Jacques-Louis David is one of my favorite artists. David’s reputation was cemented for me the first time I visited the Louvre. David made a career revitalizing well-known stories and allegories. From the beginning of his career, David transformed shopworn subjects into works of startling originality. In David’s masterful hands, familiar themes, such as the Death of Socrates,…
Category: Artists
Art Museums, Artists, video
David Teniers video
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•Artists, How to, materials, Tips and Studies, Turpentine diaries, Uncategorized
Smooth is best
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•Rereading what I wrote about preparing a canvas, I realized that I didn’t emphasize the main goal enough. Yes, it’s important to protect the canvas, but the real goal is to make a great surface. The best surface is smooth. How smooth? If you’ve done lithography, then you know how wonderful litho stones are for…
Artists, Drawings, materials, Shop Talk, Tips and Studies, Turpentine diaries
Sketchbooks
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•I keep sketchbooks and doddle-books. Sketchbooks are for quick sketches where freshness and directness are important. Sketches can be simple or elaborate. Aaron Blaise is a good artists who has some YouTube videos about his sketchbooks and why he keeps them. If you are an artist or art student, keep a sketchbook. I also keep…
aesthetics, Artists, Culture, podcast, Turpentine diaries
Podcast-academic art
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•I pick up last episode’s discussion about Clement Greenberg and the avant-garde and kitsch, and talk about academic art. Artists mentioned: Gerome, David, Bouguereau, Ingres, and Thomas Couture.
anecdotes, Artists, Bio, materials, Paintings, podcast, Studio Corner, Turpentine diaries
Turpentine diaries 4/28/19
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•I planned on starting a podcast for a long time and today I finally got around to doing it. In the initial Turpentine diaries podcast, I talk about recovering a painting that failed, materially failed, as well as other art-related things. The podcast is about 14 minutes long. I understand that a successful podcast requires…
Artists, Main Street, materials, Paintings, Studio Corner, Turpentine diaries
Turpentine diaries 10/7/18
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•Small paintings (this painting is 30″ x 40″) always take longer than I expect. Starting, I intend to keep it simple, but I’m always discovering more things to explore or problems to solve. I’m only successful with finishing studies quickly when I restrict myself to monochrome. Who knows when this painting will be done. I…
aesthetics, Art Museums, Artists, Culture, Uncategorized
Destroy that painting!
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•At the Whitney Biennal last spring, protestors made headlines when they demanded that the museum destroy an artwork they found offensive. The protesters didn’t want the painting removed from the Biennial, they wanted it destroyed. The painting by Dana Schutz, Open Casket, is based on a well-known photograph of Emmett Till in his coffin. Till was an African American…