ARTICLES

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Star of the Dance

This article continues the exploration of various techniques used by Samuel Shelton. In this small portrait, 9x12, I used the ...
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Whites, Values, and Magna Doodle Drawings – Ryan Embry

Do you remember the Magna Doodle? It was a neat little plastic toy popular in the 1980’s, the decade of ...
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Painting Process One – Samuel Shelton

In this series of articles, Samuel Shelton offers details about three different and unique approaches he uses in his work ...
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Mona Lisa Project

Mona Lisa Facsimile Project

Mark Balma is creating a facsimile copy of the painting using the methods and materials Leonardo used in the creation ...
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Kimberly Brooks & The New Oil Painting

There are big changes happening now in the world, although in most cases the new forms and expressions are just ...
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Blue Sky & Balsams

Of Bottles, Balsams and Blues

As many artists are recognizing, the supply situation for art materials is shifting. As one customer recently noted, it used ...
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Roman Black Earth

ROMAN BLACK EARTH

Roman Black Earth, our newest colour, gets its black from minerals, iron oxides, and carbon. The high iron content means ...
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New Years’ Resolution: Build A Body of Work

A guest article from the artist Kimberly Brooks! It’s that time of year when we pledge to better ourselves in ...
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Samuel Shelton and the Ancient Colours

You may be familiar with Samuel Shelton’s work from a previous article on The Art Treehouse web site: The Making ...
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Reimagine - Reinvent

Reimagine – Reinvent

A guest article by Kimberly Brooks. I never buy the Financial Times. But it was pink, it was in the ...
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Kyle Paxton’s Mediums

Kyle Paxton: I am from Florida but currently live in New Zealand with my Kiwi wife. I love to use ...
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The Tube-Wringer Story

The Tube-Wringer was invented in the 1970s by Oregon inventor John Gill. As more products came in tubes, he saw ...
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“A Little Black Book for My Younger Artist Self”

By Kimberly Brooks "The View From Here" 60 x 48 inches Oil on Linen I remember the first time I ...
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Mike Strickland Writes About “Bio-Thinner”

As an artist who is very sensitive to the traditional solvents used in oil painting, I have been searching for ...
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Leonardo da Vinci, and Mark Balma's painting inspired by

Leonardo and Light

According to Mark Balma, Leonard Da Vinci was an innovator in the realm of painting, as well as his many ...
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LEONARDO DA VINCI Painting Techniques

2019 is Leonardo da Vinci's 500th Anniversary. In the articles and videos that follow on this page, Leonardo specialist and ...
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THE MAKING OF A PAINTING

David and Goliath - a painting by Samuel Shelton. The Process: I started the painting by making a traditional hide ...
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The Progressive Focus Method For Painting a Portrait In Oils

By William F. Martin For years I struggled, attempting to paint a portrait that displayed a relatively accurate likeness of ...
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Save Every Last Drop of Canada Balsam

The well known and highly regarded artist Bill Martin has a great idea about how to save your Canada Balsam ...
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COMING FULL CIRCLE FOR ARTISTS

Globally we are coming full circle, returning to biobased materials. In fact, many early artist materials were based on natural ...
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The Self Destructing Painting

Recently, while visiting an upscale gallery to look for new art, I came across a painting that I enjoyed very ...
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The Mystery of Sfumato

Much of today's art places stress on bright colors and strong sharp lines. In a gallery the "high contrast" look ...
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Unusual Textured Gesso Effects

Many people use Masonite or birch boards rather than canvas for painting supports. Usually, artists use boards because they desire ...
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The Color of a Culture

Can a culture develop an identity around certain colors? In the case of Indian Yellow, it appears to be the ...
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Green Acrylics?

Acrylic paints often contain small percentages of formaldehyde or ammonia as preservatives. These can cause allergic reactions in some individuals, ...
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Our Monitors are Fooling Us

Most of us have replaced our CRT computer monitors with LCD monitors, creating a significant problem for artists. LCD monitors ...
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PHOTO EXPOSURE PROBLEMS – A SOLUTION FOR ARTISTS

Recently someone asked about problems with underexposed images on a camera. Sometimes if you are at a gallery reception, messing ...
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A BETTER MAULSTICK

Painters often use a maulstick to steady their hand when working on details. The Dutch word "maalstok" means "painter's stick" ...
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FIREWORKS IN THE STUDIO – DRY PIGMENTS

Iron oxide is possibly the single most common pigment used in oil and acrylic paints. Powdered aluminum is used in ...
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KEEP IT SIMPLE

According to the Chemical Abstract Service, there are now over 50 million chemicals listed in their catalogues. New chemicals are ...
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COLOR UNDER-DRAWING

An artist friend in California sent an email with this idea. Historically, charcoal and pencils have commonly been used for ...
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Should the Hazardous Art Materials Law be Repealed?

Recently the Arts, Crafts and Theater Safety (ACTS) people in New York called for the repeal of the labeling of ...
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OIL OF SPIKE LAVENDER AND “VENICE OF THE NORTH”

Bruges, in the Flemish region of Belgium, is sometimes called the "Venice of the North". During the 1400s, it was ...
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BEYOND CADMIUM TO MORE COLORS!

At one point, cadmium red was thought to be a safer alternative to vermilion (cinnabar). Because of the mercury in ...
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HOW TO DESTROY A GOOD BRUSH!

The secret is near the metal ferrule.  If paint gets packed up too close to the ferrule, it is almost ...
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ARTIST DESCRIBES USE OF SPIKE LAVENDER

It is always interesting to hear about the different ways artists use Oil of Spike Lavender.  This is a description ...
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PAINTERS WHO PREPARE THEIR OWN MATERIALS

"The painter who prepares his own materials knows them in a very different way from one who buys them ready ...
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NOT ALL PIGMENTS COST THE SAME!

Recently a promotion for artist's oil paints was mailed to thousands of artists across the country. The extra large size ...
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WHO GAVE COLORS THEIR NAMES?

In the mid-19th century, King Ludwig I of Bavaria longed to have something like the fine lime frescoes he saw ...
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THE FINE ART OF MESS MAKING

The image of a messy workbench often comes to mind when people think of an artist's working space.  Perhaps the ...
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HAS WHITE BEEN USED TOO MUCH BY ARTISTS?

"The tendency to put in more and more white is so usual that it would be well to restrict the ...
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NANOTECHNOLOGY AND ART – SHOULD WE KNOW ABOUT IT?

Recently, a highly regarded art supplies manufacturer closed up shop and sold everything to a much larger company, agreeing to ...
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THE SECRET OF THE OLD MASTERS!

Artists sometimes are fascinated by the search for a "Secret" that makes old master paintings last so long and look ...
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THROUGH THE ARTIST LOOKING GLASS

Working on a creative project up close, hour after hour, can make it difficult to get a fresh sense of ...
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HUFFINGTON POST ART PAGE – FEATURED ARTICLE

It is common for an art student to show up for the first day of painting class and discover that ...
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NO MORE LOCKED PAINT TUBE CAPS

This idea was sent to us by a painter who solved a problem.  The problem is that the caps on ...
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THE MAGIC FLY AND THE NEW ART

According to legend, Giotto was the ugliest artist in town, but he was also the greatest illusionist.  As a boy, ...
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HOW TO STORE ARTIST’S PAINT TUBES

When tubes of artist's oil paints are displayed for sale, they are usually hanging down in a rack, with their ...
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THE ANCIENT COLOR FROM A FISH

The Greeks observed that the common cuttlefish emitted a brownish-black pigment when attacked.  They discovered that pigment could be made ...
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White Paint: The Problem With Nano-Particles

Historically, lead-based white was the pigment used in art, for hundreds of years.  But of course, lead is toxic and ...
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PAINTING KNIVES IN HISTORY

Painting knives are certainly great tools for contemporary artists using impasto techniques.  Some form of the painting knife has  been ...
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WORKS OF ART ARE NOT FROZEN IN TIME!

This idea of interaction with art is in contrast to the idea we sometimes have that great works of art ...
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WHICH CANVAS IS BEST FOR ARTISTS?

Artists have been aware for some time that there are problems with the canvas materials normally used to support paintings ...
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ART AND ANXIETY

ART AND ANXIETY - "Sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose or paint can manage to ...
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Van Gogh’s Problems with Cadmium Yellow

The yellows in one of Van Gogh's paintings, "Flowers in a Blue Vase", have been turning orange-grey.  This is not ...
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Artists – Are They Workers or Entrepreneurs?

In the 1930s, over 15,000 artists were commissioned by the federal government to create art for public places, including libraries, ...
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Plein Air Artist Inventions

During the 1800s, Plein Air painters were scattered throughout the country, from far west to the North Pole.  Landscape painting ...
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Art, the Amazon Effect, and Fast Clothing

It used to be called the Wal-Mart effect, where large-scale merchandising techniques and international manufacturing made consumer goods so much ...
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Artist Charcoal and the “Withies”

Not all art materials come from large manufacturers.  The Coate family in Somerset, England makes willow baskets and artist willow ...
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What’s Next for Artist Paint Tubes?

In 1841, the American artist John Goffe Rand invented collapsible metal tubes for preserving oil paints. These tubes made it ...
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THE CRAZY IDEA OF NON-TOXIC PIGMENTS

Recently, some folks have been marketing raw pigments for making "non-toxic" paints at home. This is the oldest mistake in ...
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BRING BACK SALON-STYLE ART GALLERIES!

Most Americans are used to visiting museums and galleries where there is one work of art hung in each horizontal ...
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The Bio-based Revolution and Art Materials

According to the University of Minnesota a bio-based revolution is underway, and it is fundamentally changing how the world produces ...
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Extreme Plein Air

In 1924, Nicholas Roerich set out on a five-year expedition loaded with all his painting supplies, travelling to Tibet, Sikkim, ...
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REVOLUTION IN ART MATERIALS

Globally, many people are working to replace petrochemicals with biobased alternatives.  The art materials introduced in the coming years will ...
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TRANSLUCENT PAINTING – AUREOLA

Around 1122 A.D.,  an author known as Theophilus wrote a manuscript called On Divers Arts, where he described the technique ...
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THE DESTRUCTION OF GANDHARAN ART

The art from at least nineteen archaeological sites including four Buddhist monasteries, several Buddhist reliquary towers known as stupas, and ...
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REALIST ART OR ABSTRACT SPIRITUALITY?

There is a long established connection between abstract art and spirituality, highlighted by Vassily Kandinsky's well-known book, Concerning the Spiritual ...
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WHEN MY BLUE MOON TURNS TO GOLD

There is an old song from the 1940s titled When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again, sung by Merle ...
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BIOMASS – WHY SHOULD I CARE?

The main point about biomass is that it comes from the waste left behind when plants are processed for food ...
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ARTIST SOCIAL MEDIA IDEA!

If you have a page promoting your art on facebook, you probably know facebook will promote it for you, if ...
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FEATURED ARTIST: CAROLE COLLINS CHALMERS

As Carole's web site says, "Carole Chalmers is an imaginative painter who is driven by an incredible passion for self-expression ...
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SPIKE LAVENDER OIL AND THE ANCIENTS

Oil of Spike Lavender has been known and used since ancient times, along with several other species of lavender. The ...
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COLOR FROM A WORLD WITHOUT SUN

Almost as valuable and expensive as gold, vermilion was the unique red pigment demanded by the rich and powerful throughout ...
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A TALE OF THREE OILS

Once upon a time, artists who worked closely with their materials knew that oils must be purified before they could ...
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EXUDRA & THE COLOR-TECHNIQUE FOR EYES

In the 12th century, there was a commonly used color called exudra, which was a mixture of black and red ...
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SARGENT PAINTED THIS WITH TURPS – NO WAY!

There are accounts of John Singer Sargent being free in his use of turpentine, but there is no way his ...
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WATER WASHING ARTIST OILS

It is easy to take for granted the oils we use in painting. Most of us probably assume that linseed, ...
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WHAT ABOUT THE BALSAMS?

Balsam is another word for the sap that comes from trees, mostly conifers. Balsams have been used in art throughout ...
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NATURAL VS. “NATURE-IDENTICAL” SPIKE LAVENDER

A synthesized “nature-identical” Oil of Spike Lavender has recently been made commercially available in the United States. This oil is ...
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MAKE YOUR OWN “SECRET” WET-ON-WET MEDIUM

Wet on Wet, or alla prima (“first attempt”) painting has become increasingly popular, with plein air (“in the open air”) ...
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NEW! ORGANIC BRUSH SOAP

We finally released the brush soap everyone has been asking for. This new Organic Brush Soap is made from organic ...
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PAINTING WITH SPIKE LAVENDER – MARK PATNODE’S RECIPE

When Mark was young, he would come home from school to find his mother working on a painting in one ...
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FAT OVER LEAN – SHOULD I WORRY?

This article deals with a question about "fat over lean" that is often asked by artists who have seen the ...
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SPIKE LAVENDER: A SOLVENT-THINNER OR AN OIL-MEDIUM?

Recently, several people have asked this question! Turpentine, acetone, and mineral spirits are often called "solvents". You can't paint with ...
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The Artist, the Monk, and the Color Beyond the Sea

The teacher of Raphael was a highly regarded artist named Perugino. Perugino was one of the first Italian artists to ...
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HOW TO STORE A GIANT PAINTING

Many artists have collections of their own work, stored for the future. But, what happens when the art measures 14' ...
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FEATURED ARTIST: KIMBERLY BROOKS

Punk History - Oil on Linen Kimberly Brooks is an amazing contemporary artist whose work has been showcased in the ...
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SOLVENT EXPOSURE LEVELS FOR ARTISTS

Artists are becoming increasingly aware of health issues related to solvent exposure in the studio. Many art schools are now ...
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THE LONG AND SHORT OF ARTIST GRADE PAINTS

For thousands of years, people have made pigments from materials found in the earth: minerals, metals, biological and organic substances ...
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TESTING BRUSHES IN BIOBASED ARTIST THINNER

Artist brush makers have recently introduced synthetic mongoose brushes to the market. The synthetic hair in the brushes comes from ...
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KATHRYN NOSKA – DEEPER MEANINGS

My motto, “Take Time to Find the Unseen” is realized through Symbolism, the language of my art. I explore the ...
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SPIKE LAVENDER AND VAN EYCK – THE RECIPE

"The mixture used by Van Eyck was light and fluid and dried easily. The colors were ground in linseed oil ...
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A CASE AGAINST ODORLESS MINERAL SPIRITS

This is a guest article written by Peter Campbell, the highly regarded artist, workshop presenter, and video producer whose work ...
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The Best Secret of the Masters

Currently there is a revival of interest in the techniques of historic master painters. Artists sometimes are fascinated by the ...
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18 YEARS OF SPIKE LAVENDER – PAINTINGS BY ALEX KOLESZAR

Alexander Koleszar just finished a stunning exhibition called "Chiaroscuro of the Butterfly" at the Archangel Gallery in Palm Springs. You ...
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Using Natural Oil Mediums with Water-Soluble Paints

Sometimes artists purchase water-soluble oil paints in hopes of replacing turpentine, OMS, or other harsh solvents, with water. While this ...
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PAINTING CLOUDS WITH BALSAM SPIKE VARNISH

Jack Tenney is an artist that contacted us about his work with landscapes - particularly his interest in using walnut ...
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FLYING WITH ART MATERIALS

At The Art Treehouse, one very common question asked by artists concerns the shipping of art materials by air, or ...
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WALNUT OIL IN PAINTING

Today, oil paint is often made with linseed oil. Linseed oil dries relatively fast, creates a good film, and has ...
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THE BRIGHT FUTURE OF ARTIST PAINTS

In recent years issues of toxicity and the environment have been at the forefront of concerns for artists who wish ...
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CREATING ART WITH MULTIPLE CHEMICAL SENSITIVITY

I am an artist with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS, a physical reaction to even the smallest amount of a variety ...
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QUALITIES OF A GREAT OIL PAINTING

Oil painting is a unique art form due in large part to the individual qualities of the pigments, as well ...
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Ways to Use Oil of Spike Lavender

                              Direct link to Oil of Spike Lavender product page HERE. 1) Mix with Linseed Oil and tube paints for ...
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IS ART ABOUT PATTERNS OR PEOPLE?

In the historical development of Western art, early Christianity was a major source of inspiration, development and preservation. However, as ...
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SAFA QURESHI SELLS PAINTINGS

Safa Qureshi sums up her art....   “My creativity seems to come from a place deep within me. I often ...
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SAMUEL SHELTON DESCRIBES HIS PROCESS

Here is a remarkable new painting by the artist Samuel Shelton!  The Gift Giver is 24x30 oil on panel using ...
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DRYING TIME: ALKYDS & COBALT IN ART

At the Art Treehouse, we often receive questions about the drying time of paints. Some artists prefer to keep the ...
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Link to What Makes a Great Artist Thinner?

WHAT MAKES A GREAT ARTIST THINNER?

Here is the clickable link to the article What Makes a Great Artist Thinner? -- Because it is a printable ...
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EVERY PORTRAIT IS AN OPPORTUNITY!

The last image we posted of Mark Balma's work received a large number of inquiries about his technique. It seemed ...
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ECOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

JK Thorsen has a new December show at the Connect Gallery in Omaha. JK is a full time artist with ...
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Painting and Glazing Mediums

BILL MARTIN’S LAYERING & GLAZING MEDIUM

Because of the quality of his work, Bill Martin is often asked about the medium he uses in his painting ...
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Pigment Settling in Biobased Thinner

RE-USING BIOBASED ARTIST THINNER

It is common for painters to have a small container of Biobased Artist Thinner near the work area so that ...
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