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Blog Index

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Have you seen a chameleon in real life?

A reflection on 2022 and thoughts for 2023...inspired by a chameleon I met.

Book Gift Ideas

Selection of my all time favorite books

John Singer Sargent, Paul W. McCormack

Elaine Kilmurray, Richard Ormond, Carl Little, Erica E. Hirshler, Teresa Carbone, Ray Smith, DK Art School, Splash, Charles E. Roth, John Muir Laws

6 Essential Gift Ideas for an Artist You Know

Unique gifts ideas for the artist in your life.

Art portfolio, Dick Blick, Color wheel, Stabilo Woody, Clipboard, Daniel Smith Paint, Spritzer bottle

Does messy or clean bring you calmness or freedom? (Part 2)

The differences between palettes, and see palettes from civilizations thousands of years ago.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, Caterina van Hemessen

Watercolor palette, oil paint pallette, Quiller Palette

Does messy or clean bring you calmness or freedom? (Part 1)

What kind of a workspace suits you? I share my thoughts behind this and provide examples of different artists and their palettes.

Scott Bea, Carol Carter, Marylynne Bradley, Stephen Quiller

Palette, Watercolor

The day I met an Indian Chief

A personal reflection of an important day in my life.

The Mona Lisa, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol and Andrew Wyeth (Part 2)

Starting with another artist's work as your jumping off point.

Christina Olson, Christina’s World

The Mona Lisa, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol and Andrew Wyeth (Part 1)

Starting with another artist's work as your jumping off point.

Leonardo da Vinci, Duchamp, Dali, Philippe Halsman, Andy Warhol

Dadaism, Surrealism, Mona Lisa, Pop Art

Some Secrets to Watercolor: A step-by-step painting example

I walk you through a step-by-step example of how I create a paining. In this painting, I have used some atypical tools and techniques to help you see how I work in real life.

step-by-step painting example, creating textures in watercolor, baseball art

Why in the World Would You Go Outside to Paint?

What is plein air? Why would you paint outside? My experiences with plein air. Tips for you.

Impressionists, John Constable

plein air, Colorado art, watermedia, painting outside

Finding your own signature; inspiration from Artemisia & other greats (part 2)

Why artists used the signatures they did. Review of the signatures and rationale behind the choices made by Artemisia Gentileschi. Michelangelo only signed one piece of work.

Artemisia Gentileschi, Michelangelo

Artemisia Gentileschi, Michelangelo, artists signature, how to sign artwork

Finding your own signature, with inspiration from Matisse and other greats (Part 1)

The first part of a two part series about artists' signatures. In this post, 7 tips are giveen on how to develop your own artist signature. And a number of signatures from John Singer Sargent, to Toulous-Lautrec to Matisse are presented and discussed.

James McNeill Whistler, John Singer Sargent, Henri Matisse, Mrs. Matisse, Renoir, Georgia O'Keeffe, Frida Kahlo, Vincent Van Gogh, N.C. Wyeth, Dr. Seuss, Gustav Klimt, JMW Turner, Vermeer, Wassily Kandinsky, Albrecht Durer

artist signature, how artist sign, signing artwork, graphite pencil

Laundry in the Hands of John Singer Sargent

Discussion of the watercolor painting La Biancheria, by John Singer Sargent. His techniques, sequencing and possible state of mind are included.

John Singer Sargent

Watercolor, American watercolorists, watercolor in Italy, art of laundry, painting of laundry, wet-in-wet technique, new gamboge, Daniel Smith watercolors, plein air painting, Museum of Fine Arts Boston

Stacking Fish for 14 Years, the story of an artist

Louise Belbin, a rughooker from Newfoundland, is profiled in her fishing village as she works on the beach and as a creative, self-taught designer and creator of hooked rugs (1897-1999).

Louise Belbin, Georgia O'Keeffe

rug hooking, rug hooker, Canadian mat maker, Canadian cod moratorium, Newfoundland rug artist, beach woman, fish schooners, fish stacking, drying cod, salting fish, Great Bank, Newfoundland Digital Archives Initiative, traditional rug hooking designs

19 Influential American Watercolorists of the Gilded Age

My list of the most influential American watercolorist at the end of the 20th C.

Mark Rothko, Winsor & Newton, John Singer Sargent, Georgia O'Keeffe, John Marin, John James Audubon, Mary Cassatt, Edward Demuth, Arthur Dove, Thomas Eakins, Childe Hassam, Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, Alice Neel, Edward Potthast, Maurice Prendergast, Stella Roca, Charles Sheeler, Jessie Wilcox Smith, Norman Rockwell, N. C. Wyeth, Robert Louis Stevenson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

watercolor technique, Impressionists, Impressionism, Sheldon Museum, Works Progress Administration WPA

Be Not Afraid & What Artists Fear

Use a phrase to create art: be not afraid. Quotes about fear by artists.

Joan of Arc, Kandinsky, Klimt, Dali

not afraid; born to do this. Be not afraid. Fear of creating art, Shakespeare, Yoda

Mary Cassatt: the Artist Who Painted Mothers

Essay on Mary Cassatt only American to be included in Impressionist Exhibits in Paris, and holding a unique point of view on subject matter and ambiance of the scene.

Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, James Whistler, Degas, Renoir, Monet, Impressionist, Intransigents, Manet, "The Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, and Printmakers, etc." Pissarro, AJ Cassatt

Mary Cassatt, Impressionist, fin d' siècle, suffragette, b. Pittsburgh, 1844; American watercolorist, sewing, Madonna, Female watercolor painter, ex-Pat, Intransigents, plein air; Paris artist

What's the Deal with Whistler and His Mother?

The story behind the painting "Whistler's Mother," also known as "Arrangement in Black and Grey No. 1: The Artist's Mother." And Whistler's evolution to abstraction and modern art.

Anna Whistler, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Mondrian, John Ruskin, George Washington Whistler, Tsar Nicolas I, Alfred Barr, director of the Museum of Modern Art

modern art, portraits, oil painting, color blocks painting, black and grays, etchings, lithographs, watercolor, Lowell, MA; West Point Academy, Japanese wood block, National Gallery of Art, Museum of Modern Art

Why are rocks prettier when they're wet

How we perceive "wetness" and shininess on surfaces? Why does something wet LOOK wet? How Bodies of water in various phases of movement and light appear.

Edward Henry Potthast, Diane Goode, Christophe Meneboeuf

rocks, liquids, shadows, reflections, murkiness, shallow water, watercolor techniques

From turtle eggs to tangled trees… en plein air

How critical observation and thinking can bring you insights, as shown by discussing turtles, turtle eggs, turtles in art, and plein air watercolor painting.

turtles, plein air, Schmincke paint, critical observation, studying flowers, zinnia, tulip

turtles, plein air, Schmincke paint, critical observation, studying flowers, zinnia, tulip

Clouds from Both sides Now…

An essay on clouds in art from Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now," to Georgia O'Keeffe's "Sky Above Clouds IV", through history and including contemporary work.

Joni Mitchell, David Crosby, Saul Bellow, Georgia O'Keeffe, Folio a Shahnama (Islamic Book of Kings), Andhrayaki Ragini: Folio from a ragamala series (Garland of Musical Modes), Francesco Piranesi and François Jean Sable, Eckhart Tolle

clouds in art, clouds from both sides, skies in art

Did Michelangelo have an eraser?

The history of erasers and answering the question of whether Michelangelo used an eraser.

JMW Turner, Michelangelo, Edward Naime, Joseph Priestley, Golda Meir

eraser, kneaded eraser, plastic eraser, Pink Pearl, art gum eraser, Fabriano, Sistine Chapel, rubber cement

S'no time to stay inside

How snow has been painted in art over the centuries.

Winslow Homer, Auguste-Rosalie Bisson, New Years 1890 Series issued by Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company, Suzuki Harunobu, Stephen Quiller

snow, shoveling snow, Mont Blanc

1 of These is not like the Other… or is it?

An in-depth look at the painting, "The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit," by John Singer Sargent, focusing on the two blue and white Japanese vases in the painting and, remarkably, in the gallery in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

"The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit," by John Singer Sargent; Henry James, "Sargent's Daughters. The Biography of a Painting" by Erica E. Hirshler; Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec; Mary Cassatt; Claude Monet; James Whistler; Van Gogh, Manet, Tissot, Degas, Gauguin, Beardsley, Klimt, Renoir

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Florence, Italy; Fukagawa workshop to the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876; Japonismé; Art Institute of Chicago; Madame Monet en Costume Japonais; Peacock Room reconstructed at the Freer Gallery in Washington D.C.; "The Mikado" and "Madame Butterfly."; Giverny

Did JMW Turner REALLY use BREAD in his watercolor paintings?

The unusual artistic styles or innovations of JMW Turner as a watercolorist. Did he use stale bread? Did he use his fingers?

using bread in art, using bread in oil painting, erasers in art, unusual materials used by artists

Which is the Best Frame for Rug Hooking?

An overview of a wide selection of frames for rug hooking as published in ATHA magazine. An update gives additional info. A chart shows how many hookers use which frames and why.

Deanne Fitzpatrick

rug hooking, rug hook artist, rug hook frame, wool art, ATHA Magazine, Cheticamp, puritan frame, gripper strips, Pittsburgh Frame, Snap dragon frames

Can children talk about art?

How to encourage children's art efforts and learn to talk to children about their art.

critiques, problem solving, mess up, identical twin art, coloring books, coloring pages

John Singer Sargent and Carrara Marble,

John Singer Sargent and Carrara Marble,

A look at marble quarries and John Singer Sargent's art from the quarries.

Michelangelo; Antony Caponi; John Singer Sargent

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Carrara Quarry; Carrara, Italy

Draw a Horse: How to Get it Done

How to draw a horse including starting from the skeleton and working through observation and sketching. Studying the films of Eadweard Muybridge, 1878. Work in pencil, textile and watercolor. A PDF of mastering the basic truths of watercolor is available in the blog.

Metropolitan Museum, Eadweard Muybridge

drawing animals, animal skeletons, horses in motion, coloring pages, sculpture of Joan of Arc, jumping horses, dressage, digital resources for reference material

Rediscovering John Marin, American Watercolorist

A review of the art and techniques of watercolorist John Marin and his unusual point of view in his art.

Loren Mozley; John Marin; Henri Cartier-Bresson; Jackson Pollack; Mark Rothko; Paul Klee; Wassily Kandinsky; Edward Steichen; Arthur B. Carles; Marsden Hartley; Alfred Stieglitz; Edward Hopper

Metropolitan Museum of Art; American Modernists; Nelson-Atkins Museum; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Cape Split, Maine; Abstract Expressionists

Use "Color Charts" to stay in the moment & enjoy your materials

How to use color charts, tint charts and blending exercises to understand watercolor and reminds you to stay in the flow; stay in the moment.

let go of the struggle; focused, in the flow; in the moment;watercolor technique

Chicago Skyline: Step-by-Step Creating a Painting "en Plein Air" (that means … "outside")

The description of the process of painting a watercolor from selecting your plein air set-up situation to preliminary sketching and through the painting process and meeting the visitors who stop by. This is the site of the Lollapaloosa music festival.

Palette and Chisel Gallery

Chicago; plein air; Grant Park; the Loop in Chicago; Winsor & Newton Paint; Daniel Smith watercolor; Schmincke watercolors; QoR watercolors; field box of paint; Lollapaloosa music festival

How to Paint a Dew Drop in Watercolor

How to paint a dew drop or droplet of water in watercolor. Breaking down what happens in a drop of water with a reflection and a step-by-step on how to paint one.

dew drops in watercolor, droplets in water, water drops, how to watercolor technique

Fibonacci Intersecting Nature and Art

A presentation of the Fibonacci series, relating to the “Ideal proportion” and the mathematics of the Golden ratio. The repetition of these proportions are found frequently in nature.

Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, Walter Isaacson

Fibonacci, golden ratio, Vitruvian Man

5 questions to Think Like a Photographer

Five essential questions to ask yourself to think like a professional photograph-her thinks.

photography, point of view, focal point, Holden Arboretum, scale in composition, pathway into your photo, Wahkeena Nature Preserve, Fairfield County, OH, pop of color

Traveling with My Schmincke Watercolor Paint and Feeling Happy

A review of the Schmincke Watercolor Field Kit, including the paint, the metal case and the adaptability for trading out pan paints.

John Singer Sargent, Schmincke Horadam, Richeson brushes, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA

Schmincke watercolor, field paint box, sawed off brush, plein air, travel palette, folding paint tin, half-pan, tube paint, Cotman Field box

4 Essentials for Drawing

If you are not a naturally gifted drawing expert, you can still train yourself to be an accomplished artist by practicing drawing and practicing critical observation. You can connect to your childlike state of leaving judgment behind and following the Zen of your flow. Let your hand holding pencil mentally glide over your subject matter.

Derwent, Cretacolor, Kiowa ledger drawing, Cheyenne Shield Carrier, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Fabriano, Frederick Franck

drawing, kneaded erasers, plastic erasers, sketchbooks, Zen mindset

Lyin' Photos and Believing What you Think you See

Our brain accepts images in a photo that we would not accept in a painting. Why is this? How does it affect our choices of subject matter and composition?

"The physics of a 105 mph fastball," Gregory Cammett; Museum of Contemporary Arts Chicago, Cleveland Botanical Garden, Cleveland, OH

distortion in photos, foreshortening, reflected light, critical observation, propaganda, photos lie

Nostalgia: Old School Photography When film was the Medium

The last roll of Kodachrome film was shot by Steve McCurry and processed by Dwayne's in Parsons, KS. Learn about pioneers in photography and the evolution to digital processes and the rise of social media.

Muybridge, Cartier-Bresson, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, tin-types, darkroom, black and white photography, the decisive moment, Kodachrome, Steve McCurry, Paul Simon, Dorthea Lange, Margaret Bourke-White, Ansel Adams

acetate covered with gelatin, Art Institute of Chicago, green-eyed Afghan girl, last lab to process Kodachrome, Kodak

Essential Tips for Watercoloring Outside

The materials and supplies you need to get set up for painting outside, in the open air, "plein air."

Winsor & Newton, Stephen Quiller

Ohio Plein Air Society, Springfield Museum of Art, plein air, field boxes

To Paint a Snowdrift, Stand Knee-deep in Snow

Capturing authenticity and interpreting the scene is a goal while you are plein air painting. An interview with watermedia artist, Stephen Quiller, discusses his approach to plein air.

Winslow Homer, Stephen Quiller, Paul Cezanne

plein air, Colorado art, watermedia, authentic art

Are We There Yet? Splendid Travel Kit for Drawing Adventures. Old School.

Learn what you can put together for a handy kit of art materials for your kids or yourself for car or plane trips, or waiting for events to get started.

art travel kit, coloring pages, coloring books, pink pearl eraser

Where Do Ideas Come From? What's the source of creativity?

where do ideas come from? What causes us to imagine something new? Materials and paintings are highlighted through a discussion of ideas.

creativity, imagination, intuitive color, visual cues

A Cut of Silhouette History

The second part of a two part blog post on sihouettes and the history of the art of cutting paper. Why silhouettes became sn important skill and art for telling history and capturing the likeness of a person or place.

Louis XV, Toulouse-Lautrec, Musée d’Orsay, Henri Rivière, Joy Yarbrough

silhouette, Le Chat Noir, tracing art, shadow art, papercutters

When Shape is the Thing… from Matisse's Cut-outs to Silhouettes

In silhouette work, conveying an acuarate shape of the subject is the primary objective. Joy Yarbrough, St. Louis, MO, creates silhouettes freehand while holding the paper and scissors in the air and looking at her subject. Cutting silhouettes is a traditional artform and examples by various other artists, such as Matisse, are discussed.

Kara Walker, Joy Yarbrough

silhouette, drawing with scissors, chiaroscuro, papercutters, Scherenschnitte, Polish Wycinanki, Japanese Kiri-e, Spanish Papel Picado, Danish Papirsklip, Walker Art Center Minneapolis

Beauty in the Birds-Eye Mind of the Beholder

A look at a bird's nest with brightly colored ribbons is an essay about how I imagined a nest would look if the birds took my brightly colored strips of fabric and wove them into their nest-building process. The resulting colorful nest was a figment of my imagination--or was it?

bird's nest, imagination, building a birds nest, plastic from bags of chips, art for art's sake, wild bird behaviors

Art in Granite: Headstones and Cemeteries

Cemeteries are places of solitude and inspirtation for me. This essay looks at headstones and gravemarker carvings from various cemetaries in the US. It presents some of the traditions and unusual practices shown at grave markers throughout the centuries. Burying places of Presidents Garfield and Harding are discussed as well as those of Napoleon and Madame Curie.

Robert Newman, Paul Revere, poetry of eulogies, funereal expectations, Old North Church, Boston MA, North End, coins on headstones, re-purposed headstone, re-cycled headstone, President Warren G. Harding, Madame Curie Paris, Napoloen Bonaparte, President James A. Garfield

Copps Burying Ground, headstones at cemeteries, famous cemetaries, where Napoleon is buried, where President Garfield is buried, where President Harding is buried

Cursive Writing. No Longer Relevant?

An essay from the early years of the 21st C regarding the relevance of teaching cursive writing as part of the curriculum in US. I believe that as many connections that can be made between the left and right brain and our hands, the better. The arguments in the essay caused a number of heated responses. What do you think about cursive writing?

C. A. Musselman's journal of Europe, "Pretentious Pumpkins" by Jane M. Mason

cursive writing, penmanship, Zaner-Blaser, College of Penmanship, founding documents, artistic tools, right brain-left brain, Europeon diary in cursive, hieroglyphics, black swan hypothesis, hand-eye-coordination

Courage and creativity: Clashing on the Journey

Being an artist takes courage. To really get into the deep water of being an artist means you have to conquer your fears and allow yourself to be out there; presenting your work for criticism, rebuke, and although unlikely fame and notoriety. This essay looks at hits and misses, and the creative journey of an innovative artist, Janet Echelman, and her massive airborne textile art.

innovative artist, textie artist, inspiration for an artist, the creative problem solving process, leaning tower of Pisa

Where would we be without music or the means to enjoy it?

Whether listening to Scott Joplin, Bolero, Pink, or Mozart—or all of them—where would we be without the ability to record and re-play music for our pleasure? Early recording methods allowed music performances to be captured live and recorded for the future. This essay looks at wax cylinders, invented by Thomas Edison, and how they were used by early musicians.

Thomas Edison, Louis Armstrong, National Jazz Museum in Harlem, Benny Goodmen, Billie Holiday, Matt Musselman, Grandpa Musselman and His Syncopators

wax cylinders, historic recording of music, Edison's museum

Collaboration and Participation

How can museums engage visitors? How can they share both knowledge and experience via participation? As museums become more remote and are never put in the “to-do” list for many families, how can museums design programs to more actively connect with visitors? This essay looks at “Drawing Club,” a program developed by the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Its team created a weekly session in which artwork would be created by a random assortment of people volunteering from the community. It was a collaborative, community created project and invented a new community space to gather as people with a shared interest.

Participatory Museum, Walker Art Center