Dear Artist, From time to time there’s a letter in my inbox that asks, “What shall I paint?” The question popped up again this morning. Fun. I love to put my mind around questions like this. Like most of us,…
Dear Artist, Carl Rungius (1869-1959) was one of the best big-game painters of all time. He was also a believer in creative thought. He’s the kind of artist from whom you can learn. If you’re not familiar with his work…
Dear Artist, Seasoned painters may think I’m reinventing the wheel here, but this idea is one that many — even many abstractionists — need to know about: The normal and obvious process is to mix a colour to match the…
Dear Artist, Strokes can be tender, harsh, spirited, or tentative. They can tease, anticipate, state or proclaim. They can be straight, curved, abbreviated or elongated. And that’s just for starters. Strokes are the bytes, the building blocks, the yes and…
Dear Artist, I’m lapping up a frozen yogurt in the cafe at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, Canada. There’s a Wegman show on. He’s the guy who photographs Weimaraners wearing clothes. Not just clothes but high fashion couture:…
Dear Artist, After tramping around in the Rockies I was just getting out of a much needed motel bathtub and this anonymous email popped up: “How come you’re always quoting dead artists like Wyeth and Sargent and you never quote…
Dear Artist, The way I look at it a work of art requires the presence of two spirits. The first is the spirit of the subject matter — the object or thing that the work is based on — Nature’s…
Dear Artist, In the summer of 1916, John Singer Sargent wrote to his cousin Mary: “Two things here get on my nerves — one the roaring and hissing and pounding all night long of a tremendous waterfall that I am…