Joseph Mallord William Turner · The Lake of Zug, 1843
Turner: let the light do the heavy lifting
A lake, a little haze and a very useful reminder that the sky needn't explain itself. What Turner's atmosphere can teach your next small study.
Look closely
Borrow the thinking.
A profile should leave you with something to notice, and something to try. Study an artist’s decisions, then go and make your own.
Rain on Water Street, Liverpool · Mark C Grant
Joseph Zbukvic: mood before the municipal details
Before another window, decide what the whole scene is doing. A practical way into atmosphere, tonal structure and a calmer relationship with street furniture.
John Singer Sargent · Abriès, ca. 1912
Sargent: paint the shape, spare us the brickwork
The pleasure of a decisive mark starts before it touches the paper. Look at Abriès for a lesson in cropping, connected shapes and knowing where to spend your attention.
Winslow Homer · Fishing Boats, Key West, 1903
Winslow Homer: the white paper is doing a shift
Fishing Boats, Key West is a marvellous excuse to leave something alone. Plan your light, connect your darks and stop explaining every ripple.
Paul Cézanne · Still-Life with a Watermelon and Pomegranates, 1900–1906
Cézanne: build an apple, one patch at a time
A fruit bowl becomes a small architectural problem. Learn to see colour relationships, leave breathing space and stop polishing every brushmark into submission.
John Sell Cotman · Farm Building by a Pond, 1808–11(?)
John Sell Cotman: get the big shapes talking
A modest farm building, a stormy sea and the same useful question: what holds this picture together before the small brush gets involved?