December 29, 2014

Start the Year Right With These Drawing Ideas and Tips

Start the new year with the resolution to do a drawing a day! Drawing in and of itself is a beautiful skill but also provides a strong foundation for hand/eye coordination for painting. Your daily drawings can be defined by a time limit to keep them fresh. There are many different possibilities for your drawing a day process. For example, you could draw simple still lifes for a month, or draw the same subject in as many different interpretations as you can imagine.

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November 03, 2014

Two Drawing Tips to Consider When Sketching Faces

Drawing skills are a great foundation for painting. We learn the building blocks for brush work, proportion, hand/eye skills, etc. In the beginning, drawing faces and figures is a lot like learning to play an instrument–there are mathematical proportions that we study and practice like learning musical scales. Over time the mechanics become automatic, allowing quality of line, shape and value to emerge and express more than the technical process of early attempts of sketching faces, for example.

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July 08, 2014

My Favorite Watercolor Painting Technique: Wet Glazing

Artist Jean Pederson has adapted several techniques to suit her personality, one of which is to apply wet glazing on a vertical surface. Learn how in this guest blog post.


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June 27, 2014

A Tribute to Robert Genn

The art community lost a very insightful and talented artist a few weeks ago to prostate cancer. Robert Genn, known as Bob, was a mentor to many and touched the lives of artists all over the world with his biweekly blog, "Painters Keys."


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June 06, 2014

Art Business Tip: How to Prepare for an Exhibition

"Must be nice to just sit and paint all day. What a soft life!" A friend of mine had said this to me, and half of it is true; being able to paint for a living is great, but there is much more to an artist’s life than paint and brushes. For example, preparing...


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May 23, 2014

Art Workshop Experiences: The Only Difficulty is in Choosing One

What is it about being around other painters that's so satisfying? Whether full of conversation or in the silence of intense concentration, artists ooze wonderful energy.


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May 16, 2014

Art Chats with Linda Fisler: More Than Meets the Eye

We all enter the artist community with unique circumstances; Linda Fisler is no exception. I had the pleasure of meeting Linda at the Representational Art Conference in Ventura this year only to find that there is a lot more behind the voice of Art Chats than meets the eye.


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May 02, 2014

What Are Your Real Priorities?

There'll always be reasons or excuses that will take you away from your goals. It's important to know what your goals are and where they fall within a hierarchy of most to least important. If improving your painting abilities is a priority, then you have to set up good habits.


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April 04, 2014

Beauty, Representational Art, and Modernism

Jean Pederson shares what it's like to attend The Representational Art Conference (TRAC, Ventura, California, 2014).


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January 31, 2014

What is Art?

The city of Calgary has experienced a large number of complaints about the newly installed public sculpture entitled Traveling Light. Due to the strong polarization of opinions form local and national citizens, “what is art” has become a hot topic at local coffee shops and office water coolers.


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