Dear Artist, The making of art can be divided into three main camps: Subject driven, style driven and idea driven. Subject matter is a secure camp. There can also be ever-widening sorties to find subjects that provide further interest and…
Dear Artist, Jane Super asks, “What is often a problem for me is choosing subject matter. How do you go about it? Is it because you are often inspired by what you see?” It’s interesting to note that many of…
Dear Artist, A situation that often disturbs artists is the competing prevalence of sub-standard art. To artists who have achieved a degree of professionalism but who have not as yet achieved a reputation, this can be discouraging. A frequent complaint…
Dear Artist, Rain drums on the studio roof. We wait for spring and I’m fooling with the colours of summer. A slip, perhaps, to a borderline zone: the goofy idea that colours are people. It started with a quote from…
Dear Artist, A friend of mine (let’s call him Dino) entered retirement the other day and took up painting. You could say Dino has a life-long appreciation of art, but until now he has only thought about actually doing it.…
Dear Artist, Pat Hart of Gabriola Island, B.C., wrote, “Apropos of workshops overseas, could you talk about the subject of getting oneself and gear together and THERE? For instance, does a French easel go as ‘carry on’ or is it…
Dear Artist, A subscriber who wishes to remain anonymous wrote, “I am not always able to work. I am restless and disturbed. I am often not happy with my work. What steals my power?” Most artists will admit that they…
Dear Artist, Karen Pettengill of Portland, Maine asks, “Why do we see problems in our work after it has been put away for a period of time? We’ve all heard and experienced the ‘looking at it with a fresh eye’…
Dear Artist, Stephen Kishel of Muncie, Indiana wrote, “I started welding when I was 7. With the help of a mentor I became serious about art when I was 16. At 17 I had a one-man show and traveled to…
Dear Artist, I call it the assertive eye. It could be something else, the corrective eye perhaps, but that sounds like surgery. It’s a condition. It’s an attitude. It’s a way of working. It depends less on planning and preparation…