While looking for insect illustrations as reference for a project, I discovered Graphics Fairy (at blogspot.com). It is a great source for Victorian era illustrations, scanned at high resolution from antique papers. Because laws change, and are different from place to … Continue reading
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I saw Alfred Molina as Mark Rothko in Red (a play by John Logan) at the Golden on 45th Street. It was very moving, intense. I thought Rothko’s work was a lot about light, luminosity–like Turner. But the play showed … Continue reading
Inkblots are not altogether random. You can coax the ink to go where you’d like it to go–into a butterfly shape, a bird, a diamond, a circle. To make a circular inkblot (a planet, a mandala, a beetle’s back), fold … Continue reading
Consider messing up your art materials as the first mark you make. My mother took a watercolor class (I was a teenager) where the teacher told the students to flick a little paint and water across the page before they … Continue reading
The person who drew this did not have an art degree. Despite the gorgeous mark, cultural and historic relevance, and absolute domination of the art making timeline of the Paleolithic era, this person does not have a degree to back … Continue reading
We know Leonardo da Vinci the best, I think, through his sketchbooks. He was a voracious learner and thinker, interested in everything. His sketchbooks are not merely studies for paintings, but a record of ideas, the appearance of people and … Continue reading
What is it we are thinking about when we make the first mark on a page? What impels a person to commit a creative idea to paper with a mark? What is our intent? First marks are often not beautiful, … Continue reading
