Dear Artist, Yesterday, James Harris of New Lenox, IL, USA, wrote, “I’ve always dabbled in art, but now I’m looking to make the transition to my dream of being an artist. It’s been said that your income will never be…
Dear Artist, Up there on the scaffold we have Michelangelo shouting, “Form, form, form!” And then there’s Gustave Flaubert writing in French, “Art is nothing without form.” These commands might have you think form is everything. It is, just about.…
Dear Artist, Today it’s raining in Chadds Ford, PA. Big drops fall from the ancient sycamores. Off in foggy Brandywine Valley, the witch hazel and pignut hickory still hold their muted colours. Great black trunks narrow down to sharp and…
Dear Artist, A good friend, Ron Longstaffe, now passed away, was an off-and-on fishing companion. A significant collector of what we amusingly called low- and medium-skilled art, he and I frequently whiled away boat hours discussing the virtues of his…
Dear Artist, I’m laptopping you from Table 6 in an intimate restaurant in the Carlyle Hotel in New York City’s Upper East Side. We’ve just emerged from the adjoining bar; a genuine period piece if there ever was one. Here…
Dear Artist, During a recent short workshop, I reintroduced my legendary hourglass. Bought in a junk shop some years ago, its “hour” consists of only 37 minutes. Such is the deflation of time. The idea for the 25 participants was…
Dear Artist, This morning, Michael Epp of Bowen Island, B.C., wrote, “‘Just take away everything that doesn’t look like a horse.’ That’s what the sculptors say. Which implies that as long as you avoid all the obvious mistakes, you’ll end…
Dear Artist, Yesterday, Roscoe E. Wallace of Fort Walton Beach, FL, wrote, “Do you recommend painting over acrylic paintings or should they be kept for reflection? Since I’ve been at it for over 40 years, I have lots of paintings…
Dear Artist, Yesterday, Melinda Wilde of Gabriola Island, B.C., wrote, “I’m design challenged. I see the shapes and I love the shapes but, for whatever reason, I just can’t get my work to go WOW with them. I’m quite sure…
