Dear Artist, Sarah Sibley of Rattlesden, Suffolk, UK wrote yesterday and asked, “I was just wondering if you consider yourself and other artists ‘special’ compared to everyone else. I’m sixteen years old and coming to grips with being an artistic…
Dear Artist, My late friend Bert Oudendag used to open his oil tubes from their back-ends, squeeze the contents onto a steel tabouret and carefully fold in 50% by volume of stand oil, a small amount of copal varnish and…
Dear Artist, We’ve let loose the bowline and we’re drifting. There’s a skin of ice here and there on this tame little river near where we live. I’m wearing gloves. I’m using the paints we left in the box after…
Dear Artist, What surprised me after the last letter, as well as the valuable tips and systems sent in, were the number of artists who wrote to say that a studio was not all that important. It seems there’s a…
Dear Artist, Sandy Triolo of Silver Spring, Maryland, wrote to say, “I’m in the process of planning a studio to be attached to my new home. I’m checking on what to build; either one of those glazed patio enclosures that…
Dear Artist, Today I crawled back into my space. After the hyper energy of the outer world, the East, pushing and shoving, sights seen, gifts collected, philosophies touched. This room, this untidy room, now tidy from my absence, the home…
Dear Artist, I love rivers. You can dream on rivers. Subject matter comes to you. They’re an ever-flowing muse. The Chao Phraya River is the ancient lifeline of Thailand. Rising in the mountains of the north, it passes through the…
Dear Artist, Right now painting is a difficult business. Here in Thailand there’s too much richness, too much jostling, too much confusion. I’m not angry. I’m just frustrated. Buddha says we attempt to run our lives through a veil of…
Dear Artist, Near Chiang Mai there’s an important temple known as Doi Suthep. It’s reached from a mountain highway and a funicular which rises several hundred meters to the level of the temple. Here, near the top of a golden…