Articles offering advice on a variety of visual art subjects, including plein air painting, equipment, business practices and more.
When going on location to paint en plein air, there are several things to keep in mind. First and foremost is your reason for being there, which will modify your approach and results to a certain degree. The thing you should settle on right away is your purpose that […]
Normally I focus my remarks on the painting process, but today I would like to take a moment and wax poetic on the subject of painting in a more general sense. I am mainly directing this commentary to young aspiring artists who are trying to find themselves artistically. […]
John Hughes painting at String LakeThe title here says it all. If an artist can distill visual realities down to a few simple shapes of value and color he/she will finally begin to understand the painting process. Try this sometime (at first it will feel a little […]
Composition (and design) has been — with the possible exception of color — the topic of more theories than any other aspect of painting. It has been studied, discussed, written about, theorized, pontificated on, and generally beaten to death for centuries by artists, art historians, critics and experts […]
Paint boxes come in a lot of shapes and sizes. They have been around for a long time and over the years innovations and improvements have been made to make the job of the plein air painter more practical and enjoyable. Let’s start with the basic box, usually […]
One of the most debilitating emotions for a painter is the fear of failure. Whatever form it comes in — fear of starting a canvas, fear of ruining what was initially put down on the canvas (causing one to protect what’s there) or fear of finishing a painting […]
One of the beauties of painting on location is the excitement of being out in nature, capturing a fleeting moment that will never come again in exactly the same way. There are days when the light is near perfect, the air is clear with the aroma of fallen […]
This month we kick off a new series of articles by award-winning artist / instructor, John Hughes. Hughes has been teaching private plein air workshops each summer and a class on plein air painting at Salt Lake Community College for the past several years. He is a highly […]
by Michelle Wimber With times as rough as they are few may be considering starting an art collection. Even when times are good one might think collecting art is only for the rich and well-connected. But there is hope for the average person. I love art, but being a […]
For serious art collectors, there will no doubt come a day when they want or need to have all or a part of their collections appraised. Perhaps they’re donating a piece to a museum and must have a report by a “qualified appraiser.” Or perhaps they wish to […]
by Scott Livingston In today’s “exciting” economic times, many artists are scrambling to find ways to maintain their creative lifestyle without compromising artistic integrity. One viable avenue for doing so is through offering fine art giclee prints. This allows an artist to continue to paint and sell their original […]
“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems.” – John W. Gardner, founder of Common Cause This quote well describes the optimist’s take on the current economic mess we find ourselves in. While even the most optimistic among us may have […]
If there’s no such thing as a “free” lunch, there’s no such thing as “free” publicity, either. Although you’re not paying for expensive ad space, getting your name, project, or exhibit into the editorial content of a publication takes some time and effort. However, once you learn how […]
Thirty years ago, an artist gave me a business card bearing an embossed drawing of a skull. Gripping the skull was a C-clamp. I remember the artist vividly, but I also recall his name, Weiss, and that it’s properly pronounced “vice.” What’s more, I still have that card […]
Visual artists usually express themselves visually rather than verbally, so when it comes to finding the words to put in an artist statement, a grant proposal, the title of an exhibition, or the name of a painting or sculpture, we’re at a loss. Yet, words help communicate to […]
