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Best Painting Easels

A good painting easel isn't cheap, and some are definitely at the kind of price where it's an investment. But a decent easel will last you a long time, possibly even your whole painting life. My H-frame easel and I've had a long, happy relationship.

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Painting Spotlight10

Marion's Painting Blog

When Your Name's Too Long to Fit on a Painting

Thursday September 2, 2010
Where and how to sign a painting is a subject that comes up regularly on the Painting Forum, but one question I've not yet heard is what to do if your name is so long it won't fit on a painting very easily. That's a problem which occurred to me when I discovered what Picasso's full name was. How's this for a mouthful:
Pablo, Digo, Jose, Francisco de Paula, Juan Nepomuceno, Maria de los Remedios, Cipriano, dela Santisima Trinidad, Ruiz Picasso
His name was apparently in keeping with local tradition, and he experimented with various shortened versions and even circled initials before setting on "Pablo Picasso". Today we generally hear him referred to as simply "Picasso". (I found this bit of art trivia flicking through a a fascinating in a rather heavy-weight book called A Sum of Destructions: Picasso's Cultures and the Creation of Cubism, on page p209.)

Where, How and Why to add a Signature

An Artful Tub

Wednesday September 1, 2010

Storing paintings in a tub

See Also:
Photos: Artists Studios
Photo Exhibition: Famous Artists and Their Studios

Image © 2010 Wilton Nelson

Have a Crafty Birthday

Tuesday August 31, 2010
Make someone's birthday extra special by creating a unique card or other handmade item for them. Here are some ideas from across About.com's Hobbies sites:

Ask Your Painting What It Needs

Monday August 30, 2010
Art Quotes
"Whatever [other artists] have is something needed to do their work -- it wouldn't help you in your work even if you had it. Their magic is theirs. You don't lack it. You don't need it.

"What you need to know about the next [painting] is contained in the last piece. ... Ask your work what it needs, not what you need."

-- Art & Fear, pp34-6.
If learning to ask your painting what it needs sound a tad like pop-psychology for you, put it into art speak: learn to critique your own paintings. To critique it honestly, bluntly, but also constructively. Image © Marion Boddy-Evans. Licensed to About.com, Inc

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