Dear Artist, Last Thursday night I opened an exhibition in our local Museum. It’s a non-selling retrospective called Small Stuff, — a collection of smaller paintings, mostly 11″ x 14″ inches, old and new, that will remain on display for…
Dear Artist, In 1903, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke responded by letter to a young man seeking his advice. Rilke eventually wrote ten letters now collectively known and much published as Letters to a Young Poet. They are heartfelt advice…
Dear Artist, In my last letter Pre-Raphaelite painter John Collier recommended cleaning brushes in the palm of the hand. It turns out lots of folks do this. Lyn Lasneski wrote, “I teach workshops and one of the big problems my students have…
Dear Artist, One of the problems with talking about palettes is that those little blobs of paint are a moving target. What’s happening one day may be replaced by something else the next. Further, pros are often able to make…
Dear Artist, On the last day of the year several collectors were in my studio. They were looking to add to their collections or to buy afterthought gifts. These were old friends, so the Scotch and the laughs were important…
Dear Artist, Several years ago our family took over a 16th century retreat in southern Spain. Our host, Javier Lopez, turned out to be a Tintin collector. Spanish translations of Tintin comics were stashed all over the place. Being familiar…
Dear Artist, A sack of email dropped down this chimney after my recent walk with Renoir. If you remember, he was enthusing about black and knocking Pissarro for not using it. The emails made me realize that poor old black is…
Dear Artist, Last night Betty Piderman of Kitsilano, B.C., Canada wrote, “I was wondering about the Monday Night Art Club you mentioned recently. Can anybody join? Is it membership only? Is there a fee? Where is it held? I would…
Dear Artist, Not many hikers are on the Grand Randonnee in the Cevennes this time of year. You’d think in a country the size of France the public footpaths would always be busy. But no one is around, save a…
Dear Artist, There are eight paintings in these two rooms. Each is two meters high and they vary in length from six to seventeen meters. You already know I’m talking about les Nympheas — the water-lilies of Claude Monet, painted between…