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A painting technique in which semi-opaque or thin opaque colors are lightly brushed over an underpainted area so that patches of the previous color show through.  Also a method of mixing two colors on the canvas together, pulling each color from opposite directions in a figure eight technique so that the finished composition is a smooth transition from one color to another.

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  • Paint Every Figure With the Power of a Portrait
    Painting the people and places one sees every day can be either a mind-numbing trial or an impetus for creativity that just happens to be homeward bound. For New Jersey-based artist Michael de Brito--who has spent the last several years painting family members and friends in familiar surroundings, such
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  • New Free eBook on the Color Wheel and Color Schemes!
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  • Seeing Double?
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    When my Norwegian Artist, Steve Henderson, gives an oil painting workshop, one of his favorite aspects -- as well as that of his students -- is when participants bring in their artwork for Steve to look at and make comments about. "I could spend
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  • An All-Or-Nothing Proposition?
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  • What Artists Reveal with Self-Portraits
    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. True
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  • Art Consultations -- Jump Starting Your Next Painting
    Taking private lessons to learn how to paint is a wonderful thing, but if you feel you cannot afford them, an art consultation , in which you show another artist, a dealer, or an art appraiser your work and ask for their opinion -- which you agree to
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  • From Nature's Tinest Creatures to Her Broadest Feats
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  • Dark Tidings
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  • Getting a Second Opinion That Counts
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  • Working Toward a Masterpiece
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  • Painting the Brightness of Sunlit Snow
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  • Affording Private Art Lessons
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  • White Roses Dripping Red
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  • Tie Your Hands Behind Your Back
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  • Adept in Every Genre
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  • Compensating
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  • Turn Up the Temperature
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  • Paintings Fail or Succeed Because...
    Especially since the mid-1800s, many artists have stressed color over other elements in painting. The Impressionists are notable examples. Monet, for instance, explored how to paint light and its effects on the colorful scenes he saw in his mind's
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  • Diagonal Parking for Those Who Can’t Parallel Park
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  • White Paint on White Paper
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  • Love Them Extra Because They're Weird
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  • Stairways to Heaven
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  • The Socks from Hell
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  • Fried Eggs on the Floor
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  • Lovely, Peaceful, and Nostalgic All at Once
    It's not typical that an oil painting can stir up lots of contradictory emotions, but when I look at certain works it seems like the artist is able to capture not just one or two feelings but the whole emotional spectrum. When you see one of these
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  • You Have to Lie to Get What You Want
    I may have grabbed your attention at the risk of making you think I'm a big fat fibber, but I do think that when it comes to landscape painting, you sometimes have to lie--or at least exaggerate--to get what you want. This is based on personal experience
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  • A League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
    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
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  • Being Human, and All That
    "You know, it's not a sin to make mistakes, fail to succeed on the first (or 45th) try, or generally show that we're imperfect. The unspoken strictures that some businesses, churches, schools, other establishments place upon their members
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  • No One Could Beat Rembrandt
    When it comes to being able to draw with a paintbrush, no one can touch Rembrandt. He was able to turn abstract brushstrokes into forms with texture, weight, and liveliness. He could turn two swipes of a painting brush loaded with white paint into the
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  • Ever Hear of the Purkinje Effect?
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  • Painting With No Holds Barred--Plus Our Best Resources Are On Sale!!!
    Going "no holds barred" sounds tough, and slightly scary, but I'm feeling particularly intense about not wasting time learning how to paint like I want to paint. The clock is ticking, but that really doesn't mean much. The clock is going
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  • Power to the Pencil
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  • Nothing Too Extreme
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  • Dark Shadows
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  • Add Water and BAM!
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  • He Truly Had the Joy of Sight
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  • A Painting Just Waiting to Happen
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  • Um, Are Those Angel Wings??
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  • Our Free & Brand New eBook on Figure Painting
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  • What the Heck Is Gesso?
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  • Investing in Art
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  • Get Out of Your Comfort Zone! Um . . . Why?
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  • What About Angels?
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  • Hit the Right Values Every Time
    Perhaps the toughest skill that the artist painting outside must learn is the ability to judge values accurately, and then mix them in paint. The reason that this skill requires so much practice to get right is because our eyes and brains are constantly
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  • "Greatness Is Determined by Service"
    I hesitate to admit that some of my education these days is derived from Facebook, thanks to those seemingly endless placards with quotes that people are always posting: "I think it's weird how some days I feel skinny and some days I feel like
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  • Light, Light, Burning Bright
    Hopefully Blake will forgive me for that little rewrite, but when I see a painting that has complicated light effects or diffuse light that seems almost prismatic I can't help but think of that adulterated line of poetry. New York City, Winter 2006
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  • Looking Into My Crystal Ball
    With the rapidly expanding emergence of social media over the last several years, I think the majority of artists--like most people--have looked upon the phenomenon with anything from mild curiosity to enthusiastic interest. Many of us have jumped on
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  • Money and Fame May Not Be Enough
    What is success? Be honest with yourself. Do you truly believe that a successful person is defined by the car he drives, the title after her name, or their number of Twitter followers? Life is bigger, wider, deeper than what you can fit into a shoebox
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  • The Best Instructor I've Ever Had
    When I met a woman who told me about the best watercolor painting instructor she'd ever had, I had to know more. There are so many artists out there whose work is compelling but that doesn't always make them good teachers. I had to know what put
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  • How Has Social Media Transformed the Art Industry?
    Those of us in the fine art industry know that artists and art galleries have had a long-standing love/hate relationship. Artists love the fact that galleries market and sell works of art, but they hate the fact that the better galleries keep 40% or 50
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  • No Crisis Here, Look Elsewhere
    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
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  • Frustration Isn't Always a Bad Thing
    "Frustration isn't always such a bad thing. It's a sign that you're trying something new, different, or outside your level of familiarity, and in working your way through it (and you will) you conquer this challenge and move on to the
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  • It's High Time for Some Brutal Honesty
    Here it is: If you aren't going to really push it when you make a landscape painting , it is going to be completely forgettable. Having looked at thousands of landscape paintings, and made a few myself, I'll be honest and tell you that only the
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  • Reconnect with Your Passion
    The loss of an artist and teacher from childhood has caused me to reflect upon not only her life and work, but also those lessons that she taught me. The myriad distractions of daily life, from the constant need to earn money for survival to the many
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  • I Learned To Love This Painting
    Note that I said learned—because I did not particularly care for or respond to Gauguin's oil painting Fatata Te Miti when I first saw it. I thought there was too much going on and the colors were too aggressive. It made me anxious and uneasy
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  • Deliberate Practice
    A few posts ago I wrote about how introverts are normal people (gasp!) and introduced you to Susan Cain's warm and informative book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking . I wanted to revisit it to talk about Deliberate
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  • They Appreciate First-Rate Art
    I'm so excited to tell you about the opening night for the Contemporary American Realism exhibit at the Beijing World Art Museum . We were all blown away by the scale of the presentation, the press core, the ceremony, and the huge crowd. This has
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  • It Makes Me See Red
    "The last mad throb of red just as it turns green; the ultimate shriek of orange calling all the blues of heaven for relief and support...each color almost regains the fun it must have felt within itself on forming the first rainbow." --Charles
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  • 3 Things Every Well-Designed Painting Has & How to Join the Cure!
    Of course there are more than three painting techniques that will allow you to create a compelling artwork, but learning how to paint a picture well can certainly start with these elements. Rhythm. Painting objects that actually look alive, in the case
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  • Don't Forget to Look Behind You
    When walking through a landscape looking for that magical spot that compels you to stop to sketch or put up your plein air easel, don't forget to look behind you (and not for muggers, but the view!). Stop regularly, turn around and consider the view
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  • The Quest to Paint the Arctic
    Yes, you read that right! I've heard of extreme sports and extreme makeovers, but extreme outdoor painting ? This is a first for me. But when plein air artist Cory Trepanier told me that he had made a trek to paint the far reaches of the Canadian
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  • How to Let Flashes of Inspiration Come
    Swimming in the ocean of life, so to speak, it sometimes feels as though we must use every bit of energy to keep our heads above the waves. Over many years we have developed some techniques that help us to shed the heavy seaweed and barnacles of the daily
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  • Painting the Arctic: Turning a Dream Into Reality
    Most artists tend to be dreamers, myself included. In 2006, with just my passion for painting the wilderness, I began to let my mind wander in and around the idea of painting places I'd only dreamed about--incredibly wild and remote landscapes. Places
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  • Yup, My Junk Drawer Taught Me Painting
    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
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  • Hello From Beijing!
    Do you remember my post on the insanity and sheer wrongness surrounding the fact that the Chinese people have never seen contemporary American paintings before? Well, we are doing something about it with the opening of the historic exhibit, "Contemporary
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  • Introverts Are Actually Normal
    I've been reading Susan Cain's Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking , and if you're an artist, and you're kind of quiet, and you think that you're a misanthropic hermit because you enjoy fine art painting
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  • Dare I Say It: Greatest Painters of All Time?!
    Even writing the words "Top 10 Painters of All Time" makes me cringe a little bit because...really? Really? I find it a herculean task to narrow a list down to the best 100 oil painting artists of all time, let alone just ten. But in the spirit
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  • Ways of Interpreting Color: Studio vs. Plein Air
    In plein air we attempt a form of direct translation. In the studio, we may recall our observations of nature, but are freer to be inventive with color. Night Passage by Mitchell Albala, 2006, oil painting on panel, 20 x 20. It's September and the
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  • Beware of Falling in Love
    Painting is an act of creativity and intention, but it sometimes, many times, includes acts of destruction large and small. It may be that the one skill that separates the dedicated professional artist from the amateur is the willingness to destroy, obliterate
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  • It's Not Like Eating Junk Food
    When it comes to putting additives into your paints, it just isn't the same as eating a Twinkie or bag of Doritos. Additives are necessary in some cases, especially for landscape artists who work with varying conditions when painting outdoors . They
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  • Sketching Isn’t Painting
    Sketching is information gathering and painting is translating the information. That's where I've ended up after pondering one particular comment made in response to my Wimping Out of Plein Air Painting post: "even if you are doing a plein
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  • 3 Painting Tools That Aren't Used Enough
    It is just reality that certain painting techniques and tools will get more of your attention than others as you develop your artistic interests and style. But knowing how to paint the way you want to paint should still leave room for new things, too
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  • Art For Thought: An Artist’s Lifespan
    "It's really hard for young artists. You're an adult at 18, but for a painter it takes longer. You really don't get it together until 35 or 45." La Blanchisseuse by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1884-1888, oil on canvas . Some research
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  • Your Website--Keeping It Up to Date
    There's a lot of work to getting an artist website up and running , and once it's done, take some time to pat yourself on the back and indulge in a flavored coffee with lots of whipped cream. But after you're done, it's time to wash the
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  • It Gets Complicated When The Clothes Come Off
    Human figure painting, particularly painting skin, is the height of artistic prowess for me. I'll know I've made significant strides as a painter when I can recreate the opalescent glowing surface of skin. But I have a strong handicap to overcome
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  • Free Kittens
    It's no wonder artists are starving. People want their art for free. This morning I received yet another plea from a charitable agency, offering us the opportunity to support their ongoing mission by promoting Steve Henderson's oil paintings.
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  • How to Get the Most Out of a Painting Workshop
    I don't get to attend as many oil painting art workshops as I would like, so when the opportunity to participate in one does present itself, I really want to get the most out of my time there. Here are a few of my own "warm-up to workshop"
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  • Sharpen Your Color Sense
    Because the eye and the brain are constantly adjusting to the changing hues and values of sunlight and shadows when painting outdoors , it can be difficult to see those changes as they happen to our subject. If one is unaware that the original light has
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  • Entering an Art Show: Following the Submission Process Is Important, Too
    Following the submission process, exactly, when you send your portfolio to a gallery is crucial, be it emailing your website or sending off a package for consideration. The same attention to detail applies when you enter an art show or group oil painting
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  • A New Wave of Art
    Tricked ya! Sort of! On the one hand, fantasy art isn't that new at all. But as I was sitting in a meeting flipping through American Artist magazine's May 2012 issue --while still paying close attention to what was being said, of course!--I was
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  • When Less Is More: Dying Dog Edition
    I'm fascinated by the concept of "less is more," especially as it applies to representational painting. It's hardly intuitive that having less detail makes a painting more realistic, but that's often the case. We've all been
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  • These Paintings Don't Have to Be Cheesy
    Because learning about color complements on the color wheel is often one of the first lessons we are taught in art class, complementary color paintings--those contrasting blue and orange, yellow and violet, and red and green--are often thought of as for
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  • Plein Air Nocturnes: More Alive Than the Day
    "I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day." --Vincent Van Gogh Moonrise Road by John Hulsey, plein air painting. Plein air painting at night in bright moonlight is great fun and a wonderful learning experience
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  • Gallery Submission Process--What Following It Exactly Means
    My kids accuse me of saying obvious things, along the lines of, "The car won't get you there if you don't put gas in it," or "Your clothes won't be ready to wear tomorrow if you keep them in the washing machine." But I
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  • Paint Faceoff: Tube Takes On Jar
    For those who are painting with acrylics , this can be a big issue if only because you are constantly dealing with the consequences or benefits of your decision to work with jar color or paint from tubes. What I have gathered from my acrylic painting
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  • It’s Never a Matter of Black or White
    I was in the studio of my oil painting artist friend the other day and she had a really sizeable bucket filled with oil paint tubes sitting beside her palette. Some of the tubes were so squeezed out and folded up that I wondered if there was anything
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  • Art for Thought: Defining Realism
    Attempting to define realism or to clarify the various styles of representational painting can be a challenging task. When writing about today's painters, I always hesitate to use words like "classical," "realist," "contemporary
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  • Your Online Portfolio--What Not to Do with It
    Your website can be a terrific online portfolio . But there are definitely ways to not use your website when marketing art. An initial temptation for many artists is to find as many gallery e-mail addresses as they can and send out their website information
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  • 3 Tips So You Don't Wipe Out on Smooth Washes
    I am rolling my eyes with embarrassment when I tell you that when I first saw watercolor paintings with wide expanses of color I assumed that these were applied and then wiped out and smoothed over after they were laid down. I had no idea that there were
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  • Art on the Square
    I was reminded that art grows in the most unlikely places and conditions when I recently heard about the art scene that is showing distinct signs of life in Fayette County, Georgia. Wildlife watercolorist Dylan Scott Pierce teaches students about layering
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  • Not Created Equal
    Not all art competitions are created equal. There are some that are themed art contests, and others are more open-ended about narrative. One art competition could have an open call for artists, and another could require its participants to submit work
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  • What's in a Nose?
    I'm not telling you anything you don't already know when I say that successful portraiture is successful when the portrait artist, foremost, captures a likeness. Yes, I ardently believe that there has to be something more to the story—a
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  • Plein Air Essence
    We enjoyed the recent plein air blog of artist Marion Boddy-Evans and agree with her sentiments. We have been outdoor painting for over forty years each (before the "plein air" phrase became ubiquitous) and have always felt that the value in
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  • What a Website Is, and What It Isn't
    First and foremost, a website is an online portfolio of you, your background, and your fine art painting or other artwork. Years ago, artists spent copious time and bundles of money making slides of their work and 8 x 10 prints that they tucked into a
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  • Zero-Point Perspective—Ever Hear of It?
    There's no shame in your game if you haven't heard of this kind of perspective drawing ...or lack thereof. I kind of pride myself on knowing a good bit about how to draw perspective (although my actual execution of a perspective drawing is usually
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  • The Kitsch Alternative
    The influential art critic Clement Greenberg (1909-1994) often cited the derisive term kitsch to critique artwork that, in his mind, failed to live up to the tenets of the modernist movement. His theories privileged formalist nonobjective abstraction
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  • 4 Tips to Get a Gallery to Call You Back
    I don't believe that gallery representation defines an artist or even makes one a professional, but if you are interested in pursuing that kind of relationship with a gallery there are a few tips to keep in mind. Make a solid connection. All the artists
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  • Drawing and Painting Together
    This is another complicated charcoal drawing, one done by an artist completing her first level of study at Studio Incamminati. I have shown it in three stages, ranging from the beginning of the drawing process to the end. The light is from the front right
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  • A Simple But Crucial First Step to Marketing Your Art
    Get a website. If you're not a tech genius, you can still do this because there are numerous options. Some are free; some are not. Realistically speaking, the free ones severely limit what you can do and you'll find yourself outgrowing them in
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  • 3 Bad Art Habits to Break Right Now
    I don't mean to be an alarmist, but there are certain habits that artists develop when oil painting that can be detrimental to the larger arc of their professional progress. None of us intend to pick up bad practices but routine and absentmindedness
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  • 3 Tips on Finding a Place to Make Your Art
    There are people who can sleep anywhere--in a car, on a couch, even standing up. I'm not one of those people. And it is the same for when I find the time to make art--I can't just plop down and do it anywhere. It doesn't feel right, and I
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  • Simple, Solid Shapes of Color
    Greetings everyone, Hello from Incamminati in the fine city of Philadelphia! A few days ago marked the fourth day of the Intensive Workshop being led by oil painter Lea Colie Wight , one of the senior Incamminati instructors, and a rising star in the
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  • Making Money with Your Art
    It's not an unreal aspiration to make money by selling your oil painting artwork or watercolors, but it will take a significant amount of work in two areas: 1) Your art. While it is possible to make money off of art that isn't particularly good
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  • May I Introduce Jeffrey Watts?
    Jeffrey Watts: Weekend with the Masters art instructor Jeffrey R. Watts is a southern California native. Growing up in rural San Diego county with an artist father, Watts demonstrated an early aptitude for the visual arts. After an injury cut short his
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  • May I Introduce Jennifer McChristian?
    Jennifer McChristian: Weekend with the Masters art instructor Jennifer McChristian was born and raised in Montreal, Canada. In 1986 she and her family took permanent residence in Los Angeles. In 1990 she earned a B.F.A with honors from Otis Parsons Art
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  • May I Introduce Michael Klein?
    Michael Klein: Weekend with the Masters art instructor Karina's Rose by Michael Klein, oil painting. Michael Klein is a young artist in the NovoRealist movement (new realism), creating melancholic oil painting art that has a distinct and haunting
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  • May I Introduce Daniel E. Greene?
    Daniel E. Greene: Weekend with the Masters art instructor Daniel E. Greene is a former instructor of painting at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League of New York, both in Manhattan. He is the author of the book Pastel , which was
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  • May I Introduce Ken Backhaus?
    Ken Backhaus: Weekend with the Masters art instructor Kenn Backhaus was born in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, and spent much of his childhood on the family farm near Burnett, Wisconsin. His fondness for nature became the catalyst for his art. Backhaus' parents
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  • May I Introduce Ken Auster?
    Ken Auster: Weekend with the Masters Instructor Clearing Skies by Ken Auster, oil painting. Ken Auster grew up with his feet deeply implanted in the sands of Southern California beaches. Caught up in the surfing culture of the 1960s, Auster ate, slept
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  • May I Introduce Juliette Aristides?
    Juliette Aristides: Weekend with the Masters art instructor Alexis by Juliette Aristides, oil painting. Juliette Aristides is a Seattle-based painter who seeks to understand and convey the human spirit through art. Aristides is the founder of and an instructor
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  • Wimping Out of Plein Air Painting
    Whenever I end up in a conversation where other artists start talking about the kit they take with them when plein air painting --and it often starts with what plein air easel is the best--I tend to keep quiet. Very quiet. A page from my sketchbook when
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  • Michael Rosenfeld Gallery Moves to Chelsea
    The influx of artistic institutions moving into the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City continues with the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery prepared to make the leap. After showcasing groundbreaking oil painting work and other art pieces for the past 23 years
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  • Do I Have to Be a Fulltime Artist to Be a Real Artist?
    Given what we've discussed in the last two articles, Am I an Artist? and Am I a Real Artist ? Not to mention Part-Time Artists Are Artists, Too --you probably have a pretty good idea of what my answer to this one will be, but let's talk about
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  • Tiger in a Tropical Storm
    Henri Rousseau is best known for his exotic jungle scenes, but did you know that he never left France during his lifetime? All the imagery he painted was invented entirely in his mind and perhaps coupled with inspiration he got from listening to others
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  • Another Question That Never Goes Away
    "Am I a Real Artist?" This question is slightly different from last week's question , in which nuclear physicists and non-nuclear physicists ask if they are artists--the addition of the word "real" adds new dimension, along the
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  • The Long, Hot Summer
    The light of summer is a powerful and extreme thing. Getting effects of extreme darks and stark, searing lights is not something every painter can do. There's an acuteness of vision that must come into play to see the color that resides in the light
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  • Words of a Winner
    The winners of our Self-Portrait Cover Competition are featured in the September issue of American Artist, and they share advice about how to paint the figure and how to maintain a successful painting practice. When we asked David Tanner, the winner of
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  • Drawn to the Extraordinary
    Painters and draftsmen alike puzzle through perspective drawing issues. They almost have to if they want to establish any kind of sense of space in their work. Without linear perspective, all that remains is the flatness of the surface-and no artists
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  • The Question That Never Goes Away
    "Am I an Artist?" I can't help but wonder how many nuclear physicists get up out of bed each morning and ask themselves whether they are nuclear physicists. Granted, if one is a nuclear physicist, one has concrete evidence of the fact--education
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  • Artists and Artistes
    An artiste is something you don't want to be, that is, if you consider yourself an artist. While it sounds akin to archaic words like poetess or authoress, which in years passed denoted a female poet or author, an artiste is a "sort of"
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  • Workshop: Professional Practices
    In this extra-length special issue, American Artist takes you through the business of being an artist, including advice for securing commissions and information on how you can use the internet to reach your professional goals. We also visit master workshops from artists such as Bo Bartlett and Donald
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  • It's a Sensitive Subject
    Topics and ideas that tend to strike a chord and spark debate are often that way because they are so subjective. In art, color is definitely one of those sensitive subjects because no two people see a color in exactly the same way, nor do painters always
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  • Dawn, Day, Dusk, Darkness
    Plein air artists are the first to tell you that you can go back to the same site over and over again during different times of day and it is like being in a whole other place. Light does that! It can turn a bright and sunny scene into a murky and mysterious
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  • George Washington Looks Studly
    When I think of one iconic American oil painting , Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emmanuel Leutze always come to my mind. I love talking to people about the work because it is so polarizing--some love it but some people absolutely hate it. So here's
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  • Part-Time Artists Are Artists, Too
    Last week we talked about whether "real" artists take workshops (they can, and do). Now let's consider whether you have to make your living full-time as an artist in order to be considered one. Many of us hold down other jobs while we pursue
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  • Awesome, Famous, and Get to Do What You Want
    Over the weekend, a friend of mine joked that an artist's ultimate goal should be something like 1) making work that is awesome, 2) being famous or having people appreciate your work so you can make a living doing it, and 3) doing what you want--meaning
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  • From the Window to the Wall
    I've always wondered how an artist decides how to paint the background of an artwork. Did Sargent--who painted everything, even air, with volume and texture--employ certain painting techniques for this section of his works? Are there actual painting
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  • Painting on Panels
    Focusing on traditional painting methods and their contemporary application including encaustic used in the Fayum region of ancient Egypt, egg tempera from early Renaissance Siena and oil painting from Renaissance Venice is a way to connect your studio
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  • Have You Met Édouard Vuillard?
    There are many wonderful exhibitions happening in New York City this summer, and one of the shows that has left a lasting impression with me is "Édouard Vuillard: A Painter and His Muses, 1890-1940" at The Jewish Museum. Visiting this
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  • Finding Your Way Back
    I've always been fascinated by artists who live during incredibly polarizing times, but somehow still seem to go their own way. Elmer Bischoff--ever heard of this oil painting artist? He stands out as an artist in the aftermath of World War II when
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  • Are You a Real Artist?
    I chatted with a watercolor painting workshop student the other day who sighed, "I'm not a real artist. I probably never will be." "Why?" I asked. "First, because I'm still taking painting workshops and learning. Second
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  • AAA: Abstraction is an Asset to Your Art
    Abstraction is a key part of how you paint or draw anything. It is seeing completely with the eye, and not allowing the brain to contextualize what we are seeing. But turning off the brain is no small task! I've found that painting with acrylics has
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  • More Portable, Less Messy
    The size, clarity, and portability of an iPad begs for it to be used as a digital oil painting canvas or sketchbook page, and now you can do just that. I'm consistently amazed at the apps for artists that are being released on smartphones and tablets
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  • You Be the Judge: Oil Painting or Plate of Food?
    Fantasy art guru and top-notch artist James Gurney is a font of knowledge when it comes to so many aspects of drawing and painting . Whether you are into fantasy images or tend toward more realist compositions, Gurney has techniques and methods dealing
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  • Attitude Is Everything
    We've all had those moments when the details and concerns of keeping all the plates spinning distracts us from the one thing, the most important thing, that those of us who are creative people must do--create. Even doing chores that are pleasurable
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  • Is Art a Luxury?
    Let's talk about this term, luxury, first. A luxury is something that you don't really need, and by that definition, lots of things fall into this category. We need shelter; we need protection from the elements; we need food; we need water; we
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  • How Did They Get It To Look Like That?
    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
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  • Ahoy Matey! Your Free eBook on Painting Water Has Arrived!
    Being outdoors revitalizes us in a number of ways. You can relax and laze away the day in the shade, climb the tallest peak in sight, or be awe-inspired by the waterways around you. Of late, I am definitely in the latter camp. A good friend of mine has
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  • A Grumman Fighter Plane Crash Lands
    The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Presents Work by Emerging Artist Jordan Griska for Lenfest Plaza In the newly constructed Lenfest Plaza located adjacent to Philadelphia's Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), artist Jordan Griska
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  • What Is Grisaille and Why Do We Care?
    When I discovered grisaille oil painting I thought I'd gone to heaven. Learning how to oil paint is a lot of fun, but it is also just a lot . There is so much to deal with--getting your forms right, steering toward an interesting composition, brushwork
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  • Art for Thought: The Golden Land of Opportunity
    California has long been seen as a land of opportunity. People have been flocking there since the Gold Rush of 1849, which brought close to 300,000 settlers to the state and incited an economic and cultural boom of epic proportions. For artists, the attraction
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  • The Self Taught Artist – Who Isn’t?
    Some artists make a big deal out of being self taught, but truth of the matter is, all artists are self taught. The difference between the two is encapsulated in two questions: Are you learning oil painting for example only from yourself, just from what
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  • Struggle, Overpaint, Layer, Sand, Soul-Search
    When you can do something well, it can be difficult to set it aside or modify that skill for the good of your art. John Evans is an American artist who admits to battling the tendency to overwork his oil paintings, sliding between depiction and evocation
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  • Get Really Close--No One's Going to Call Security
    What was that beautiful work I saw at the Met? Which room was Sargent's portrait painting , Madame X , in? I loved that Renoir but didn't have time to go back and spend a little more time with that work and that work alone. How do I answer these
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  • Plein Air Watercolor Survival Guide
    When plein air painting , one of the most enjoyable and facile medias I've found to work with has to be watercolors. Hands down. The supplies are minimal, you can paint quickly and move from place to place making sketches of what catches your interest
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  • Framing Paintings
    In any painting, the biggest expenditure for the artist is the frame that goes around the finished piece. If it's a watercolor painting, there's the matting, the glazing, and the frame holding it all together; for the oil on canvas or acrylic
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  • It's Stilleven, Nature Morte, Dead Nature, or Still Life
    The art of still life painting is a time-honored one that has been around since at least the time of the ancient Egyptians. Still life paintings were often used to adorn the interiors of Egyptian tombs with the belief that these depictions of food and
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  • Heart Melting…So Cute!
    I'm not blessed at this point in my life to have children, but if I did you can bet I'd be one of those mothers who want portrait paintings of her children at every stage of their lives. Even better, I could learn how to paint children like artist
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  • Forget the Finishing Touches
    I love Masterpiece Theater on PBS. Recently the movie Birdsong aired--a love story about a soldier on the battlefield of World War I and the lover he left behind. Claude Renoir Writing by Pierre Auguste Renoir, lithograph, 1902/3. There was a scene from
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  • Inner Visions: Women Artists of California
    Mural From the Oaks Hotel by Jessie Arms Botke, 1953, oil on canvas with gold leaf, 82½ x 173½. Courtesy The Irvine Museum, Irvine, California. The Irvine Museum in California is shining a powerful spotlight on the artwork of talented female
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  • Finding Your Space
    If you do not have an official, proper, "real" painting studio, don't feel bad. Your studio can be in a corner of your dining room. Many people's are. Or it can be a section of the garage where you make your oil painting art ; a spare
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  • Checking Your Proportions, Drawing Three-Dimensionally, and Winning Competitions
    It Kinda Draws the Eye In by Matt Tucker, 2011, graphite and white charcoal, 7½ x 14. The spring issue of Drawing is now available, and it's full of resources for artists, especially if you are into figure drawing or figure painting. Here's
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  • 4 Paintings That Rock & Why
    And what do they all have in common? They are all done with acrylic painting techniques . Peter Drake's Mother W/Out is an unusual but fairly uncomplicated composition that makes the viewer question if the figure is real or a figment. The way the
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  • Wax On, Wax Off!
    I now have my own range of watercolor painting brushes and while going through the process of choosing their design, fond memories came flooding back to me from my time living and studying art in China. There I was fortunate enough to meet a wonderful
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  • The Fugitive Color
    We are big admirers of J. M. W. Turner's work in oil and watercolor, especially his magnificent, ethereal watercolor paintings . Unfortunately many of his paintings are much less vivid today than they were when he painted them. We know this from written
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  • More Here Than Color Theory
    I acknowledge that there is a lot about the color wheel and mixing colors that I don't know. But one thing I do know is that there's more to art than color schemes and memorizing a color mixing chart. Andrew by Fred Hatt, drawing with aquarelle
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  • Push Away the Voice of Your Inner Critic
    I feel so inundated with ideas from every single photo reference around me right now. Sometimes I am super inspired by them, but sometimes they make me want to put my paintbrush down because I get so overwhelmed by all the ways I can start painting from
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  • The New Three-Day Rule
    Regardless of the kind of art you practice, if you have any hopes of making a living at it, you'll eventually have to share your creations, whether at an open mic, in a YouTube video, or putting together an oil painting group show with artist friends
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  • Classic, Commercial, and an Art World Constant
    You don't have to think terribly hard to figure out that the painting genre that has all of these characteristics in common is floral painting . It is a practice that has inspired artists to create beautiful, graceful paintings for centuries, but
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  • The Right Stuff
    I work with knitters, and a student recently told me, "I don't like the way my stuff turns out." When I asked her what kind of yarn she used, she replied, "Oh, I just picked up something cheap. I didn't want to spend money on something
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  • That Time of Year
    Recently we added an informative article to the members' area of The Artist's Road called "Understanding Light in the Landscape: The Carlson Theory of Angles." It gives the student a crucial tool to make sense of the confusing array
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  • Sharing Tea and Portraits with Natalie Italiano
    Recently the students at Studio Incamminati went to New York. I chose not to go, instead wandering around the school looking at the drawings and paintings on the student walls. Natalie Italiano , an instructor in the core program as well as a Fellow there
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  • What Do Painters Really Do?
    Do you know how frustrating it is to love something, but not necessarily know everything about it? That's sometimes the way I feel about color. I have such a visual lust for color--learning new colors, discovering new paint mixes, figuring out how
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  • Grandpa Is Wearing His Batman Costume Again
    Earlier this week I was lucky enough to attend the opening of Jason Bard Yarmosky's solo show "Elder Kinder" at Lyons Wier Gallery, in New York City. It's a terrific painting exhibition, and it got me thinking about how an artist can
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  • Painting on Autopilot
    I can't think of a single parent who lolls in the passenger seat of the car, detached while observing their teenaged driver's inaugural foray into the city streets. Sometimes we rest, relax and dream--not, however, when we are actively painting
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  • Artist Mother, Artist Son
    My mom is an artist, but she's nothing like me. For all that, we're both artists. If you want to know where I got my artist genes, I got most of them from her. Genes alone don't make an artist, though. Making art is kind of a stupid career
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  • American Artist Magazine, July/August 2012
    In this issue of American Artist, we look at both the plein air and figurative work of the California art scene. Articles feature the upcoming “On Location in Malibu” exhibition, the philosophies and artwork of NovoRealism, Weekend With the Masters instructor Jennifer McChristian, and the
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  • It's Not What You Know--It's Who You Know
    I've come to realize that that old saying "It's not always what you know, but who you know," is spot on. Even at American Artist magazine . Luckily, "we" know a lot of people, and as a result we have remarkable access to some
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  • Getting Trashed
    I've heard of painting for yourself, for school, for work, but painting for the trash can?! Artist and watercolor painting instructor Jean Haines explains why working this way isn't rubbish at all. Enjoy! The aim of being an artist is to create
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  • Variation By Subject
    Emma Twice , 2009, oil on canvas, 48 x 48. All works by Daniel Maidman. Over the past few posts, we've been discussing shocks to the system as a way of avoiding growing complacent and thoughtless in your art. I shared two of my own tricks— varying
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  • Not Painting
    The Norwegian Artist and I have a friend who specializes in painting small pet animals...that is, when he paints. While to paint regularly, you don't need a huge space, you'll find yourself happiest with a designated one. On the Horizon by Steve
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  • Here's One From the Heart
    In their day, the Hudson River School landscape artists were so popular with the public that people would line up and pay a fair amount of money just to view a single painting. Our plein air blogger Jennifer King shares her insights on why the works of
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  • Words of Wisdom From Antonio López García
    I'm sure many of you are aware of the Spanish living legend Antonio López García, but I'm ashamed to say I was not familiar with his artwork until recently. And as with any new discovery, once you become aware of a new person, place
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  • 4 Ways to Paint Without Preconceptions
    Short of lobotomy, we will always have the equivalent of mental trails that our brains follow when we are painting. Artists develop these based on painting techniques that they've learned along the way, or they can be expressions of inherent ideas
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  • Value Division in Landscape Painting
    Landscape values are easier to understand when viewed as falling into four major divisions or zones. Reading values in landscapes is somewhat different from reading values in other subjects. All subjects have a light source, but the source in a landscape
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  • Silver Bullets and Miracle Pills
    Different people attend painting workshops with varying expectations, but the ones who get the most out of the experience are those who recognize that workshops are not: A workshop gives you the opportunity to start at one point in your artistic journey
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  • Lucian Freud Had Great Skin
    I started off seeing skin tones in a closed off way, not really pushing to find the dimension and depth right in front of me. I almost felt I was still pulling a Crayon out of the box to color a figure's form from head to toe like I did in childhood
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  • Now Everyone Squeeze Together
    It's funny how I have gotten so immersed in art that I tend to project very human emotions or ideas to inanimate objects in paintings and drawings. Still life painting objects that don't spatial connect in some way most often won't connect
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  • Toning Your Canvas
    A few weeks ago I had a studio session with Lea Colie Wight , a great painter who had a really lovely tone to her oil painting surface that many of us loved and wanted to know more about. I wanted to share that info with you! Canvas Toning Process The
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  • Get Your Work Seen By 100 People a Day
    Yep, it is a pretty lofty goal. I know it. But there are so many incredible artists out there who are doing incredible work and deserve more visibility! Here are a few ways that you can elevate your artistic profile in the wider world. By no means are
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  • Painting Into the Light
    One of the major challenges of painting outdoors is the need to gather enough visual information about our subject in a brief moment of perfect light. In rushing to capture the light in nature, it is easy to lose those subtle details and tonal changes
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  • How Do You Pick the Right Workshop?
    Whether or not you like to be around a lot of people is one thought to consider when you choose the right workshop for you. Descent into Bryce by Steve Henderson, 18 x 18, oil painting, also available as a limited edition signed print . Let's assume
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  • He's So Sketchy
    But in the very best way! When I was trolling for artists who draw like they paint and vice versa, Giovanni Boldini immediately came to mind. His mark making is a tour de force, no matter if he is working in oils, pastels, or when charcoal painting. Spanish
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  • The Lost Art
    Losing a painting somewhere is never fun, but losing a good painting can drive one to temporary distraction. While teaching our plein air painting workshop in Rocky Mountain National Park last September, I was demonstrating the direct-painting method
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  • Should You Take a Workshop?
    I deliberately entitled this post using a word that I have eliminated from my vocabulary: Should. Like sunrise to a new day, the right workshop can lead you to fresh new beginnings in your art pursuits. Awakening by Steve Henderson, 24 x 40, oil painting
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  • Your New Free eBook: Step by Step Painting Techniques
    Painting is a deep and vast ocean. It is a world full of possibilities. And while I am deeply drawn to that wide-open aspect of it, I'm also super intimidated by it too! I feel like there is no limit to what I can learn, and while I'm thirsty
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  • Is It Ever Too Late to Start Painting?
    Not if artist Claudia Seymour has anything to say about it. This year I had the pleasure of meeting Seymour at the Salmagundi Club in New York City to create two three-hour DVDs with her, including this year's The Art of Painting Flowers in Oil .
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  • Art For Thought: Great Artists, Great Paintings
    A Summer Night by Winslow Homer, 1890, oil on canvas, 30 3/16 x 40 3/16. The word "great" (or "greatest") can be pretty subjective, and lately I've been thinking about how to better qualify the term. To celebrate our 75 th Anniversary
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  • Think I Can Get Batman to Sit For a Portrait?
    Portrait painting is serious business. Truly, there is a lot at stake for the many professional portrait artists out there who paint dignitaries, presidents, and the like. But portraiture can also be incredibly fun! A show I recently saw at Elisa Contemporary
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  • Licking the Dog's Nose
    A friend mentioned to me that someone challenged her to read, within one year, a particularly long and demanding book. "I didn't really want to do it," she confessed. "But he's knowledgeable and he was insistent, so I did."
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  • Pick Up a Few Pointers from This Dutch Master
    A willingness to experiment with perspective and style is often the determining factor between a competent artist and a master. A new exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art , "Van Gogh Up Close," takes a compelling look at the choices
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  • How I Built an Art Network in My Hometown
    Patricia Watwood is a skilled oil painter and incredibly deserving of a lot of praise for the art career she has built for herself. She's also quite willing to share her approach to building a network for her art, as she attests below. Enjoy! The
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  • It Means Never Having to Say ‘No’
    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
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  • The Complete Painter's Handbook
    In our new special issue, American Artist guides you through the most important aspects of the painting process, from selecting your materials to preparing a canvas to advanced techniques for accurately depicting landscapes and figures.
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  • Same Subject, Different Visions
    On Location with Michael Stasinos and Mitchell Albala It never ceases to amaze me how unique each painter's vision can be—in everything from the subjects they choose to the color choices they make or the type of painterly handwriting they use
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  • Is It Better to Learn From One Artist or From Many?
    While I was working recently on American Artist's new special issue, The Complete Painter's Handbook ( order now! ), I had a little debate with myself. The question at hand: If you are working to learn how to paint, is it better to focus on following
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  • Here Comes a Video Series on Portrait Painting
    Portrait artist and painter David McLeod is amidst an exciting project: creating a 10-part video series on portraiture . McLeod takes viewers through the steps that all portrait artists go through to create a compelling, visually appealing portrait, but
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  • Why Can't You Be Blue Over Me?
    Where would painting be without the color blue? It is so easy to obtain artist paints of any hue these days that we forget that in the time of both Michelangelo and Titian, a pure, vibrant blue pigment could only be made by laboriously cooking and hand
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  • Taking Off the Straightjacket
    I am not a finicky person, so getting my hands dirty to get a job done is totally fine with me. But with painting, I can get so uptight and hesitant that the physical joy of it all goes right out the window. I'm trying to be better about what I'm
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  • If This Sounds Harsh, Forgive Me...
    Below you'll find artist and blogger Jennifer King's discussion of when a plein air painting can be too real. I don't think she's being harsh at all, but you'll have to decide for yourself. Enjoy! ***** I think it's time for some
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  • Art for Thought: My Eye It Is A-Changin’
    There was a time in the not-so-distant past when my interest in art history stopped at Post-Impressionism. When I read art books and visited museums, I was instinctually drawn to artwork from the Italian Renaissance through Impressionism and curious to
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  • Man's Best Friend Is Art's Best Friend Too?
    We have always felt that as plein air painters we are observers of the landscape—recording moments and places that can rapidly transform with fleeting changes of light. In a pure landscape, figures and animals are rendered small and insignificant
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  • Want to Show Painting Improvement Now?
    Portraiture is, in my humble opinion, the domain of artistic masters. All the greats, such as Velazquez, Rembrandt, Goya, and Sargent, can be counted as incredibly skilled and innovative portrait artists in addition to being pretty brilliant at everything
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  • The Truth About Drawing Faces in One Free eBook!
    Woman with a Hat (detail) by Henri Matisse, 1905, oil on canvas. Archimedes (detail) by Jose de Ribera, 1630, oil painting. Self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh, 1888, oil painting. A few days ago I was hanging out with a mixed bag of artists. And by mixed
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  • The Lasting Influence of Illustration
    I love that my job allows me to learn something new every day—and the fact that the majority of those discoveries are art-related make them all the more inspiring. Lately I've been in art-historian mode, and I've have been trying to better
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  • Putting the Air in Plein Air
    I don't care how many times I see Monet's paintings, they never cease to inspire me. I just had the great pleasure of seeing the new Monet show at the Cincinnati Art Museum with my art buddies, and especially for those of us plein-air artists
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  • Solving the Mystery of Monet
    The Water Lily Pond by Claude Monet, oil painting, 1899. Mitchell Albala is an inspiring art instructor in the field of landscape painting , and it turns out he's an awesome detective as well. Recently, he did some sleuthing on a rare video clip of
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  • Your Paintings Reviewed By the Finest Artists in the Country
    The SourceTek cover art competition opened March 1. It's always an exciting prospect to have your work seen by artists whom you respect and admire. SourceTek, maker of canvas panels, plein air panels and more, certainly agrees. For fourteen years
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  • He’s So Freakin’ Formal!
    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
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  • Painters Who Made the Biggest Splash
    Sometimes the question shouldn't be what to paint as much as how to paint. There are centuries' worth of artists who fill art history textbooks, but those who stand heads and shoulders above the rest do so because they turned their painting art
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  • Is White Really a Color?
    There are differing opinions among color theory purists whether white should be considered a color at all, since it represents the absence of hue or chroma, and cannot be made from the three primaries, as black theoretically can be. It's not usually
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  • Artistic Keys to the Kingdom: Flexibility and Discipline
    Artist Daily Member Spotlight: Steve Henderson Summer Breeze by Steve Henderson, oil on canvas, 24 x 24. Artist Daily: Tell me about your oil painting process . Are there rules you adhere to or just the opposite? Steve Henderson: Although I do follow
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  • Beating the Winter Blues
    Call it the blues, call it the doldrums, call it what you will--it seems that many of us plein-air painters go through a slump about this time of year. Even if the weather is good enough for painting outdoors, nature isn't always at her finest when
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  • Reflections on Creating an Artistic Body of Work
    Inkhead , 2009, oil on canvas, 29 x 16. Dorothy , 2010, oil on canvas, 14 x 14. Anakin Padawan , 2009, oil on canvas, 44 x 28. I have been blogging this past year about preparing for my exhibit, "Myths and Individuals." Now, it's time for
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  • 3 Techniques Moved Me to the Head of the Class
    At least I feel that way. I set myself a goal this week—I wanted to learn a few new watercolor painting techniques because I feel like when I contemplate working in watercolor, I only know the "first gear" approaches. I feel like Tim Saternow
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  • Art Dieting: Skip Dinner and Paint It Instead
    When I was young and taking art classes, I was always stumped when my teachers would let us decide individually what to paint. There were just too many creative options and I would simply shut down. One time I went home in a funk, stressed out about what
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  • Painting for the (Trash) Bin
    The aim of being an artist is the ability to create. But with this desire of wishing to constantly achieve wonderful paintings that can be framed or exhibited comes an enormous amount of pressure on our shoulders. We expect to always succeed in our goal
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  • If You’ve Been House Hunting, You Know What I Mean
    Have you ever been looking for a new place to live, visiting different apartments or houses, and every time you experience a new reaction to a place and its spaces? It always happens to me. Either I love the architecture and light in this one, or the
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  • Our Newest eBook on Mixed Media Painting Techniques Has Arrived!
    Intimate Gathering by Russell Irwin, 2002, acrylic and torn paper on board, 48 x 60. When I was flipping through the American Artist magazine archives for mixed media art inspiration, I was prepared to do some pretty extensive digging. I assumed that
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  • Playing Studio Detective with a Monet Painting
    If there were any artist, past or present, into whose studio I could magically transport myself and observe him paint, it would be Claude Monet. I have always been intrigued by his painting style, especially his highly textured and complex surfaces. When
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  • Fish, Lemons & Glass Bowls
    Dutch still life painting set the standard for out-of-this-world virtuosity in the 17th century, and I'll never get over the unusual mix of objects artists chose to depict: food of all kinds, polished silverware and gleaming glass, embroidered and
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  • What's the Wisp?!
    Elton , 11 x 14, mixed media on gesso board, 2011. Yesterday was an interesting day for me. I thought I was near finished with a painting I had been working on for over three months, but when I sent it over to my agent in New York, who I call my third
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  • I Heart Contemporary Painters Who Use Classical Methods
    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
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  • Only As Good As the Hand Wielding It
    A painting brush isn't animate. It isn't going to teach me how to paint or go about painting art when no one is looking. It needs the hand of the artist to do its job. Penitent Mary Magdalene by Titian, 1560s, oil on canvas. But one thing a brush—by
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  • Educate + Inspire + Equip
    Old Cedar by Bill Guffey, oil, 18 x 24. Peasant by Joan Langdon, watercolor painting, 10.5 x 11.5. Tomiko by Adriana Guidi, oil on canvas panel, 14 x 18. That's Brian Neher's mantra for his upcoming free art contest , and it is one that I can
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  • Are Your Colors Going to Be "In" This Spring?
    I know it is only January, but I'm already thinking spring! And so is the Pantone Color Institute . The organization has just released their seasonal color report, and while this is specifically written for the fashion and design industry, we art
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  • Color Wars
    When I asked friends and colleagues about landscape painting artists with the best use of color, the conversation got downright heated. Mostly because there's so much to consider when you look at each individual artist's color "theory"
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  • The Cosmic Dance en Plein Air
    Spring in the Hills II by John Hulsey, 5 x 7, oil painting. Whenever we get to feeling that there is nothing really new to be discovered in art or the world, we have to keep in mind that the "undiscovered country" often lies in our own backyards
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  • Why Collect Art?
    Children on the Seashore by Joaquin Sorolla, oil on canvas, 1903 . I was once again reading through my copy of the catalog for the 1989 exhibition, The Painter Joaquin Sorolla , and came across this 1933 quote by John Paul Getty in an article called Creative
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  • Do It with a Stranger
    Eva Mullarky by Kristin Künc, oil on linen, 9 x 13, 2011. I can be a really hard sell when it comes to portraiture because from a beginner painter's perspective, I'm not always sure how to get the most out of a portrait painting session.
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  • Insane: They've Never Seen Contemporary American Paintings Before!
    Venus Awakes by Patricia Watwood, 2011, oil on canvas, 38 x 34. Karen in White by Paul McCormack, oil on canvas, 40 x 29. Enigma (Self-Portrait) by David Leffel, 2009, oil on canvas, 52 x 34. On Sunday, January 22 nd , the ACOPAL group will celebrate
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  • Painting with a Magical Medium
    Astor Place by Emily Falco, watercolor painting, 14 1/2 x 14 1/2, 2009. It warms my heart when I hear artists expressing excitement about their chosen painting medium because artists are the ones in the business of knowing all the ins and outs of their
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  • Photograph Your Art Like a Pro
    Our contributing bloggers John Hulsey and Ann Trusty of The Artist's Road wrote a really informative blog about how to get the most out of a photograph of your painting or drawing, and I wanted to share it with you. Enjoy! Film holder frame attached
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  • What Would Rubens Do?
    Leah by Patricia Watwood, pencil on toned paper, 18 x 14, 2011. I have just finished two big projects. Foremost, my show Myths and Individuals opened at the end of October at Saint Louis University Museum of Art. In two months the show will open for it's
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  • A Fresh Foray with New Artists
    I get excited and a bit chagrined whenever I discover oil painters of the past that I've never heard of. I realize that I'm no walking encyclopedia, yet I like to think I've got sound footing in oil painting . But the history of fine art oil
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  • Don't Let Your Plein-Air Skills Grow Cold
    Don't give up your plein air focus over the winter months. Try to paint from life indoors and keep sketching. ( Melting Snow by Ben Fenske, 60 x 75, oil on canvas.) For some of us, winter weather is just a bit too unpredictable and chilly to spend
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  • It Calls to Me…My Precious
    Precious by Russell Irwin, paper mosaic. Okay, that might have been a little too Gollum from Lord of the Rings , but Russell Irwin's latest mixed media collage titled Precious is certainly mesmerizing because of the unusual creative process that goes
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  • Paint the Body Parts That Turn You On!
    Back II (Joshua) by Martha Mayer Erlebacher, 2003, oil on canvas, 42 x 42. The human body is beautiful—as a whole and in its parts. Body drawings that accentuate the sensuous lines of the body and the power of the human form are steeped in a knowledge
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  • Why I Workshop
    We spent a lot of painting time along the cliffs outside San Juan. Painting can be a pretty isolating affair, and though I love the alone time spent with my muse, I miss the collective energy that working in a group of like-minded colleagues provides
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  • Come Winter, I Head to the Hothouse
    The botanical gardens in Washington, DC, near the Capitol. When I'm visiting family in Virginia during winter, I always make a point to walk through the botanical gardens near the Capitol in Washington, DC. It is one of my favorite places, and the
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  • Shrink Your Painting—Does It Still Work?
    Philadelphia Story II--Spires by Sarah Yeoman, watercolor painting, 14 x 20. I don't mean literally shrink it, but if you take a photo of your painting and reduce it to thumbnail size and it still holds together compositionally, you've got a good
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  • Skies Don’t Have Brushstrokes In Them
    Watercolor artist Thomas Schaller achieves convincing and dynamic effects in his skies ( Salisbury Cathedral , watercolor painting). I know it is a bias, but sometimes I can't help thinking that painting skies belongs to a particular realm of watercolor
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  • Such a Diversity of Shapes in Her Landscape Paintings
    Turquoise Sky 3 , acrylic on panel, 5 x 5. All works by Lisa Snow Lady. I give a lot of credit to professional and semi-professional artists who seek out ongoing training or the advice of peers, even after their initial successes. I firmly believe that
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  • I Can’t Believe I’m About to Say This, But…
    I plan on spending quality time with the catalog published by the Whitney Museum on Lyonel Feininger ( Gaberndorf II , oil on canvas, 1924, 39 x 30.5). Take this time and don't draw or paint. Okay, I was kind of thinking the world would end if I said
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  • Ala Carte Your Art
    Grisaille copy of Jacques-Louis David's Patroclus , oil on linen, 48 x 78. At this time of year, we all travel so much that it can be a real challenge to figure out how to bring our painting supplies with us when we visit family and friends. Whether
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  • The Artist Watch List—Are You On It?
    In the December/January issue of American Artist magazine, the editors and staff put out feelers throughout the art community to find artists who are established or up and coming, and deserve recognition. They had limited space in the print issue, so
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  • How I Built an Art Network in My Hometown
    The Honorable Clarence Harmon, Mayor of St. Louis by Patricia Watwood, oil on canvas, 24 x 18, oval, 2002. Collection of St. Louis City Hall. Someone recently asked me what I did to get recognized and become part of the art scene in my hometown of St
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  • Your Free Portrait Painting eBook--But I Didn't Get a Chance to Gift Wrap It
    Ariadne by Janet Rogers, watercolor painting. Since coming to Artist Daily, my parents are both super supportive of me and our web community. My mom does her best to get everyone she knows to join us at Artist Daily, and my dad buys me art supplies in
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  • You Paint Them By Not Painting Them?
    T o Be Where There's Life by Ryan Coleman, oil on canvas, 30 x 40, 2010. The coolest thing I ever learned about painting flowers , specifically how to paint a rose, was when a painting teacher told me that you paint them by not painting them. Back
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  • Free Video Lesson on Color Strategies in Plein Air Painting
    This short video is excerpted from a demonstration I gave at my annual plein air painting workshop in Skagit Valley, Washington. ( Gage Academy of Art , July, 2010.) The video talks about painting strategies in general and gives specific examples of the
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  • Surviving the Trauma of an Art Breakdown
    I remind myself that even artistic legends like Michelangelo struggled. When he did the Sistine ceiling in fresco, a medium he wasn't familiar with, the first few sessions were stressful and trying for the artist. But he persevered and created one
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  • Video Lesson on Using Photos for Studio Landscape Paintings
    Upper Ridge at Dusk , 2011, oil on panel, 18 x 18 . Mt. Shuksan in Sunlight , 2010, oil on panel, 12 x 12. At my April 2011 exhibition at Lisa Harris Gallery, I gave an hour-long presentation on my "In Sunlight" series. This was a special opportunity
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  • Painting with Dreams, Memories, History and Myths
    Sonata of the Sea--Finale by Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, 1908. One of my favorite movements in art is the Symbolist movement of the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries. The artists were so free in exploring what mattered to them—personal
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  • How I Restored Freshness to My Work
    We've been discussing shocking your system to keep your art practice from falling into routines. Another excellent means of accomplishing shock is to switch media. By and large, I work in two media: graphite and white pencil on toned paper, and oil
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  • It's an Excuse to Paint Umbrellas
    The Coming Storm by George Inness, 1879, oil on canvas, 27 1/4 x 41 3/4. Are you as bored of pretty outdoor painting scenes as I am? My eyes just seem to glaze over when I see a plein air painting scene with picture perfect sunlight over an idyllic landscape
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  • 3 Things I've Got to Have to Keep Going
    My family and I at my opening. Cute bunch, right? The show included works from the last 10 years. I know it's been a while since I've written. Let's see--the last time was just when I got back from my summer vacation. And now it's....November
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  • "Let's Get Physical. I Wanna Get Physical..."
    Ugh, after all the holiday eating I've been doing, I should probably go exercise or run laps. But as a warm up I thought I would talk about physicality, power, and movement in oil painting . Maybe this'll be the inspiration I need to get off my
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  • That Painting Just Said ‘Eat Me!’
    This being the day after Thanksgiving, we celebrate leftovers in my house—and pretty much all other activities that result in eating. So I thought, why mess with family tradition? I'm devoting today's column to one subject matter I rarely
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  • Photograph Your Art Like a Pro
    All the hard work and unique vision that we pour into our painting and drawing can result in artwork that we are proud of. The next step is to make an accurate photographic record of our art to share with friends, collectors, galleries and perhaps to
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  • I'm Scared--What If I Freeze Up When I Paint This Way?
    Faded Glory by Rose Frantzen, 36 x 48, oil painting. If there were daredevils of art, I certainly would not be one of them. I'm always hesitating and rethinking what I'm doing. (In my day-to-day life I'm not such a scaredy cat—I swear
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  • This One Is From the Heart
    Lake Tahoe by Albert Bierstadt, 1868. In their day, the Hudson River School landscape painters were so popular with the public that people would line up and pay a fair amount of money just to view a single painting. So I think it's safe to say that
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  • Can You Outgrow Your Art?
    Train Tracks by Valerio D'Ospina, 2011, oil on melamined MDF, 30 x 24. Some artists such as Jackson Pollock discover and use their own visual language to communicate with the world, and this singular voice takes them through an entire career of putting
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  • Bringing Artists Together
    I want to share an inspiring story I just heard from one of our members, Mark Beale . Enjoy! Bryce Canyon by Bruce Stam, oil painting, 8 x 10. Backwater Twilight by Mark Beale, oil painting, 9 x 12. Bruce Stam and I are two landscape painters from opposite
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  • Wild But True: I Want to Paint Light
    Lee's Ranch - Sunny Day by Camille Przewodek, 9 x 12, oil on canvas. Even now it sounds like a beautiful, incredible, impossible thing to accomplish. I mean, paint light ? It seemed like magic to me at first. And I didn't understand what it all
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  • Art That Reminds Me of Home
    During this time of year I like to reflect upon and appreciate all the blessings in my life (...also eat a lot of carbs and watch TV marathons). But lately I've been dwelling on how lucky we are to have so much amazing art created and inspired by
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  • Breakfast of Champions: Free Still Life Painting eBook!
    The Remains by Joe Gyurcsak, 2007, oil painting, 24 x 24. If I start my morning with a bit of artistic inspiration, it really carries me through the whole day, just like a wholesome breakfast does! And today is a very good day because I was able to begin
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  • Can a Caricature Help My Portrait Painting? Plus Our Self-Portrait Contest!
    The Grimaces by Louis-Leopold Boilly, 1823, lithograph, 13 1/8 x 10. A few weeks ago I was in the Met and saw "Infinite Jest," an exhibition of drawings and prints that explore satire and caricature from the Italian Renaissance to the present
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  • Paint the Place You Call Home
    We plein-air artists seem to put a lot of emphasis on traveling to far off places to paint, don't we? The fields of Tuscany, the rugged California coast, the farmhouses of the Cotswolds all seem to beckon. And heeding that call can be fantastic. I
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  • Priceless: A Representational Artist Who Understands Abstraction
    Delphinium by Sherrie McGraw, oil painting, 8 x 10. Sherrie McGraw's work always surprises me because she doesn't allow the objects she is painting to dictate how she paints. Instead, McGraw paints to articulate form, masses, and her own ideas
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  • Will You Please Put Some Clothes On?
    Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I by Nicholas Hilliard (attributed), 1585. I can only imagine the excitement and thrill of sitting for any one of the great portrait painters in history such as Bronzino, Velazquez, and Sargent. But then my mind goes directly
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  • Don't Set Yourself Up for Failure from the Start
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  • Take a Peek at Jamie Wyeth’s Watercolors
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  • Tricky Stuff--Limit Your Focus & Expand Your Painting Options
    Demonstration: Exploring Composition Through a Limited Focus A "limited focus" isn't limiting at all, but expands our options in composition The first compositional move any painter makes is to apply a limited focus. Whether it be a still
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  • He Was Rejected Over and Over
    Camille au métier by Claude Monet, 1875, oil painting. "My rejection at the Salon brought an end to my hesitation [to settle in Paris] since after this failure I can no longer claim to cope... alas, that fatal rejection has virtually taken
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  • The Bravest Painters I Know...
    ...are ones that paint self-portraits. As we all well know, artists have a lot of firepower at their disposal. It comes from being trained to look critically and creatively at the things you see. For an artist to turn that kind of acuity on him- or herself
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  • Capturing a Sense of Place--What Does It Mean To You?
    When discussing landscape painting , we often hear the phrase "capturing a sense of place." What does that mean to you? To me, it means so much more than just recording the physical attributes of the location. It goes way beyond suggesting the
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  • Calling Him a Landscape Painter Would Be a Stretch
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  • Anselm Kiefer’s Landscapes Are Anything But Picture Perfect
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  • Are We Wired for Beauty?
    Flamenco by Ann Trusty, oil painting, 48 x 60. The science community is busy investigating the mechanisms and processes by which people are able to perceive the world around them and make visual sense of it. There are many basic questions still to be
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  • He’s Nobody’s Fool When It Comes to Putting a Painting Together
    Breaking the Light by Don Demers, 24 x 36, oil painting. Don Demers knows that inspiration is always there if you know how to look for it, but he's also nobody's fool—he understands that to create a breathtaking and moving painting you sometimes
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  • His Painting Palette Was the Size of a Piano Top
    Under the Awning by Joaquin Sorolla, oil painting, 1910. "There is nothing truer than truth. All the mistakes committed by great artists are due to their having separated themselves from truth, believing that their imagination is stronger...There
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  • Just Put a Nail in the Wall and I'm Done
    Isn't hanging a painting as easy as that? Yeah, right! There are so many ways that you can showcase your work, and each one can make such a difference in how each painting or drawing is perceived. Unframed. I prefer the art that I have in my apartment
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  • A Very Different Kind of Landscape Painting
    Ernest Lawson (1873 - 1939) came to maturity at the dawn of the 20th century, so his work was modern and gritty and real. His are not the idyllic landscape paintings of Corot , nor are they the dazzling light shows in Monet's plein air paintings
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  • Painting a Season in All Its Glory
    Study for Gapstow Bridge in Sunlight by Bennett Vadnais, oil on canvas, 12 x 16, 2007. Fall is my favorite time of year. It's my birthday season, so of course I'm partial, but I also just love the smell of autumn. It's crisp and clean, and
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  • Plein Air Painting, Fall 2011
    The last two editions of Plein Air Painting were a huge success—they flew off the shelves—and now the newest edition of the beloved magazine is back with even more on-site landscape painting instruction, handpicked by the trusted editors at American Artist, introducing the new special-issue
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  • Portrait & Figure Painting Highlights
    Reflect Your True Vision with Accurate Form Now you can paint the human form with the depth and detail it deserves - your artwork will come alive with this exciting special issue from American Artist: Portrait and Figure Painting Highlights Fall 2010. Improve the detail of your portraits with 100 pages
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  • American Artist: Everything You Need to Know About Plein Air Painting
    20 Top Artists Reveal How To Adjust to Regional Sites, Pack What You Need, Scale-Up Sketches, & Travel Safely Abroad; The history of the Plein Air Movement, and much more!
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  • 3 Tricks So People Remember My Painting
    Notice how the composition of this sparse still life is deft--from the angle of the bottle to the serpentine curve of the ivy sprig. (Dried Ivy by Kristin Kunc, 8 x 12, oil on linen, 2008). I'm not a knick-knack girl, but I do really have a connection
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  • Painting with the Sight-Size Method
    I'll be honest with you all--I am not a painting technician. I read a lot about art and, as you know, love to look at paintings and drawings all day long, but I am still a babe in the woods when it comes to many methods and approaches to painting
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  • Can’t I Be Part of a Painting Dynasty?
    Paris by Danny McCaw, 24 x 16. Not to be a whiner, but I don't have an artistic legacy to build on. So far as I know, no one in my family is an artist or has any particular leanings towards painting or drawing. That's why I'm so enamored with
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  • Please Forgive Me If This Sounds a Little Harsh...
    But I think it's time for some straight talk. I've participated in many, many plein air painting critiques over the years, and I can't begin to tell you how often I've been faced with landscape paintings that are a little off. Perhaps
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  • I Could Start Every Painting This Way
    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
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  • Before You Accuse Me, Take A Look at Yourself
    And I am! I'm calling myself out on the carpet. I've got a handful of mirrors in my apartment and don't take advantage of what is right in front of me. Which is why I'm fired up about getting people to do more self-portraits--including
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  • You Want a Free eBook on Making Color Work When Pastel Painting, Right?
    Manhattan Nocturne by Frank Federico, pastel painting, 20 x 24. I have a tried and true love affair going with color. I'm drawn to it across the spectrum, but I'm a late bloomer when it comes to pastel painting, which has to be some kind of crime
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  • Who Is Odd Nerdrum and Why Do We Care?
    Norwegian artist Odd Nerdrum, currently facing time in prison for tax fraud, is certainly a character, taking on more of a dramatic persona than most people do in their day-to-day lives. He's also a bit of a polarizing figure. I know artists who think
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  • Let’s Give Them Something to Talk About
    Lucrezia by Francisco Benitez, 30 x 30, encaustic on panel. I recently had a conversation with an artist about how she is struggling to get her drawings and oil paintings noticed by the "art world" and her frustration that she can't seem
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  • Thomas Eakins Taught Me All About Painting People
    Female Nude by Thomas Eakins, oil painting, c. 1881. The Thinker by Thomas Eakins, oil painting, 1900. Thomas Eakins earned himself quite a reputation during his lifetime. He didn't suffer fools gladly, he didn't hold his tongue, and he didn't
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  • Landscape Painting Lessons from the Masters: Inness
    These four oil paintings have something in common. Yes, of course, they were all painted by George Inness (1825-1894), one of the greatest American landscape painters of all time. But there's something else, an incredibly valuable lesson. Have you
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  • Painting to Preserve and Protect
    I'm a sucker for a good cause, and the Yellow Barn Studio and Gallery is putting on a great one this October: The Green Paint Out, a plein air landscape painting competition with the mission of preserving and protecting America's national parks
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  • A Few Favorite Resources from My Bookshelves
    Sarah Simblet (her pen drawing, Isis 38 , above) taught me a lot about how intertwined the semblance of motion and mark-making are in really good drawings. Maybe it is part of having an arts career or maybe it is just me, but I love books and magazines
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  • Plein Air Paintings Created By Torchlight & Preserved Forever
    Drawings of horses in the Chauvet caves. We recently watched the Werner Herzog film, Chauvet: Cave of Forgotten Dreams . Herzog made the film about the prehistoric, 30,000- to 32,000 year-old cave art discovered in 1994 in the Ardeche region of France
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  • American Artist Highlights: Guide to Painting Flowers, Fall 2011
    Learn classical techniques with an inspiring guide that shows you how to create stunning pieces with ease and confidence. Make your colors sing and enhance your process—top contemporary masters of today show you how. Challenge yourself with more complicated arrangements and develop the confidence
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  • Painting Bridges, Alleys, and Avenues of My Favorite Cities
    I was born and raised in the suburbs, with rural farmland and city centers nearby so I have an unbiased appreciation for both. I'm attuned to the natural elements around me and I love to be outdoors, but I also get so energized by the sights and sounds
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  • Landscape Painting Lessons from the Masters: Corot
    Recollection of Mortefontaine by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, landscape oil painting, 1864. One of my great heroes in art is Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875), the world-famous French artist who is still considered one of the best landscape artists
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  • Help! I’m Stuck in a Plein Air Rut!
    Schloss Kammer at Lake Atter I by Gustav Klimt, 1908, oil on canvas. It seems impossible, right? I mean I'm out there painting, everything looks so fresh and crisp, the air and wind feel so good on my face, and then all of a sudden I am practically
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  • Drawing Basics: Using the Egg to Draw Anatomy
    Marjorie Forgues' figure drawing, day 1. Marjorie Forgues' figure drawing, day 2. Taking a painting or drawing class is always a learning experience, but often I find I learn a great deal from other artists in the class as well. This is especially
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  • Painting Darks That Are Too Dark to See
    Nicole at Mille Fleurs 3 , acrylic painting on canvas, 48 x 30, 2010. In the Afternoon Light , acrylic painting on canvas, 48 x 30, 2011. Contrast is the difference between light and dark values. The human eye is able to see clearly across a contrast
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  • Treat Your Model Like a Well-Trained Pet
    I am kidding! So kidding! But I was thinking about this article and how I wanted to discuss working with a model, specifically how to position your model in a figure drawing , and what that position can convey both compositionally and as part of the narrative
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  • What It Means to Be an Artist
    Seeing John Phillip Osborne at his canvas reminds me of all the things I think of and value as an artist. I know I don't have to explain it to all of you , but when I am in situations with people who aren't as passionate about art I find myself
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  • 3 Painting Pointers That I'll Always Remember
    Notice how Gury scratches through the paint in his oil painting Autumn Glow , reinforcing the shape and outline of the tree limbs. I'm not one to ask or judge someone by their resume or history because we all walk our own paths and get meaningful
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  • All the Painting Ladies
    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
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  • 3 Paintings I'd Take in a Heartbeat
    Unknown Woman by Thomas Wilmer Dewing, 1890, pastel painting on paper. I love the effects and colors you can get with pastel paintings . . . at least I do now. It wasn't too long ago that I felt like I had some kind of weird complex where I could
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  • Prelude to a Kiss…Gotta Paint Lips First!
    In this large scale painting by Stephen Bennett ( Beach Baby , 2001, acrylic, 80 x 64), the faint lines and varied color on the lips are faithfully rendered. As an unrepentant smart mouth, I know how much value two lips have, in real life and especially
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  • Abandon and Control: Robert Liberace's Contradiction in Oil Painting?
    Oil painting demonstration by Robert Liberace. To listen to Robert Liberace talk during one of his demonstrations, sometimes, fleetingly, it sounds to me like there is an occasional contradiction. The most recent example I can point to is when he talked
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  • Say Bon Voyage to This Kind of Painting
    Passing clouds from my window by Jos van Riswick . The artist has made a commitment to doing a postcard-size oil painting a day. Wherever I visit, I always send my parents postcards. It's a way of sharing my travel experience with them; giving them
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  • Ah, Vacation.....Time for More Painting!
    I put aside my oil painting work to take up a sketchbook and watercolors to capture the sights and sounds around me during my trip . If you are a painter, you know that sometimes the best thing to do is get away from it all...and do more painting. I was
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  • Who Sent You Flowers? Me!—Our Newest Free eBook on Painting Flowers Is Here!
    Rhododendron by James Sulkowski, 2001, oil painting. Notice how the flowers are arranged in a curving S-shape, starting in the back and bring your eye to the foreground. Most artists have a love-hate relationship with floral painting. There's plenty
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  • Painting the Illusion of Distance—Is It Just About Perspective?
    Fifty by Mitchell Albala, 2006, oil painting on canvas. In this painting, the artist strongly distinguishes the land and sky to give a sense of vertical distance. This summer I've been traveling a bit, but of course it's never as much as I would
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  • The First Plein Air Painters
    The cave paintings of Lascaux. Legend has it that Pablo Picasso remarked upon emerging from a visit to Lascaux cave that, "we have discovered nothing new in art in 17,000 years." The beautiful artwork from this ancient era is a reminder of our
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  • Move Over MacGyver. I’ve Got a Painting Studio Gadget for You!
    I was on a studio visit the other day to artist Daniel Baltzer 's place in Harlem and the first thing that grabbed my attention—even before looking at his paintings (!)—was this cool little contraption he had in the middle of his studio
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  • Finishing My Oil Painting, Leaves of Grass
    Notice the chalk lines drawn over the figure to assess and check the proportion and length of her limbs. I have finally finished my oil painting , Leaves of Grass , which I have blogged about previously. In all, the painting probably took nearly 2 months
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  • Landscape Lessons from the Masters: Monet
    Le Parc Monseau by Claude Monet, oil painting, 1877. Interestingly enough, technology played a major role in influencing the course of art history in the mid-1800s. Among several notable technological revolutions was the invention of the metal paint tube
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  • Painting Essentials: Color & Light from James Gurney
    Sunset over the Catskills by James Gurney, oil painting. If I want to excel in my craft and become any kind of decent realist painter, the two aspects of oil painting that I need to focus on are color and light. Perfecting the two, together, will allow
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  • I’d Make You a Mixed Tape, But This Is Better. Plus, Our Collection Sale Starts Today!
    My version of an art "mixed tape" is a bunch of really great info and inspiration for us as we head into the home stretch of summer. Here are several of my favorite recent Artist Daily blog entries and American Artist online articles that have
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  • Speed Painting Outdoors
    John had to deal with rapidly changing weather conditions as he worked on his plein air watercolor painting, Cub Lake Trailhead . We outdoor painters are always on the search for beautiful places to paint, and so we become inveterate travelers and explorers
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  • I Want to Sculpt My Drawings
    Minerva by Auguste Rodin simultaneously shows the centered grounding of the human body's core and the fluidity of its limbs. Painting is closer to three-dimensionality than drawing simply by way of the medium. You can build up sculpted areas and thick
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  • Drawing Basics: How I Judge My Artistic Progress & Learning from Robert Liberace
    This is a long pose drawing that made it into my "evaluate" pile. Part of the artistic learning process for me is learning how to evaluate my work, not on a piece by piece basis, but collectively. This summer I am looking at my drawing art works
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  • Mixing Harmonious Greens in My Plein Air Painting
    All you landscape artists who live in the dry, deserty parts of the world, or you plein air painters in the wet, watery parts of the world, bear with me, but those of us who live in the lushly vegetated parts of the world face a big challenge: green!
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  • What’s the Impressionist Way of Painting with Color?
    In Dancers at the Bar by Edgar Degas, 1888, the artist used complementary colors to make a sharp contrast between the figures and the space. We all know that Impressionism heralded a new way of painting. Material and technical advancements--metal tubes
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  • Oil Painting Lessons From John Singer Sargent
    La Carmencita by John Singer Sargent, oil painting, 1890. I try and shy away from describing art in bombastic terms. It can become a slippery slope of flowery language with no real takeaways. But when I'm studying the works of no less than John Singer
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  • We Don't Have to Settle for Paint & Brush
    Okay, I don't really mean that. I was just trying to get your attention. But I kind of do mean it because so often when dealing with how to paint a composition, I follow the same process day in and day out, which is why the idea of transferring images
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  • Plein Air Painting, Spring 2011
    The industry’s favorite plein air magazine is back with more of what you love! Last year, Plein Air Painting magazine flew off the shelves! Capture info from on-site studies, direct observations, and outdoor painting instruction from top plein air painters of today. Perfect your plein air painting
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  • Show Some Skin...Er, I Mean, Paint It! For a Good Portrait Painting, It's a Must!
    Stacee by Scott Burdick, three-hour oil portrait painting study, 12 x 16, 2001. I remember when Mr. Nemerow, my very enthusiastic freshman biology teacher, launched into what, looking back, I'd best describe as a full-body fit about how the epidermis
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  • Drawing Basics: Making Art According to Leonardo da Vinci's Motto
    Left: Kem , detail, 2004, 48 x 24, oil on canvas. Right: Hands #1 , 2011, 24 x 24, oil on canvas. I am not claiming either painting is better, but without my figure drawing practice between 2004 and 2011 I couldn't have painted the newer painting
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  • Painting Outdoors: Fast and Easy Block-Ins
    I used to waste oodles of time blocking in my plein air paintings until I finally learned some great tips for doing them fast, such as skipping the drawing, establishing the value range first, and addressing each set of values in a logical order. Here's
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  • 4 Crucial Figure Painting Tips
    On Hamilton's Prairie by Rose Frantzen, 32 x 40, oil painting. Rose Frantzen's work has been on my radar for a while and even more so after I saw her oil painting portrait show at the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, which featured
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  • Just Back Up and Let the Painting Breathe
    Early Morning by Keith McCulloch, 12 x 16, oil painting. Artist Daily Member Spotlight: Keith B. McCulloch When I first saw Keith McCulloch's paintings, I took a deep breath. It was an involuntary reaction but a telling one—the airy, openness
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  • 5 Tips That Fine-Tune My Outdoor Paintings
    Fallen Tree, Mississippi by Jeffrey Smith, 11 x 14, oil painting. My studio is filled with stuff to look at: still life objects, postcards of paintings that I love, and written notes of things to think about and remember as I'm working on a painting
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  • Don’t Just Paint. Pour!
    Portifino by Jean Grastorf (watercolor painting, 20 x 30, 2003) was created using the artist's signature pour technique. I'm always surprised that the so-called ‘Painter of Light' isn't a watercolorist. Luminous light effects are
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  • Art for Thought: Banding Together to Break the Mold
    Revue by Everett Shinn, 1908, oil painting, 18 x 24. Everett Shinn was one of the Ashcan School artists or "The Eight," which was led by Robert Henri and included Arthur B. Davies , William Glackens , Edward Hopper, Ernest Lawson , George Luks
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  • Plein Air Essentials: The Anatomy of Water
    Ocean II by John Hulsey, 30 x 40, oil painting. The painting Ocean II was created from a smaller plein air study created at sunrise on Isle of Palms, South Carolina. I liked the composition and colors, and especially the way the wet sand mirrored the
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  • It’s What I’m Here For: Free eBook of Watercolor Lessons & Painting Techniques from Artist Daily
    Overlay by Ali Cavanaugh, 12 x 12, watercolor painting. As a wannabe artist, I have a lot of years ahead of me to invest in perfecting my painting. Knowing this, I often think about the medium I will choose to work with—what will grow with me through
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  • Planning Values In A Hurry When Painting Outdoors
    A gray-scale photograph of my plein air oil painting subject. If you read my last post , you know I'm a believer in spending time planning a composition before diving into a plein-air painting . Yet, I also want to get started as soon as possible
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  • Oil Painting Odyssey: Making Pandora
    Pandora by Patricia Watwood, oil on canvas. I've had it in my head to make a "Pandora" oil painting for a while now. In the myth, Pandora is overcome with curiosity (well, who wouldn't be??) and she opens the proverbial box and releases
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  • The Art of the Dog
    Watercolor study by John Hulsey, 7 1/2 x 7. Being strong dog proponents (especially for dogs in the studio, where they never provide negative commentary), and being the caretakers (or is it the other way around?) of two ancient (in dog years) Great Pyrenees
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  • Create a Painting On My First Try? Yes, Please!
    Artist Al Gury is known for his direct or alla prima painting knowledge. The oil painting, above, shows his decisive ability to create complex colors and shapes through successive layers. I love saying the phrase 'alla prima' but it's way
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  • Art Isn’t Just About Pretty People
    New Year by Mary Whyte, watercolor painting of a milliner from Atlanta, GA; 2009, 22 1/2 x 29. Sometimes I get so sick of people calling a painting or drawing 'art' because it has a good-looking person in it. Who wants to hang out with Barbie
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  • Patterns, Stencils, and Exotic Textiles
    Believe it or not, this piece of cloth was sky painted by artist Terry Maddox using light-sensitive paints. Yowza--it's beautiful. Who says I have to start painting or drawing on a blank page? Some of my favorite drawings are doodles that are on torn
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  • Let Nature Walk Right In Front of You
    Sunrise River II by John Hulsey, oil on canvas. "You can observe a lot by just watching." - Yogi Berra I was reminded of this quote as I was sitting on the boardwalk in Constitution Marsh on the Hudson River near where we used to live. I hadn't
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  • There's No Better Way to Begin Painting
    This is an underdrawing for Michael's large oil painting, Air (72 x 104). I really feel like I've grown so much during my time at Artist Daily, and in large part that is because of my exposure to the staff of and featured artists in American Artist
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  • Painting Portraits with Personality, Mood, and Character
    Portrait of Ginevra di Benci by Leonardo da Vinci, 1474-1476, oil painting on wood, 16.5 x 14.5. I've described the most important technical parts of my study of Da Vinci: line and anatomy . When I began to study how to paint, I opted not to follow
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  • Lightening My Plein Air Pack
    Scott Burdick often does plein air studies, like this one ( Vermilion Cliffs , 2009, plein air oil painting, 9 x 12), on lightweight panels that are easy to travel with. I was watching a documentary about the Appalachian Trail the other day and was amazed
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  • Come Paint in My Backyard...Practically
    A view of the lands around Sagamore Hill estate, where the Teaching Studios plein air competition will take place. This is such a neat opportunity that I just had to share with you, and it is so close to me, geographically speaking, that it would be like
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  • What's the Association Factor and Why Is It a Painting 'Must'?
    I don't want to learn how to paint from just anyone. I don't mean that snobbishly, but I know how I work and learn. I am a visual learner and I learn by doing. Hearing someone drone on and on makes me want to get up and run around the room, so
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  • I'll Know I'm an Artist When...
    Self-portrait in Red by Melvin Toledo, oil on canvas, 20 x 20. Artist Daily Member Spotlight: Melvin Toledo When I can see the "art" in the everyday, that's when I know I'll be working and thinking at my fullest potential. I'm still
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  • Composing On the Fly When Painting Outdoors
    A photo of the plein air landscape site I chose to paint. I can still recall the first morning I saw this little bend in the river ike it was yesterday. The air was still cool and breezy, the sun was glinting off the water, the bees in their hive were
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  • Plein Air Painting with Clyde Aspevig
    Flower Garden by Clyde Aspevig, oil on canvas, 24 x 12. Content adapted from an article by Allison Malafronte. Clyde Aspevig is a landscape painter and seasoned plein air artist who prides himself on going out into his chosen environs with a feeling of
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  • The Best Art for a Control Freak Like Me
    One of my favorite still-life artists is G. Daniel Massad. He plays with space in an incredible way. His pastel paintings are stark, eerie, and lovely all at once. Above, Three Plums and Rosehip , 2005, pastel, 11 x 10 7/8. What I love best about still
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  • Plein Air Artist Asher B. Durand Wrote Me a Letter...Sorta...Not Really
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  • Building a Bridge to China with Oil Painting and Contemporary Realism
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  • I Need a GPS for Drawing Faces
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  • Plein Air Time Machine
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  • Bring My Painting Back From the Brink of Disaster
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  • Draw with Your Brush
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  • More Painting Methods I’d Steal From Julie Heffernan
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  • I Want to Steal Her Ideas
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  • Building a Career for the Long Term
    For the Portrait Society of America Conference in Atlanta this year, I was invited to participate in a panel on Professionalism, Leadership, and Service. I was asked to speak to “Building a Career for the Long Term.” Now, anyone who saw my tax returns for 2010 would NOT have put me on a short
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  • How to Paint Clouds in Watercolor
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  • Fur, Feathers, Scales, and Tails
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  • Highlights: Painting Instruction From Master Teachers
    Get instant improvement on your portraits, landscapes, and still life’s from master teachers.
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  • What’s Up With the Floating People?
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  • It’s Like Coupon Clipping...But Not
    When I was a kid, my mom always cut coupons on Sunday morning. I’d sit beside her and do the same, but I’d flip through magazines and newspapers and cut out pictures I liked or lettering that I thought was neat, and I never gave up my artsy coupon clipping habit because it’s a great
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  • Must-Have Videos: Photoshop Lessons for Artists and the Basics of Color
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  • Reaching New Levels of Creativity En Plein Air
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  • Weekend With the Masters 2011: Exciting New Educational Opportunities & Breathtaking Location
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  • There's Nothing Quite Like Custom Made
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  • Drawing Basics: To Tone or Not to Tone
    I have found that toning my support, whether canvas or paper or board, is something I often do now. I’m showing two works to illustrate the difference between toning and not toning.
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  • Step by Step: Sketch to Finished Painting + Plein Air Download for a Dime
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  • Using Your Sketchbook to Good Advantage
    Hi all! This is my first blog at Artist Daily, and I wanted to jump right in and discuss one of the best things I think a plein air painter can do—use a sketchbook to plan your composition and clarify your vision of the finished painting you have in mind.
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  • Varnish, Varnish Everywhere
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  • What Could Be Better Than a Free eBook on Landscape Painting?
    My answer to that is nada! Zippo! Zilch! As the weather heats up from coast to coast, now is the time when artists turn their attention to the excitement of landscape painting. But I'll be honest with you. I'm still intimidated by the whole landscape painting process. There seems to be so much
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  • Artist Daily Member Spotlight: Asghar Gonchehpour
    One of the things I love best as the editor for Artist Daily is getting to know the artists in our community. A few weeks ago, I saw a mixed media portrait in the Member Gallery that caught my attention. The painting--a girl with wild, colorful hair and a tranquil expression on her face--looked like
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  • The Gowanus Ballroom
    The Gowanus Ballroom brought together installation art, contemporary sculpture, and realist painting. Every once in a while, I get to do something that is comes uniquely from the place where I’ve chosen to live—Brooklyn. My studio is in Gowanus
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  • Bring On the Botox...Or Not
    Artist Daniel Gerhartz's new book, Not Far From Home , is a visual compendium of his life's work as a painter. In it, you not only find inspiring, lush photographs of Gerhart'z paintings, but insightful and instructional information as well. To showcase all of the great content in the book
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  • Painting to Establish Intimacy
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  • May I Introduce Odd Nerdrum?
    Summit by Odd Nerdrum, oil painting, 2000, 93 x 88. Odd Nerdrum: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Odd Nerdrum was born in Hälsingborg, Sweden, in 1944. He was a student at The Academy of Art in Oslo at the time when Modernism made its delayed
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  • May I Introduce Rose Frantzen?
    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
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  • May I Introduce Lea Colie Wight?
    Lea Colie Wight: Weekend With the Masters Instructor "From time to time you notice something unexpectedly beautiful in the most ordinary person; the overlooked corner will tell the story of the people not present; something will tug at you and you
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  • May I Introduce Stephen Early?
    Glass Study 3 by Stephen Early, oil painting on masonite, 7 x 5. Stephen Early: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Artist Stephen Early began his art education at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. He has received many notable portrait
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  • May I Introduce Scott Waddell?
    The Den by Scott Waddell, oil painting, 20 x 16. Scott Waddell: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Scott Waddell was born and raised in Central Florida. He received his B.F.A. from Florida State University. After college, Waddell spent the next several
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  • May I Introduce Steven Assael?
    Venus Pregnant by Steven Assael, oil painting, 72 x 48, 2002. Steven Assael: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Artist Steven Assael was born in New York City in 1957. He attended Pratt Institute and presently teaches at The School of Visual Arts, in
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  • May I Introduce Edward Minoff?
    Breton Wash Basin by Edward Minoff, oil painting. Edward Minoff: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Edward Minoff graduated with honors from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Throughout his high-school and college years he studied painting
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  • May I Introduce Nelson Shanks?
    Portrait of His Holiness, John Paul II by Nelson Shanks, 2001, oil painting on canvas, 54 x 50. Nelson Shanks: Weekend With the Masters Instructor One of the most sought after teachers and portrait painters in the world and founder of the post-graduate
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  • May I Introduce Dan Thompson?
    Persian Archer by Dan Thompson, 18 x 28, oil painting, 2004. Dan Thompson: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Dan Thompson was born in Alexandria, Virginia, and graduated from the Corcoran School of Art, in Washington, DC. He earned his M.F.A. from the
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  • May I Introduce Daniel Sprick?
    Untitled by Daniel Sprick, 2006, 24 x 24, oil painting. Daniel Sprick: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Daniel Sprick was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. He studied at the Froman School of Art and The National Academy of Design and received his B.F
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  • May I Introduce Ray Roberts?
    Seascape by Ray Roberts, oil painting. Ray Roberts: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Ray Roberts is best known for his seascapes, figurative work, and majestic views of California and the Southwest, and is one of California's most respected plein
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  • May I Introduce Ron Hicks?
    The Love on the Road by Ron Hicks, oil painting. Ron Hicks: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Ron Hicks grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and was introduced to art at an early age under the influence of his artist mother. Continuing to pursue drawing through
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  • May I Introduce Dan McCaw?
    Seated Figure by Dan McCaw, 24 x 18, oil painting. Dan McCaw: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Dan McCaw was born in 1942 and raised in Montana and during his academic art career attended the Montana Institute of Technology, in Butte Montana; Academy
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  • May I Introduce David Leffel?
    Youth by David A. Leffel, oil painting, 15 x 13 1/2. David Leffel: Weekend With the Masters Instructor David A. Leffel is widely recognized as one of the most accomplished representational artists today and is often referred to as a living Old Master
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  • May I Introduce Albert Handell?
    Pastel painter and oil painter Albert Handell. Albert Handell: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Pastelist and oil painter Albert Handell was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1937. At an early age, a favorite activity of his was drawing with chalks on
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  • May I Introduce Jacqueline Kamin?
    Red Carnations with Ming Rice Bowl by Jacqueline Kamin, oil painting, 20 x 16. Jacqueline Kamin: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Born in 1950 in Washington, DC, Jacqueline Kamin received her formal art education from the Corcoran Museum School in
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  • May I Introduce Jeremy Lipking?
    Skylar in Blue by Jeremy Lipking, oil painting, 16 x 12, 2010. Jeremy Lipking: Weekend With the Masters Instructor In a remarkably short period of time, Jeremy Lipking has emerged as one of the country's premier oil painters. His talent, which rivals
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  • May I Introduce Quang Ho?
    Quang Ho at his easel. Quang Ho: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Quang Ho was born on April 30, 1963, in Hue, Vietnam. He immigrated to the United States in 1975 and is now a U.S. citizen. His artistic interest began at the early age of 3 and continued
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  • May I Introduce George Gallo?
    Connecticut Yankee Spring by George Gallo, 20 x 24, oil painting. George Gallo: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Award-winning writer, director, and painter George Gallo is capturing the hearts of both the general public and artist-audiences everywhere
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  • May I Introduce Nancy Guzik?
    Spring Dance by Nancy Guzik, 12 x 20, oil painting. Nancy Guzik: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Throughout her career in art, Nancy Guzik has been quietly perfecting not only her skills but also the focus of her work. The result on the surface of
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  • May I Introduce David Jon Kassan?
    Approaching Noise (in progress) by David Jon Kassan, oil painting on wood panel, 40 x 34. David Jon Kassan: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Following his initial drawing studies at University of the Arts, in Philadelphia, David Jon Kassan attended
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  • May I Introduce Daniel Pinkham?
    Sublime Order by Daniel Pinkham, oil painting. Daniel Pinkham: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Born in Los Angeles, Daniel Pinkham has been a principal force in the resurgence of plein air painting in California and throughout the country. Pinkham
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  • May I Introduce Mary Whyte?
    Graffiti by Mary Whyte, watercolor painting. Mary Whyte: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Born in Ohio in 1953, Mary Whyte grew up with all the rural Midwest has to offer. She graduated from Tyler School of Art, in Philadelphia, in 1976 with a Bachelor
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  • May I Introduce Anthony Ryder?
    Twilight by Tony Ryder, 1998, pencil drawing, 25 x 19. Tony Ryder: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Anthony Ryder studied at the Art Students League of New York, the New York Academy of Art, and the Ecole Albert Defois, in France, with oil painter
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  • May I Introduce Susan Lyon?
    Maya with Guitar by Susan Lyon, oil painting, 12 x 9. Susan Lyon: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Susan Lyon studied painting at the American Academy of Art and the Palette & Chisel Academy of Fine Arts, both in Chicago. It is there she first
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  • May I Introduce Robin Frey?
    Untitled by Robin Frey, oil painting, 14 x 14, 2008. Robin Frey: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Artist Robin Frey grew up in Sarasota, Florida, taking art classes as a child at the Ringling School of Art. She received her B.F.A. from Eastern Mennonite
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  • May I Introduce Skip Whitcomb?
    Dawn, High Tide-Navesink River by Skip Whitcomb, oil painting on linen, 10 x 20. Skip Whitcomb: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Born in 1946, M.W. Skip Whitcomb has been interested in art since his childhood on a ranch near Sterling, Colorado. However
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  • May I Introduce C.W. Mundy?
    Morro Bay Rock, Near Cambria by C.W. Mundy, oil painting on linen, 16 x 20. C.W. Mundy: Weekend With the Masters Instructor C.W. Mundy, an American impressionist, was born in 1945 and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana. He graduated with a B.F.A. from Ball
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  • May I Introduce Jean-Pierre Roy?
    A Wind to Ward Off Dreams by Jean-Pierre Roy, 58 x 68, oil painting, 2010. Jean-Pierre Roy: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Jean-Pierre Roy is an artist and teacher currently living and working in New York City. Born in Santa Monica in 1974, Roy pursued
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  • May I Introduce Peter Adams?
    Crashing Waves at Three Arch Bay; Laguna Beach by Peter Adams , pastel painting, 12 x 16. Peter Adams: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Peter Adams was born in Los Angeles, California, on August 27, 1950 and he received his training in California at
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  • May I Introduce Kevin Macpherson?
    Santa Catalina Island by Kevin Macpherson, oil painting, 30 x 50. Kevin Macpherson: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Kevin Macpherson is one of the country's leading plein air painters and is highly respected among collectors and fellow artists
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  • May I Introduce Stephen Quiller?
    February Shadows, Rio Grande by Stephen Quiller, acrylic painting, 17 x 19 1/2. Stephen Quiller: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Stephen Quiller is an internationally known painter who works primarily in water media, monotypes, and intaglio printmaking
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  • May I Introduce Richard Schmid?
    Throughout his career, Richard Schmid has promoted art education through his books, articles, workshops, seminars, and television presentations. Richard Schmid: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Richard Schmid was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1934.
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  • May I Introduce Morgan Weistling?
    Stringbeans by Morgan Weistling, oil painting, 30 x 26. Morgan Weistling: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Well known for his paintings of early American pioneer life, Morgan Weistling began his art career as a movie-poster illustrator. While still
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  • May I Introduce Alyssa Monks?
    Window II by Alyssa Monks, oil painting, 2011, 48 x 36. Alyssa Monks: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Born 1977 in Ridgewood, New Jersey, Alyssa Monks began oil painting when she was just a child. Later, when she embarked on her academic career, she
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  • May I Introduce Marcia Burtt?
    Winter Sun, Full Moon by Marcia Burtt , acrylic painting. Marcia Burtt: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Marcia Burtt graduated from University of California Berkeley with a major in psychology and earned an M.A. in art from the University of Montana
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  • May I Introduce Frank Serrano?
    Sunlit Birch by Frank Serrano, oil on canvas, 12 x 12. Frank Serrano: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Contemporary landscape artist and plein air painter Frank M. Serrano was born in Los Angeles on November 29, 1967. He developed an early interest
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  • May I Introduce Jacob Collins?
    Thinking Man by Jacob Collins, oil painting, 30 x 20, 2004. Jacob Collins: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Jacob Collins is a leading figure in the contemporary revival of classical painting. He earned a B.A. in history from Columbia College and attended
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  • May I Introduce Scott Burdick?
    Market Colors by Scott Burdick, oil on canvas. Scott Burdick: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Scott Burdick was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1967, where his mother and father encouraged his interest in art from an early age. "I spent a lot of
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  • May I Introduce Joseph McGurl?
    Light at Sunset by Joseph McGurl, oil painting, 24 x 36. Joseph McGurl: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Joseph McGurl has been referred to as one of the acknowledged leaders in the current American landscape painting arena. This has been confirmed
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  • May I Introduce Stephen Scott Young?
    Handline Hook by Stephen Scott Young, watercolor painting, 2010, 10 1/2 x 19 1/2. Stephen Scott Young: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Stephen Scott Young grew up in St. Augustine, Florida, and studied at the Ringling College of Art and Design, in
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  • May I Introduce Clayton Beck?
    Vermont Farmhouse by Clayton Beck, oil painting. Clayton Beck: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Clayton J. Beck III studied at the American Academy of Art and the Palette & Chisel Academy of Fine Arts, in Chicago, and launched his career as a professional
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  • May I Introduce Daniel Graves?
    Self-Portrait by Daniel Graves, oil on canvas, 2007. Daniel Graves: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Daniel Graves , born in Rochester, New York in 1949, is an oil painter, etcher, and founder and director of The Florence Academy of Art, Florence,
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  • May I Introduce Carolyn Anderson?
    Dave by Carolyn Anderson, oil painting, 16 x 12. Carolyn Anderson: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Carolyn Anderson , a nationally recognized artist, is an accomplished pastelist and oil painter. Born and raised in the Chicago area, Anderson attended
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  • May I Introduce Camille Przewodek?
    Vineyard Melody by Camille Przewodek, 16 x 20, oil on canvas. Camille Przewodek: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Camille Przewodek is a plein air colorist based in Petaluma, California, who received her B.F.A. in illustration from the Academy of Art
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  • May I Introduce Daniel Gerhartz?
    Nouveau by Daniel Gerhartz , oil painting. Daniel Gerhartz: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Daniel F. Gerhartz was born in Wisconsin in 1965, where he now lives with his wife Jennifer and their four children. His interest in art piqued at an early
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  • May I Introduce Joseph Paquet?
    Morning Light Crystal Cove , by Joe Paquet, oil painting on linen. Joseph Paquet: Weekend With the Masters Instructor Joseph Paquet received his Bachelors of Fine Art at the School of Visual Arts, in New York City, and had the good fortune of being mentored
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  • Meet the Instructors of Our Weekend With the Masters Events
    The American Artist Weekend With the Masters events and art workshops are an opportunity to learn how to paint at the hands of some of the most inspiring, skilled oil painting artists, watercolorists, and draftsmen working today. Their artistic abilities
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  • Nothing Watered Down About Her Work
    Over and over again I hear artists cooing about the thick richness of oil paints and its appealing spreadability, and yes, all of that is totally true. But artist Bev Jozwiak is giving oil a run for its money in terms of buttery appearance and saturated colors, and she’s doing it with watercolor
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  • More Tips for Painting Water En Plein Air
    John and Ann’s recent post about painting water en plein air was so inspiring and right on target. I love painting water elements, too, because they always make plein air landscape paintings more interesting. John and Ann’s tips were great, and I have two more to add:
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  • What I Get From Other Artists
    Wilson uses the visual world as a lexicon of poetic images, as in his painting, Mary . In the 19th century, painters depicted modern life, embracing the “real” and eschewing narrative subjects and symbolism. Now, modern figure painters are
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  • 5 Forget-Me-Not Tips for Painting Eyes
    If the eyes are the windows to the soul, then a painter needs to get them right when creating a portrait. But the "oval, circle, dot" anatomy of the eye that we all first learned as children is far removed from how to give the illusion of a real eye in your work. Here are a few tips about painting
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  • Painting Clouds, Part I: Sunset Clouds
    Living as we do in the center of the country where the dominant feature of the landscape is the sky, we have always enjoyed painting the rich variety of clouds here. Besides being beautiful to look at, clouds can tell us all sorts of things about the weather, both present and future, that can prove very
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  • It’s a Bird. It’s a Plane. It’s an Artist?!
    Artists aren’t superheroes. No capes, no spandex onesies, and no butlers named Alfred. Artists don’t necessarily lead extraordinary lives in which they paint or draw between bouts of saving the world. Artists are like you and me. They are you and me, actually. We all go about our day-to-day
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  • The Romance Is Overrated
    I used to think so romantically about Monet, Pissarro, and the other Impressionists. Not romantic like Manet is so dreamy; romantic as in idealizing this particular group of painters—thinking they stepped outside of their studios and, snap, Impressionism just happened. Veneration can sometimes
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  • The Ultimate Backpack--Professional Tips for Packing Light
    Here's John using his heavy-weight watercolor gear while painting in Colorado. Through trial and error, over the years, we have figured out how to pack for our foot-powered plein-air painting adventures. We like to keep our heavy-duty Eagle Creek
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  • Get Some Gallery Love: Part 3
    Bonita Williams Goldberg (her painting, Not Over Yet , above), is known as a Georgia Peach. She routinely sends new clients to her representatives, and she rotates consistently beautiful works in and out of her galleries. Artists love to gossip about
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  • Do You Speak The Two Languages of Art?
    No, not Spanish or Italian or French. An artist needs to be fluent in the languages of realism and abstraction. By realism I mean the formal aspects of art--the painting techniques and drawing skills we develop over time through experience. Abstraction is the other side of the coin, the visual language
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  • Finding Meaning in the Details of My Painting
    Sometimes in making a small study for a larger oil painting, an artist will sketch in certain areas very loosely. It's almost as if she says to herself, "and there's some other stuff that fills in this area of the composition, but I'll think about that later." With the set of small
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  • A Painting Technique That’s Outside the Box…Er, Brush
    Breaking out of a painting rut sometimes requires a little more oomph than just adding another color to your palette or going from a still life to a figure painting. Sometimes your whole process needs an overhaul. A few years ago, artist Francis Di Fronzo took a fairly drastic measure to take his work
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  • How to Paint the Look and Feel of Spring
    I’m a color junkie. In fashion, in design, and especially in painting, vibrant color is what gets me creative. But before the image of Mimi from The Drew Carey Show becomes forever attached to my name in your mind, I’ll point out that I can control myself…sometimes. It’s tough
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  • How To Transfer a Study to a Large Canvas
    Study for Leaves of Grass . All works by Patricia Watwood. With the image of a female figure reading in the summer grass in mind, I began to develop my oil painting , Leaves of Grass . I started with a preparatory drawing. I work with models and from
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  • And the Award Goes to...
    I've been waiting all my life to have a red-carpet moment, but who knows when the Academy will get around to remembering my searing director's debut at the age of 14, when I put on a musical version of Hamlet to the theme song of The Beatles' "Obladi Oblada." (Maybe you had to be
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  • Workshop, Fall 2010
    Measure First, Draw Second; The Pathway to Great Compositions; Make Every ?Brushstroke Count; Learn How Top Artists Paint; How the Academic Technique can Work for You
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  • Okay, okay! You win! Here’s your Free eBook on Plein Air Painting
    Point Lobos , oil, 12 x 16. All works by Matt Smith . Have you ever had a moment where you’ve stumbled on something unexpected and you think to yourself, “What a find!” That was so me a few days ago. I read an amazing Q&A that one
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  • Palette Knife in Hand
    Palette knife painting sounds a little edgy and dangerous, but it’s really all about texture—the thick impasto swipes and flat sweeps of color that make up the surface of a painting. I’ve never created an entire painting with just a palette knife before, and I wanted to see what the
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  • The Art of Painting Water: 4 Plein Air Tips
    Water is perhaps one of the more challenging subjects to paint convincingly in a plein air landscape painting. Whether one is inspired by the ocean, a river, or a pond or lake, each subject requires a studied familiarity and often distinctly different paint handling. Here are a just a few tips that we
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  • Stuff of Dreams--Painting on Panels Workshop in Italy
    Margaret Krug, painter, writer for American Artist , and author of An Artist Handbook: Materials and Techniques, is teaching a one-of-a-kind program, Painting on Panels , from August 12-26 in Spannocchia, Italy. The scope of the workshop is traditional
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  • It's Time to Take Sides: Color vs. Form
    Leah , oil on canvas, 2010, 24 x 20. The Sicilian Expedition , oil on canvas, 2010, 60 x 40. They say that there are two kinds of painter: color painters, and the other kind--the kind that focuses on form, tone, and line. I'm that "other"
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  • Painting with a ‘Show Me’ State of Mind
    Darrell Brown paints simple, seemingly timeless "portraits" of fruits and vegetables. A few days ago a reader came to me with a good point: If an artist running a workshop can talk about the philosophy behind his or her oil painting art, all
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  • The One Skill Every Artist Needs
    As plein air artists, we have had to become very aware of our own visual filtering processes--our visual biases. We train ourselves to focus our eyes and our minds on the subject before us, but it is only when we can quiet the mind from labeling and judging what we see that we are ever able to truly
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  • Workshop, Summer 2010
    10 Keys To Making Accurate Judgments; Use Measurements & Simple Shapes for Better Portraits; Learn Variations of Impressionist Painting; 4 Stages Of Successful Plein Air Paintings
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  • Developing a Narrative Theme for an Oil Painting
    For a while now, I have been exploring narrative themes. This is what R. H. Ives Gammell called “poetical pictures.” In the 19th century, this was commonly referred to as “history painting”, but by history they did not just mean world events as we define the term. “Poetical
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  • Plein Air Painting Essentials: How to Paint Trees
    This plein air painting by Tom Brown is impressionistic, but gives you a distinct sense of the form and structure of the scrub tree he's painting. We often think of trees in a very human way—that they have personalities and traits that distinguish
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  • Video on Light and Shadow: Portrait Painting with Scott Burdick and Daniel Gerhartz
    The American Artist Weekend With the Masters events are always a whirlwind of activity—new people to meet, alluring art to gawk over, and then there are the workshops. Articulate, passionate artist-instructors share their own particular artistic
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  • Jumbo Fruit, Giant Seashells
    Lemons by James Tormey, oil on canvas. Natural objects in sharp detail--that says it all according to artist James Tormey. For him, creating great still life paintings is a matter of painting natural objects in sharp detail. Tormey works on large-scale
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  • Plein Air Painting Techniques: How to Paint Clouds
    Clouds are not all created equal, just like not every sunset or skyscape is the same. They all have their own unique look and feel, even though we can see them all the time. And it is the plein air artist's goal, passion, purpose to eek out that unique something in every scene they decide to paint
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  • Home Ground - Finding Inspiration in the Familiar
    The lesson we first learned when living and painting in the Hudson Valley in New York is that as plein air painters there is a deep pleasure to be gained from becoming intimately familiar with the same piece of ground over many years. The process is essentially a silent conversation, in which we can
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  • A Painter's Best Bet: Stay in Kindergarten
    Jeffree , oil, 18 x 15. All works by David A. Leffel. I spend a lot of time brainstorming how an artist can become an Old Master of the 21st century. What kind of confidence, skill, and vision will it take for an artist working today to gain that reputation
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  • If I Could Paint Any Four Walls
    After developing an unnatural dependency on my galoshes and stocking my kitchen shelves with an outrageous amount of sugary sweets in case of snowstorms, I’ve come to realize that it is nice to be on the inside, cozy and warm, looking out. My creature comforts appreciation has definitely also influenced
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  • How Do You Paint a Natural Wonder?
    Springs Caprice by Curt Walters, 36 x 36. Content adapted from an article by Allison Malafronte. Arizona artist Curt Walters is well known and recognized for his plein air impressionist paintings of one of the most inspiring natural wonders in America
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  • Faith in the Wilderness--How One Oil Painting Artist Stays Committed
    Perhaps sometime over the last couple of years, you looked at your most recent drawing or oil painting and thought “Why am I doing this?” The economic recession has caused all of us to rethink our commitments and has given many artists reason to doubt that “making it” as a professional
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  • How’s Your Plein Air Vision?
    Somewhere out there, maybe even as you read this, a group of hungry, dedicated artists are taking a plein-air painting workshop. And at some point during this workshop—perhaps right at this very moment—one of those aspiring artists will ask the classic question voiced at least once in every
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  • 5 Surefire Plein Air Painting Techniques
    The Evening Show by Clyde Aspevig, oil, 40 x 36. You can often tell a painting that was painted en plein air from one that wasn’t. There is an immediacy to the light and atmosphere depicted in plein air paintings that isn’t always achieved
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  • Inspired Vision - Why Traveling to New Landscapes is Important to the Plein Air Painter
    In the 25+ years that we traveled to northern New Mexico to paint, we have explored its charms in every season of the year and have never failed to find wonderful scene after wonderful scene for a plein air painting . A big part of this charm is that this area of the Southwest is just inherently stunning
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  • Oil on Canvas: What I'm Up To
    Study for Pandora , oil on canvas, 2010. All works by Patricia Watwood. For the past six months, I have been working away at a new series of figure paintings. Over the next weeks and months, I will tell you more about each of them, and the steps involved
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  • Is "How to Paint" the Right Question?
    When we start making art, we don't start from a position of, "I want to paint like so-and-so," or not even, necessarily, "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 us the strength
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  • Spring 2011
    Turn Mistakes into Masterpieces; create the element of surprise with acrylics; get creative with Sunlight and Shadow; use value studies To Save Time; go inside Workshops With the Pros
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  • How to Paint a Piece of Americana
    Shaker Barns by Charles Sheeler, 1945, tempera on board. When I think of the features that make up a truly American landscape, there’s one structure that always sticks out in my mind—a big, broadsided barn. They dot the countryside from coast
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  • Plein Air Painting: Finding Your Commitment and Accountability
    This past Saturday was a beauty. The weather was warm enough to be outside comfortably, the light was sparkling, and it would have been a fine day to paint en plein air. Would have... if I had painted. But I didn’t. Instead, I went to a meeting and then spent the afternoon on the computer, completing
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  • Extreme Painting - Part III: Painting the Winter Night en Plein Air
    I like pastel for winter work because of the ease of not having to deal with paint thinner, stiff paint, or mixing color on a palette. When winter graces us with her charms and everywhere you look is covered in a beautiful layer of snow, Ann and I get
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  • Free Video Demo—Watercolor Painting With Mary Whyte
    Learn more about Mary Whyte’s full-length DVD. I'm a reader and studier by nature, but the lessons and techniques that I learn from books and magazines always seem to click much quicker when I watch an artist paint, rather than try to puzzle
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  • Bring Together the Outdoors and Indoors In Your Landscape Paintings
    When I’m landscape painting I’m always drawn to the curious, in-between places where the outdoors and indoors meet. This could be an ivy-smothered barn that almost looks like it is disappearing into the landscape, or an ocean view from an open window. The places where architecture and the
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  • The Upside of Plein Air Competition
    Cincinnati artist Monica Achberger participating in a paint-out in Milford, Ohio, sponsored by the Ohio Plein Air Society in August 2010. Looking ahead to the next few months, there are countless plein-air painting competitions coming up. We’ve
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  • Oil Painting, Studio Practice, and More from New Blogger Patricia Watwood
    Waiting for Supper , 18” x 35”, oil on canvas, 2010. All works by Patricia Watwood . Hello! I am delighted to begin this new venture with Artist Daily and start an ongoing conversation about my painting process and my thoughts on art. Most
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  • Extreme Plein Air Painting - Part II: Shadow Light
    Tracks II by John Hulsey, pastel. With the high-contrast conditions of winter sun on brilliant snow, we have been exploring the colors of snow and shadows in our plein air paintings. Shadows are essential because they create the form and interest in a
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  • Twilight Painting en Plein Air--No Vampires, Please
    Painting during twilight often means the added complication of using artificial lights to illuminate your canvas. This blog has been adapted from an article written by Allison Malafronte. Plein air painting during twilight is exciting but challenging
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  • Landscape Painter Clark Hulings Dies at Age 88
    The Lonely Man by Clark Hulings Last week, we received some surprising and very sad news in the American Artist office. The widely-admired landscape painter Clark Hulings had passed away at the age of 88. We learned this less than a day after finishing
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  • Extreme Plein Air Painting--Conquering Old Man Winter
    Fire and Ice by John Hulsey, watercolor. We both love painting landscapes outside, especially in the winter, when the air is clear and the landscape is reduced to its architectural purity. But winter weather conditions are rarely moderate in the places
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  • Sunset En Plein Air
    A sunset sketch by painter Thomas Van Stein. This blog has been adapted from an article written by Allison Malafronte. Plein air painting is all about light and atmosphere. Painting during sunrise or in the heat and intense light of the day can result
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  • Plein Air Painting: Isn’t It Romantic?
    Oak in the Snow by Caspar David Friedrich, 1825, oil, 44 x 34.5 cm, Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne, Germany. I think all landscape artists and plein air painters have a touch of the romantic in them. It doesn’t really matter what type of landscape
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  • It's Finally Here: Our New Free eBook on Oil Painting Techniques
    I’ve always prided myself on learning good technique when faced with any new skill, and doing this has definitely made a difference. That goes for when I was learning to dance, swim, draw, or paint in oil. Art techniques were always especially rewarding to tackle this way, because once you grasp
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  • You're Gonna Need a Pair of Boots
    Painting outdoors in winter can be an extreme sport. The snow, the wind, the cold—it takes a certain kind of artist to paint a winter landscape while in a winter landscape. The first time I attempted this was a couple of years ago when I was living in Connecticut. Two feet of snow had fallen the
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  • How to Evaluate Your Outdoor Painting
    Thomas Van Stein's student stepped back, with the help of her instructor, to evaluate her work. This blog has been adapted from an article written by Allison Malafronte. Amidst all the sights, sounds, and smells that swirl around you when plein air
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  • Painting Instruction Highlights from Master Teachers, Fall 2009
    14 Top Instructors Share Their Secrets; How to Paint From Photographs; Complete Instruction in Painting Figures, Still Lifes & Landscapes; 12 Step-by-Step Demonstrations & Lists of Materials Check out what's featured in the Fall 2009 issue of American Artist Highlights.
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  • A New Blogger and Checking Your Plein Air Painting Checklist
    A beautiful afternoon, some free time in the fresh air, a stunning location...I can’t wait for the weather to get just a touch warmer so I can get out and paint again. And as we look to the future, I’m thrilled to be joining all of you at Artist Daily as a regular blogger on the life of a
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  • Don't Fear the Pack
    As much as the stereotype of the solitary painter working alone and shutting him- or herself off from the world makes artists seem mysterious and cool, I’ve found that artists tend to be fairly social creatures, and their cool factor isn’t lessened by their sense of community. Sometimes this
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  • Artist Daily Video--Watch A Master Start A Portrait
    Imagine breaking down even the most complex painting into just a handful of shapes. Painter Ron Hicks has found that the process of painting a portrait can be intimidating, if not overwhelming, to even the most practiced painters because a lot of detail is often confused with what makes a successful
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  • Learn the Latest Tips in Our Free Portrait Painting eBook
    Trying to capture the likeness of a person in a finite period of time and meeting the high expectations often associated with portraiture are far from effortless tasks. They take commitment and savvy to do well. Our eBook Oil Painting Lessons on How to Paint a Portrait: 15 Portrait Painting Techniques
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  • Workshop, Fall 2009
    Use a Limited Pallette for Greater Benefits; 10 Concrete Solutions for Figure Painting; How to Accurately See the Color Light; Andrea J. Smith; Bryan Mark Taylor; Steve Huston; Clayton J Beck III.
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  • Nature with a Bit of Edge
    Shaped by Reaction , acrylic on maple panel, 2010. All works by Tiffany Bozic. Courtesy Joshua Liner Gallery. Looking at San Francisco-based artist Tiffany Bozic’s work is a bit like falling down Alice’s rabbit hole: the natural world looks
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  • Make a Painter’s Resolution
    I’m starting this year by reassessing my approach to painting and recommitting to more concentrated studio time. I don’t necessarily feel that I want to completely revamp my process, but there are a few old habits that I want to break and a few new ones I want to instill. I’ve found
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  • Be An Artist Who Cares Deeply
    During this time of the year, as acts of generosity and appreciation abound, I’m drawn to the works of the painters and draftsmen of the Ashcan School, which thrived during the early 20th century. This group of artists—among them Robert Henri, Everett Shinn, John French Sloan, and William
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  • Don't Paint the Sky Blue!
    Because it’s hardly ever really blue. Think of Turner’s skies or even Monet’s—they are multifaceted and carry the hum of several colors. As many of us transition from painting outdoors to inside the studio, we can sometimes make assumptions and take certain things for granted
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  • New Video Blog: See the Secret to Positioning Your Brush
    We’ve been cooking up the Artist Daily Video Blog for a while now, and I’m thrilled that it’s time to unveil it to all of you. The name says it all—it is a part of the Artist Daily blog that we will be creating in video form. There
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  • Free eBook—Full of Acrylic Painting Techniques for You
    Sunset in the Teton Valley by Gil Dellinger, 2008, acrylic, 16 x 20. Almost all the painting I did in college was with acrylics, and most of the students I worked in class with did the same. Painting with acrylics was our best option because the paints
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  • Should You Paint Lies?
    Les reclus by Philippe Jacquet, 31 1/2 x 46 1/2. All images courtesy Axelle Fine Arts. Most painters I’ve spoken to say that it’s somewhat liberating to paint an imagined subject or a fictitious place. Working in such a way does come with
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  • It's Not in the Details
    Noelle with a Black Dress by Ron Hicks, 2007, oil, 20 x 16. Collection Gallery 1261, Denver, Colorado. I think photography has altered the way we judge the painted portrait. With the ability to capture a photographic likeness—from the details of
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  • Portait & Figure Painting Highlights
    Reflect Your True Vision with Accurate Form Now you can paint the human form with the depth and detail it deserves – your artwork will come alive with this exciting special issue from American Artist: Portrait and Figure Painting Highlights Fall 2010. Improve the detail of your portraits with 100
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  • What Painters Rarely Do
    The Lantern Bearers by Maxfield Parrish, 1908, oil on canvas board, 40 x 32. I have a confession to make: I've never glazed with oils. The process intimidates me a bit—creating luminosity and an inner glow on canvas is no easy feat—and
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  • November 2010
    On the Cover: Belle (detail, reversed) by Galina Perova, 2007, oil, 50 x 44. Private collection. FEATURES Rosemarie Beck: Exploring the Physicality of Paint by Eric Sutphin This New York artist used themes from mythology, music, and literature as ways
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  • Where Exceptional Artists Gather
    Watercolorist Stephen Scott Young getting into the details of his watercolor technique with students. All photos by Manuel Rodriguez . Artists of the past are often remembered as working solo, toiling alone in their private studios and intimate garrets
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  • Coming To You From Weekend With the Masters
    Artist and instructor Marcia Burtt painting a beach scene at Weekend With the Masters. I can honestly say I've never been to an event like American Artist's Weekend With the Masters workshop and conference, which is currently underway in Southern
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  • Counting Down to the Big Event
    Twilight by Anthony Ryder, 1998, pencil and pastel on gold paper, 25 x 19. The event I’ve been looking forward to since I came to Artist Daily is just a few days away. Weekend With the Masters 2010 is almost here. I’ve been told that the energy
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  • Paint to Preserve the Scenery You Love
    As an artist who has painted the natural world for over 20 years, Adam Straus has a complicated connection to his environment. In the 1990s, he painted Oil Slicks , a series of paintings that referenced the oil spills that happened at the time, and the relevancy of these paintings has been asserted again
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  • The Best Part of Painting?
    Clouds Moving , 1999-2009, oil on canvas, 31 1/4 x 37 1/2. All works by Bernard Chaet. Courtesy David Findlay Jr Fine Art . It’s the materiality—or, for many, that’s at least part of it. The buttery rich feel of paint moving across the
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  • Defy Expectations—See In a New Way
    No matter the venue, the accepted rule of thumb is that a painting should always be hung just above eye level. As a result, many artists create paintings with this point of view. Louisiana artist Mitchell Long seeks to subvert this expectation by manipulating vantage points in his paintings of landscapes
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  • Paint for Peace
    La Danse (I) by Henri Matisse, 1909, oil on canvas,102.4 x 153.9 in. I've always believed that art speaks most profoundly when it actually has something to say. Communicating with a viewer is a powerful opportunity, and The Peace Project engages artists
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  • Drawing with Thread, Paint, Paper & Pen
    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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  • Take Your Painting Skills Abroad
    Breakthroughs in our artistic practices often come with a change—of venue, of process, or even from within our own creative mindsets. Workshops offer the opportunity to step outside the studio, and suddenly we can see and evaluate from a completely different vantage point.
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  • Are You Using This Critical Painting Technique?
    The process of underpainting has such a buttoned-up reputation. If it were cast in a movie, it would be the uptight, by-the-book stickler that no one wants to hangout with. That’s because the process of underpainting is often associated with a belabored, rigid series of steps that delays us from
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  • Draw on Tradition to Create Lasting Art
    I'm always surprised-and, okay, a little peeved-when my mention of an arts background is often met with a puzzled look followed by the somewhat skeptical question, "What do you do with that?" The truth is there's a lot to do with that, especially now-at a time when images are all around
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  • Free eBook for Your Best Summer Outdoor Painting Experience
    With summer in full swing, I've been spending as much time as possible outdoors, going to concerts and plays, walking from place to place when I do my errands, and just finding every excuse for an outdoor excursion. Plein air painting is another perk of the season. There's something invigorating
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  • Learn to Paint the Unexpected
    Artists are the sharpest of observers, attuned to a person's passing gesture or the play of light and shadow on a building façade—but not everything that catches our eye is a painting waiting to happen. For Utah watercolorist Joseph Alleman , the stories that hold his interest are reflections
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  • Best of Watercolor, 2010
    On the Cover: Barrens in October (detail) by Paul Rickert, 2002, watercolor, 11 x 14. Collection the artist. Artists In This Issue Anne Abgott Jane Paul Angelhart Sue Archer Bo Bartlett Dan Brown Peggy Brown Carl Dalio Sondra Freckelton Laurin McCracken
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  • Plein Air Classes at WWM 2010
    American Artist’s Weekend With the Masters Workshop & Conference will be arriving on the sunny shores of Southern California this September 22-26, in our second-annual presentation of this four-day event. Workshops, demos, lectures, panel discussions, and evening events from more than 25 instructors
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  • July/August 2010
    How to Paint Landscapes; 10 Cover Contest Winners Offer You Their Best Advice; Combine Watermedia & Pastel for Inspired Results; Express Content with Fewer Brushstrokes
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  • Sharpen Your Ability to Judge Color Tone and Value
    In last Friday's post featuring artist-instructor Kerry Dunn, we explored some of the opportunities and challenges that an extensive color palette offers. On the flipside, Bulgarian-born painter Ignat Ignatov understands how an artist can benefit from the use of a limited palette. For a time Ignatov
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  • Discover How to Use an Extensive Painting Palette
    There is nothing that defines an artist quite like his or her palette. Some consist of premixed colors and others are developed in the moment, determined by the needs of each painting. Some artists are meticulously organized, with paints arranged by color temperature, while other artists arrange colors
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  • How to Successfully Paint Color Relationships from the Start
    Painting instructors often ask students to consider two important relationships between the colors squeezed out on their palettes: value and temperature. By that they are asking them to consider whether one color mixture is lighter or darker than another, and whether the mixtures tend to have a warm
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  • Learn How to Paint Like a Sculptor
    Weekend With the Masters instructor Jacqueline Kamin paints with a sculptural sensibility that isn’t at all foreign to her practice. Earlier in her career she spent time as a bronze bust sculptor. “Working with sculpture is a lot of fun,” Kamin says. “It is very tactile and organic
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  • What Every Artist Can Learn From Plein Air Painting
    After several months of hiatus, the Plein Air blog is back! Our new Artist Daily editor, Courtney Jordan, and I have worked out a biweekly schedule to get the Plein Air blog back on track, and I’m excited to resume coverage of the artists, events, exhibitions, tools and tips, and conservation issues
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  • Recouping Lost Artistic Opportunities
    It’s often the case that when you live somewhere, you don’t take full advantage of the opportunities that the place affords, and only after leaving do you realize how valuable those opportunities were. This can be true for artists, who, after moving, may regret not utilizing a strong local
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  • Adaptability and Durability are Proven Aspects of Encaustic Painting
    After spending all day sitting at my desk, click-click-clicking away on my computer, I savor getting out and being active, especially if I’m learning a new activity or skill. It’s the difference between reading through the steps of a complicated, unfamiliar process and actually seeing it
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  • Workshops Raise the Bar for Artists
    Robert Johnson strikes the perfect balance between master artist and down-to-earth mentor, supporting his students while pushing them to create the best works that they can. At a recent three-day workshop sponsored by The Art League School in Alexandria, Virginia, Johnson led students through the stages
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  • June 2010
    SPECIAL REPORT Explore New Creative Ideas With Acrylics; Learn From Sorolla’s Epic Masterpiece; Increase the Drama in Pastel Paintings; How to Plan & Improve Your Watercolors
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  • New eBook Teaches Acrylic Painting in 7 Steps
    Paintings of the sheer peaks of the Alps or serpentine glimmer of the Hudson River showcase the awe-inspiring characteristics of the natural world. But there’s something equally compelling about depictions of interior spaces. Think of how bleak and bereft Edward Hopper’s bedroom scenes are
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  • When Your Art Goes on the Road
    Gaining exposure and recognition for one’s work starts with putting finished pieces in the public and critical eye. This can mean participating in local community shows or full-fledged exhibitions, entering competitions, and hanging pieces in galleries. It is an exciting prospect, but it can also
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  • Take Advantage of Our Plein Air Expertise
    Kevin Macpherson is a renowned artist and instructor with 30 years of plein air painting experience. For newcomers, painting en plein air means literally, painting “in the open air,” and is the genre associated with painting outdoors. In 1996, Macpherson challenged himself to what I’d
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  • A New Take on Still Life Painting
    A still life changed my life?! It sounds corny, but it’s a little bit true! It was Francisco de Zurbarán’s Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose . He was a Spanish Baroque painter and I was a freshman searching for a major. Bliss and art history degrees followed.
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  • Free Tips and Techniques for Painting Oil Landscapes
    With landscape artist Chris McHenry's hard-won oil painting tips and techniques, you’ll start to understand how to create a realistic sense of contrast for objects in your paintings, establish depth and focus in a landscape painting with a balance of warm and cool colors, and more. Attending
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  • American Artist: Everything You Need to Know About Plein Air Painting
    On the Cover: Deb Painting Spring Creek (detail) by Edward Martinez, 2006, oil, 22 x 14. Collection the artist. Jim Wilcox: Western Landscapes Using Plein Air Sketches, Photographs, Research, & Imagination to Create Studio Paintings Plein Air Past
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  • April 2010
    How to Paint With Spontaneity & Insight; Benefit from a Beginner's; Sense of Adventure; Bring Drawings to Life In Watercolor Paintings; Professional Advice on Painting With Pastel, Oil & Watercolor and much more!
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  • Finding Your Personal Style
    It’s often said that artists don’t find their personal style—it finds them. Although I agree with this statement, I found in my experience that individual style develops only after a number of other tasks are accomplished. All professional
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  • Taking Advantage of Free Instruction
    I recently joined a gym in my neighborhood, with the hopes of working off some of those extra holiday pounds that seem to wear out their welcome around this time every year. My schedule is pretty busy, so I try to streamline my visits, making a beeline
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  • Sight-Size Drawing and Painting
    I've written a number of articles on artists who use the sight-size approach to painting, but the method became clearer to me while I was writing an article on Paul DeLorenzo for the spring 2010 issue of Workshop . The procedure is to stand a measured
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  • Paint Landscapes From Sketches, Memory, and Photographs
    Ever since my trip to Venice, Italy, last year, I have been looking at paintings of the city by 19th-century artists such as Sargent and Whistler, as well as contemporary artists such as Steve Rogers and Leonard Mizerek . I've become more aware of
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  • Free Watercolor Painting Tips and Techniques
    It’s often said in sports circles that the best players often make the worst coaches. That’s because it is hard for naturally gifted athletes to relate to players who are not so innately talented. A perfect example of this is former Boston
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  • Watercolors by Architects
    Greek Steps, Sifnos by Thomas W. Schaller, 2008, watercolor, 12 x 9. I just finished writing an article on Thomas W. Schaller's watercolor paintings for the April 2010 issue of American Artist, and it occurred to me that Thomas is the third licensed
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  • Painting From Photographs
    I normally work from plein air sketches or my imagination, but this scene I photographed while on vacation in Costa Rica was just too beautiful to pass up. As most artists do when working from a photo, I made adjustments to the composition to better suit
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  • Taking a Creative Gamble
    I recently met an artist who said, completely nonchalantly, “I never sketch, I never throw out a painting, and I’m always pleased with my final work.” If only we could all be so lucky! Sometimes when I’m writing a drawing basics
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  • 24 Tips to Learn How To Paint a Plein Air Landscape
    Our newest free eBook, “24 Tips to Learn How to Paint a Plein Air Landscape,” is now available to download, and in it you’ll find tips on how to get started working en plein air and how to improve your en plein air painting technique
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  • Watercolor, Winter 2010
    On the Cover: Breakfast Club (detail) by Gordon France, 2004, watercolor, 20 x 28. Private collection. Artist to Artist: Dean Mitchell Modern Masters: Jan Kunz DEPARTMENTS Editor's Note Contributors Noteworthy FEATURES Weekend With the Masters Review
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  • En Plein Air: Holiday Exhibitions & Shows
    ‘Tis the time of the year when galleries across the country host their annual holiday exhibitions, giving artists, dealers, and collectors the opportunity to gather around great art and share some Christmas cheer. Whether these shows are organized
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  • Selling Without Galleries
    Over the past decade, I've worked with half a dozen commercial galleries, and although I enjoyed the prestige of being able to say that I am represented by a gallery, the truth is that I've been able to sell my artwork better on my own. Many of
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  • Important New Research on Artists and Art Materials
    It’s quite probable that you were already creating artwork by the time you were 20 years old. In fact, you were likely spending a good bit of time drawing, painting, sculpting, or crafting when you were 12. Those are two of the inferences that might
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  • En Plein Air: One of the First Filmed Plein Air Painters
    Although revered for his portrait work and known for being an artistic rival of his contemporary John Singer Sargent, Philip de László also painted landscapes, and one of the first known film documentations of an artist painting en plein air depicts him. That film clip of the artist painting
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  • Free Lessons From Top Watercolor Artists
    The basic set of supplies John Hulsey uses when painting on location. The recent spat of wet weather in New York has made it difficult to get outside to paint, but that doesn’t mean we in the American Artist offices haven’t been thinking about
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  • Showcase Your State: North Carolina Finalists!
    The American Artist editors have reviewed the submissions for the Showcase Your State: North Carolina contest, and below are the four chosen finalists. Whether it was expansive views of the Blue Ridge Mountains as seen from the Highlands; still, serene
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  • Building Rich and Full Layers
    By subtly layering pastel, Marlene Wiedenbaum creates a luscious and convincing sense of the world.
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  • Why I Must Paint Plein Air Studies
    I admit that I am not one who adores painting on location. If the truth be known, when I visit a national park, I'd rather be exploring and walking around—taking photos of everything that strikes my interest. Oh yes, I've paid my dues by
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  • En Plein Air: The Physics of the Sky
    Yesterday, as the articles from the upcoming winter issue of Workshop magazine circulated around the editors’ desks, I was struck by how many high-quality artists are featured in this issue and what valuable advice they offer readers through their
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  • How to Adjust to New Painting Subjects
    Curt Walters painting at the Grand Canyon. None of us want to be stuck in the rut of painting the same subjects over and over again, so we try different landscape locations, select new groups of still life objects, or join a sketch group that hires models
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  • How to Act Like an Art Collector
    When artists shop for a gallery to represent them, it's helpful if when they first visit they avoid acting or looking like an artist and instead take on the behavior of a collector. This can help you to learn how attentive a gallery’s staff is, and it allows you to assess how much they know
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  • En Plein Air: A Conversation With Jacob Collins
    Known primarily for his figurative work and for leading a resurgence in classical art education through his Water Street Atelier and the Grand Central Academy of Art, in New York City, Jacob Collins is now the founder of the Hudson River Fellowship ,
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  • En Plein Air at Weekend With the Masters
    Weekend With the Masters recently concluded in Colorado Springs, and I thought I’d share some of the photographs from the plein air portion of the event with you here. Enjoy!
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  • Painting Instruction Highlights from Master Teachers, Fall 2009
    14 Top Instructors Share Their Secrets; How to Paint From Photographs; Complete Instruction in Painting Figures, Still Lifes & Landscapes; 12 Step-by-Step Demonstrations & Lists of Materials Check out what's featured in the Fall 2009 issue of American Artist Highlights.
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  • Presentations That Help Sell Artwork
    I recently attended the opening of an exhibition of artwork by a group of artists, and the display raised questions in my mind about the impact of presentation on sales and career development. The exhibition was a temporary display in a community center
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  • November 2009
    Check out what's featured in the November 2009 issue of American Artist.
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  • The Artist We Love to Hate
    Although most of the recent news about Thomas Kinkade concerned his passing away and legacy, while he was alive he was consistently in the news over disagreements between his company, former employees, franchised gallery owners, and the FBI (detailed
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  • Priming Your Mind for Painting
    by Lori Woodward Simons As I've mentioned in past blogs, artists are motivated visually—at least I am. It seems our minds follow and are motivated by what we see. So in order to get busy on a painting, I need to remove myself from distractions
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  • Watercolor, Fall 2009
    Check out what's featured in the Fall 2009 issue of Watercolor .
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  • Behind the Scenes: Artists' Studios
    My office is also a conference room on the third floor of a building on 46th Street in Midtown New York City. The desk and file cabinets are pushed against the east wall of what was once a library, and a large conference table and eight chairs are arranged
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  • 3 Proven Ways To Start Watercolors Outdoors
    Michigan artist Jim Johnson offers valuable hints for successful watercolor painting outdoors.
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  • October 2009
    Check out what's featured in the October 2009 issue of American Artist.
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  • Workshop, Fall 2009
    Check out what's featured in the Fall 2009 issue of Workshop magazine.
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  • Andrea J. Smith: Expand From a Limited Palette and Focus
    In the new atelier she opened in Rome, Andrea J. Smith teaches students to use a limited palette of colors when painting exactly what they see from a measured distance away from the subject and the easel.
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  • Plein Air Exhibition on Balboa Island
    The artwork of nationally recognized plein air painters Greg LaRock, Jeff Sewell, Carolyn Hesse-Low, Jeff Yeomans, and JoAnn Royal will be the subject of a celebratory exhibition at Rainey Fine Art, in Newport Beach, California. The gallery is commemorating its first anniversary by featuring the works
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  • Drawing Basics: Drawing Is Memorization?
    When I first moved to New York City about a dozen years ago, I drew my father's face from memory quite a lot. It usually wasn't a good depiction at all, but occasionally it resulted in a decent drawing of a handsome man — which reminds me
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  • Clutter Causes Confusion
    When I meet artists at a workshop or at a convention, they often comment that I must be a highly organized person. Upon hearing this, I laugh inwardly and reply, “I'm organized in my thoughts but not with my stuff.”
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  • Drawing with Acrylics, Charcoal, Ink, & Conté
    Most of the students attending workshops and art classes rely on the instructor’s list of recommended supplies when deciding what drawing and painting materials to use, so their resulting artwork usually looks quite similar. However, when artists
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  • Plein Air Painting to Help Special-Needs Teens
    Nancy Bea Miller, a painter and mother of three, has organized a plein air paint-out to benefit the Camphill Special School’s Transition Program for teens and youths with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The paint out will be followed by an exhibition of the artists’ work at The
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  • Drawing Basics: Does Mr. Ed Have an Advantage Over You?
    It's crazy to say that horses have a visual advantage over humans, but with eyes on opposite sides of their heads, they surely don't see in three-dimensional terms like we do. There are times especially for beginners when seeing less--seeing a
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  • En Plein Air: Prepatory Sketch, Or Finished Work?
    I recently returned from a trip to Colorado, and while on that trip I got into quite the (heated) debate with two figure painters who claimed that plein air painters who sell their on-site sketches are bringing down the overall value of art. What’s your opinion? Is plein air painting a means to
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  • Drawing Basics: The One Rule We Hear More Than Any Other From Art Teachers
    Very few rules are absolute in art. But one rule keeps popping up in our magazines, quoted by art instructors and artists of all types...
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  • En Plein Air: The Golden Hour
    Photographers have coined the term “The Golden Hour” to explain the ideal lighting situation that takes place during the first and last hours of light each day. Plein air painters have an equal admiration for this time of day and find the quality and character of light to be well worth the
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  • Children Painting, Laughing, Learning and Your Valuable Advice
    I recently assisted my granddaughter, Amanda, as she painted with water-soluble tempera colors in our backyard. Like most four-year-olds, she loves to draw and paint, and although her drawings have become increasingly controlled pictures of herself, her parents, five pets, and her home, the paintings
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  • The Sublime and the Beautiful: Painting the Hudson Valley
    In honor of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s voyage, the art community prepares to celebrate the extraordinary history of painting along the Hudson River.
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  • En Plein Air: Paint-Out in Central Park
    Kevin Macpherson, Kenn Backhaus, Joe Anna Arnett, and James Asher—four professional artists who are featured in the PBS series Passport & Palette—will convene in Central Park this Saturday, July 18, for a plein air paint-out. This event is free and open to the public, so be sure to join
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  • En Plein Air: For the Love of Light
    If there’s one thing I’ve noticed about dedicated plein air painters, it’s their love of light and the great lengths they’ll go to behold and/or paint the perfect light condition. I’d like to hear your stories of a particular instance where you risked life or limb to get
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  • En Plein Air: A Conversation With Camille Przewodek
    California landscape painter Camille Przewodek's approach to plein air painting is all about capturing the color of light. She credits her teacher Henry Hensche with opening her eyes to this new way of seeing when she was a student, and now she helps other plein air painters see the light through
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  • How to Paint En Plein Air: Beginner Landscape Oil-Painting Techniques
    California landscape painter Frank Serrano is a popular instructor of plein air painting, generously sharing his knowledge and experience with students and helping them develop a foundation in the fundamentals of painting outdoors. Here we present two step-by-step demonstrations, taken from his book
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  • En Plein Air: The 400th Anniversary of the Hudson River Valley's Exploration
    As the Hudson River Valley gears up to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s voyage, landscape painters are remembering the famed 19th-century Hudson River School painters who put the Hudson on the map and are celebrating with plein air events and exhibitions of their own.
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  • Drawing Basics: Drawing Day Results
    I can't speak for anyone else, but I sure enjoyed Drawing Day 2009 ! I went to Central Park with a friend, loaded down with drawing pencils, drawing sketchbooks, painting supplies, and Gatorade. Several scenes screamed out to be captured in a quick
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  • En Plein Air: On Location in Malibu
    The Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University is once again presenting an exhibition of California Art Club members’ interpretations of the idyllic region of Malibu, California.
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  • Minimal Means, Maximum Impact
    Using subtle washes and minimal detail, Keiko Tanabe creates a powerful sense of time and place.
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  • Showcase Your State: Now Accepting North Carolina Entries!
    Our Plein Air: Showcase Your State competition allows artists from all over the country to share paintings and personal sentiments about the landscapes they love with the American Artist online community. We are now accepting entries for the state of North Carolina, and finalists will be announced in
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  • How to Triumph In Spite of the Odds
    Emerging artist Daniel James Keys couldn’t enroll at an art school, but he used every other available means to educate himself as an artist, to connect with other painters, and to promote his artwork. His experience proves that with determination, support, and computer savvy, artists can make significant
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  • Showcase Your State: Massachusetts Winners
    Our national Plein Air: Showcase Your State competition allows artists from around the country to share their interpretations of the landscapes that define their home states. This month we feature the Showcase Your State: Massachusetts finalists.
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  • Qiang Huang: Myth Buster
    This Texas oil painter shatters multiple myths—including the notion that artists are myopic and single-minded. Qiang Huang helps workshop participants learn how to draw, paint, and sell their artwork using modern technology and traditional painting methods.
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  • Workshop, Summer 2009
    The Table of Contents for the Summer 2009 issue of Workshop magazine.
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  • William Jameson: The Elements of a Great Workshop
    During a recent workshop in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, William Jameson provided instruction in plein air oil painting, but he knew it was just as important to offer encouragement and direction to students while they enjoyed the experience.
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  • En Plein Air: Pearls From Painters Past
    Plein air painters deal with many challenges outdoors, but the first hurdle they usually come across is choosing something to zero in on amid miles of potential subject matter. Here’s what two great landscape instructors of the past have to say about composition and design.
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  • En Plein Air: Favorite Places to Paint?
    All artists have at least one magical place where, no matter what is going on in their day or their life, they can go and just concentrate on the beauty of nature and be rejuvenated by their surroundings. What’s yours?
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  • 6 Tips on Using Color Mixtures
    The articles we publish in American Artist and our quarterly magazines repeat basic advice about one of the most challenging aspects of painting: selecting and mixing colors. Here’s a summary of those recommendations.
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  • En Plein Air: Local Color
    Los Angeles screenwriter, director, producer, and plein air painter George Gallo's movie Local Color will be released this summer and is already touching artists and audiences everywhere through prescreening promotion. Here is a preview of that movie and the story that inspired it.
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  • Rivalries Among Artists
    Steve Doherty asks readers if they have experienced bickering or tension between competitive artists at art association meetings, and compares those rivalries to the ones that occured among artists in 16th century in Venice, Italy.
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  • American Artist Cover Competition Winners Announced
    Artists from across the country submitted their work for consideration in the 2009 American Artist Cover Competition. After an extensive selection process Suzanne Eisler’s Still Life With Butterfly was chosen as the winning image. It is presented here, along with artwork from the nine other finalists
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  • En Plein Air: A Conversation With Scott Christensen
    Idaho artist Scott Christensen is one of the most well-respected landscape painters in the country, and his understanding of light, ability to achieve pure color, and reverence for nature also make him a highly sought-after instructor. In this Q+A section, we list Christensen’s responses to 10
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  • Acrylic Painting: Landscape Painting On-Site on a Large Scale
    With adequate preparation and the right materials, it's possible to create large acrylic landscapes en plein air. by Andrew Paquette A few years ago, I left the high-stress feature-animation industry in Hollywood, California, and moved to Arizona
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  • Plein Air Painters at Weekend With the Masters
    More than 18 top painters will be teaching at American Artist’s Weekend With the Masters Workshop & Conference this September, including the following five plein air painters who will be leading master workshops and demonstrations in Colorado’s beautiful Garden of the Gods and Monument
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  • Highlights: Painting Instruction From Master Teachers
    Get instant improvement on your portraits, landscapes, and still life’s from master teachers.
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  • Connecting With Each Other, In Person and Electronically
    Steve Doherty talks about a young California artist he discovered while browsing the American Artist member's gallery.
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  • Respond to What Paintings Need
    Mary Sipp-Green bases her oil landscapes on sketches, memories, and imagination, and she makes careful notations about color combinations that capture her feelings about a particular time and place. Nevertheless, there is a point in the creative process at which she has to “get out of the way”
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  • Resources for Landscape Painters
    Steve Doherty talks about landscape painting, and shows a video of a recent painting excursion in New Orleans.
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  • Showcase Your State: Massachusetts
    American Artist is now accepting Showcase Your State submissions for artists residing in the state of Massachusetts. The submission deadline is April 31, and finalists will be announced in May.
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  • How Do You Personalize Your Still Lifes?
    Recent visits to still life painting workshop and exhibitions has reminded Steve how still lifes provide an opportunity to share some aspect of our lives with those who look at our drawings and paintings. Here, he expands on that thought, and asks about the ways you compose, execute, and personalize
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  • En Plein Air: Kevin Macpherson's Reflections on a Pond
    In the upcoming May issue of American Artist, we feature Kevin Macpherson’s Reflections on a Pond project and describe how he approached this exploratory series on light and atmosphere. That article is posted here, and it can be seen in its full layout when the May issue hits newsstands on March
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  • Watercolor: Setting Up and Painting a Floral Still Life
    A simple floral arrangement can be the perfect subject for beginner still lifes.
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  • En Plein Air: A Conversation With Joseph McGurl
    Joseph McGurl grew up under his talented father’s artistic tutelage while cultivating a passion for boating and a love of the sea. This early influence, coupled with years of hard work and practice, have made him one of today’s foremost landscape painters, and in this interview he shares
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  • Showcase Your State: New Jersey Winners
    American Artist would like to thank all of the plein air painters who submitted artwork for our Showcase Your State: New Jersey contest. From images of babbling brooks and sunlit fields in the suburbs to depictions of sailing ships and lighthouses at the Jersey Shore, New Jersey is clearly a subject
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  • The Impressionists' brushstrokes
    Q: What mediums did the Impressionists use to paint such soft, colorful strokes? A: The long strokes have more to do with technique than a particular medium. It is often said that artists are products of their age. This adage is particularly true of the
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  • Reworking an old painting
    Q: I want to rework an oil painting that has been sitting for more than a year. How should I go about it? A: Begin by cleaning the canvas surface. Wipe away any dust particles with a cotton cloth or with cotton balls. If any dirt is evident, remove it
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  • Oil drying time
    Q: Can I varnish my oil painting as soon as it is dry to the touch? I use a medium made of Damar medium, linseed oil, and turpentine, and have finished a commission that needs to go to the client in one week. Would it be better to not varnish? A: An oil
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  • Retouching oil paintings
    Q : What should I use for retouching? Are Liquin and linseed oil compatible on the same canvas? A : There are many products you can use to go back into your oil painting after it has dried. Winsor & Newton’s Liquin, which produces a matte finish
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  • Varnishing oil paintings
    Q : How often do I have to varnish an oil painting? How do I clean the painting before I apply new varnish? A : A final coat of varnish—on a finished and completely dry oil painting—can last hundreds of years. Sennelier makes two kinds of
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  • English distilled turpentine
    Q: My instructor for an upcoming workshop is requesting we use English Distilled Turpentine. How does this differ from regular turpentine? His painting medium is a mixture of English turpentine, linseed oil, and dammar varnish. A: English Distilled Turpentine
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  • Painting Successful Portraits
    Q: I’m working on an oil portrait, but I’m having trouble getting the right tones. What colors do you recommend? A: Painting a successful portrait is similar to painting a successful still life. Assuming that the subject has one major light
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  • Adhering paper cutouts to oil paintings
    Q: One of my students wishes to mount some paper cutouts from magazines onto her oil painting on stretched canvas. What would be the best way to adhere these, and what is the best way to seal them once the surface is dry? A: If the surface is dry, your
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  • Last -Minute Varnishing
    Q: I just finished an oil portrait for a client, and I need to varnish it. I usually use gloss dammar spray for last-minute varnishes. I know I shouldn’t wait until the last minute, but what would you recommend under the circumstances? A: There
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  • Choosing the Correct Canvas
    Q: I’m interested in trying watercolor painting. I took a few classes from a local artist, but I need to learn more of the basics. How can I educate myself about color? I need to experiment, but I also need to read about it. I have medium texture
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  • Two Layers of Varnish
    Q: I recently varnished an oil painting with matte varnish, but I am unhappy with the finish (Grumbacher). Can I varnish the painting again with a glossy varnish? A: You can revarnish the painting, but to be safe you should use the same brand of varnish
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  • Acrylic versus Oil Painting
    Q: How do I tell if a painting has been done in oil or acrylic? A: For the most part, an acrylic painting will dry leaving a flat finish and an oil painting will dry leaving signs of brushstrokes. On the other hand, there are many mediums that can be
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  • Cleaning Oil Paintings
    Q: Could you please tell me how to clean an oil painting without damaging the paint? A: Are we talking about maintenance or restoration? There is no system of cleaning that can be applied to all situations, which is why the diagnosis and treatment of
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  • Aging Oil Painting surfaces
    Q: How can I age an oil painting surface to make it look old? A: Very old paintings can yellow over time. Colors may also fade if they are not archival. Without damaging your artwork, you may want to thinly glaze your artwork with either burnt umber or
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  • Painting with Turpentine
    Q: An oil painting I finished a couple of years ago has developed a section that has cracked and fallen off. I never use any medium except turpentine, and always paint "fat over lean.” Since I paint for a living, I'm more than a little
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  • Painting Airy Clouds
    Q: I'm a beginner painter, and I'm hoping you can recommend a technique for painting clouds that will create the illusion of airiness. Can you help me? A: Regardless of your medium—watercolor, acrylic, or oil—the basic rules for edges
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  • Priming Plywood for Oil Painting
    Q: Is it necessary to prime plywood before painting on it with oil? Couldn't I apply a layer of oil paint directly to the board, let it dry, and then start painting on it? A: Painting directly on plywood can prove problematic. Plywood is porous and
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  • Varnish Recipe
    Q: I paint in oil and acrylic, and I've successfully used an acrylic final varnish for both. I seem to have misplaced this final varnish recipe, but I believe that it was part gloss and part matte. Can you recommend a recipe of this type for me? A
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  • Do you have any recommendations on how to get started with acrylic painting?
    Q: I'm a retiree and I'm taking up painting, specifically acrylic painting, for the first time. Do you have any recommendations on how to get started? A: Acrylic is a great medium for beginners because it is the most versatile type of paint. You
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  • April 2009
    The Table of Contents for the April 2009 issue of American Artist magazine.
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  • Modern Ways to Sell Traditional Art
    Ed Terpening may represent the future of art education and marketing. His skills as a plein air painter and a software engineer allowed him to use social-media marketing to build a flourishing art career. Reading about his experiences could help you navigate through the new world of digital communication
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  • Workshop Spring 2009
    The table of contents from the Spring 2009 issue of Workshop magazine.
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  • Quang Ho: Essential Information for Painters of All Levels
    Colorado artist Quang Ho’s new instructional DVD series offers a concise version of what students can expect in his workshops, including his eight visual approaches to painting, his views on developing understanding, and a discussion of everything he wishes he had known before he started painting
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  • En Plein Air: Favorite Landscape Instructors?
    Over the last several years workshops have increased in popularity and attendance as artists find that they can often gain just as strong a skill set and insight by spending one week with an accomplished instructor that they can in months or even years of taking accredited art classes. Who are some of
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  • En Plein Air: The Life & Work of Robert Wood
    Jeffrey Morseburg—the owner of Morseburg Galleries, in Los Angeles—has become an expert on the great landscape painter Robert Wood, having learned of the artist through his father’s personal and professional relationship with Wood, as well as having organized two retrospectives and
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  • What Do Viewers Say About Your Art?
    Steve Doherty talks about the various comments he's received while painting en plein air, and asks other artists what they've heard while working on or exhibiting their art.
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  • En Plein Air: Favorite Quotes?
    In this blog entry, Allison Malafronte lists some of her favorite quotes related to landscape painting and nature, and encourages you to share the phrases, sayings, or sentiments that have inspired you.
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  • Drawing Basics: Michael Graves' Traditional Roots
    Michael Graves may be best known now for designing household items and iconic buildings, but he has roots in traditional rendering, as a 2007 book featuring architectural renderings from a 1960 sketchbook shows.
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  • En Plein Air: A Conversation With Clyde Aspevig
    Clyde Aspevig's technically astute and aesthetically impressive landscape paintings have been inspiring collectors and painters alike for years, and he is often refered to as a living master among those in the landscape genre. Here, the artist offers valuable insight into how he continues to increase
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  • Drawing Basics: Is Pastel a Drawing Medium?
    Many pastelists consider their pieces to be paintings. Here at American Artist, we have tried to steer clear of the debate on whether pastel is a drawing medium or a painting medium, although when put against the wall and poked in the chest, we'll
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  • The Social Aspects of Watermedia Painting
    Steve Doherty discusses the social aspects of watermedia painting and the proliferation of watermedia organizations.
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  • En Plein Air: Favorite Landscape Painters?
    Plein air artists both past and present continue to serve as inspiration for today’s landscape painters. Here associate editor Allison Malafronte offers a look at some of her favorite historical and contemporary landscape painters and asks you to list those who have influenced your painting process
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  • En Plein Air: Letters On Landscape Painting
    Asher B. Durand was one of the great leaders of the Hudson River School of landscape painters, and his monthly “Letters on Landscape Painting” column he wrote for The Crayon offered readers of the time invaluable insight into his approach to painting nature. Durand’s advice is just
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  • Showcase Your State: Extended Deadline
    We are extending the deadline for the Showcase Your State plein air contest until January 31, 2009. We are accepting submissions for New Jersey, Massachusetts, and North Dakota. The first Showcase Your State finalists will appear on this blog in February
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  • En Plein Air: Nocturne-Painting Tips
    At some point most plein air painters try their hand at painting at twilight or at night, otherwise known as a nocturne. This can be a fun and challenging way to expand your skills as a landscape painter and force yourself to judge colors and values under
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  • En Plein Air: A Conversation With Lynn Gertenbach
    by Allison Malafronte It’s time for my favorite En Plein Air post of the month: “A Conversation With”! This month I had the pleasure of interviewing Lynn Gertenbach, the accomplished landscape painter and instructor from California.
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  • Gifts Artists Give One Another
    Steve Doherty asked several well-known artists what gifts they would present to another artist during the upcoming holiday season. Here's what they said.
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  • Exhibition: Sur le Motif: Painting in Nature Around 1800
    This exhibition focuses on the practice of painting sur le motif , or in nature, as it developed in Europe in the late-18th and early-19th centuries. A golden age of plein air painting emerged in Italy around the turn of the 19th century, and artists
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  • En Plein Air: The Salmagundi Centennial
    A Lumpy Sea by James Gale Tyler, 1909, oil. by Allison Malafronte The Salmagundi Club, in New York City, has a long history of being one of the most important art organizations in the country and has held exhibitions over the years that have featured
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  • En Plein Air: A California Exhibition
    Stately Palms by Paul Grimm, oil, 20 x 24. Private collection. by Allison Malafronte There’s a wonderful exhibition of landscape work currently on view at The Irvine Museum, in Irvine, California, that I would like to share with all of you. It’s
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  • Real Men Paint En Plein Air
    by Allison Malafronte Nothing proves a plein air painter’s prowess like surviving a hard-core painting session battling the elements of nature. The young, talented California artists Jeremy Lipking and Tony Pro learned this the hard and—as
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  • En Plein Air: Showcase Your State!
    American Artist is announcing a new contest for the Plein Air section of our website that will allow plein air painters from across the country to showcase their state and tell us a little bit about the landscape they call home. Beginning in December
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  • En Plein Air: A Conversation With Matt Smith
    by Allison Malafronte Every month I allow you to come into my cube for a few minutes and “listen in” on a conversation I had with a top plein air painter. I try to ask the artist the questions I think you as aspiring professional plein air
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  • Useful Art Links
    We have provided a list of links to online art resources that we think are helpful. You can also access these links in the Art Educators section of our website. Art Associations Plein Air Plein Air Painters of America The Plein Air Scene Indiana Plein
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  • En Plein Air: Painting the American Landscape
    by Allison Malafronte Kenn Backhaus painting on the shores of Resurrection Bay, in Seward, Alaska. Part of my job as an editor at American Artist and the “En Plein Air” blogger is to inform you of any events, exhibitions, or products that
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  • Drawings Basics: Art for Writing
    Mark Leithauser collaborated with his brother, the poet Brad Leithauser, on a series of books that expanded his imaginative powers, leading him to consider a multitude of new subjects. A 2002–2003, graphite drawing. All artwork this article courtesy
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  • Oil Critique: "American Grenadier"
    One of the most useful aspects of painting workshops is the personalized critiques offered by knowledgeable instructors. Now you can get this advantage anytime through the American Artist Critique Blog. Through this blog, you can get commentary and suggestions
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  • Oil Painting: The Dutch Italianates at the Muscarelle Museum of Art
    The Muscarelle Museum of Art, in Williamsburg, Virginia, will be the initial site for the national tour of the major exhibition of Old Master paintings. The Dutch Italianates: Seventeenth-Century Masterpieces From Dulwich Picture Gallery Through March
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  • Anatomy of the Landscape: Trees in Plein Air Painting
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  • Oil Painting: All The Water That Will Ever Be, Is, Right Now at the Irvine Museum
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  • Acrylic: Fine Art or Illustration?
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  • See Your Art Objectively
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  • VIDEO: Phil Sandusky's "New Orleans Street With Construction Crew"
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  • Beginners: Watercolor Tips: Achieving Optimal Effects
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  • "American Artist" Magazine Cover Competition Winners
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  • Colleen Howe's 4 Steps to Building Stronger Paintings
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  • Janet Monafo Chat Transcript
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  • Tony Curanaj's Workshop: Knowledge and Structure Allow Freer Painting
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  • Artist of the Month: Sarah Siltala: Capturing Utter Stillness
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  • Acrylic: Ellen Rolli: Painting Coach
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  • Drawing Basics: Female Nude Figure Drawing
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  • Oil Painting: The Knowlton Gallery Presents Yosemite on Canvas
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  • Oil Painting: Ron Hicks' "Noelle With a Black Dress"
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  • Oil Painting: Mary Anna Goetz's Colorful Landscapes
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  • Artist of the Month: Nick Clulow: Interior Acrylic Portraits
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  • Oil Painting: Daniel E. Greene: Gleaning Inspiration From Formative Experiences
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  • Jeffrey Reed: Introducing the Basics of Painting
    Students at the Community College of Philadelphia receive thorough instruction in the fundamentals of drawing and painting, especially those currently enrolled in Jeffrey Reed’s introductory course, Art 115—Painting I. by M. Stephen Doherty
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  • Art and the River at The James A. Michener Art Museum
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  • Oil Painting: Susan Lichtman: The Powerful Use of Light in Oil Interiors
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  • Acrylic: CRITIQUE: "Silver Server With Cups"
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  • Pastel: Critique: "The Old Man"
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  • Oil Painting: 3 Views of the Same Scene
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  • Acrylic: CRITIQUE: "The Mother Wore Green (at the Wedding)"
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  • Pastel: Sam Goodsell: Sticking With the Figure
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  • Jim Wilcox: The Right Shape and the Right Color
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  • Oil Painting: Step by Step: Johnnie Liliedahl's "Lady in White"
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  • Oil Painting: Max Ginsburg's Portraits and New York City Scenes
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  • Oil Painting: Work by Ralph Albert Blakelock at the National Academy Museum
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  • Oil Painting: David Koch: Painting With Technology
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  • Oil Painting: Kevin Sanders' Plein Air Landscapes
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  • Florence Griswold Museum Presents “Impressionist Giverny”
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  • Drawing Basics: Arlene Steinberg on Colored Pencil
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  • Michael McNamara's Urban Plein Air Tips
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  • Oil Painting: Garth Herrick Portrait Demo: Light on the Ground
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  • Oil Painting: Garth Herrick Portrait Demo: Lightening the Key
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  • Oil Painting: Garth Herrick Portrait Demo: Copying a Notable Portrait
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  • Morgan Samuel Price's "Last of the Roses"
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  • "American Artist" 2007 Cover Competition
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  • "Watercolor" Magazine 2007 Cover Competition Finalists
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  • Pastel: William Schneider: Painting the Mouth
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  • Artist of the Month: Christopher Copeland
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  • Oil Painting: Garth Herrick Portrait Demo: A College President
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  • Oil Painting: Garth Herrick Portrait Demo: Working on Other Portraits
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  • Oil Painting: Garth Herrick Portrait Demo: Further Work on Faces
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  • Oil Painting: Garth Herrick Portrait Demo: Background and Adjustments
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  • Oil Painting: Christopher Evans' Golden Landscapes
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  • Lori Simon's "Bass Harbor Marsh"
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  • Oil Painting: Garth Herrick Portrait Demo: The Boy's Shorts and Face
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  • Oil Painting: Garth Herrick Portrait Demo: The Older Girl
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  • Oil Painting: Garth Herrick Portrait Demo: Blocking In the Portraits
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  • Oil Painting: Garth Herrick Portrait Demo: The Underdrawing
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  • Oil Painting: Herrick Master Portrait Demo
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  • Oil Painting: Herrick Portrait Demo From Start to Finish
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  • Oil Painting: Scott Prior: A Contemporary Approach to California Impressionism
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  • Pastel: Patricia A. Hannaway: Drawing What the Model is Doing
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  • Acrylic: CRITIQUE: "Geraniums"
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  • Acrylic: CRITIQUE: "Bleu"
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  • Acrylic: CRITIQUE: "The Moroccan Vase"
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  • Oil Painting: Step by Step: "Reflections in Gold"
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  • Oil Painting: Garth Herrick Portrait Demo: Meeting the Client and Reference Photos
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  • BACAA: Classical Training From Contemporary Masters
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  • Oil Painting: Gustave Courbet: The First Realist
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  • Oil Painting: Step by Step: Joseph Gyurcsak's "Subtle Grays"
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  • Beginner Oil: Setting up for Plein Air painting
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  • Oil Painting: Tree's Place Gallery Exhibition: Six Premier Landscape Artists
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  • Oil Painting: Scott Prior's Landscapes
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  • Jim Wilcox: More Student Critiques
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  • Oil Painting: Peter Fiore: Freely Interpreting Nature
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  • Oil Painting: Jimmy Sanders: The Structure Needed in Painting and in Life
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  • Oil Painting: Peter Fiore's Oil Landscapes
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  • Watercolor: Jane Paul Angelhart: A Practical and Creative Approach to Commissioned Portraits
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  • Watercolor: Charles Reid: Natural and Authentic Watercolors
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  • Oil Painting: Steve Armes: Creating Imaginative Studio Paintings
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  • Beginner Oil: Recommended Books for a Beginning Artists
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  • Art Business: Artist's Web Blogs
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  • Watercolor: 20 Great Watercolor Teachers: Biographies and Artwork
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  • Beginners: An Introduction to Color Theory
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  • Artist of the Month: Allen Webb
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  • Pastel: 70th Anniversary Competition Winners
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  • Pastel: CRITIQUE: "Maddy No. 1"
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  • Beginner Oil: Determining the focal point of a painting
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  • Oil Painting: Christine Lafuente's Oils: Exploration of Color and Form
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  • Art in Colorado
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  • Oil Painting: Michael Albrechtsen: Spend More Time Looking
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  • Oil Painting: Abigail McBride's Still Lifes, Landscapes, and Figures
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  • Watercolor: Peter Hussey: The Impact of Geometric Shapes in Watercolor Paintings
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  • Oil Painting: Daniel Graves: Steward of Humanist Art
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  • Hudson River School for Landscape: Reviving an American Tradition
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  • Acrylic: CRITIQUE: "Looking South—Hollywood Beach, Florida"
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  • Oil Painting: Kim Casebeer's Oil Landscapes
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  • Oil Painting: Cecilia Beaux's Legacy
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  • Watercolor: Susan Van Campen: Capturing a Flower's Likeness
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  • Drawing Basics: Ingres' Miraculous Lines
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  • Oil Painting: Patrick Gordon: Welcoming Midcareer Challenges
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  • Artist of the Month: Lonnie Shan
    Texas cattle rancher Lonnie Shan depicts the animals he admires in stunning watercolors, taking great care to capture their personality and soul. by Naomi Ekperigin Hard is the Journey 1991, watercolor, 14 x 10. Collection the artist. Viewing one of Lonnie
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  • Oil Painting: Cecilia Beaux's Portraits
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  • Technique: Watercolor Pencils: Bridging the Gap Between Painting and Drawing
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  • Oil Painting: Thomas Cordell's Cityscapes
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  • Watercolor: Steve Hanks: Romantic and Inspirational Watercolors
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  • Pastel: Albert Handell's Pastel Paintings
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  • Beyond Drawing Basics: Evidence & Interpretation in Master Landscape Drawings
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  • Oil Painting: Steve Armes' Landscapes
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  • Oil Painting: SPONSORED CONTENT: Artist Behind the Brand: Scott Gellatly
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  • Watercolor: Kathleen Kolb: Versatility in Vermont
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  • Pastel: Ann Sanders: The Practical Pastelist
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  • Oil Painting: Frederic Edwin Church: A Great Landscape Painting Teacher
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  • Oil Painting: Using Subtle Grays in Still Life Painting
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  • Oil Painting: Debra Teare: Updating Trompe l'Oeil For Today
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  • Art Business: Investing in Artists
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  • Oil Painting: Ellen Buselli: Observing Carefully, Thinking Abstractly, and Painting Traditionally
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  • Oil Painting: GALLERY: Ellen Buselli's Still Lifes
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  • Oil Painting: Ismael Checo: Color, Richness, and Light
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  • Acrylic: CRITIQUE: "Reflecting at Sunset"
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  • Watercolor: 70th Anniversary Competition Winners
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  • Acrylic: CRITIQUE: "California Seascape"
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  • Acrylic: CRITIQUE: "Blue Violets of Provence"
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  • California Art Club Announces Award Winners
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  • Laguna College of Art & Design Exhibition Winners Announced
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  • Drawing Basics: Colored Pencil 70th Anniversary Competition Winners
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  • Oil Painting: Doug Higgins: Attracting the Viewer's Eye
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  • Oil Painting: Oil 70th Anniversary Competition Winners
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  • Masters: The Academy Drawings of Pierre-Paul Prud'hon
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  • Masters: John Ruskin and His Influence on American Art
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  • Masters: Ingres’ Materials
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  • Watercolor: Carl Dalio: Cruising the River of Living Color
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  • Pastel: CRITIQUE: "Kate Menendez"
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  • Watercolor: Elizabeth O'Reilly: An Oil Painter Takes on the Figure in Watercolor
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  • Pastel: Suzanne LaPrade: Getting Down the Bones
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  • Pastel: Robert Hoffman: About Brown County, Indiana
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  • Acrylic: CRITIQUE: Working in Mixed Media
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  • Drawing Basics: Understanding the Anatomy of the Ear
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  • Beyond Drawing Basics: Ashcan Drawings
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  • Oil Painting: GALLERY: Oils by Susan Goetz & Robert Schneider
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  • Oil Painting: GALLERY: Richard Baumann's Landscapes and Interior Scenes
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  • Oil Painting: SPONSORED CONTENT: Artist Behind the Brand: Robert Gamblin of Gamblin Artist’s Colors
    Robert Gamblin developed his art career and paint manufacturing business by learning how quality paints are made and how they can be used safely and effectively in the studio. by M. Stephen Doherty Evening Makena 2007, oil, 24 x 18. Collection the artist
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  • Oil Painting: Carolyn Egeli's Impressionistic Approach
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  • Oil Painting: Plein-Air Painters of America Members: From the Site to the Studio
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  • Oil Painting: GALLERY: More Paintings from PAPA Members
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  • Oil Painting: GALLERY: Carolyn Egeli's Landscapes and Still Lifes
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  • Oil Painting: On Location in Malibu: Paintings by CAC Members
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  • Oil Painting: GALLERY: Roger Dale Brown's Oils
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  • Oil Painting: GALLERY: Dawn Whitelaw's Portraits
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  • Technique: Design Aesthetic
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  • Acrylic: CRITIQUE: "Moonlit Forest"
    Be sure to locate the light source in the composition before you begin painting. by Elizabeth Pruitt Moonlit Forest 2006, acrylic, 24 x 30. This artist demonstrates some good, basic painting skills; however, the artist might want to consider the following
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  • Oil Painting: Heavy Paint, Big Brushes, and No Cleanup: The Paintings of Ken Auster
    This California artist pursues an aggressive, take-no-prisoners approach to plein air painting. by John A. Parks Dos Roses 2006, oil, 12 x 9. Courtesy Red Piano Art Gallery, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Ken Auster uses loads of thick paint and
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  • Oil Painting: GALLERY: Elizabeth Pruitt's Portraits
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  • Oil Painting: Matthew Mitchell: Applying Rembrandt's Portrait Techniques
    Oil painter Matthew Mitchell adapts Rembrandt’s working method for his portraits spotlighting Americans serving in civilian or military roles in Iraq and Afghanistan. by Karen Frankel Alexander Scott Arredondo 2005, oil on linen, 30 x 26. All artwork
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  • Oil Painting: Meredith Brooks Abbott: Seeing Nature With Fresh Eyes
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  • Oil Painting: GALLERY: Meredith Brooks Abbott's Oils
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  • Oil Painting: GALLERY: Kathleen Kolb's Oil Landscapes
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  • Oil Painting: Sarah Lamb: Painting the World as a Feast
    Traditionally trained artist Sarah Lamb uses her passion for the kitchen to bring a new vitality to the art of the still life. Mousse au Chocolat 2005, oil on linen, 20 x 32. All artwork this article private collection unless otherwise indicated. by John
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  • Oil Painting: GALLERY: Pat Kelly's Still Lifes
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  • Oil Painting: Art That Heals: Camille Engel
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  • Oil Painting: Emphraim Rubenstein: The Art of the Portrait/Still Life
    Read an excerpt from the July/August American Artist feature on still-life artist Emphraim Rubenstein. by William Chapman Sharpe Self-portrait With Vanitas Symbols by David Bailly, 1651, oil, 25½ x 38?. Collection Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal,
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  • Pastel: Wende Caporale: The Similarities in Painting Portraits in Oil or Pastel
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  • Beginner Oil: Paintbrush care
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  • Oil Painting: Leonid Gervits’ Process
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  • Oil Painting: Philip R. Jackson: Setting the Stage
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  • EXHIBITION: American Impressionism: Paintings From The Phillips Collection
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  • Masters: 20 Great Watercolor Teachers Offer Their Best Recommendation
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  • Oil Painting: Ned Mueller: The Importance of Value Studies
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  • Oil Painting: GALLERY: James M. Sulkowski's Oil Paintings
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  • EXHIBITION: Poetry in Design: The Art of Harry Leith-Ross
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  • Oil Painting: Josh Elliott's Tips for Painting Snow
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  • En Plein Air: Thomas Van Stein: Painting the Light of Night en Plein Air
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  • Oil Painting: GALLERY: Josh Elliott's Tone Poems
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  • Oil Painting: Josh Elliott: Tapestries in Oil
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  • Oil Painting: Timothy Barr: Online Exclusive Painting
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  • Technique: Jack Beal Unveils Companion Mural in New York City Subway
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  • Watercolor: Essay: A Visit With Andrew Wyeth, March 9, 2006
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