I remember walking into a young painter’s studio back in the late nineties—oil on canvas, 120cm x 150cm, 1998—and being hit by a smell so thick and chemical I nearly turned back toward the street. He was sitting there, eyes watering, working in a room with the windows shut tight because he thought “artistic temperament” […]
I remember standing in the backroom of my gallery in 2004, looking at a series of stunning, high-priced oils, only to realize the artist had let their pigments turn into a crusty, unusable mess because they treated their supplies like an afterthought. There is this pervasive, romanticized myth that “true artists” live in a state […]
I once sat in a meeting with a painter who had just spent six months’ worth of grant money on a custom-built, climate-controlled storage unit and a set of Italian brushes that cost more than my first car, yet he couldn’t afford to pay his studio rent. He thought he was investing in his craft, […]
I remember sitting in the back of a dusty studio in the late nineties, watching a young landscape painter spend three weeks obsessing over the exact botanical accuracy of a single fern, only to have a serious collector walk past his work because the entire composition felt lifeless. Most people think that mastering techniques for […]
The art supply industry wants you to believe that mastering color is some high-minded, mystical alchemy reserved for the masters, but they’re mostly just trying to sell you expensive, pre-mixed tubes that lose their soul the moment they hit the canvas. I remember sitting in my gallery back in the nineties, looking at a landscape […]
I remember sitting in the back of my gallery in the late nineties, watching a young landscape painter try to work with a twenty-piece “professional starter set” he’d bought online for a steal. He was struggling to control the pigment, looking more frustrated than inspired, because he was trying to use a tiny, expensive detailer […]
I remember sitting in the back of a dimly lit studio in 2004, watching a young painter struggle with a massive, textured oil on linen, 120cm x 150cm, 2004. He had spent a small fortune on professional-grade, high-tech floodlights, yet the painting looked like a muddy, lifeless mess under the glare. He was convinced that […]
I remember standing in the back of a crowded opening in Chelsea, watching a young painter frantically explain his “process” to a collector, only to realize he hadn’t even considered how his massive canvases would actually sit within a domestic space. He was selling a dream, but he hadn’t mastered the geometry of the frame. […]
I remember sitting in the back of my gallery in 2004, watching a young landscape painter try to “fix” a structurally disastrous composition by layering more expensive cadmium red over a poorly conceived base. He thought he could paint his way out of a lack of discipline, but all he was doing was masking his […]
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 […]