Most people will tell you that a “complete guide to studio practice” involves finding your muse, mastering your medium, or curating the perfect aesthetic for your Instagram feed. They treat the studio like a sacred, untouchable temple of pure inspiration, which is a lovely sentiment for a textbook but utterly useless once you actually have […]
I remember a particular oil on canvas, 60x80cm, 1994, that sat in my back room for three years because the artist had insisted on a specific, non-archival varnish that eventually turned the whole thing a sickly, jaundiced yellow. When the collector finally realized the damage, the conversation shifted from the beauty of the brushwork to […]
I remember a client back in 2014—lovely woman, lovely home—who came into my gallery clutching a receipt for a “limited edition” print that cost her more than a used hatchback. She was so convinced by the fancy numbering and the artist’s signature that she didn’t realize she’d essentially bought a glorified photocopy with a marketing […]
I once sat in my gallery office, nursing a lukewarm gin and tonic, watching an artist I’d represented for five years stare blankly at a canvas he’d been “working on” since the previous autumn. He wasn’t creating; he was merely performing the ritual of being an artist, moving brushes around in a way that felt […]
Stop treating your sketchbook like a formal portfolio for a gallery that doesn’t exist yet. I spent twenty-six years looking at “finished” books that were so precious, so terrified of a single stray charcoal smudge, that they were utterly lifeless. Most of the advice you read online about how to keep a sketchbook is just […]
Stop wasting your inheritance on those “complete masterclass” kits that promise professional results in a weekend. I spent twenty-six years watching young artists walk into my gallery with canvases that looked like they’d been attacked by a muddy sponge, not because they lacked talent, but because they’d been sold a lie about what tools actually […]
Most people approach a trip to see the modern art collections in european cities with a sense of misplaced reverence, as if they are walking into a cathedral rather than a highly curated showroom. They stand in line for three hours at the Pompidou or the Tate, staring at canvases they don’t quite “get,” feeling […]
Stop letting the auction houses and those glossy, overpriced catalogs convince you that you need a trust fund and a magnifying loupe just to get your feet wet. Most people approach the question of how to start a vintage coin collection as if they’re preparing to buy a masterpiece at Sotheby’s, convinced that if they […]
I remember sitting in my back office in 2008, staring at a beautiful, large-scale oil on canvas that a collector had finally agreed to purchase, only to realize the artist hadn’t kept a single record of its dimensions, the specific pigments used, or its exhibition history. We spent three frantic hours hunting through old notebooks […]
I remember sitting in a drafty studio in 2004, watching a young painter weep because a prestigious London dealer had passed on her series. She believed that without that specific stamp of approval, her work was essentially invisible. There is this pervasive, romanticised lie circulating in art schools that a gallery acts as a divine […]