Blog

I thought that I’d chat for a few columns about the subject of confidence. You may feel quite confident in some areas of your life—and then find yourself much weaker than you would like when you get to the canvas or when you need to talk to a gallery owner. A...

Recently I got an email from a painter in Rhode Island. She wrote, “I'm a perfectionist and I want my artwork to be perfect. Sometimes this prevents me from getting started on a new project or from finishing one. I think to myself: If it's not going to be the best,...

You came into the world already somebody. But how can you access information about your original personality? Try the following. Write to the prompt: “I believe I came into the world already [sad, smart, stubborn, stoical, solitary, etc.]. What are the likely lifelong...

17 Artists on Beauty “The pain passes but the beauty remains.” -- Pierre Auguste Renoir “The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express.” -- Francis Bacon “If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon nd yourself without it. But if you invest in beauty,...

In every workshop that I lead, whatever its primary subject, I find it important to remind participants that each of them is the beauty in life. They each have an immaculate center or core that is their essential nature. Our thoughts may be very far from beautiful as...

In response to my post last week about tolerating ease, Walter commented: Eric: I think that there have been times when I myself felt like I was running a race with time – Trying to get as many images up on my site as possible. But now that I have a large number of...

Is this you? it could be an easy day, if only you could tolerate ease. But you find ease boring. You find ease exhausting. You find ease morally reprehensible. You find ease inexcusable. You find ease something-or-other that prevents you from taking it easy. Why is...

Who wants to do the exact same thing, moment after moment, quarter-hour after quarter-hour? Keep striding on the treadmill? Keep practicing the same chord sequence? Keep sending out the same email to one prospective customer after another? Keep painting flower after...

Do you know Hyperallergic? If you don't, check it out! No better way to keep abreast of the art world and especially the alternative or activist art world.

Now you can access all my Professional Artist Magazine articles FOR FREE. Four Tips for Handling a Gallery Closing, What’s Your Next Big Art Idea?, Five Tips for Dealing with Criticism, and 35 more articles of real value to every visual artist. Just visit here and...