COMPOSE

Frequently folks want to take issue with how much composing a painter does.  But the seasoned painter knows that to get it right, it must be...

An adroit artist can focus our attention without our being aware of what's happening. One easy method to make this happen is a visual de...

A path for a painter is like a melody line or chord progression for a composer.  It's our way of getting the viewers' attention then...

One of my students of many years is now 92 years old and has Alzheimer's, yet even though she had not touched a brush in several years, ...

Color contains three attributes:  hue,  its location in the spectrum;   value,  how much light or dark it holds, and intensity (also called ...

BOUNDARIES We live in an era of artists rebelling against boundaries.  It's nothing new-- questioning boundaries is a driving force tha...

Earlier this spring, I visited a sheep farm to watch the annual sheering.  I had expected to see the sheering process, but had not anticipat...

This post is more editorial than tutorial.  Important nonetheless. In a recent issue of  Southwest Art , Richard Schmid was asked, "...

How many variations can you put on a theme? Turkish pianist Fazil Say shows us how Mozart, being both playful and naughty, took "Twink...

This is my vacation piece.  I'll be on medical sabbatical for a little while getting my right hand--my dominant one--repaired and recupe...

Our gestures express our identity.  Whether in our handwriting,  our gait, or the movement of an arm while talking, folks who know us recogn...

What do I do if I want to get your attention? In his popular Fifth Symphony, Beethovan gets our attention with a precise da/da/da/DUM.  An...

There are no limitations except those we impose.  No form or pattern any artist selects need be confining, rather a glue that holds the piec...

We wonder why some art works live for centuries while others get lost in archives of communal memory. Visual artists, writers and composers ...

Howard left us on January 28 of 2010.  I am in the throws of regrouping and coming to terms with my loss.  I have begun painting again, but ...

In July my intentions were to write to this blog when there was an occasional available moment, but there has been no time for that. Howard ...

It has now been three months since hospice became a way of life in our home. Howard is a real trooper, demanding in every way quality of li...

Dear Friends, I wanted to let you know that I have not disappeared, but I will be off-line for some time to come. My soul mate and lif...

Early on in my teaching career, I encountered a chart by Ocvirk, Bone, Stinson and Wigg in a text entitled Art Fundamentals, Theory and Prac...

If you've been keeping up with this blog, you know that for the past eight weeks, I've been addressing individually our visual vocab...