Dear Artist, Here’s a simple system that builds creativity immediately. (Writing that line made me feel like a snake-oil salesman. But I digress.) I’m talking about pushing yourself to doing just one more thing every day. Results are guaranteed if…
Dear Artist, Though he’s only been painting for a decade or so, Ross Penhall is now an international success. Ross’s story is a good one. Finding spaces of idleness in his job as a fireman, he took up painting as an…
Dear Artist, In a recent interview, the wildly successful film director Brett Ratner said, “It’s more difficult to make a commercial film that works than a pretentious art movie.” Unfortunately, the more successful his work, the more the poor fellow is…
Dear Artist, We all have a tendency to focus on the daily progress and setbacks of our working lives. The balancing of practical matters and creative joy seem so all-involving that our art can become our main reason for living.…
Dear Artist, Throughout my painting life, which is pretty well all of it, I’ve been interested in the idea of working in confined spaces. It has something to do with a dream of simplicity and minimalism — perhaps influenced by Thoreau…
Dear Artist, Yesterday, Amanda Jackson of Bahrain wrote, “Lively greys! It’s a breakthrough. My work was over-coloured and sometimes in a trite way. I was working ‘en grisaille’ but lately I’ve actually started to see the world in paint — and…
Dear Artist, Murals are sticky business for painters. Some won’t touch them. A bad mark has been the fugitive nature of many of the recent outdoor jobs. Some of the best of these have faded after only a few summers.…
Dear Artist, Yesterday Alexis Ramos wrote, “I’m impressed that you’ve worked as an artist full time for all of your life. What would you recommend to a young person like me who wants to make a decent living as an artist?”…
Dear Artist, While it may be academic to know your light source before you begin, it’s also possible — particularly in darker climes — to make light sources and light effects arbitrary and after the fact. Keep them in your…
Dear Artist, An excellent Quebec painter, Lorne Bouchard, once gave me some advice. He told me that a painter needs to work from three sources — from self-generated photo reference, from life, and from the imagination. “All painters,” he said,…