Ahead in 2009

On this first day of 2009, I’d like to give you a little preview of some of the upcoming topics.

We’ll take a look at (in no particular order):
Spotlighting
Fibonacci
Day for Night Sketching
The Prix de Rome
The Form Principle
Ecorche Figures
Cast Shadows
The Ebauche
Getting Kids to Pose
Premixing Color
The Pathetic Fallacy
Painting Wet Streets
Spherical Panoramas

Plus visits to new art schools and museum exhibitions.

The goal of this blog is to explore art-related ideas that are completely new to me, along with topics that are review. l’ve always felt that learning about art consists of 10% of new ideas, and 90% relearning the same things I already knew, but in a new light.

I also believe that our experience of art weaves itself into every aspect of our lives, so you can expect offbeat sidelights into contemporary culture and philosophy, or strange new revelations of science.

COMMENTS
The big fun of all this blogging is hearing from you, and I thank you for all the great insights, comments, questions, arguments, and kind words you’ve shared over the last year and a half. Even if I don’t get a chance to acknowledge each of your comments, I’ve learned as much from you as you have from me.

And for those of you who read without posting comments, that’s perfectly OK. I don’t believe in the word “lurking,” and I think it’s fine to read a post and not say anything.

Last night we got hit with a huge batch of Asian spam blog comments. That’s usually the only thing that I’ve ever had to delete. If a lot more spam comes in, I may have to set up the letter recognition step.

ART BY COMMITTEE
Many of you have asked to resume Art By Committee. I had to take a break only because it was getting so popular, and was taking a lot of time and a lot of my megabyte allottment from Google. At some point we can try it again, and we’ll see if it’s manageable. The results of your work are certainly amazing, and I’m always grateful for your effort.

To each of you I send my best wishes for the new art year. May the muse of inspiration be always at your side.