More people have heard of Winslow Homer than of Homer Dodge Martin. And though he’s not a “household name” (show me a 19th century American painter is?!), Homer Dodge Martin interests art historian as one [...]

Many in the art world consider Gerhard Richter the world's leading painter. If you’re curious about contemporary painting, he’s someone you need to know, not just because of his dazzling technical virtuosity, but for his [...]

In 1904, the young, focused, and ambitious Welsh painter Gwen John arrived in Paris. Homeless and living in an abandoned building, she decided she had nothing to lose and knocked on the door of the [...]

The passionate affair lasted only months.  The Great Artist, sculptor August Rodin, found his next model and muse and moved on. But the young woman obsessively in love with him, the painter Gwen John (1876–1939), [...]

The pyramid or triangle design in painting offers a way to avoid composition problems like lack of movement, imbalance, “one for each eye,” or too much linearity or “stripiness” (obviously stacked horizontals).   “One for each [...]

“The objection to fairy stories is that they tell children there are dragons. But children have always known there are dragons. Fairy stories are more than true, for they tell children that dragons can be [...]

If I were making my own holiday gift wish list, these are the items I’d tell folks to pick for me (hint, hint!). Richeson Santa Fe Easel Who doesn’t want bigger, badder easel? The Richeson [...]

This is a black and white painting by one of the artists of the famed Lyme art colony in Connecticut. It’s a virtual blueprint of landscape technique – the absence of color lets us study [...]

There’s something about this image that impresses itself on the imagination and memory. Somehow Sir William Nicholson’s simple still life paintings, this one being no exception, transform random, everyday items into indelible images with a [...]

Now, this is one proud monk! The miniature below (the whole thing's maybe 9 inches tall) resides in the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, NH., where it’s a small precious gem within that worthy collection. Leo [...]