This has almost no connection to art, so I’ve been holding off, thinking I didn’t need to address these concerns. However, since I’ve become a bit of an advocate for using AI, people have started asking me some form of these two additional questions: I’ve talked about other (probably more important) objections, like AI’s impact…
This is part of a series of blog posts about art and AI. Here are the first two, which you might also want to read: Those first two were more philosophical in nature and this one will be far more practical! I want to show you all the great ways that AI can help you…
In my last post, “AI, Art, and the Human Soul,” I ended with the idea that we should use artificial intelligence (AI), but do so responsibly. What does that look like and what kinds of personal guardrails can we implement to protect ourselves from AI’s downfalls? I’ve spent a surprisingly large amount of time thinking…
Artificial intelligence (AI) is all over the news and it’s impacting every area of life. There are many objections to AI (some valid and some not) but AI is clearly a massively disruptive technology. The world of art is an excellent microcosm of the disruptions AI is causing at large, so we have a great…
Many art experts consider Winslow Homer to be one of the most important painters in American art. Working during the late nineteenth century, he helped establish American Realism, a movement that focused on truthful scenes from everyday life rather than idealized or mythological subjects. Through paintings of children, soldiers, fishermen, and the sea, Homer showed that…
If you’re teaching American art history, you can’t skip Thomas Cole. The Hudson River School is my favorite American art movement — and Cole is the reason it exists. He didn’t just paint beautiful landscapes; he helped define what American art would become. In this post, we’ll look at the Romantic period he lived in,…
Charles Willson Peale was an Enlightenment-era American artist who used portraiture, scientific study, and museum-making to shape a new nation’s identity by teaching people to observe, classify, and understand the world through reason, order, and careful seeing. Introduction Charles Willson Peale (1741–1827) lived at a crossroads in history. He was present at the birth of…
Summary: Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch Baroque painter who masterfully used light, composition and color to create calm, quiet domestic scenes, like The Milkmaid, that revealed the sacred dignity of ordinary life, showing that faithful everyday work can be an act of worship. Classical Conversations Challenge 2 students study Vermeer as part of their debate strand,…
There’s something beautifully simple about drawing. All you need is paper and pencil. However, some of us (is this all artists?) really love art supplies and find new supplies to just be so much fun! So, if you or someone you know is working on improving their drawing skills, here are some great supplies to…
Leonardo da Vinci is one of the most celebrated figures of the Italian High Renaissance, remembered not only for his art but also for his insatiable curiosity and scientific explorations. His portrait of the Mona Lisa is considered the most famous portrait in the world, admired for its mysterious smile, mastery of light and shadow, and innovative…
Summary: Jan van Eyck, a key Northern Renaissance painter, advanced oil painting techniques and emphasized precise detail, naturalism, and symbolism, reflecting the region’s focus on everyday life and texture, as seen in works like the Arnolfini Portrait and Ghent Altarpiece. Classical Conversations Challenge 2 students study Jan van Eyck as part of their debate strand, so this post should…
When you start researching Berlinghiero Berlinghieri, you might notice something surprising—there isn’t a lot of information out there. Most art history websites only mention him briefly, even though he was one of the few Medieval artists we know anything about. So, I’ve dug into my bookshelf of art history and I’m writing a longer-than-usual post for…
Let’s dig deeper into brushes! What are they made from? What’s the difference in the materials, shapes, and brands? Do you really need expensive brushes? How many and which brushes make a good starter set? Like a lot of art, watercolor is a medium where your tools directly shape your results — and your brush…
So, you’re ready to dive deeper into watercolor paint and gain a better understanding of what’s going on inside that pan or tube? Yay! This is really fun stuff and very applicable. Watercolor painting is often seen as a spontaneous, flowing, and sometimes unpredictable art form. But the more you understand what watercolor paint is…
Picture an artist who dared to tell people that Michelangelo couldn’t paint well, who claimed that daylight bothered him because it interfered with his “inner light,” and who created some of the most distinctive paintings of the Renaissance. That artist is Domenico Theotocopuli, aka El Greco (The Greek) – a bold artist who blazed his…
