Happy Independence Day!
Watch Me Paint
by Carol Douglas
1y ago
In just four years, we’ll be celebrating the 250thanniversary of our grand social contract. Here’s a challenge to you to paint what challenges us. Breaking Storm, 48X30, oil on linen. Available. Apparently, every time I paint the flag it involves a boat. In just four years we’ll be celebrating the 250thanniversary of our grand social contract, the United States. At my age, it’s not unreasonable to wonder if I’ll make it. I have no doubts about Uncle Sam; he’s tough. I was 17 at our bicentennial. The world should have been my oyster, but that wasn’t exactly how it played out. My older ..read more
Visit website
Gone sailing
Watch Me Paint
by Carol Douglas
1y ago
Sailing is a great disperser of cares. Breaking Storm, oil on linen, available. That's of course American Eagle in the starring role. By the time you read this, I’ll be sailing in Penobscot Bay, teaching my first workshop of the season aboard the schooner American Eagle. Between the pressures of work and some personal issues, I’ve been struggling since I got home from walking across Britain. Sailing is just the tonic I need right now. Occasionally, someone will tell me that they suffer terribly from mal de mer and ask me for suggestions. There are better medications availabl ..read more
Visit website
Monday Morning Art School: What is critique?
Watch Me Paint
by Carol Douglas
1y ago
It’s not an emotional response or mere fault finding. Skylarking 2, 18X24, available. This week I begin a new online class dedicated to critique. Since it’s a totally new idea, the shape of this class is evolving. However, the plan is that students will bring work they’ve done on their own for analysis within the group. The hope is that we can develop a sort of executive function that will oversee our painting processes outside of class. This, as you can imagine, is much harder than “hold your brush like this” painting classes. Critique is a long-standing tool in every intellectu ..read more
Visit website
Your brushes suck. What are you going to do about it?
Watch Me Paint
by Carol Douglas
1y ago
While you can paint a good oil painting with a stick (if you know how), decent brushes certainly help. They used to be my first-string brushes, until some kindly friends staged an intervention. A few months ago, a student in my Zoom class asked me to check a brush for him. He held it up to the camera. “Shot. Toss it,” I said. “How about this one?” “Total c--p. Toss it.” “This one?” “It’s a stub! You can’t paint with a stub!” A taklon wash brush can be the watercolorist's best friend. After more of this than I ever expected, we came up with some ground rules for assessing bru ..read more
Visit website
Good design is in the details
Watch Me Paint
by Carol Douglas
1y ago
The people who made beautiful art in earlier eras weren’t focused on themselves, but on craft and how it fit into a greater whole. The rood screen of York Minster featured the kings of England from William the Conquerer to Henry VI. That's the only reason these figures weren't smashed, and they give us an idea of what the saints in their niches might have looked like. York was founded by the Romans, slumped into inconsequence under Anglian rule, was rebuilt by the Northumbrians, conquered by Vikings, was sacked by the Normans, and then rose slowly again, only to be pummeled during the ..read more
Visit website
Feel the love
Watch Me Paint
by Carol Douglas
1y ago
Kind Cumbrians cheered us on as we hiked the last few miles of the wall. Now on to the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations. The churches of Cumbria are built of reclaimed wall stone, including pagan shrines and inscriptions. The last few hundred yards of the Hadrian’s Wall path took us down the main street of Bowness-on-Solway, population 1126. It being a warm day in June, there were people out on their business or sitting in their front gardens. Each smiled and nodded, or offered congratulations and last-minute encouragement. Rambling is a uniquely British pastime, supported by a network of ..read more
Visit website
God Save the Queen
Watch Me Paint
by Carol Douglas
1y ago
Here in the countryside, her subjects love her. Shop window display in Cumbria Every small town we’ve walked through has been decorated for the Jubilee. That’s not with big-box generic décor, either, although there are Jubilee flags and bunting everywhere. Every little shop window and many, many front gardens sport tributes from the heart—handmade signs, memorabilia from the Coronation, and many, many teacups of the kind your grandmother collected. A laundromat in Haltwhistle, Cumbria It's not my country, she’s not my Queen, but the sentiment chokes me up. This is England’s f ..read more
Visit website
The care and feeding of your dogs
Watch Me Paint
by Carol Douglas
1y ago
Poppy discovered the joys of manure, but my feet were thoroughly blistered. The beautiful Northumbrian landscape. This is what I’d call ‘hill-walking’ but my friend Kenny—who was raised on the shores of Loch Linnhe,just a hop, skip and a jump from Ben Nevis—thinks of as a doddle. Shortly after leaving the Tyne at Newburn, we started the long slog up to Heddon-on-the-Wall. There is no urban sprawl here—just long agricultural vistas and Constable skies. These small Northumbrian villages are Cotswold-beautiful, built of golden-brown stone and perched on high hills with magnificent vistas ..read more
Visit website
The perfect English holiday
Watch Me Paint
by Carol Douglas
2y ago
I dipped my feet in the North Sea. It rained. I ate an ice cream. There was a dog. How much more British can you get? Dipping my toes in the North Sea, with the requisite British dog. Her name is Poppy and she's a gem. Last week, I wrote hereand herethat nothing lasts forever. In Britain, is sometimes turned on its head; antiquity seems to pop up everywhere. The Moray Estate was built in the early 19th century on a steep slope above the Water of Leith. Ownership is by feu, a feudal land tenure system peculiar to Scotland. The freeholder is somehow a vassal to the mesne lord, in this c ..read more
Visit website
Boys must be boys
Watch Me Paint
by Carol Douglas
2y ago
The ick factor in art history is compounded by our own era’s obsession with sex and power. The Milkmaid, c. 1600, Johannes Vermeer, courtesy Rijksmuseum During Monday’s class, I zipped quickly through Vermeer’s oeuvreon line, when a sentence about Vermeer’s The Milkmaidstopped me cold. This is one of the most well-known paintings in western art, so familiar that it’s become background noise. “For at least two centuries before the painting was created, milkmaids and kitchen maids had a reputation as being predisposed to love or sex, and this was frequently reflected in Dutch paint ..read more
Visit website

Follow Watch Me Paint on FeedSpot

Continue with Google
Continue with Apple
OR