Painting May 2005 Archive

Last weekend I was driving through one of my all-time favourite landscapes again, admiring the autumnal palette it’s now shedding as winter starts to hit (it being in the southern ... Read More

You’ve probably heard those jokes about people who buy art because it matches the colour scheme of their lounge, not because of what the painting was. Well, I just found ... Read More

The Venice Biennial is meant to be one of the contemporary art events, so I'm quite excited at the prospect of seeing it later this year. I confess I'm also ... Read More

I confess, I'm a total fan of the work of the British artist Andy Goldsworthy, who works with natural elements such as snow and leaves to produce often-ephemeral work with ... Read More

When you think about your career and achieving success and recognition as an artist, how many paintings do you visualise yourself having done? A hundred, several hundred, close to a ... Read More

When I upgraded to a "stationwagon on steroids" (a Subaru Forester) a few months back from a tiny city runaround (a Matiz Daewoo), I had a whole list of reasons. ... Read More

There's a discussion thread on the Painting Forum about whether or not people sign their paintings. I really can't imagine not doing so -- how else will anyone know whose ... Read More

Here's something for landscape painters in the US. Did you know that 29 national parks run artist-in-residence programmes? These offer "opportunities for two-dimensional visual artists, photographers, sculptors, performers, writers, composers, ... Read More

A background is just that, isn't it? The layer behind what's meant to be important in a painting? Yet today I found myself intimidated into a state of paralysis by ... Read More

On 17 July 2005 the artist Spencer Tunick will once again persuade oodles of volunteers to shed their clothes and pose while his piece of "site-specific landscape art" is being ... Read More

Once acrylics are dried, that's it, isn't it? You can't rewet and lift the paint off a canvas; you're stuck with what you've done and if you don't like it, ... Read More

These 10 painting tips were all gleaned from conversations and teaching sessions I've had with Katie Lee, a botanical and zoological artist who works in gouache, watercolour, and graphite. I'm ... Read More

Whether you like Pollock's drip paintings or not, the discovery of 32 unknown ones is a major event in art history. The paintings were found by Alex Matter, son of ... Read More

This competition by SlowArt Productions caught my eye because it allows you to send digital photos instead of slides. It's open to artists over 18 years and it's up to ... Read More

If you want to sell lots of paintings, what subjects should you be painting? (Should you even be thinking of painting for the market, rather than the subjects that mean something ... Read More

It's long been a frustration of mine that Golden Paints' acrylic paints and mediums aren't easily available outside the US/UK, so I'm delighted to see that they will be distributed ... Read More

It's not a pleasant sight (nor smell), opening up moisture-retaining palette designed for acrylic paints and discovering it's got mould growing in it, but that's what's happened to Eyeluvart. So ... Read More

I had an email this week asking if I knew of any how-to books to help with painting swamp scenes (haning moss, formidable still waters, etc), or anything close. But ... Read More

Artrom Gallery, which focuses on "international juried on-line competitions and exhibitions" is inviting artists and art students enter an art competition that's completely open to free interpretation: there’s no theme ... Read More

I found the title of this competition by the Aids Services Foundation of Orange County, Unfinished Works, very poignant. While the description says the unfinished work is what lies ahead ... Read More

Here's an opportunity that doesn't happen very often: the City of Cape Town (South Africa) is running a competition for the design of "two memorial sculptures, or artwork in an ... Read More