Painting is about feeling, evocation, and “stories,” insights into life on this planet, transporting viewers into realms of mind and emotion. Feeling or “mood” comes not from what you paint but how you paint it. [...]

By Jill Stefani Wagner When I first dipped my toes into the world of becoming a professional artist, I must admit I was a bit naive. Looking back I realize I had the silly notion [...]

Painting from life, whether it’s a portrait, the figure, or a plein air landscape, offers certain advantages over working from photos. However, using photo references makes it a lot easier to “make things look right.” [...]

If you spend much time in any museum’s European painting section, you’ll encounter exquisitely rendered images of gods and goddesses, mighty heroes and hapless mortals and fantastical creatures both beautiful and grotesque. One such mythological [...]

Inspiration comes in many forms, and creativity is its currency. But where does creativity come from – and what even is it? It’s thought that childhood play and adult creativity originate in similar processes in [...]

There’s a true-to-life scene in the 2014 movie Mr.Turner, where the Royal Academician John Constable is drawing a crowd for a colorful painting with a middle-ground full of dynamic red paint. In reaction, Turner adds [...]

“Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.” ― Gustav Mahler Visual art has a long history (to say the least) of practice, tradition, and training. And yet, art remains forever fresh [...]

Though renowned for his light-drenched figure paintings and portraits, Renoir’s lesser-known landscapes possess a similar poetry, elegance, and innovation.  Renoir’s famous boating parties and crowded outdoor café scenes dazzle and charm. Once seen, you never [...]

It’s not technique that makes you fall in love with art; learning technique opens the way so you can explore art’s ancient and miraculous forces. Art’s power is in what it means to you, how [...]