Dear Artist, Our eyes move toward those things already on our minds. A man passionate about model railroading, for example, is likely to look at a painting of a locomotive. But deeper cues move our eyes. Some of these stimulants…
Dear Artist, Yesterday, I received an email from Bill Brown: “Am Bill i want to know if u carry Painting For Sale? if i have not mention the size can tell me one u have now ready to sell? Any…
Dear Artist, Glazing is a technique where a transparent, usually darker, tone is washed over previously painted and dried passages. While primarily an acrylic technique, glazing can also be used in oils and watercolours. A glaze is applied with a…
Dear Artist, Now that it’s finally over we can talk about it. Believe me, Canadians were paying attention, and now that it’s a done deal there’s a bit of street dancing up here. But, goodness knows, Barack Obama’s got a…
Dear Artist, Lately there has been a pileup of emails asking for ideas in dealing with abusive fathers, spouses, and other family members. Writers report stymied growth, inability to concentrate, trust and authority-figure issues, fear, depression, anger and other unpleasantries.…
Dear Artist, In the incredibly dark and grubby Odessa airport, waiting for the short flight to Kiev, I find a crumpled copy of the English-language Herald Tribune. While most of its words appear well used by previous travellers, there’s an…
Dear Artist, While wandering around in Romania I inadvertently hit on some Wi-Fi and noticed what Ron Wilson had asked in the live comments: “I guess I know the answer to this, but do successful artists pretty well sell everything…
Dear Artist, Every Bulgarian Orthodox church has an iconostasis spanning its center and holding up to six tiers of icons. The top row — the deesis — has an image of Christ in the center. These Christ figures are often…
Dear Artist, In dark light, a dozen musicians mysteriously appear wearing long black cloaks and tall, earthen-coloured hats. They begin an undulating, repetitious, trance-like melody. After some considerable time, five more similarly-attired characters arrive and slowly circle in formalized steps,…
Dear Artist, In Istanbul the great marketplace is jammed. Arm in arm the shoppers come, jostled, impeded and pressed forward by the throng. Noisy and competitive, it’s a fluid masterpiece of diversity and the side-by-side offering of similar products and…