Diego Velazquez – Portrait of a Man

Between the rack and the Judas chair (not one to look up if you’re at all squeamish), the Spanish Inquisition were people you didn’t want to mess with. Diego Velázquez was either fearless or felt protected when he set about painting from live nude models. Only his ‘Rokeby Venus’ survives today. Velázquez (or Velasquez as […]

John Singer Sargent – Ink Wash Study Demo

Yesterday, I decided to do another of my thumbnail sketches, but planned to make it a little larger and add more mid-tones using ink washes with a brush. I took a few photographs at different stages in case it didn’t completely belly flop, and ended up creating a small tutorial for anyone interested: Ink Study […]

Love Locks on the Paris Pont des Arts, The ‘I did it’ experience

I remember tranquil evenings sat on Paris’ Pont des Arts bridge, outside the Louvre, with picnic laid out and wine to hand. I had no family commitments then, and sat amongst numerous Parisians and tourists watching the sun set over the Seine, as the surrounding limestone architecture turned golden. It saddens me to think that […]

John Singer Sargent Book – Technique, Life, Letters and Paintings

ArtGraphica has just released another art book, this time a chronology of American artist John Singer Sargent, following his life, paintings and personal correspondences with such friends as Claude Monet. Amongst the anecdotes is a retelling of an incident that occured in England, when John Sargent innocently rode his horse through a wheat field to […]