Studying the work of famous painters and the old masters is both inspiring and instructional. Looking at a painting you wish you'd painted will motivate you to try something similar, while studying the way an artist worked helps improve your own painting.
A gallery of famous paintings by famous artists (and some not quite so famous) to inspire you and to help you expand your knowledge of their painting methods and approaches.
One look at Monet's gardens and waterlily pond at Giverny, near Paris, and you'll also be wanting to paint the lilies and reflections.
Highlights from the MoMA exhibition of water lily paintings by Claude Monet.
A few highlights from the Artists and Their Studios Exhibition by Eamonn McCabe at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
A few highlights from the exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam featuring 120 of Van Gogh's letters alongside the works he was writing about.
A few highlights of the trompe l'oeil paintings on show at the "Art and Illusions" exhbition at the
Palazzo Strozzi in Florence.
A look at why Matisse's "Red Studio" painting is significant.
A photo gallery from the MoMA exhibition on the paintings and etchings of the artist Lucian Freud.
A few highlights of the paintings on display at the 2008 Rothko exhibition at the Tate Modern in London.
A few highlights of the paintings included in the Renaissance Faces exhibition at the National Gallery in London.
A photo gallery of highlights from the Radical Light exhibition at the National Gallery in London, which showcased paintings by Italy's Divisionist painters. See also:
my Exhibition Review.
A selection of figure paintings by the Pre-Raphaelite Millais, from the exhibition held at the Tate Britain in London.
A photo gallery of works in The Unknown Monet Exhibition, which showcased his pastels and sketchbooks, as well as showing how he did preparatory studies for his oil paintings.
Get an understanding for the impact Vincent van Gogh had on German and Austrian Expressionist painters with this photo gallery of paintings from the "Van Gogh and Expressionism" Exhibition held at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Neue Galerie in New York.
Highlights from the Van Dongen Exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Some intriguing facts and trivia about the life of the great artist, Leonardo da Vinci.
You will come across the terms style, school, and movement endlessly in art history. But just what is the difference between them? This article explains.
Test how much you know about Van Gogh's life with this 20-question quiz.
You'd think that this painter, who constructed people's faces from fruit, veggies, meat, and other unlikely objects such as pots and books, had to be a Surrealist. But he lived four centuries earlier.
Who Were The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, why did their paintings upset the Royal Academy of Arts in London so much, and why was their art so controversial?
Lucian Freud, the the grandson of Sigmund Freud, the pioneer of psychoanalysis, is often described as Britain's greatest figurative painter.
Is Lucian Freud's intense, penetrating style of painting suitable for a portrait of the British monarch?
A look at the life of the artist who, together with Picasso, created Cubism in the early 1900s.
The artist David Hockney caused controversy with his investigation into the use of lenses and mirrors by Old Masters.
A list to remind you that“The Da Vinci Code” is a work of fiction, not a reference book.
A look at the life and work of the woman now considered South Africa's foremost Outsider Artist, Helen Martins.
A photo gallery of the fascinating art by Outsider Artist Helen Martins, who worked cement and glass, in her famed Owl House and Camel yard
What famous artists have had to say about the practicalities and creative challenges of painting.
A scrapbook of Edward Hopper's life and work compiled by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Hopper, renowned for his realistic portrayal of everyday life, first gained prominence in the 1920s.
Rothko's early work was Expressionist. After the Second World War he moved into Surrealism, then became one of the leading Abstract Expressionist painters. In the period before he committed suicide, he started using more sombre colours, particularly greys and browns.
Fauvism is the term used for a group of artists (including Henri Matisse, Maurice de Vlaminck, and Andre Derain) in the early twentieth century who revolted against the art establishment. Their work was characterised by bright colours and simplified forms.
Read Van Gogh's letters on-line, searching them for subjects from love and despair to materials and techniques.
Take a virtual tour of the Vatican's Sistine Chapel to see Michelangelo's spectacular frescoes on the ceiling. It took him from 1508 to 1512 to paint the more than 300 figures.
Well-known Canadian wildlife artist Robert Batemen writes about his inspiration and techniques (and what's generally wrong with beginner's paintings).
