Dear Artist, In the 1960s, when Canadian artist Betty Goodwin was in her 40s, she enrolled in a printmaking class with abstract painter and printmaker Yves Gaucher in Montreal. There, Betty started experimenting with found objects and clothing. Having always…
Dear Artist, My late friend Egbert Oudendag used to say, “The best way to help artists is to hinder them.” He had the idea that being tough was the way to bring out their gumption. It was also the key…
Dear Artist, Here’s a decluttering idea: 1. For this exercise, commit to 30 minutes and a palette of six mixable colours, warm to cool, avoiding black. (Hint: mixing Phthalo Green with Alizarin Crimson, or Ultramarine with Burnt Umber make fabulous…
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, A collector of emerging and mid-career art recently told me about the friendships she’s struck up with artists on social media, many of them young. “Before I knew it, we had moved to private messaging and were having…
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…
Dear Artist, My mail carrier, a guy about my age with a gentle smile, always brings the deliveries to the front door, sneaks a glance through the windows and gives me a wave. Yesterday, when I opened the door to…
Dear Artist, We’ve talked a few times about audacity, which is a totally good thing unless you don’t know what you’re doing. Think of a surgeon giving someone an artificial hip with a load of audacity and no knowledge. It…
Dear Artist, A young friend, who has this fall begun an art degree, received a gut-punch crit. Up until now, due to the open-plan nature of the school’s studios and her ability to overhear the crits of her neighbours, she’d…
Dear Artist, Last night, Catherine Stock of Rignac, France wrote, “I wonder if you could write a letter on how to elevate one’s work beyond the “So what?” level. That’s where I’m stuck. I can draw and paint pretty well,…