Tag: art practice
Take a step inside the working studio of painter Marcella Granick, where canvases sit in every stage and ideas move from quick notes to full figures at their own pace. Marcella talks through her setup, her habits, and the small details that shape her process, giving a close look at how she works in a room that feels lived-in, honest, and full of slow, steady movement.
If you’ve ever walked into a room and felt like the walls themselves were alive, you’ve experienced a little bit of what Rothko aimed for. Born in 1903 in Dvinsk (now Daugavpils, Latvia), Rothko emigrated to the United States as a child and later became one of the seminal figures of the Abstract Expressionist movement. What made his work stand out was his belief that colour alone, large fields of it, softly edged and hovering on the canvas, could evoke deep human emotion: tragedy, ecstasy, even the sense of the sublime.Rather…
You didn’t pick up a paintbrush, pen, or camera because life was picture-perfect. You picked it up because something inside you needed out. Maybe it was frustration, perhaps heartbreak, maybe that low hum of anxiety that never seems to shut up. Whatever it was, you knew keeping it bottled in wasn’t an option. So you made. And that act of making, messy as it was, started to stitch you back together in ways you didn’t expect. Here’s the funny thing: you probably weren’t trying to heal at first. You were just…
Every artist has little things that mean a lot, maybe it’s a childhood toy, a pattern you loved in your grandmother’s kitchen, or a recurring motif you notice in dreams. These small, personal symbols carry stories that only you fully understand, and they can become powerful tools in your art. When someone else sees them, even if they don’t grasp every layer, they feel a connection, like a secret handshake. Think about a painting that features a little paper boat. To you, it might be a memory of a rainy afternoon,…
Why It’s Time to Show the Messy Middle We all love the final piece, the polished canvas, the perfectly lit photograph, the sculpture that stands proud and complete. But what about the versions before that? The smudged pages, the failed attempts, the half-formed ideas that eventually led you there? Most artists hide those moments. But here’s the thing: they’re gold. Audiences are no longer content with just the result. They want to know the story behind it, the hands that shaped it, and the journey it took to arrive. Including works…
What’s This Portfolio Actually For? Let’s be real, figuring out how long your portfolio should be is a bit like packing for a trip. Too little and it feels like you’re underprepared, too much and it becomes a hassle to carry. The truth? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. It all depends on where your portfolio’s going and who’s flipping through it. Are you applying for a residency, a grant, or finally updating that website your cousin’s been nagging you about since 2022? Every opportunity has its own expectations, and that changes the…