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 enjoyed when I should have been at the easel, with the hope they might inspire your own work too…

I’ve enjoyed watching:

Documentary: Christo and Jeanne Claude: Monumental Art

I found this a really inspirational journey, documenting the lengths and dedication that artists can go to, to bring their vision to life. Christo’s projects are self-funded by his own preparatory drawings, and some of the planning stages span over 10yrs for the installation of art pieces that are temporary in nature. The scale and impact of the pieces are awesome!

Art finds:

Artemisia Gentileschi, Self Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria (detail),

The National Gallery, London, has a page dedicated to the latest arrivals into their collection. A recent highlight is this beautiful self-portrait by Artemisia Gentileschi. Students painting with the grisaille portrait method (from the Oil Portrait Glazing Course) may be interested in having a zoom in on the face, and you can just make out the underlying grey tones.

(You can learn more about the oil grisaille method in this series of blog posts.)

On my Easel this week:

I’ve been in the studio working on a couple of new courses looking at a modern & classical still life using a limited palette of materials. Inspired by our one hour morning paintings, the modern composition should be released first, hopefully in the next month or so.

Have a creative week!

Cheers,
Will