Originally posted on May, 10, 2007
The change from painting in oil to painting in watercolor is a global change. It is difficult to imagine something bigger in those terms.
John Singer Sargent was right. Painting in watercolor is an emergency. Degas was probably thinking of watercolor when he likened a successful painting to the perpetration of a crime. It takes much cunning to do a good watercolor.
Originally posted on May, 3, 2007
The first rule of watercolor is that there are no rules. This may not be helpful but that is the way it is. It is part of what makes watercolour difficult. On the positive side, it is also what makes watercolour so much fun. (There are many people who once they begin painting in watercolour forsake all the other mediums.)
Originally posted on April, 26, 2007
In the old atelier systems years where spent simply learning technique: genius, the problem of becoming an artist, was not addressed. Conventional opinion was that art could not be taught. It wasn’t until very recent times that this began to change. Today, it is not really clear how to go about teaching art.
Originally posted on April, 17, 2007
Historically speaking, artists have not have a lot to say about their art. They have been more absorbed in the doing of it. Needless to say they gave a lot of thought to this doing. But for the most part they let the art speak for itself. After all, it is a visual language. Up to a certain point this worked out fine. However, when the impressionist came under attack by the “new generation” of the 1880’s things dramatically changed. The modern era required that everything be rationalized and justified. This became problematic for the artist. It is not as if he had nothing to do but to be concerned with what people where saying.