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Collecting art and other stuff
If there is something on this planet that hasn’t been collected, I don’t know what it is. If it has a physical presence, it’s probably been collected by someone, somewhere, at some point; some of it...
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A gift rejected
When there is a free gift to be had, long lines quickly form, desperate to take whatever’s offered. They may not even know what it is, or if they even need it or will like it when they get it, but,...
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Painting Values and Color
It’s my third art instruction DVD. In this DVD I teach and demonstrate the benefits of separating the values of a painting from its color. This technique will greatly enhance the paintings of artists...
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Developing your style
The first 10 years of my professional art career were spent as a freelance illustrator. It was slow going at first. I spent considerable time developing a direct mail advertising campaign. Post cards...
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Perception vs Reality
It’s pretty nice, after years of hard work, to be in a place as a professional artist where I’ve reached a level of self-confidence and assurance knowing that every time I touch a paint-loaded brush to...
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Atmospheric effects
Value and color go hand-in-hand when creating atmosphere in a painting. A proper organization of values (white to black) are critical to creating a painting’s mood. All of nature’s various moods...
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Highly predictable and repetitive…yet great
“His temper was placid, his character admirable and his long life was unstained by great tragedy or grand vice. It would be easy to write a dull novel about his life. A film would not be a commercial...
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Corot: Lessons learned en plein air
The burgeoning plein air movement of today has dramatically narrowed the gap between what was at one time an enormous gulf between studio and plein air paintings. A clear distinction between larger...
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Corot: From insignificance to greatness
It should be a story of encouragement for all of us who are considered just average. This is the story of a man who didn’t begin his art training until he was twenty-six. He was self-conscious and shy,...
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A painting remembered
It was a deeply emotional experience, both awe inspiring and depressing at the same time…overwhelmed by the grandeur and beauty of it but also deeply depressed, knowing full well I would never attain...
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Painting transports
As a young boy in the 1950’s, I was fascinated with, actually loved, trains, planes, automobiles and auto racing. Every September I eagerly anticipated the release of new models from each of the car...
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Howard Pyle’s teachings
Howard Pyle (1853-1911) was an illustrator, author, teacher, and Founder of the distinctly American School of Illustration and Art. He is affectionately called the “Father of American Illustration”...
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America’s Transformation
I know the story of a young British woman with a newborn son that boarded the Queen Mary in 1946 with hundreds of other WW2 British War Brides. She was on her way to America to begin a new life,...
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Overcoming creative slumps
A close friend of the great American artist, Edward Hopper, once said of him, “He was emotionally depressed with long periods of unconquerable inertia, sitting for days at a time before his easel in...
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Common faults found in paintings
You’ve probably heard the saying, ”The more things change, the more they remain the same.” Years ago, I clipped and saved some articles of interest found in some very old American Artist magazines....
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Edward Hopper
He is considered by many to be the foremost realist painter of the 20th century. There is no American artist that surpasses him in exploring the loneliness and isolation of the mind and of urban and...
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Art as expression
“To the painter who thinks of art as a matter of harmony and arrangement, simplification is a process of eliminating meaningless detail, of integrating the disparate elements of subject matter and...
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Frank Vincent DuMond
Frank Vincent DuMond is an icon of American art and a noted teacher, having taught at the Art Students League in New York for almost 60 years. His teaching profoundly influenced those who would later...
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Thomas Eakins
The American Masters Television Series says of Thomas Eakins, “When Eakins died in 1916, he left behind a body of work unprecedented in American Art for its depth, strength, perception, character, and...
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Impressionism’s Influence
“Impressionism may properly be called the greatest single disintegrating force in nineteenth century painting”. These are not words you’d like to hear if you’re a fan of Impressionism…and who isn’t,...
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