Dear Artist, A number of artists have been asking about the current economic downturn. More than anything, they want to know what’s going to happen to us creative spirits. While I’m no economist, there’s evidence of a hard truth. Art…
Dear Artist, Composition is the relative positioning of shapes and forms within a picture plane. “The composition,” said pioneer abstractionist Wassily Kandinsky, “is the organized sum of the interior functions of every part of the work.” As a frequent juror,…
Dear Artist, Yesterday, Bob Whistler of Brainerd, Minnesota, wrote, “I’ve been a painter for nine years and I sign my work ‘Whistler.’ I put my full name and date on the back. James McNeill Whistler, a distant relation, signed his…
Dear Artist, Yesterday, David Fitzgerald of Concord, California, asked some excellent questions. Every one of us would probably have given different answers. In trying to give him some insight, I realized that when I was younger I was trying to…
Dear Artist, For the last few days I’ve been painting on a particularly frigid balcony at Whistler, B.C., Canada. You may know that Whistler is the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics. The main currency around here is snow, and…
Dear Artist, This morning, Terry Culbert of Amherst Island, Ontario, wrote, “I’ve noticed that some artists insert text over their online images to avoid unwanted downloading. I dislike the business of marring our work in this way. Looking at mine,…
Dear Artist, Some artists who might read this, especially the more highly evolved ones, are going to say, “I don’t need to find passion, I’ve already found it.” Fair enough. Here are a few ideas for those who may have…
Dear Artist, In high school I did quite well on IQ tests but was a bit thick when it came to math, sports, maturity, and a pile of basic life skills. I also knew lower-scoring students who sported many of…
Dear Artist, For the past while our good friends Gil and Marion Dyck needed a medium sized abstract to go at the top of the stairs in the entrance to their new home. Over the past two days Gil and…