Dear Artist, I was putting the title The Red Canoe on the back of a painting when my friend Joe Blodgett walked in and said, “Nice painting, too bad about the red canoe.” After a couple of single malts I…
Dear Artist, As a young artist just starting out, I took a few workshops — some of which I actually paid for. I just happened to be in Southern Spain and had the opportunity to hang out with a remarkable…
Dear Artist, Three others hang out with me when I’m painting in our garden. Lester and Mary were around here last year. This year they’ve brought along an oversized teenaged layabout with an annoying voice. Jack is often on his…
Dear Artist, Yesterday, Andrée M. Kuhne of Kingston, Ontario, Canada wrote, “My friends and I exchange our art by email to get feedback. Why does art look so much better on a small scale than in the original?” Thanks, Andrée.…
Dear Artist, Somewhere out in Lake of the Woods — a lake with 14,000 islands straddling the border between the US and Canada — there’s one very special island. After several searches, I located this island in 2004. It was…
Dear Artist, Among our fellow presenters at our recent workshop at Hollyhock on Cortes Island was 82-year-old Benedictine Brother David Steindl-Rast. David is perhaps unlike your standard idea of a Roman Catholic monk. He’s a free-ranging purveyor of wisdom, apparently…
Dear Artist, Yesterday, Kathryn Ikeda of the San Francisco Bay Area wrote, “Recently I was asked to submit jpegs of my paintings for an upcoming book. Requiring high quality digital images, what stopped me from hiring a photographer was that…
Dear Artist, When our kids were small they were regularly stationwagonned over to our local Yamaha School of Music. There, in a well-trodden storefront they became minor masters of piano, guitar and the console of the mighty Yamaha. Before long,…
Dear Artist, Readers of this letter frequently ask if I think there’s some sort of malaise in art these days — particularly in Western Art. Some want to know if it’s all to do with the economy. Funnily, this question…
Dear Artist, Yesterday, Kristen Dukat of Findlay, Ohio wrote, “I began my journey at the University of Toledo in Fine Art. Lacking confidence, I switched to Art Education. I felt I couldn’t take the rejection from galleries and shows and…