Reality has to be digested, it has to be transmuted by paint. — Richard Diebenkorn Wayne Thiebaud 100, the not-to-be-missed show now at the Brandywine River Museum, has awakened me to the primacy of cast shadows. Radiant and rainbowlike, Thiebaud's cast shadows are nothing short of delicious. After consuming...
Unlike a painting, food is an impermanent, fleeting art form. ― Julie Piatt Ever since the cave painters of Lascaux, painters have depicted food. Picasso was no exception. But while depictions of food in still-lifes had traditionally celebrated abundance, Picasso's depictions—at least during World War II—were meant to remind...
Der Mensch ist was er isst. — Ludwig Feuerbach I'm delighted to announce my first solo show opens next week and continues through February at the Newark Arts Alliance. I hope you can attend. Here's my exhibition statement, to whet your appetite. The parietal painters at Lascaux could have depicted...
Life is a great big canvas; throw all the paint you can at it. — Danny Kaye This week I observed Philadelphia artist Cheryl Schlenker demonstrate her technique for floral painting. I won't disclose all her trade secrets, but will share that her painting began pretty wildly, at...
Despondency breaks off its course. Anguish breaks off its course. The vulture breaks off its flight. The eager light streams out, Even the ghosts take a draught. And our paintings see daylight. — Tomas Tranströmer Painting is like a walk in the woods. You set out full of hope with only a blank canvas....
Why is it awful for a painter today to create an impressionist painting? It's not because they're painting it badly; it's because they don't have a reason to paint it. — Matthew Ritchie I sometimes hear other artists—more skilled than I—say that they'd like to paint more...
A painting is not a picture of an experience, but is the experience. —Mark Rothko A 1950 marketing stunt made the phrase "Kodak moment" synonymous with the word experience, in the sense marketers use that word today. An experience, marketers say, is a staged event. A Kodak moment in...
Humble pie is painting from direct observation. — Lennart Anderson In an art class, I've been painting a plaster cast of the nose of Michelangelo’s David. Despite the schnozzola's simplicity, so far it's taken me 24 hours to paint it—and I still have three more hours to go...
If people could see properly, and see whole, they would all be painters. — Pierre Bonnard Since childhood, I have longed to see the way the Tonalists saw; the way the Impressionists saw; the way the Ashcan and London and Pop painters saw. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I...