sculpture to all people at any level. Boutique in that they cater to a small group of students and teach a specific approach to drawing representational work, otherwise known as realistic drawing.
Okay. Okay. Hold back on your yawns, folks. I swear, this place is super cool! Read on.
The building is an old historic carriage house located in the furthest corner of the burgeoning Francisville neighborhood that has been converted into several large easel filled studios used for different drawing classes including drawing the live model. Remember that sexy scene from Titanic when Leonardo DiCaprio sketched Kate Winslet nude? Yeah... it’s nothing like that. But that was a great scene, right? Anyway, the founders provide tons of support and one on one instruction in a casual and friendly atmosphere. And umm, mostly clothed.
Cambridge Street Studios was founded by Jeremy Deck, Andrew McManus and Anthony Ranalli, three devoted teachers and IMHO, pioneers, in the Philadelphia art scene. The principles they teach bring into the light very learnable classical approaches to drawing that have been left in the shadows by most current large art institutions. The practice at Cambridge Street Studios and belief in looking at art objectively is a “trend on” concept. Think about it. In our strangely obsessed reality based culture, re-examining realism just makes sense. Especially in the visual arts.
Practically speaking, the founders and teachers at Cambridge Street Studios really challenge you to: 1) Develop by eliminating the underlying weaknesses in your drawing ability, 2) Promote self correction, and 3) Cultivate problem solving abilities. Those are skills that will help advance any person no mater what your starting skill set or end goal is. And as Andrew has said to me on several occasions, learning these principles is like gaining “super powers” in drawing. SUPER POWERS! I totally want that! Don’t you?
Below are samples of the co-founders' recent studio drawings. Head over to their website for more info and photos and contact info. Work by (in the following order): Jeremy Deck, Anthony Ranalli, Andrew McManus.
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