-
It feels right to talk about color and art during this time of the year, when flowers are blooming, trees are budding, and skies are (mostly) blue. After months of dull-colored scenery, everything seems to be flourishing wherever I look, which makes me want to do whatever I can to capture that beauty...
-
When I walk through a museum or gallery, there are certain paintings that I breeze past and others that always draw me in. Self-portraits definitely fall into the latter category. I’m always intrigued by how artists choose to represent themselves and perpetuate their own personal mythologies. My...
-
Sustain Your Art Business With a Sound Studio Practice, Starting with Warm-Ups When I think of a warm-up, it is usually a sweaty business in which you raise your heart rate, get your muscles loosened up, and stretch a bit. Warm-up exercises for artists are a little different but not that different, and...
-
The Oil Paintings of Margaret Bowland I was first introduced to the paintings of Margaret Bowland in 2009, when one of her portrait paintings won the People's Choice Award in the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, in Washington, DC. I was uncomfortable...
-
In one of her recent blogs on Artist Daily, Marion Boddy-Evans observed that it is a good idea for portraiture artists who are trying to achieve a sense of naturalness in their work to pose for themselves. When I read this, I felt like I had been poleaxed...not that I really know what that means. But...
-
We can never imagine a world without vision. Whether one works as a realist painter or abstract artist, the quality of our vision determines the ultimate appearance of the art that we make. As viewers of art, we can rarely know or consider if the art we are looking at is meant to be expressive of a particular...
-
In a time when we often hear the arts being dismissed as unnecessary luxuries and when so many art classes in schools have been cut, it's nice to hear a little good news. Portrait of Claude Renoir Painting by Renoir, 1907, oil on canvas. A recent federal study of research data on the effectiveness...
-
In a lot of ways the art world can be a little like a trend-crazed teenybopper. What's new and exciting gets the most attention, while art and artistic movements and groups that have been around for decades or centuries fall out of favor. But I think anyone artistically minded would be hard pressed...
-
Have you ever noticed when you are plein air painting how the colors of objects look so radically different in the very low light just before dawn or twilight? Take a red rose, for instance. We know that the flower's petals are bright red against the green of the leaves in daylight. But, take a look...
-
When I paint figures the work seems to matter more--I find that I'm more focused on the process than when I am just drawing fancifully from my head or creating a still life. And by "matter" I mean that the intensity is ratcheted up just a bit and I just feel really invested in what I am...
-
A few weeks ago I attended a young artist's solo exhibition. Although he was technically skilled, the subject matter (mostly oil portraits with the models nude or semi-nude) didn't really inspire me. So why am I still thinking about his work--and telling you about it? Well, I keep coming back...
-
My dad is a little manic about asking our family to get our holiday wish lists to him waaaaaaay before he has to fight the crowds and wait in long lines. As usual, I'm procrastinating, but if I were to give him my art wish list, I could have it ready and waiting for him at a moment's notice....
-
I am writing this as things have never looked better for me financially, as an artist. I have had a few huge sales and wildly successful shows over the years, but I feel as if I have tapped into a new realm of possibilities in recent months. And this in a time of financial hardship for many across the...
-
I roll my eyes every time I hear about representational art and realism being "imperiled," because there are so many important representational artists painting right now. It's almost offensive how people think legitimacy comes with the passage of time. History can be a great equalizer...
-
I love that John Cougar Mellencamp song! Mostly because it reminds me of being young, and that life is full of possibilities and change. It's also a great reminder that the "small" stories of our everyday lives are the ones that matter most! Roanoke by Mary Whyte, watercolor on paper, 2007...