Provenance
Dear Artist, In May, a police detective called to let me know that one of my Dad’s paintings had been recovered from a stash of over 1,000 works of art found in three storage lockers around the Saa...| The Painters Keys
Dear Artist, Perhaps it’s the same for you: when preparing for a show, the cohesion of it – the idea – often begins with a title. Over some weeks, I let a vibe of what I want to create as an aesthetic experience bubble up from my subconscious. If this feeling can remain unfettered by [...]| The Painters Keys
Dear Artist, Yesterday, my friend Chuck Putnins, whose other life is anesthesiology, wrote, “Next year I’ll be taking 6 months off work from May 1 to November 1. During that time I want to get better at painting and develop my own style. How do I best do this? I realize that the simple answer [...]| The Painters Keys
Dear Artist, Imagine creating a perfect work of art at age 23, and then presenting it to humanity in new interpretations over your lifetime, alongside an assured and evolving artistic voice. Imagine presenting this perfect work again at 78, with an ever-deepening message, with a renewed thumping of human truth that comes with the reappraisal [...]| The Painters Keys
Dear Artist, Yesterday, my studio computer jingled with a question that concerns a lot of us. Antonia Mitchell wrote, “While I’m an established artist, I still have a problem. I’m continually compelled to experiment with different forms of art. When looking at your work and that of others, I’m impressed by the distinct styles, and [...]| The Painters Keys
Dear Artist, In May, a police detective called to let me know that one of my Dad’s paintings had been recovered from a stash of over 1,000 works of art found in three storage lockers around the Saa...| The Painters Keys
Dear Artist, Yesterday Alexis Ramos wrote, “I’m impressed that you’ve worked as an artist full time for all of your life. What would you recommend to a young person like me who wants to make a decent living as an artist?” Thanks, Alexis. Your letter reminded me of something said recently by one of my [...]| The Painters Keys
Dear Artist, The difference between courage and recklessness, writes social scientist, musician and columnist Arthur C. Brooks, is using your conscious brain to reason, not just your amygdala reactivity, or your fight-or-flight response, to feel the thrill or fear of the danger. “If you don’t know how to climb, don’t try to free-solo El Capitan,” [...]| The Painters Keys
Dear Artist, An excellent Quebec painter, Lorne Bouchard, once gave me some advice. He told me that a painter needs to work from three sources — from self-generated photo reference, from life, and from the imagination. “All painters,” he said, “favour one or the other, but all three are needed to gain maximum feeling — [...]| The Painters Keys
Dear Artist, An artist friend wrote, “Are you very reclusive like your Dad in the art scene? Or do you network more?” In 2003, just as I was about to move to New York, I read an essay in The New York Times Magazine about schmoozing, which struck me as so useful that I clipped [...]| The Painters Keys
Dear Artist, Recently, Judith Meeks of Toronto, ON, Canada, wrote, “I’ll soon be chairing a panel discussion called ‘Finding Your Voice.’ In your understanding, how do we translate our life experie...| The Painters Keys
