Dear Artist, While catching up with an artist friend recently, we rambled through a few mechanical subjects: galleries, crating and shipping, contracts, assistants, exhibitions and fairs, pricing, sales, community, stretchers, transportation and studio visits — each a detail of the…
Dear Artist, In 1862 James McNeill Whistler painted Symphony in White, No.1: The White Girl. It demonstrates the nuances of a pigment that is basic to our palettes. Unlike the Sargent painting that we looked at before, it has none…
Dear Artist, “Just like aging wine, a product of creative work acquires quality over time,” suggests theoretical physicist Avi Loeb recently in Scientific American. “It is colored by the response of the audience as well as by imitations.” What Loeb…
Dear Artist, A recent book, Cancer and the Art of Healing co-written by Dr. Marilyn Hundleby and Sherry Abbott, catalogues a variety of activities — painting, singing, writing, photography, journaling, quilting, etc., that have positive effects on patients. “Art helps…
Dear Artist, Yesterday, Chris Bingle of Stroud in Gloucestershire, UK, asked about signing paintings. She recently turned down the purchase of one because the artist had signed her name “quite high on the lower left in a thick, black stylized…
Dear Artist, Ellen Winner, Professor Emerita of Psychology at Boston College and Senior Research Associate at Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education, studies learning, thinking and creativity in the arts. As part of her role as founder and director…
Dear Artist, Work can sit on the easel for months, even years. The afflicted artist may be dedicated, hard-working and obsessive. In mild cases he takes a very long time to get to signing, let alone to making a delivery.…
Dear Artist, Caroline Morse, from Southern California, wrote, “I often find I am not satisfied with the brushwork. I may have pulled off a painting I am relatively satisfied with, except for the brushwork. It may be messy or scribbled…
Dear Artist, Yesterday, Stephanie Quinn of Dallas, Texas wrote, “Athletes are taught to visualize winning and to set goals. Often, when I visualize my finished product and set out to work on a piece, it doesn’t turn out as well…