Articles offering advice on a variety of visual art subjects, including plein air painting, equipment, business practices and more.
Copyright is a legal right that gives the creator of a work an exclusive right to control how that work is used. Copyright only covers the tangible expression of an idea, not the idea itself, but copyright lasts a long time — until 70 years after you die, […]
John Hughes gives tips on painting architecture in plein air painting.
Humans have been making paint for a long time. A very long time. As described in an article in a recent issue of the journal Science, a cave in South Africa has yielded paint “tool kits” that date back a hundred thousand years (pushing back the date for […]
John Hughes reflects on the joys of being a plein air painter.
“Over the years, I have left everything from brushes, palette, white paint and even a canvas back in the studio in my zeal to get out and paint. It’s really bad too — you get all set up, the scene is great and duh, no palette knives! I […]
In the June 2011 edition of 15 Bytes John Hughes discusses the difference between painting things and painting the way things look.
John Hughes’ tips on getting your plein air equipment organized.
In our March 2011 edition John Hughes says studies are as important inside the studio as they are out in the field.
Most of us had our first experience with art through coloring books filled with line drawings. Next in our progression came the obvious tool of convenient necessity, the pencil (a wonderful medium, and, in the hands of a master, a true thing of beauty). Pencil drawing lends itself […]
For a landscape painter one of the joys of winter is the exhilarating experience of painting a snow scene in the open air. The excitement of a snow painting is just as much a visual experience as it is about braving the weather. Of course the extreme conditions […]
Understanding angles and the values they create is a must for landscape painters, as well as painters of any subject. To understand angles we have to first discuss “planes,” which in painting generally means a somewhat imaginary flat surface based on reality that simplifies the undulations of forms […]
This month I would like to talk about painting outdoors and two different types of situations for plein air artists to try. First of all, painting with a group of friends: it’s a good thing to do, the camaraderie alone is usually worth the trip out into the […]
Because of their ability to create beauty and form, the illusive character of shadows must be observed and understood by the successful landscape painter. Shadows, it could be said, are the essence of form. Without them a landscape is reduced to flat masses, lacking in much interest and […]
by Curt Hawkins “Shadowed Arch” by Kate Starling, 30″ x 40″. Watching Colleen Howe set up her easel during the “wet paint” painting session is a defining moment. I get it. On the spot painting. I watch Colleen Howe squeezing tubes of oil onto her palette, squinting into the […]
Probably the biggest challenge in learning to paint plein air landscapes well is dealing with the confusion presented by the details of the scene. The first thing an artist usually notices about a subject, details can turn into a stumbling block when they become the focus of a […]
