This little painting, called Ashcan in Winter, has a special place in my heart.  The can is old, probably an antique.  It has a copper exterior with a wooden ring on the bottom and a brass handle on the top.  Having sat in front of the fireplace at my cabin for over forty years now, it has been used by generations to dump the ashes out.

This is a short and informative lesson on thirty of the world's most famous works of art.  It is not meant as a definitive list but, rather, as a beginning step to learning about art history.  I use this lesson for my high school and middle-school art students and find it is a great way to introduce my students to different artists, genres, and famous works of art that they will come across all their lives. Part One of this series, covered five famous Renaissance works of art. Part two will cover Baroque artists into Neoclassicism. 

This is a short and informative lesson on thirty of the world's most famous works of art.  It is not meant as a definitive list but, rather, as a beginning step to learning about art history.  I use this lesson for my high school and middle-school art students and find it is a great way to introduce my students to different artists, genres, and famous works of art that they will come across all their lives. Part one of this series, covers five famous Renaissance works of art. 

Learning to draw in two-point perspective is easy and fun! With just a little bit of practice, you can draw amazing houses, buildings, and cities in perspective.  2 point perspective can also help you to draw everyday objects as well.  Once you understand how orthogonal lines recede into the distance and where to put in your points on the horizon line, you will be able to draw so many amazing things. Let’s get started!

Learning to draw in three-point perspective is easy to learn and fun to do! Drawing in 3 point perspective will enable you to render buildings and forms as if you are seeing them either from an ants-eye view or a birds-eye view. With a few simple tricks, you can be drawing like a pro!

Watercolor painting has been around for a long time.  In fact, you can trace its roots all the way to China some 4,000 years ago.  In Europe, watercolor painting began to be used during the Italian Renaissance along with advancements in papermaking.

I recently completed this simple beginning painting project with my high school seniors.  For this project, I taught my students how to paint using the classical style, starting with an under painting, and then moving on to color.  I have chunked this lesson out and made it as simple as possible.  All my students were able to achieve surprisingly good results.  If you try this lesson, please let me know how you do. 

Drawing in five-point perspective is truly fun, and you can create amazing drawings with little effort.  There are only a few simple rules to learn, and you will be off and running.  To make things easier, it helps if you are familiar with basic one-point perspective, but not it is not completely necessary.  See the slideshow on one-point perspective drawing at the bottom of this article for help.

A discussion of each of the principles of design with lots of color slides and examples, as well as a review of the elements of art. This lesson is interactive and offers a free downloadable version. Perfect for art teachers!

These two young collectors just bought one of my paintings.  Both are ex students of mine and wanted a piece for their apartment.  I am so glad "Yellow Triangles" found its way to such a great couple!