Yesterday, I visited the studio of Philadelphia painter Laura Acton, all spanking clean for her May Day open house and sporting a fresh coat of gray floor paint. Laura paints vivid still lifes, landscapes and figures, and she had several years' paintings hanging on the four...
Ever since Plato, Western philosophers have studied art. So much so that in the 17th century, German philosophers, big on classification, saw fit to create a separate branch of philosophy they called aesthetics, a term derived from the Greek aisthetikos, meaning "about perception." The German philosopher, Georg...
Join me on Saturday, April 23, at Art Fest at Whitehall, in Middletown, Delaware. You'll see all my recent paintings and enjoy a chance to shop for fine art pieces and handmade crafts from hundreds of other Delaware artists. There's live music and food-truck fare is available,...
I'm ready to pack off to Ireland, home of my ancestors. Ireland's government has announced it will begin to pay 2,000 Irish artists $355 a week under a new universal basic income (UBI) program. There are no restrictions on how artists may spend the money. I'm guessing Guinness...
"Immersive exhibitions are a recent scourge," says artist and writer Sarah Rose Sharp in Hyperallergic. But one new show passes her sniff test. Now at the Prado, the show makes use of The Sense of Smell, a 17th-century painting by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul...
Nine days out of ten all he saw around him was the wretchedness of his unsuccessful attempts. — Maurice Merleau-Ponty Professor Matt Saunders offers Harvard undergrads an unusual studio course he titles "Painting's Doubt." "Painting is an engagement between the self and the world," his course description reads....
The artist has no more actual place in the American culture of today than he has in the American economy of today. — William Faulkner I'm flattered so many friends and acquaintances have taken well to my choice of an "encore" career. At the same time, I'm saddened...
Hurry up and make mistakes! — Lennart Anderson Bob Ross famously said of painters, "We don't make mistakes, just happy little accidents." I might dampen that to say, "We don't learn, unless we make mistakes." With learning to paint come countless mundane mistakes. Rookie mistakes. Stupid mistakes. Messy mistakes. They're aggravating. But then, upon...
How does an artist explain her artwork when she’s not there to explain it? That’s where an artist statement comes in. An artist statement explains the work to buyers, collectors, gallerists, fair organizers, and jurists when the artist isn’t present. It’s also the key to building the confidence...