Three basic elements that make or break a painting
What defines great art? It’s not style or beauty. Execution, 1996, Yue Minjun, courtesy of the artist Emotional content Stirring a response in the viewer is the first responsibility of art. This is done by evoking ideas, memories, or a sense of place. (Even bad paintings, if they’re of someone we cherish, can be meaningful …
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Notre-Dame de Paris
Restoration and destruction both start with a spark. Which will it be? Notre-Dame on fire, April 15, 2019, courtesy LeLaisserPasserA38, Wikipedia. I’ve never been to France, a deficiency I always meant to correct someday. Now I will never see Notre-Dame de Paris. Whatever is rebuilt there will not be the 800-year-old monument to a nation …
Monday Morning Art School: Palette knife painting
If you’ve ever frosted a cake, you know how to use a palette knife. Fishing village, by Carol L. Douglas Most of what we artists use on our palettes are what are currently called “painting knives.” A palette knife, in current parlance, is flat like a putty knife. The ones with cranked necks are, according …
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The romance of the sea
What makes a person buy a tapped-out wooden boat and then spend a lifetime restoring and operating it? Breaking storm, oil on canvas, by Carol L. Douglas. I used American Eagle for my model, but the sea and sky are imaginary. Owl’s Head light is not, though. American Eagle is one of a dozen windjammers …
Try, fail and try again
by Jane Chapin I Got This, by Jane Chapin. For more information, see her website here. How to get in a national art show: Assemble all your best qualifying work in one room. Take the very best photos you can. Stare at them intently. Pick your two favorites and eliminate them. Have a drink (I’m …