Blog posts

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Business realism

Carol L. DouglasJan 29, 20193 min read
If a tire-kicker like me will buy a snowblower online, it’s time to retire my arguments against internet stores. Breaking Storm, by Carol L. Douglas This is the week when I hole up with my fellow painter Bobbi Heath and talk about our business plans for the coming year. The question I’m asking myself has …
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Monday Morning Art School: the basic elements of design

Carol L. DouglasJan 28, 20193 min read
Design elements are there whether you’re conscious of them or not. Learn to use them. I and the Village, 1911, Marc Chagall, courtesy MOMA. In this painting, line is a dominant design element, articulating the relationship between man, beast and place. Line In math, a line is straight, has no thickness and extends in both …
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Beautiful, anonymous death

Carol L. DouglasJan 25, 20194 min read
Were they holy relics, or disgusting displays of hypocrisy? A relic from the Holy Catacombs of Pancratius, originally from Prince Abbey of St. Gall, courtesy of the Historical Museum of St. Gallen, photo by David Bu. The jeweled skeletons and ‘mummified’ corpses of catacomb saints represent one of the creepiest passages in the long history of the Catholic Church. The …
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Another of those infernal Pankhurst women

Carol L. DouglasJan 24, 20194 min read
Emmeline Pankhurst’s daughters were as intense and volatile as their mother. One of them was also a painter, and the Tate has rescued her from obscurity. On a Pot Bank: Finishing Off the Edges of the Unbaked Plates on a Whirler, 1907, gouache on paper, Sylvia Pankhurst, courtesy Tate Britain Artist Sylvia Pankhurst was one …
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Why paint that?

Carol L. DouglasJan 23, 20194 min read
My goal is to give you a process—a series of steps and techniques—that you can use to go make masterpieces on your own. Ken, by Carol L. Douglas. Modern clothing can be so difficult to paint attractively. Yesterday I was leaving a meeting and a friend asked, conversationally, what I’d taught in class that morning. …