It was, as art historian Linda Merrill writes in her book, A Pot of Paint: Aesthetics on Trial in Whistler v. Ruskin, “the most celebrated lawsuit in the history of art.”  As we suggested in [...]

“With almost any creative endeavor, we mistakenly think that we know what translates into success.” – Susan J. Langer Most people look at paintings in galleries and museums and think that artists are special people, endowed with [...]

If portraits seduce, confront, and fascinate us, it’s not least because they put art directly in the service of the human psyche, with all the mysteries that entails. Out of the several genres of realism [...]

Lisa Regopoules is particularly well known for her paintings of specific birds, so when the organizers of Pastel Live invited her to demonstrate a still life, she decided that a “non-traditional still life” was the [...]

To eyes trained on traditional realism, a painting like the above might seem an anxious jumble of shapes and colors. And that’s exactly what it is, but for a good reason: Picasso’s “Night Fishing at [...]

Rocks are hard.  That’s a fact. But painting them gets easier with a few basic principles in mind. Number one pitfall to avoid: making your rocks look like potato sacks. Okay, but how? The following [...]

“Having your head in the clouds, even for just a few minutes each day, is good for your mind, good for your body, and good for your soul.” – Gavin Pretor-Pinney “Paintings of clouds are [...]

We conclude with the final installment of “mountain tips” from three professional painters: Kathryn Stats, Tim Diebler, and this time, Paul Kratter. (View Diebler on brushwork here) and Stats on Color, here. There’s one more [...]

In honor of the many plein air painters traversing mountain-laden landscapes this summer, we continue with the second installment of “mountain tips” from three professional painters: Kathryn Stats, Tim Diebler, and next time, Paul Kratter [...]

Last weekwe took a close look at a few landscapes by John Singer Sargent, but we didn’t get THIS close!  In fact, most ordinary mortals will never get this close to a painting by John [...]