Art Blog - What Makes A Painting Work

Going through a person__™s things after a death can bring up powerful universal emotions: loss, love, nostalgia, remembered hurts and joys, guilt, and occasionally bewilderment. Why was this important to her? Why did he save this? Who were these people? There will be things to keep, things to send to other family members or friends of the deceased, things to toss out, things to donate, and in time you might find inspiration to the artist within you. For those things which bring out powerful emotions most often are those from which art emerges. The mixed media painting developed from my thoughts in looking through unidentified photos going back at least to the early 1920s which had been among my mother-in-laws possessions… Continue reading… 1 comment

This account is in praise of experimenting with art, and stumbling into success As an artist it's a way to stretch, learn, and have fun. If you are a collector you may find some very engaging pieces that developed when the artists took a leap outside their usual media and modes of creation. "Dark Elephant" developed out of an experiment that just kept stretching. I've been doing a fair amount of brush painting on rice paper recently, and I've done a number of pieces on less traditional surfaces such as Bristol paper. I had a piece of handmade rough watercolor paper from India with leaves and stems embedded in it, and I decided to try painting an elephant in sumi-e ink on it… Continue reading… 8 comments