Vincent Van Gogh is a brilliant artist to inspire children in primary school, a classic example of the starving artist struggling for recognition. Yet despite his tragic life he never gave up in his quest to become a great painter and although he sold only one painting in his … Read More

Pablo Picasso was like a bull, very strong willed, always looking for new challenges and never satisfied with his achievements. He had an insatiable appetite for creating new ideas and for loving the many women in his life. At the age of 5 he could draw brilliantly and by … Read More

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How often have we heard someone dismiss a piece of art because it doesn’t look like a photograph? It is almost as if a work of art has to conform to a given set of visual rules before it can be accepted … Read More

Having taught in secondary schools for many years before setting up my own art business, I have a lot of experience of teaching art to children. Now my art business takes me into many primary schools where I meet a lot of primary school art co-ordinators. Unlike their secondary school … Read More

I taught art in schools for years before leaving and setting up my own art business providing schools with art workshops. Yesterday, I was in a secondary school in Reading, UK – lovely school – running a GCSE Inspiration workshop with around 60 15/16 year olds. I had a wonderful … Read More

Although the subject matter, techniques and materials of artists have changed over the centuries, their attitudes towards life and their environment have changed little. The manner in which they expresses their ideas, their style, can in basic terms, be seen as one of the following: Classical, Romantic or Realist. When … Read More

‘Art is a parrot word and should be replaced by Dada’.
‘Musicians smash your instruments blind men take the stage’.
‘Art is a pretension warmed by the timidity of the urinary basin and the hysteria born in the studio’. Tristan Tzara.
Dada emerged in Zurich in Switzerland, during … Read More

Abstract Expressionism was a term first used in connection with Kandinsky in 1919, but is more commonly associated with post-war American art. Robert Coates, an American critic, coined it in 1946, when referring to the work of Gorky, Pollock and De Kooning. By the 1951 Museum of … Read More

André Derain was born in 1880 at Chatou, which was then a kind of artists’ colony at the gates of Paris. His father was a successful pastry chef and a town councillor. Derain received a middle-class education but disliked school calling it a ‘more bitter memory for … Read More

Hokusai was born in the autumn of 1760 at Honjo Warigesui, in Katsushika of Shimosa Province, very close to the old city of Edo, now Katsushika ward of the city of Tokyo. In later years, Hokusai called himself “the farmer of Katsushika” and often used Katsushika in … Read More

How often have we heard someone dismiss a piece of art because it doesn’t look ‘real’? It is almost as if a work of art has to conform to a given set of visual rules before it can be accepted as art in some people’s eyes. It … Read More

I have just been researching the artist Henri Rousseau who will become one of my artists in school and it struck me that nothing in life changes. Poor Rousseau (1844 – 1910) was very trusting and was easily duped by a man in a bar, who had … Read More

L S Lowry is know for his ‘matchstick men’ but there is so much more to him than meets the eye. Lowry suffered from Asperger’s Syndrome and lived with his parents until he was 52 years old. He led two very distinct lives; one as a rent … Read More

Welsh Landscapes: One of the students on my 3 day Landscape painting course at Burton Court, was taking about using a palette knife to give the landscape a grandeur and solidity. I suggested she looked at the work of Kyffin Williams. Kyffin was born in 1918 and died in 2006. … Read More

Art is what artists produce. All artists are human beings, but not all human beings are artists. So what is it that makes a human being an artist? And what is it that they produce? These simple questions are the basis of endless debate so let’s break it down into … Read More