This photo shows artist Christine Sharman sketching as she participated in Anthony Gormley's Fourth Plinth installation in London. You can what's happening right now on the live webstream. It's still not to late to apply to participate in September or October. It'd sure be fun to see someone plein-air painting up there! So why not fill in the entry form?

If I get a spot, I'll pack my little portable easel and buy a canvas at the art supplies store just around the corner at the bottom of Charing Cross Road. What would you do up there? Post a comment to let us know what you'd do on the plinth if you could participate.

See Also:
• Selecting an Easel: A Plein Air Easel
• Art Materials Shops in London

A trip to Leakey's Second Hand Bookshop in Inverness yesterday saw me come home with three new books for my shelves (as well as some bathroom tiles, which was the fundamental reason for the day off-island). What I love about a second-hand bookshop is the accidental find, the book title that catches my eye and makes me pull it out for a browse.

The first I found was Art: A History of Changing Style by Sara Cornell (555 illustrations!). It's yet another history of Western art from Ancient Greece to the 1970s, of which I have a few, but its appeal was that it stresses "the continuity of stylistic development" and is "written as a straightforward narrative ... in a readable style". No highfalutin artspeak to unpack, more like a friendly 101 on art styles.

The second book, Art Past, Art Present (third edition, 1997) is yet another tome on the history of art from prehistory to the 20th century. It was written "especially for the person with a general interest in learning about art and art history, and for the one-semester introductory course in art history or art appreciation". What makes it different is that while its core focus is on Western art, it does include art from other parts of the world in the timeline. It also has boxes explaining the basics of different art techniques. It'll be good for dipping into as the different topics are clearly differentiated by the page design.

The quirkiest purchase was Notes on the Science of Picture-Making written in 1909 by CJ Holmes who, the title page tells me, was Slade Professor of Fine Art in the University of Oxford. The new and revised edition at that, in which "a few misprints and defects" were corrected and an appendix of notes added. 100 years ago authors of how-to paint books were far more opinionated and used far more literary than publishers tend to like these days. But then it doesn't have any illustrations to either, unlike today's how-to books.

I anticipate many an entertaining hour reading the 300+ pages, for example this from page 114, the chapter on "Emphasis of Colour":

"Black, by suggesting gloom and darkness, introduces a note of solemnity into any scheme of which it plays a considerable part. It has thus been a favourite with all the great portrait painters. ... The omission of black from the palette of many modern painters (some of the great Impressionists among them) is perhaps responsible for the lack of grave and serious feeling which characterises their work as a whole, and may explain in part why most modern landscapes look their best in photographic reproduction."

Have you found any interesting books on art or painting recently? What was the last one you bought or added to a wishlist? Add a comment below to let us know.

See Also:
• Secondhand Bookshops in the Scottish Highlands
• My Art Book Reviews

^{Photos ©2009 Marion Boddy-Evans. Licensed to About.com, Inc}

If you don't mind getting a book that's bent or a little damaged if you're getting it at a discount, take a look at Interweave Press' Hurt Book Sale. There were a few fabric painting / mixed media titles when I looked at the list, including one I've got lying on my desk waiting for review (Mixed-Media Self-Portraits: Inspiration & Techniques) and one included in my recent new list of favorite fabric painting books (The Quilting Arts Book:). Sale ends 17 July.

What do you wear when you're painting? Do you have a 'sacrificial' set of clothes or do you paint in whatever you put on first thing that morning?

POLL: What Do You Wear When Painting?
1. An old shirt.
2. An old shirt and pair of trousers.
3. An old dress.
4. Overalls / coveralls / dungarees.
5. An apron.
6. Nothing special, whatever I'm wearing that day.
7. Not a thing, I paint in the nude.
8. Something else. (Post a comment to explain)

(View the results of this poll so far...)

"I'm expensive ... When you buy a portrait from me, you get something that will stand alone as a work of art, but you also get a piece of my career, a piece of me and my reputation.

"... "People who think that a career in the arts is all about feeling good won't do very well ... As in anything, drive is at least as important as talent." "

-- Artist Annette Polan

In 2008 Polan "pocketed a cool $200,000 for painting people's portraits" according to an article in the Washington Post. Proof, yet again, that if you work at selling yourself as least as hard as you work at painting, you can be very far from a starving artist.

From About.com Arts & Crafts Business:
• 4 Ways to Protect Your Arts Intellectual Property
• 10 Steps Before You Start a Crafts Business

"The elements of design are the same for all the visual arts: colour, line, shape, texture and form are the building blocks with which designs are created. not all these elements are involved in every project, or, if they are, they are not always of equal importance."

-- The Painted Quilt, by Linda & Laura Kemshall, page 14.

This month's project, urban abstraction, necessitates reducing a bit of reality to its building blocks, the shapes and textures, colors and tones. If you find yourself compelled to paint detail, squint at your painting (or take your glasses off if you're short sighted) so you can't see detail as clearly (though tone will be more distinct). Or use a brush twice the size of the one you have been using so it's harder to paint detail.

The book this quote is from is one in my new list of Best Fabric Painting Books. If you enjoy seeing how people push an idea or take an idea from one place and use it in another, then it's a book worth look at even if you've no intention of ever painting a bit of fabric, never mind a quilt. If you've a friend or relative who quilts and has expressed a wish to paint, it could be a good present (provided their quilting style isn't totally traditional).

See Also:
• Turn Your Acrylics Into Fabric Paint
• Learn How to Make a Quilt (From About.com Quilting)

^{Image ©Marion Boddy-Evans. Licensed to About.com, Inc}

How to go from a full container of fabric painting medium to an empty one in under five seconds: instead of putting the brush you're using to spread it into the container, slap the side so it falls off the table and spills everywhere.

Having cleaned up the mess with paper towels (my S.O. came running with a roll in response the comments I was making), I have no doubt that it'll stick to fabric. It certainly dried and stuck to everything else it had fallen on.

I knew I ought to pour some out into a smaller container, but was "just quickly" going to try a technique I'd read about where you use Inktense pencils (a water soluble pencil) with fabric medium and the result is washable. But then I got carried away painting...

As for the fabric I was painting, I have got some Golden fabric painting medium (the split one was Matisse Derivan) but I think I'll heat set what I've already done (step-by-step photos), then wash it to see what the Inktense does. If it works as advertised, I'll start again. First step will be to pour some fabric painting medium into a smaller container...

See Also:
• Fabric Painting Demo Using Inktense Pencils
• Turn Acrylic Paint into Fabric Paint
• Fabric Painting with Fabric Markers

^{Image: © 2009 Marion Boddy-Evans. Licensed to About.com, Inc}

As part of the 2009 BP Portrait Awards, the National Portrait Gallery in London is offering the chance to win a wooden Cheltenham Oil Colour Box Set from Winsor & Newton that has 18 tubes of paint and eight brushes, a palette and knives, a double dipper and mediums. The competition rules don't stipulate a location, so get entering wherever you are. You'll find the answer to the question on the entry form on the exhibition info page. Closing date is 20 September 2009.

See Also:
• Top 10 Oil Painting Tips
• Find Sweepstakes to Enter (From About.com Contests & Sweepstakes)

If you enjoyed the first month's worth of Painting Ideas from Idioms, then I trust you'll enjoy this second month's worth.

Why is this blog so succinct? Well, putting the list together had made my fingers itch to paint some of the ideas, so I'm spending the bulk of today with a brush in my hands rather than a keyboard at my fingertips.

Monsieur P Artiste ponders just how he'll reach the very top of his new, big canvas...

Someone needs to tell him there's a far safer (and easier) way than standing precariously on a crate or box. Simply turn the canvas upside down or sideways, Monsieur! Or consider investing in a sturdy stepladder.

See Also:
• Safety Tips for Using Art Materials
• Is It Safe to Paint in the Nude?

^{Image: © 2009 Marion Boddy-Evans. Licensed to About.com, Inc}