Friday afternoon I grabbed my camera and headed to Cedar Point. The summer has been unusually rainy here and this was a rare chance to visit the amusement park during strong sunlight. I normally carry my camera gear in a backpack but Friday was sunny and HOT. So I limited my gear to three lenses…
Category: Uncategorized
aesthetics, Culture, Uncategorized
Do not be an art appreciator
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•When I hear someone say, “I appreciate art,” I cringe. The speaker means, “I understand that this boring subject is somehow important to you,” or, “I see how much effort you put into this pointless activity.” If you say, “But that’s not me! I really do appreciate art; I visit museums,” I still quarrel with…
materials, Shop Talk, Uncategorized
Basic oil painting medium
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•There is a lot of information about painting mediums on my site but if you’re new to painting, an abundance of information is the same as no information. Where to start? The good news is that you can easily have a medium that supports ambitious work and serves as a baseline for exploring other mediums…
aesthetics, Art history, Culture, Uncategorized
Turn toward realism?
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•Realism is becoming popular once again in painting studios. This development is welcome but it’s also sobering. Looking at the growing number of realists demonstrates how much has been lost. Much of it is Impressionism-adjacent which is not a good path. And for many new realists, Sargent has an oversize influence, which is also a…
Uncategorized
How to save your brushes
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•materials, Reviews, Shop Talk, Uncategorized
Rublev Sun-thickened oil
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•Rublev’s new version of sun-thickened oil is much improved from its earlier offering and is good oil. This is far different from my conclusion of their first attempt at this product. Sun-thickened oil’s consistency should be similar to that of stand oil. Rublev’s first attempt produced an oil little different from regular linseed oil. With…
Amusement Park series, materials, Uncategorized
Palettes everywhere
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•computers, Uncategorized
RIP faithful laptop
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•My 10-year-old Dell XPS laptop finally died. With its core i7, it was pretty hot back in 2013. I replaced its Windows OS with Linux some years ago and it was still performing acceptably. There were issues, of course. I prefer lightweight devices these days but the XPS is on the beefy side, which means…