“I tried different techniques during my career, but I especially fell in love with painting with oil and pallette-knife. Every artwork is the result of long painting process; every canvas is born during the creative search; every painting is full of my inner world. Each of my paintings brings different mood, colors and emotions. I love to express the beauty, harmony and spirit of this world in my paintings. My heart is completely open to art. Thus, I enjoy creating inspired and beautiful paintings from the bottom of my soul. Each of my artworks reflects my feelings, sensitivity, passion, and the music from my soul. True art is alive and inspired by humanity. I believe that art helps us to be free from aggression and depression.“

~ Leonid Afremov

Source: http://amolife.com/

Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci

1503-06, The Louvre, Paris

This mysteriously smiling face has become synonymous with art itself. It is certainly the most famous painting ever painted, and arguably the most influential portrait of all time.

The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh

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1889, Museum of Modern Art, New York

Without question, this work has come to represent the best of the best from this beloved, but troubled genius. The painting was to influence the expressive use of colour and paint for several generations of international artists during the next half-century or more.

Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh

1888, National Gallery, London

Vincent van Gogh painted these sunflowers after leaving his native Holland for the south of France with the dream of starting an artistic community. He began to paint sunflowers to decorate a bedroom for his friend Paul Gauguin. Van Gogh produced a replica of this painting in January 1889, and perhaps another one later in the year. The various versions and replicas remain much debated among Van Gogh scholars. These most famous of all sunflowers in art hold at their heart a simple parable about the brevity of life; they are at varying stages in the life cycle, from withered and wilting to vibrant full bloom.

The Ninth Wave by Ivan Aivazovsky

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1850, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

“The Ninth Wave” is a true masterwork. Aivazovsky reaches in this painting an absolute technical perfection, representing a group of unlucky castaways trying to survive under the merciless charges in form of oceanic waves. Nevertheless, the centre of the composition is the powerful, almost mystical and diffuse representation of the sun, which illuminates the scene with a strange, oneiric range of green and pink shades. This painting is often called “the most beautiful painting in Russia.”

The Hay Wain by John Constable

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1821, National Gallery, London

The Hay Wain is revered today as one of the greatest British paintings, but, when it was originally exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1821 (under the title Landscape: Noon), it failed to find a buyer. It was considerably better received in France where it was praised by Théodore Géricault. The painting caused a sensation when it was exhibited with other works by Constable at the 1824 Paris Salon (it has been suggested that the inclusion of Constable’s paintings in the exhibition were a tribute to Géricault, who died early that year). In that exhibition, The Hay Wain was singled out for a gold medal awarded by Charles X of France, a cast of which is incorporated into the picture’s frame. The works by Constable in the exhibition inspired a new generation of French painters, including Eugène Delacroix.

Tower of Babel by Pieter Brueghel the Elder

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1563, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

The subject of this painting is the construction of the Tower of Babel, which according to the Bible was a tower built by humanity to reach heaven. Brueghel’s depiction of the architecture of the tower, with its numerous arches and other examples of Roman engineering, is deliberately reminiscent of the Roman Colosseum. The painting was meant to demonstrate the dangers of human pride and perhaps the failure of Classical rationality in the face of the divine.

Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix

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1830, Louvre, Paris

Eugène Delacroix depicted Liberty as both an allegorical goddess-figure and a robust woman of the people, an approach that contemporary critics denounced as “ignoble”. The mound of corpses acts as a kind of pedestal from which Liberty strides, barefoot and bare-breasted, out of the canvas and into the space of the viewer. The Phrygian cap she wears had come to symbolise liberty during the French Revolution of 1789.

The Fighting Temeraire Tugged to Her Last Berth to Be Broken up by J. M. W. Turner

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1838, National Gallery, London

The composition of this painting is unusual in that the most significant object, the old warship, is positioned well to the left of the painting, where it rises in stately splendour and almost ghostlike colours against a triangle of blue sky and rising mist that throws it into relief. The beauty of the old ship is in stark contrast to the dirty blackened tugboat with its tall smokestack, which scurries across the still surface of the river “like a water beetle”. In 2005, The Fighting Temeraire was voted the greatest painting in a British art gallery.

The Night Watch by Rembrandt van Rijn

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1642, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Considered to be Rembrandt’s best work, this painting broke the mould insofar as group portraits at the time were concerned. Newly cleaned today, the painting stands up well as the best Northern Europe had to offer.

Union of Earth and Water by Peter Paul Rubens

1618, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

In order to embody the union of the two elements, Rubens took figures from Classical mythology: resting on the trident is the god of the sea, Neptune, representing Water, whilst Cybele (Mother of the Gods), with the horn of plenty in her hand, is Earth. The prosperous union of Earth and Water, bringing mankind wealth and plenty, is blessed by the goddess of Victory, who descends from Mount Olympus, and is heralded on a conch by the Triton, who has raised himself up from the watery depths.

The Swineherd, Brittany by Paul Gauguin

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1888, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Gauguin is considered one of the leading painters of the Postimpressionist period. This colorful painting has more realistic space than many paintings by Gauguin in his mature style. ‘The Swineherd’ has a distinct foreground, with the farmer and his pigs, and a background of small village homes and sky. The strong colors and patchlike strokes of paint are what we most recognize as belonging to Gauguin.

Two Sisters (On the Terrace) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

1881, The Art Institute of Chicago

A celebration of the beauty of spring and the promise of youth, Two Sisters (On the Terrace) is a technical and compositional tour de force, a virtuoso display of vibrant color and variegated brushwork. The almost life-sized figures occupy a shallow space in front of a terrace railing; behind them quivers a lively, leafy landscape that brings their sharply delineated forms into vivid focus. The two girls’ faces are extraordinarily refined—revealing Renoir’s new emphasis on draftsmanship—and their porcelain complexions are uncompromised by reflections or shadows. The young child’s irises are an almost startlingly clear, translucent blue, suggestive of the artist’s desire to help us see the world afresh, through innocent eyes.

Source: http://amolife.com/

Is it necessary to plan a painting in careful detail before you start, or should you let it evolve as you go along? Planning a painting can be a help as you know exactly what you’re going to do, but it could also inhibit spontaneity. Letting a painting evolve as you work is very free and lets you be spontaneous, but also leaves you open to the possibility that the painting won’t go anywhere and you’ll end up with a mess.

Ultimately the degree to which you plan out a painting depends on your personality, some people find it essential and others a hindrance. But regardless of how detailed you like to plan (or not), there are several decisions that have to be made before you to start to paint.

1. Decide On a Subject
Deciding on a subject is the logical first step as it influences the format of the support, the type of support used, and the technique you’re going to use to create the painting.

If you’ve only a vague idea of what to do with an appealing subject, such as a glorious landscape, sketching or doing small studies rather than a full painting will enable you to see whether the composition and selection of elements works well without wasting time or materials. A pleasing study can then be used as the basis or reference for a full-scale painting.

But if you find that doing a study makes you stiffen up when you come to do the large-scale painting because you’re focusing on replicating it, rather than it reminding you sufficiently of the original scene, consider doing only quick sketches to see if a composition works and taking reference photos to work from back in your studio.

2. Decide On the Format
Having decided on a subject, you need to decide what the best format for the support is, whether it should be landscape or portrait, or perhaps square. What shape of the canvas will best suit the subject matter? For example, a very long and thin canvas used in adds a sense of drama to a landscape, especially one of a wide-open space.

3. Decide On the Size
The size the support will be should also be a conscious decision. A painting shouldn’t be a particular size simply because that’s the size of the sheet of paper you have. If you buy primed and stretched canvases, have several in various sizes to hand so you’ve a choice. Think about how the subject would look if it were painted small, or perhaps very large. Are you going to work lifesize or oversized? For example, portraits which are oversized are very dramatic.

4. Decide On a Medium and Technique
If you only ever use one medium then you don’t have to decide which one you think is best for this particular subject. But what about the technique you’re going to use? For example, if you use acrylics, are you going to use them thickly or thinly, like watercolors, are you going to use retarders to slow down the drying time? If you use watercolors, are you going to use masking fluid to keep areas white?

5. Decide On the Type of Support
Are you going to paint on canvas, primed hardboard, or paper? Will it be a canvas with a fine weave, such as linen, or a coarse weave that will show through? Will it be a smooth, hot-pressed paper or a rougher watercolor paper? This is a decision that not only influences the texture of the final work, but also how you work, for example canvas will stand heavy impasto being reworked repeatedly.

Alternately, the technique you’re wishing to use will determine the best support.

If you are using oils, acrylics, or gouache, will you be using a ground and what color should it be? How about using a complementary colour to the main colour in the picture? If you are using pastels, what colour paper will you use? And will you lay down an initial layer of complementary colors?

6. Decide On Colors
Are you going to use color realistically or not? Are you going to use whatever colors you’ve got or select out a few to make up a palette just for that painting? Working with a limited range of colors can contribute to a sense of unity in a painting and great a sense of identify or unity between paintings.

By Marion Boddy-Evans

If you’re aiming to have a realistic painting, with accurate perspective, then it’s crucial to get the angles of the elements in the painting accurate. Not only the angles of how the objects lie in relation to each other, but also of the items themselves.

Here are various ways to measure angles:
• Hold your brush or a pencil up vertically then judge the angle by thinking of the small hand on a clock. Does the edge go out from the vertical at four o’clock or five o’clock? Or, even more accurately, by thinking of the large hand on a clock – does the edge go out at five minutes past twelve or three minutes past?

• Line a pencil or brush up with the angle then, holding it at the same angle, move it down to your painting to check the angle you’ve got.

• If you find that you move the brush when doing this, try using two pencils.

Line them up against two edges in the object so that they overlap. Now grasp them firmly where they overlap and bring them down to your painting to check the angle.

• Open a pair of compasses until the arms match the angle, then move the compass across to your painting to compare. The advantage of a compass is that it’ll probably be stiff enough not to close up as you move it.

• Make yourself a plumbline from a piece of string with a weight such as a large bead or small fishing weight at the end. Hold the end of the string in your fingers and gravity will provide you with a vertical line against which you can judge angles.

• Get a school protractor and drill a hole through the ‘centre’ spot. Attach a plumb line to this and use it to measure angles from the vertical.

• One that’s not for youngsters: Open a pair of scissors until the blades match the angle. (Let’s face it, most adult artists are more likely to have a pair of scissors lying around than a pair of compasses.)

Tips:
• As you become more experienced, so you’ll be able to rely more and more on your ‘eye’ and have to measure less.
• When something in a painting just isn’t working, go back and systematically check all the angles.

By Marion Boddy-Evans

You don’t have to be a total chocoholic to appreciate the many levels of pleasure that comes from chocolate. There’s the often-agonising decision of what to buy this time: a favourite or something new, a big bar of cheap chocolate or a small imported bar? The anticipation while getting through the wrapper, making sure you don’t leave any tiny bits of foil to hit a filling. The distinctive crack as you break off a piece. The picking up with a licked finger of any crumbs. The popping of the piece in your mouth. The slow melting on your tongue….

But then there are the side effects, such as all those calories, the high fat and sugar content, the triggering of migraines. Which is where your paint brushes come in, because painting also rewards us with a ‘high’. And while I’m too much of a chocoholic myself to suggest that painting could (or should) ever replace chocolate in your life, here a few ways to use your love for chocolate to the benefit of your painting:

• Reward ‘Good’ Behaviour: So you really, really fancy a chocolate.

Okay then, give in to the temptation and buy it, but then use it as the subject for a painting – and no eating it until you’ve finished the painting! Or if you know you won’t be able to wait that long, investigate and sketch the compositional possibilities: as the sole object in a still life, as a still life with the till slip and change, with the wrapper scrunched next to it, broken in pieces, a cross-section, with a bite taken out of it, just the empty wrapper and a few crumbs (and maybe some ants).

• Create an Abstract Painting: Use the emotions chocolate generates as the subject for an abstract.

• Create a Tryptich: Use a selection of seasonal chocolates to create a tryptich or series painting, such as Easter eggs, Valentine’s heart-boxed sets, or Christmas tree chocolates. Or of the ‘life’ of a chocolate – before, during, and after the eating.

• Colour Theory: Learn the ‘real’ names for pigments by picking up a colour chart from your local art shop then identifying specific colours in various chocolate bars and their wrappers. Paint a monochrome picture using only ‘chocolately’ browns. Do a three-tone painting using the colours of white, milk, and dark chocolate.

• Quality Versus Quantity: Think of the difference between cheap chocolate and quality Swiss chocolate. The same applies to student and artist’s quality paints. Artist’s quality paints have better pigments and less fillers than cheap, student paints. Both have their place, but ultimately you’re better off with the better quality stuff. Don’t cheat yourself by only ever buying the cheapest paints (or the cheapest chocolates!).

• Savour the Moment: Enjoy what you’re doing and don’t feel guilty about it; don’t punish yourself or feel guilty for the time you spend painting.

By Marion Boddy-Evans

An artist’s statement is a short piece written by the artist to accompany a particular painting or group of paintings. An artist’s statement shouldn’t be dismissed as insignificant or dashed out in a hurry as it’s a vital selling tool, promoting and explaining your work to people looking at your paintings, whether they’re potential buyers, exhibition curators, critics, fellow artists, or casual browsers.

At its best, an artist’s statement reads easily, is informative, and adds to your understanding of the artist and the painting. At its worse, an artist’s statement is difficult to understand or rambles on, is pretentious, and irritates rather than informs (or, even, provokes laughter).

How Long Should an Artist’s Statement Be?
Rather make an artist’s statement too short than too long – most people simply won’t have the patience to read a lengthy treatise and many will be put off before they’ve even started.

Aim at around 100 words or three short paragraphs.

What Should an Artist’s Statement Say?
An artist’s statement should be an explanation of your painting style and subjects or themes. Add a bit about your approach or philosophy if you wish. Mention your education, specifically if you’ve studied art (the closer you are to the date you left art college, the more relevant this is). Consider mentioning which artists (living and dead) have influenced or inspired you. Mention any significant awards you have won, exhibitions you have participated in, collections your paintings appear in or significant sales you may have made, and painting organisations or societies you belong to. Remember, though, you’re aiming to create professional credibility by highlighting your achievements, not providing a full resume. If you don’t have a formal art qualification, don’t worry, it’s your paintings that make you an artist, not your qualifications.

Help, I Find It Impossible to Describe My Work in Words!
It can often be difficult to explain something visual in words – and afterall, you’re an artist not a writer! But, as with painting, practise makes it easier and perseverence is essential. You’re unlikely to produce a polished artist’s statement the first time you try, so be prepared to rework it several times.

Think about how you would describe your work to someone who didn’t know you, what other people have said about your work, what you are aiming to achieve in your paintings, your outlook on life. Ask a friend for comments on what you’ve written (but pick someone you know will give you an honest answer, this is no time for “that’s lovely” comments). Write your artist’s statement in first person (”I work …”), not third person (”Mary works …”).

Can an Artist’s Statement Change?
Certainly, because you and your work will change. In fact you, should review your artist’s statement whenever you need to use it to make sure it’s suitable for a particular exhibition, event, or market, not simply print it out again time and again.

Where Can I Find Examples of Artists’ Statement?
Many of the paintings submitted to the monthly painting projects, the September 11th Gallery, and the First Painting Sold Gallery have artist’s statements, most very specific to a particular painting. Browse through these galleries, or the examples listed below, see what you think works and what not, think about why this is, then apply it to your own artist’s statement. Also always look at the artist’s statement when you’re browsing an artist’s personal website.

By Marion Boddy-Evans

The most commonly known facts about Vincent van Gogh are that he cut off his left ear (actually only a part) and presented it to a prostitute, that he sold only one painting during his lifetime (actually there is evidence to suggest that it was more than one), and that he committed suicide (true).

Few realize quite how significant his contribution was to painting, that his adventurous use of color changed the direction of art. Van Gogh deliberately set about using colors to capture mood and emotion, rather than using colors realistically. At the time, this was completely unheard of.

“Instead of trying to exactly what I see before me, I make more arbitrary use of color to express myself more forcefully.”

When he first devoted himself to painting full time, in 1880, Van Gogh used dark and gloomy earth colors such as raw umber, raw sienna, and olive green.

These were very suited the miners, weavers, and peasant farm laborers who were his subjects. But the development of new, more lightfast pigments and his exposure to the work of the Impressionists, who were striving to capture the effects of light in the work, saw him introduce bright hues into his palette: reds, yellows, oranges, greens, and blues.

Typical colors in Van Gogh’s palette included yellow ocher, chrome yellow and cadmium yellow, chrome orange, vermilion, Prussian blue, ultramarine, lead white and zinc white, emerald green, red lake, red ocher, raw sienna, and black. (Both chrome yellow and cadmium yellow are toxic, so some modern artists tend to use versions that have hue at the end of the name, which indicates that it’s made from alternative pigments.)

Van Gogh painted very rapidly, with a sense of urgency, using the paint straight from the tube in thick, graphic brush strokes (impasto). In his last 70 days, he is said to have averaged one a day.

Influenced by prints from Japan, he painted dark outlines around objects, filling these in with areas of thick color. He knew that using complementary colors make each seem brighter, using yellows and oranges with blues and reds with greens. His choice of colors varied with his moods and occasionally he deliberately restricted his palette, such as with the sunflowers which are almost entirely yellows.

“To exaggerate the fairness of hair, I come even to orange tones, chromes and pale yellow … I make a plain background of the richest, intensest blue that I can contrive, and by this simple combination of the bright head against the rich blue background, I get a mysterious effect, like a star in the depths of an azure sky.”

By Marion Boddy-Evans

Any artist who enjoys using Prussian blue will find it hard to imagine that such a beautiful blue was actually the result of an experiment gone wrong. The discoverer of Prussian blue, the colormaker Diesbach, was in fact not trying to make a blue, but a red. The creation of Prussian blue, the first modern, synthetic color was completely accidental.

Diesbach, working in Berlin, was attempting to create cochineal red lake in his laboratory. (”Lake” was once a label for any dye-based pigment; these days it’s used with relation to red only. “Cochineal” was originally obtained by crushing the bodies of cochineal insects.) The ingredients he needed were iron sulphate and potash. In a move that’ll bring a smile to any artist’s who’s ever tried to save money by buying cheap materials, he obtained some contaminated potash from the alchemist in whose laboratory he was working, Johann Konrad Dippel.

The potash had been contaminated with animal oil and was due to be thrown out.

When Diesbach mixed the contaminated potash with the iron sulphate, instead of the strong red he was expecting, he got one that was very pale. He then attempted to concentrate it, but instead of a darker red he was expecting, he first got a purple, then a deep blue. He’d accidentally created the first synthetic blue pigment, Prussian blue.

Traditional Blues
It’s hard to imagine now, given the range of stable, lightfast colors we can buy, that in the early eighteenth century artists didn’t have an affordable or stable blue to use. Ultramarine, which is extracted from the stone lapis lazuli, was more expensive than vermilion and even gold. (In the Middle Ages, there was only one known source of lapis lazuli, which means simply ‘blue stone’. This was Badakshan, in what is now Afghanistan. Other deposits have subsequently been found in Chile and Siberia). Indigo had a tendency to turn black, was not lightfast, and had a greenish tinge. Azurite turned green when mixed with water so couldn’t be used for frescoes. Smalt was difficult to work with and had a tendency to fade. And not enough was yet known about the chemical properties of copper to consistently create a blue instead of a green (it’s now know that the result depends on the temperature it was made at).

The Chemistry Behind the Creation of Prussian Blue
Neither Diesbach nor Dippel were able to explain what had happened, but these days we know that the alkali (the potash) reacted with the animal oil (prepared from blood), to create potassium ferrocyanide. Mixing this with the iron sulphate, created the chemical compound iron ferrocyanide, or Prussian blue.

The Popularity of Prussian Blue
Diesbach made his accidental discovery some time between 1704 and 1705. In 1710 it was described as being “equal to or excelling ultramarine”. Being about a tenth of the price of ultramarine, it’s not wonder that by 1750 it was being widely used across Europe. By 1878 Winsor and Newton were selling Prussian blue and other paints based on it such as Antwerp blue (Prussian blue mixed with white). Famous artists who have used it include Gainsborough, Constable, Monet, Van Gogh, and Picasso (in his ‘Blue Period’).

The Characteristics of Prussian Blue
Prussian blue is a translucent (semi-transparent) color, but has a high tinting strength (a little has a marked effect when mixed with another color). Originally Prussian blue had a tendency to fade or turn grayish green, particularly when mixed with white, but with modern manufacturing techniques this is no longer an issue.

By Marion Boddy-Evans

Adding your signature to a painting is like adding a stamp to it that reads “finished”. It’s a sign that you’re satisfied with the painting and no longer consider it a work in progress.

Is It Really Necessary to Sign a Painting?
It’s not a legal requirement, but if you don’t add your name to a painting, how will anyone know who the artist is? You may argue that you’ve a very familiar style that people will recognize, but what if it’s the first time someone’s encountered your work? How will they find out who the artist is then? If it’s hanging in a gallery it’ll have a label with your name on it, but what if it’s in the lounge of someone who’s bought a painting and they can’t remember who the artist was? Think about the works by famous artists which are ‘rediscovered’ every now and then; is this a fate you want to risk for your paintings?

What Should My Signature Look Like?
The most important thing is that people must be able to read it.

An illegible signature isn’t a sign that you’re extremely creative and it doesn’t add a level of intrigue to the painting. You’re the artist, so let it be known. But at the same time, don’t make it look like you’re using a stamp. You don’t have to sign your whole name on the front of the painting, you could just put your initials but it’s wise to put your full name on the back of the painting. The same applies if you use a symbol or monograph; people have to have some way of knowing what it stands for.

Should I Put a Date With My Signature?
I believe you should date a painting, though it needn’t be next to your signature on the front. The reason: when you first start painting you’ll probably be able to keep track of when you painted a particular painting, but wait until you’ve several years’ worth of paintings, then you’ll simply be unable to remember and will have to guess. Serious collectors and galleries like be able to see how a painter’s work has developed over the years, so get into the habit of dating your work now. You don’t have to put the date on the front of your painting, but could write it on the back (though once it’s framed you may not be able to see it). Or put only the year on the front and the month and year you completed it on the back.

I don’t buy the argument the argument that putting a date on a painting limits your potential to sell it. Art isn’t like food, a product with a sell-buy date. If buyers only wanted the newest and latest work, then how come there’s an auction market for contemporary paintings? And if anyone asks why a painting from a few years back hasn’t sold, tell them you’d kept it in your personal collection until now because you regard it as a key work.

Where Do I Put My Signature?
It’s up to you, though traditionally a signature is put towards one of the bottom corners. A signature should be an integral part of a painting and not detract from the painting. Be consistent about where you put your signature as then when someone next encounters a painting they think by your, they know exactly where to look to check.

What Should I Use to Sign a Painting?
Use whatever you’ve created the painting in, whether it’s pastel, watercolor, whatever. Try to remember to sign the work before you clean your brushes and palette for the last time from a particular painting so you’ve got a suitable color to hand that will blend in with the work. (I do it with a thin rigger brush.) Having your signature ‘match’ the painting, rather than it looking like a later addition, also makes it less likely that someone will question the authenticity of the work at some future date (most likely after you’re dead and your paintings have increased in value enormously). Avoid adding your signature on top of a layer of varnish as it’ll look like you forgot to do it in time (and if you must, keep it small and rather put your full signature on the back).

Should You Sign a Painting with Your Maiden Name or Married Name?
If you change your name when you get married, how should you sign your paintings? Should you continue using the name you had been, your maiden name, or should you change to your new, married name? Ultimately, it’s a matter of individual preference.

If an artist is already known professionally by a maiden name, it wouldn’t make sense to change it because you’d have to remarket yourself. Or if both partners are artists, then sometimes people prefer to have different names to avoid comparison. Using a maiden name certainly solves any problem if a divorce later happens, but it’s hard to say to a new partner because it implies a lack of belief in a relationship, which it isn’t the issue it’s tied into at all. Your personal identity as an artist may be strongly tied into the name you’ve had since birth. There is no correct way or choice when it comes to signing a painting with your maiden name or not, it’s an individual choice.

What About Limited Edition Prints?
When you create a limited edition print, always indicate how many prints were made and the number of that particular print, for example 3/25 (the third print of a total of twenty-five), as well as signing it.

By Marion Boddy-Evans

When you’re looking at a painting critically with a view to giving a critique to the artist and, equally, when you’re critiquing your own paintings, here are some of the things you ought to consider:

• Size: Remember to take a look at the actual size of the painting and try to visualize it that big rather than the size of the photo on your computer screen.

• Shape: Does the shape of the canvas (landscape or portrait) suit the subject matter? For example, a very long and thin canvas can add to the drama of a landscape.

• Artist’s Statement: Has the artist achieve their stated aim? Do you agree with their statement or interpretation of their painting, remembering that what the artist intends and what the viewer sees aren’t always the same thing.

• Title of the Painting: What is the title of the painting? What does it tell you about the painting and how does it guide your interpretation? Think about how you might have interpreted the painting if it had been called something else.

• Subject Matter: What is the painting of? Is it unusual, unexpected, controversial or intriguing? Does it lend itself to comparison to work by a famous painter? Do you understand the symbolism in the painting?

• Emotional Response: Does the painting generate an emotional reaction in you? What is the overall mood of the painting, and is this suitable for the subject?

• Composition: How have the elements of the painting been placed? Does your eye flow across the whole painting or does one element selfishly dominate? Is the main focus of the painting slap-bang in the center of the painting (both vertically and horizontally), or off to one side? Is there anything that draws your eye into or across the painting? Also consider whether it’s been slavishly copied from reality or from a photograph rather than thought put into which elements were included?

• Skill: What level of technical skill does the artist display, making allowance for someone who’s just starting out and someone who’s an experienced artist? A beginner may not have been technically skillful in every element of their painting, but there’s usually some aspect that’s worth highlighting for the way it was dealt with and the potential it demonstrates.

• Medium: What was used to create the painting? What has the artist done with the possibilities presented by their choice of medium?

• Color: Has color been used realistically or used to convey emotion? Are the colors warm or cool and do they suit the subject? Has a restricted or monochrome palette been used ? Have complementary colors been used in the shadows and are there reflected colors ?

• Texture: It’s extremely hard to see texture of a painting on a web page, but it’s something that should be considered when looking at a painting in “real life”.

By Marion Boddy-Evans