1996 - 04/1996 Meeting

Page Created: 08/25/10. Last Updated: 10/26/10. Last Google Group Page Update: 02/29/08.

DONATO GIANCOLA

The artist's website is: http://www.donatoart.com/.

Another site for the artist is: http://www.donatoart.com/index2.html.

MEETING SUMMARY:

Meeting Date: April 13, 1996.

Meeting Site: Saddle River Valley Cultural Center, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Official Attendance: 35.

Meeting Program: Slide Show by Science Fiction Artist.

Notes:

Meeting Memories:

Newsletter Account:

The following account is reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 1996 Philip J De Parto:

Artist Donato Giancola was the featured speaker at the meeting of the S F A B C held at the Cultural Center on Saturday, April 13, 1996. The meeting featured a slide show of his work, original paintings on display, prints available for purchase (at very affordable prices), and a question and answer session.

One very distinctive touch Mr Giancola incorporated into his presentation was the inclusion of works by a number of classical painters. He makes frequent visits to museums to reexamine how the masters handled lighting, composition, exaggeration, and skin tones. Again and again he would point out how a classic piece showed him the way to handle a particular problem.

He particularly admired Flemish Renaissance painters like the Van Eyck brothers for their use of distortion and exaggeration and 19th Century painters like Bouguereau for his delicate work with color and composition for hands and faces. He feels that many modern illustrators do their homework on the classics.

His step by step breakdown of how he creates a painting was also interesting and informative. Among the interesting observations he made was that in science fiction, "if you can paint chrome well, you're in."

The artist was a polished speaker and was genuinely glad to be among the people who bought the books his covers adorned. He even accompanied us afterwards for a bite to eat.

Turnout was lighter than usual, not surprising considering we were up against two conventions. Sharon Archer, Don Mc Farland, and Robert Savoye won books as doorprizes.

Thanks go to Pat Malone for the anime videos, Chris Nash and Pamela Webber for the televisions, Charles Garofalo for the refreshments, Roy Greenberg for the tea, Sharon Archer for filling in with running the Final Frontier meeting (with help from Roy Greenberg and others), and everyone who helped with the set up and clean up.

After a few months of breaking into two pot-meeting groups, we all traveled to East Side Mario's for food and conversation. The menu is more limited and expensive, but they were very accommodating and happy for the business, and the smoke situation was more bearable.