Artists Magazine

Claude Monet’s paintings of haystacks—about 30 in total—were created between the years 1890 and 1891. He wrote of the project to the art critic Gustave Geffroy: “I am working very hard, struggling with a series of different effects ... . The more I c

With the blue of the ocean and a tint of Earth’s green, lagoon blue pulls at our primal heartstrings. Artists have always felt drawn toward the vast, open expanse of the sea and sky to find inspiration for their palettes and compositions, and it’s no

What watercolor sketcher hasn’t seen a fabulous subject come and go before having had time to capture it? While sketching in this medium is a more nimble enterprise than painting in oil, the time needed to set up materials, lay out a sketch and wait

this portrait of Hortense Fiquetthe future wife of Paul Cézanne (French, 1839–1906)—marks a critical period in the artist’s progress. Previously, Cézanne had painted with a youthful, dark palette. Then, under the influence of Camille Pissarro, he fli

Since the invention of oil paint, artists have experimented with transparent paint layers. One of the earliest uses was layering transparent yellow oil paint over silver gilding to resemble gold. The natural transparency of oil paints varies; some co

Mark-making is usually the most immediate and direct touch of the artist, and is what makes the image and communicates the message. But sometimes artists choose to surrender the control of the mark-making over to a force outside themselves. The art t

Your art references—whether photos, direct observations or memories—are your means of getting the information necessary to draw your portrait. Drawing from life offers the greatest opportunity to get that information. You can walk around, see and som

On a recent visit to the Oakland Museum of California, I chanced upon a retrospective of the Charles and Ray Eames design studio. A significant tenet of this successful mid-century company was the emphasis on essentials, particularly in terms of colo

A good rule of thumb for mixing neutrals (including skin tones) is to mix split complements: • For warm neutrals, mix orange with blue-violet. • For cool neutrals, mix green with red-violet. Patti Mollica, author of How to Paint, Fast, Loose & Bol

In art as in life, color plays an essential role in expressing vibrancy, vitality and that proverbial joie de vivre. For painters, communicating through color begins with learning its fundamental principles and properties and transferring that vocabu

“When choosing a subject, I try to paint things so we all become more aware of our environment,” says Boston artist Andrew Haines. “Everyone has fictions, including me, about where we live and what the world is like. I hope my paintings hold a mirror

There are a number of strategies that painters can use to create a sense of atmosphere and mood in a picture: They can limit the palette, restricting the range of color to confer a somewhat unnatural sense on the scene. They can simplify forms and ed

Editor’s Note: sheri crider prefers that her first and last name not begin with capital letters. “I really think of it as a pragmatic way of being, especially as an artist,” she explains. “My story of the free-floating search for identity is very att

everyone gets stuck sometimes. Writer’s block is a commonly known and feared feature of an author’s life, but we rarely acknowledge that something similar happens to visual artists. Many who experience it, not knowing what to do, stop working. A day

DENVER ART MUSEUM • DENVER, COLO. • DENVERARTMUSEUM.ORG THROUGH JAN 5, 2020 “Treasures of British Art: The Berger Collection” presents 60 paintings spanning 500 years of British history, all donated to the museum by the Berger Collection Educationa

“Rather than stage my drawings, I like to work from images I capture in a quotidian moment. While visiting my grandmother in Panama, I photographed her sitting on her terrace, looking so beautiful in her lace dress. Using charcoal for my drawing let