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I own up to the fact that I am drawn to the portraits artist Jenny Morgan creates because they are unconventional. Yet they capture qualities of the human face and our other human qualities in ways that read very true and lifelike. I like them because they are different, but not just because they are...
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Looking at Mark Messersmith's artwork is like being sucked into a kaleidoscope. The colors are bold, varied, and everywhere. It seems odd to say this. I mean, of course, there is color everywhere--it's a painting. But what stands out about Messersmith's work is that the colors, more than...
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I've been told by more than one person that I try to see both sides of any issue. And my personal life aside, I can attest that I also do the same for art--I like to see it from all sides, materially speaking. That makes me a perfect match for mixed media art because you can combine so many different...
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When it comes to certain creative sensibilities--awareness of color, editing a concept--I trust my judgment. I think I have pretty good instincts--maybe not in the execution of said sensibilities in an oil painting I paint myself, but I know good color combos and narratives when I see them in the oil...
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Have you ever looked at an abstract art piece or oil painting genre scene or pastel seascape and wonder, how'd they do that?! Chances are the answer lies somewhere in mixed media. Art that tends to defy our eyes does so for a reason--it isn't conforming to a set of rules based on its materiality...
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One of my first self-assigned duties at Artist Daily was to get out in the local American art community and see the kind of work that is being made all over the country, what kind of art techniques are gaining in popularity, and how artists are communicating with each other—building networks of...
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Yellow Pen by Nat Meade, oil on linen, 24 x 20, 2011. Focusing on formal concerns in art does not make an artist uptight or unimaginative. Quite the opposite actually—pursuing matters of pattern, line, space, and color can prove to jumpstart free-thinking and expression for a painter or draftsman...
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Artists working today that I admire most all usually have one thing in common—they have developed their own unique contemporary practice while still utilizing classical methods. I've come to realize that I have a bias for artwork that has a well-thought-out narrative, but I'm also drawn...
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This is one of the artist's more traditional pieces in terms of his painting process. ( Raspberry House by Jamie Wyeth, 1988, watercolor, 22 1/2 x 28 1/2.) Watercolor is one of those wondrous materials that can be manipulated in so many different ways. Techniques vary, levels of liquidity and viscosity...
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Here's the oil painting by Casper David Friedrich that I have on a postcard called The Sea of Ice (1824, oil on canvas, 38 x 50). In college, I created a series of mixed media collages that incorporated several of the same images, but each looked different in its final form and presented a distinctive...
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Judith and Her Maidservant by Artemisia Gentileschi, 1613, oil on canvas. I'm not one to put artist before artwork. If I like the painting or drawing, it has nothing to do with who the art-maker is. But that doesn't mean that I don't believe in acknowledging an incredible group of working...
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Up the Block by Rose Frantzen, oil painting, 40 x 50. Rose Frantzen: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Rose Frantzen 's peers hold her in especially high regard as an artist's artist. In her 25 years as a full-time painter, she has also gained the attention and respect of both national and...
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Ben by Melissa Carroll, 2010, 48 x 60. When we start making art, we don't start from a position of, "I want to paint like so-and-so," or even "I want to paint well." We should start from a position of, "I have a need to make art." This is an important principle; it gives...
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Whiskey Creek (Spring) By Kate Ha rding, 2008, found leather garments, thread, grommets, and steel hooks, 54 x 35. One of the things I love about the artistic process is that we all share the need to put our creative energy into practice, we do it in so many different ways, and yet we usually have a...
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Artists Carl and Sandra Bryant use tiny pieces of glass to create intricate mosaic works of art. by Stephanie Kaplan Autumn Landscape by Sandra Bryant, 2006, glass mosaic, 24 x 32. Collection the artist. Mosaic Landscape by Sandra Bryant, 2005, glass mosaic, 24 x 24. Collection the artist. Art is often...