03 Jan New Year, New Habits
Posted at 18:19h
in Blog
Others have no data for computing our orbit other than our past acts. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Twenty years ago, a business coach recommended I read the now out-of-print Nichecraft. The book convinced me to specialize—a lesson I've carried with me into my move into professional painting. Specializing...
15 Dec Things
Posted at 12:47h
in Blog
An interest in things is and always was at the root of art. — John Sloan From as early as he can remember, self-taught Tennessee artist H.R. Lovell has loved things—the more ordinary, the better. "I might see things different as a painter that somebody else may have...
14 Dec Painting Like a Millionaire
Posted at 14:05h
in Blog
I'm rereading Somerset Maugham's The Moon and Sixpence and am struck by the scene in which the narrator begs Charles Strickland to explain himself. Why has the stockbroker abandoned his wife and children for la vie de bohème? "Do you mean to say you didn't leave your...
05 Dec The Brotherhood
Posted at 00:01h
in Blog
Realist painter Robert Henri called the communion of connoisseurs "The Brotherhood." The Thought Police would insist we re-label that "mystical bond," but let's allow Henri to slide. What he had to say is too important to get hung up over one Victorian-era word. According to Henri, The...
28 Nov Mistakes
Posted at 16:42h
in Blog
Most artists trust their intuition. Sometimes it leads you to make mistakes, but that hardly matters. There is no such thing as failure, you just learn from it and go on. — David Hockney One advantage of oil painting resides in the medium's "forgiving" nature. You can wipe...
26 Nov Freedom
Posted at 13:20h
in Blog
Today I give thanks for our First Amendment and freedom of expression. Throughout history, artists have been muzzled, shackled, imprisoned and liquidated merely for expressing "unofficial" ideas; but only once, thank the Lord, in the good-old USA. In Havana this moment, 14 artists are sequestered in an...
22 Nov Average Everydayness
Posted at 14:16h
in Blog
My artist statement takes over 300 words to describe what I hope to capture in my oil paintings. What I wish to capture, in as few words as possible, is average everydayness. The term—a favorite of mine—comes from philosopher Martin Heidegger's colossal book Being and Time. Average everydayness...
24 Oct Out of His Skull
Posted at 11:36h
in Blog
It’s not so easy writing about nothing. — Patti Smith A few years ago I met Noah Scalin, who launched his career as a professional artist by creating a skull every day for a year. "Creativity is a practice," Scalin said. His advice was simple: Pick something—anything—and make one every...
21 Oct The Sketch Hunter
Posted at 15:19h
in Blog
Deer-hunting season has begun in my neighborhood. You can tell by the intermittent pop-pop pop-pop of rifle-fire emerging from the woods nearby in the autumn afternoons. Hunting season is all year round for painters. We stalk not game, but pretty things to paint. The whole world is our...