An art book with a difference

This is definitely an art book with a difference:  “La mia idea de arte.” Pope Francis’s ideas about art.

One idea, quoted in an Artnet article:

“The Vatican Museums have to be the most beautiful place and the most hospitable. It must throw open its doors to the world,” wrote the Pope in his book, noting that based on the teaching of the Bible, the poor’s inability to pay should not prevent them from seeing the church’s impressive art collection.

The book, co-written with Tiziana Lupi is also now a documentary, apparently available on youtube.  The book doesn’t seem to be available (bummer).

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Newer Work #75

#1290 Juxtapose. 3.5×5″ collage on foamcore, matted in white to fit 6×8″ frame. $25.

Another two little babies from the basket.  Sometimes it’s all in the name!

 

 

 

 

 

 

#1291 A Sense of Humor. 3.5×5″ collage on foamcore, matted in white to fit 6×8″ frame. $25.

Creative Minds

Once you read this article – whether or not you’re not one of the creatives – it makes some interesting observations on why we stand out from the crowd.

Challenges

Please enjoy my monthly mailing for September – and don’t hesitate to respond to some of the challenges!

Starting somewhere.

#1266, City Dawn. Mixed media on panel, 12×12″. Lives with Melissa in Palo Alto.

One of my sales at Palo Alto last weekend was to a young lady wanting to start an art collection, though not having much of a place of her own to put it.  I’m going to share an article in the Atlanta Magazine a few months back, that encourages the beginning collector and takes some of the fear out of it.

One thing they mentioned was “Gallerists are people too.” Talking to gallerists – and artists at art fairs and receptions – is not scary!  There aren’t really any stupid questions, though there are some with obvious answers, but it’s ok – we’ve heard them before and we’re happy to answer the anyway as a way to start talking to you about things you’d like to understand about the work in question.  After all, you wouldn’t buy a car or house without asking a lot of questions.  And the art might stay longer in your life than either of those.

The oldest studio

I always figured that the oldest known art work was the paintings on the caves at Lascaux, but it appears there is another category in the ancient art world – the studio!  Or perhaps it is best described as the paint manufacturer.  I think many people forget how much chemistry there is in art – here’s an article about some of the pigments that they worked with about 42,000 years ago.

It seems though that they hadn’t gotten into being muralists at that time, likely just body painting.  So that classifies it as time-based art.  Or beauty products…..

Good copies

Underpainting going down

On Friday I ran the Paint-the-night event at the Vanguard Gallery in Moreno Valley – and had 11 students, many of whom knew each other, so they were enjoying the evening together.  We painted a scene from an open road through fields in the Ojai area – a painting I’d completed in watercolor many years ago and thought would work well as a paint night subject.

Filling in the grassland.

One of the thing that I tell students at these evenings, is that their painting is not going to look exactly like mine – which is why art forgers are paid so much.

 

 

Fences going in.

However this group all got really close to the painting we were working from!  The main difference was that I had yellow ochre deep – vs yellow ochre which I usually work with, and as I hadn’t used this before, I hadn’t realized how dull this color is compared to regular ochre.  I figure I learn something in every class too, so this was it for this one!

Most of the graduates. One had to go home because her baby was crying.