“Most artists gravitate to one subject, at least at one time in their life. When we think of artists we know, we can usually think of a subject that currently dominates their work.

Painting series of works is not a new thing. Monet painted about 250 Water Lily paintings – some of us don’t paint that many works in a lifetime. His pond at his home in Giverny, and the Water Lilies provided a perfect subject and they are now famous.”

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“I can’t even draw a straight line”. It's something you often hear from people who believe they can’t paint. But the reality is that no one can draw a straight line without a ruler!

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The Artist’s Signature From the time we first begin painting, we start to think about our signature. There are different reasons for a signature.  Mainly it indicates the artist owns up to doing the painting! There are times when we would rather not claim it … so we don’t sign it. But if we persist with the painting until we are happy with it then we are likely to complete it with a signature.  

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There are several explanations as to the origins of the term ‘masterpiece’.  Most of us interpret it as a great work by a recognised master.To some, every work painted by an old master is a masterpiece simply because they’re valuable. But valuable and masterful don’t necessarily mean the same thing. There's a world of masterful works that are not worth much and the reason is they are not painted by a famous artist.

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We love texture, not only the kind that we can touch but visual texture too. Feeling stuff is a part of the process of engaging with things, like touching the material of clothing we are about to buy - it’s a layer of liking. I wonder how many art lovers have restrained themselves in the gallery from touching a painting they loved, but then were all over it once it was taken home. Why not!

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The best thing a painter can do is paint - it seems so obvious that it sounds a bit silly.But as with any skill, those who constantly paint can achieve things that occasional painters will find hard to match. 

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No, I’m not talking about the Virus. Painting is the subject, and I want to dwell a little on our tendency to be safe even when we paint. I’m not referring to harmful chemicals in paint or solvents, it’s this irresistible urge that we have to play it safe, with a process that will cause no casualties even if we are completely reckless about it.

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Painting can be quite self-indulgent - it's just the nature of it.Our subject matter is often stuff that we love and so we paint it. That makes sense until we start exhibiting the work and then we may realise not everyone shares our passion.

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As well as death and taxes, you can add the receiving of unsolicited advice to an artist’s destiny!

There seems to be an abundance of it. Much of the problem is caused by artists themselves asking peers outside the teaching arena for advice. “What do you think?” is an open invitation for all kinds of conflicting comment.

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Among all the painting mediums, acrylics seem to be the poor cousin.

Oil and watercolour painters have hundreds years of tradition between them but acrylic painters and paints don't have the same romantic history, having only got off the ground in the 1960s.

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A little while back John from Ambler in the United States, commissioned a painting specifically to hang in his rather well-decorated powder room. Being a large powder room, the painting was reasonably large too. He sent a photo of the artwork in place and it did look grand.

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Recently, a cityscape painting tutorial popped up on Facebook and I decided to have a look. It seemed to be going reasonably well and then I noticed how ‘off’  the perspective was becoming. Putting it mildly, it was really out.  It made me wonder how widespread this was so I went to Youtube and scrolled through more cityscape tutorials from various artists. Of the 12 I looked at, just one had bothered about perspective.

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Photographs can be the artist's greatest friend and at the same time, our most insidious enemy.

A photograph, unlike the human eye, can have everything in focus all at the same time. You will know what I mean when you look at a snapshot of a beach holiday. Those family members splashing around in the shallows are as much in focus as the yachts out in the sea.  In real life, if we are looking at a person on the beach, then those yachts are in our peripheral vision and they’re blurry. As soon as we turn our attention to the yachts, the people on the beach become blurry.

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There are many artists who will never enter an art competition and there are others who have based their success on them.  So, is it for you?

Importantly, most competitions are exhibitions too and for this reason alone, it’s worth considering. The chance to exhibit your work is certainly worth the effort if the entry costs aren’t too high and here's why.

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I think the old art mantra of buying the best equipment you can afford is right. There is nothing nicer than using great paint with the best brushes and some expensive canvas or paper. It just feels superb!

But it's a mistake to believe that better equipment necessarily means better paintings. It doesn't.

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With more and more artists entering the art market it is getting harder than ever to sell. Having said that there is a core group of artists that just can't stop selling. So what is their secret.

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The world if full of landscape paintings and has been for a long time. They are popular because most of us love a spectacular landscape in real life and it's great to have them in a painting too.

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There’s no doubt about it…..the process and decisions of art judging are a mystery and often very controversial.  From the biggest competitions to the smallest, there’s always a disagreement  - often unspoken – about the winner.

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Yesterday I was looking at a wonderful water colour work by a renowned Australian artist on Facebook.

Lots of good comments appeared and one fan said that it looked just like a photo.

In fact, the painting looked nothing like a photo, unlike some photo-realistic work which is painted to look photographic.

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I got an email today.  It was one of a type that I have received before usually from New York.  This one was from a London gallery.

It started in a familiar fashion and many of us have received them. They’d seen my artwork on Instagram and loved it and had even put  “likes” on a few pieces. They spoke about one painting in particular … to sound like they were really impressed and no doubt hoping by now that I was getting hooked!

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