Every few weeks, I share my top art inspirations that I’ve read, experimented with or listened to. Here’s this weeks edition of things I’ve enjoyed, with the hope they might inspire your own work too…

I’ve enjoyed watching:

TED Talk: Do Schools Kill Creativity – Sir Ken Robinson

In August 2020 Sir Ken Robinson sadly died. His TED talk was one of the first I enjoyed when I stumbled across TED nearly 10 year ago. It was a funny, heartfelt and poignant message on the way that schools can kill creativity in children who don’t quite fit the standard academic mould.

‘For most of us the problem isn’t that we aim too high and fail – it’s just the opposite – we aim too low and succeed.’ – Sir Ken Robinson

I’ve enjoyed listening to:

Podcast: Paint stories with Mark Golden

This is a new podcast narrated by CEO of Golden Paints Mark Golden. It tells the story of how Golden paints came to be. There are just a couple of episodes at the moment with the first one looking at the early history of the company as they began Bocour Artist Colors in New York City, with Mark Golden’s Great Uncle Leonard Bocour and his father Sam Golden.

I’ve been reading:

Book: Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Baylis and Ted Orland

How does art get done?

This short book explores the the many difficulties that aspiring artist can face when trying to start and continue with their artistic studies.

The authors are two artists and it is a guide for overcoming the fear of creating artworks.

It can be helpful realising you’re not alone when feeling overwhelmed about starting a new painting or drawing and take comfort that many artists are in the exact same space!

“Often the work we have not done feels more real in our minds than the pieces we have completed.” – David Bayles.

(Pro tip: ‘The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield also looks at the ‘resistance’ to starting the art works you want to create, but somehow keep on putting them off.

Have a great week being fearless in the studio!

Cheers,

Will

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I’d like to thank all the students and well-wishers for the positivity that has come through the Art School blog this year.

I see a lot of fantastic success stories from the tutorials on the blog and one of the most common footnotes is,“‘my painting looks better in real life than it does in the photo.”

90% of them are taken on a phone or iPad and over the last couple of years, I’ve found smartphone cameras are getting better and better, as long as you bear in mind their sensor size.

A traditional camera has got a much larger sensor, in comparison to a smartphone.

The larger the sensor, the bigger the surface area available to capture light on, so to get the best out of your phone and get great exposure on your shots, you need to follow a few easy steps.

I’ve put together a guide below which addresses some of the most common issues and the simplest way to fix them. There are two main approaches, natural light or artificial light, depending on what lighting conditions you have available to take your photos in.

On a brisk winter’s morning in the coastal town of St Ives, we negotiated our way down the steep lanes, past whitewashed slate-roofed cottages to Trewyn Studio.

Home to one of Britain’s most important twentieth-century artists, Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth (1903 – 1975), who lived and worked here for more than 25 years.

Trewyn Studio – now the Barbara Hepworth Museum & Sculpture Garden, St Ives, Cornwall

Her secluded garden studio lies behind the white arched doorway and protective stone walls to the right of the house. The property is now owned by Tate gallery but has been left as close as possible to when she worked in the gardens under the Cornish light and amongst the seagulls.