The glamorous life of an artist
It’s easy to forget I’m a painter when I’m up to my elbows in minutiae, but it has to be done. Still, so does painting or I’ve lost my raison d’etre. Clary Hill Blueberry Barrens, Carol L. Douglas. This is one of the pieces I’ve decided (provisionally) should go to New York. Until I change my mind …
May you live in interesting times
History runs in fits and starts. So does your artistic development. Breaking Storm, Carol L. Douglas “Scotch and soda, jigger of gin…” crooned my husband early one morning as we trekked over Beech Hill. That’s a Kingston Trio song from 1958. It set Doug to musing that music changed a lot more in the three …
Monday Morning Art School: the nocturne
Forget the fairy-lights; a good nocturne follows the same rules as any good painting. Hunter’s Supper, c. 1909, Frederic Remington, courtesy National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum Nocturne is a term appropriated by James Abbott McNeill Whistler from music. Whistler used it to title works that evoked the sensation of nighttime or twilight. It didn’t mean just any …
Ruthless pruning
If I had more time, I would have written a shorter essay. Coast Guard Inspection, 6X8, oil on canvasboard. The above witticism has been attributed to many people because it’s a universal truth. President Woodrow Wilson put it thus: “If it is a ten-minute speech it takes me all of two weeks to prepare it; …
All the plein air events, at your fingertips
Thinking about competitive plein air painting? Here’s a useful tool. Beach Erosion, 8X10, oil on canvasboard, $652 framed, available through Ocean Park Association. I met Chrissy Pahucki at a plein air event. She was standing in line with one of her children waiting to have her canvases stamped. Chrissy’s branding came naturally—she always had a …
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