Dear Artist, If you’re reading this letter on the 19th of December, keep in mind that in the northern hemisphere the day after tomorrow, December 21st (at 11:04 PM, to be exact) is the Winter Solstice — the shortest, darkest…
Dear Artist, Yesterday, Stephen Quiller was passing through and we invited him to come over for lunch. We talked about painting, naturally, but also about dealers, shipping, framing, repairing damaged paintings, and also about current interests — Bouguereau, casein, workshopping.…
Dear Artist, I’m willing to bet that lots of artists have never heard of William Bouguereau. He was, however, one of the most celebrated artists of his time — admired, collected, lionized — President of the French Academy, Head of…
Dear Artist, Anyone who takes a lingering look at the work of Egon Schiele can’t help but be impressed. A brief, bright star in Austrian art (he died in a flu epidemic in 1918, age 28), his drawings, his painted…
Dear Artist, These days the word “depression” appears frequently in my inbox. Along with it are the oft-mentioned problems of addiction, alcoholism, and other disappointing behaviour, as well as the complaint that things are not working out quite as well…
Dear Artist, Many of you know that one of the elements of my art mentoring has been the business of having a studio pet. To the sometimes amusement of others I’ve maintained that my own flourishing has been in large…
Dear Artist, Henri Matisse had taken a look into Morocco in 1913 and 1914. The complexity, the busyness, perhaps the strangeness of the place confused him. He talked about the light but did little about it. Already on the road…
Dear Artist, Somewhere among the warrens of the Fes medina you enter a dark, unmarked doorway, bump your head climbing narrow stairs and then pass through corridors hung closely with leather products. Salesmen, who you will meet later, lurk in…
Dear Artist, I took a four-wheel-drive out into the Chebbi Erg. This is about 50 clicks east of Erfoud in central Morocco. It’s a bump or two across a roadless gravel mirage until you come to the beginning of the…
Dear Artist, Jacques Majorelle (1886-1962) was the son of a celebrated furniture designer of Nancy, France. Suffering from heart problems, he came to Marrekesh for his health in 1919 and immediately saw the painterly potential of southern Morocco. In 1924…