How-to in Art Archives - Greg Mason Burns

Bowdoin College Chapel is an abstract photography image.

How to Write an Artist Grant (from the perspective of a grant reviewer)

How to write an artist grant is a difficult question to answer. Artists are good at making art, not doing administrative funding tasks. Yes, I'm an artist. I've written a lot of grants and I've only succeeded once. That's probably not a great score, but that's more to do with competition than anything else. I'm also a grant reviewer who is lucky enough to have gotten a behind-the-scenes look at what a good grant looks like. I wrote an article for the Maine Arts Journal on my experience as a grant reviewer to help artists navigate this tricky realm. To give...

July 2, 2023

Greg

in Artistic Process, Criticism, How-to in Art, Publications

How to Look at Art in Four Steps (when you don’t know what you’re looking at)

Have you ever wondered how something can be called "art" when it apparently looks like something you could have created using the leftover paint from painting your garage? Well, in this great video by University of Pittsburgh Professor Terry Smith, at the Andy Warhol Museum, he explains how to look at art using four steps: What: Look at the art and ask: "What am I looking at?" Share these thoughts with other people. Try [caption id="attachment_3257" align="alignright" width="193"] How to Look at Art in Four Steps: The Chair in the Blue Room (2019)[/caption] to describe it and keep an open mind. Describe the...

October 13, 2015

Greg

in Criticism, How-to in Art

Choose Your Palette Based on What You Want to Paint

Choosing your palette is not as difficult as you may think. Let me give you an example. I'm also a rock climber. Some climbers take all of the gear they think they may need during a climb while others only take the gear they anticipate that they'll need. I had one climbing friend ask another partner one day, "So what gear do you take with you?" The second answered, "It depends on the climb." And so it is with your palette. Choose your palette, don't let it choose you. Look, I get it, some people like the palette they work with....

September 16, 2015

Greg

in How-to in Art

How to Buy Art if You’re Not a Millionaire in Six Easy Steps

We've all heard about the famous artist getting auctioned off for millions of dollars, and we've all heard about the starving artist as well. However there's two sides to this: it's not just the non-famous artist who's getting left out, but also those who'd like to buy art but have a standard middle-class mortgage to pay. This article is for those who'd love to decorate their home or office with some art they love but typically can't afford it. Here are six steps on how to buy art in a good way: [caption id="attachment_3146" align="alignleft" width="178"] The BATHE - Oil on...

June 23, 2015

Greg

in How-to in Art

How to Make High-Quality Prints at Home

[caption id="attachment_3713" align="alignleft" width="298"] Blue Flower - Oil on Canvas 2105[/caption] Click here to reference my article on how to make high-quality prints at home: Step One: Buy a good printer. You'll need one that uses archival inks. Do your research on this. Here are a few printers that I found. I personally use this one. You'll want to find a printer that both uses archival inks as well as one that will continue to sell these inks. While most of these printers are expensive, there are inexpensive ones out there. You won't find one for $200, but you also don't need...

May 11, 2015

Greg

in How-to in Art

Drawing Tips for the Advanced Artist

[caption id="attachment_3832" align="alignleft" width="300"] A sketch by me early in my career[/caption] As I do often when I have some time to kill, I float through the Internet looking for ways to improve as an artist. Sometimes I stumble on basic instructions such as this one about shape and form. I find these basic instruction sites helpful because it helps to remind me the fundamentals. However, I much prefer to take the next level. That's why I was happy to have found Keene Wilson's art notes for the advanced artist. Wilson does a great job of just listing things to remember....

February 22, 2015

Greg

in How-to in Art

Technique Instruction: Pastel Portraits

[caption id="attachment_2862" align="alignleft" width="160"] Pastel Portraits: Self-portrait - oil pastel on glass (2013)[/caption] I paint mostly with oils, but I have ventured into the realm of oil pastels at times with some success with portraits. In fact, probably three of my most popular works have been oil pastel paintings (seen below). I recently came across this step-by-step pastel portrait link by Gwenneth Barth-White, and thought it would be nice to share. It actually more follows how I build up my oil paintings (though I'm much less deliberate and more emotional instead), but it's still nice to see a good process. Enjoy: I...

December 18, 2014

Greg

in How-to in Art

Technique Instruction: How to Varnish a Painting

This page, with accompanying slideshows and photos, is the most comprehensive article on how to varnish a painting I've ever seen. It's put together by NitpickyArtist.com, which has a lot of good technical info including advice on how to reduce glare, how to enter juried shows, or even info about table surfaces and easels. You may not want to follow this person's advice all the way through, as it's quite complex, but there are a ton of good ideas in here to use otherwise. It was the section at the bottom on how to clean a varnish brush that caught...

December 9, 2014

Greg

in How-to in Art

Technique Instruction: Figurative Oil Painting

[caption id="attachment_380" align="alignleft" width="300"] Figurative Oil Painting: Portrait of Nivea Bona - oil pastel on glass (2013)[/caption] My strongest work are my abstracts, but sometimes the figurative comes out in me and I produce some good landscapes, still life paintings, and portraits. I enjoy these more than my abstracts because of the challenge they present, but like anything they require practice. I came across these videos by Joseph Lorusso who shows us how he builds up his palette and uses it on canvas to produce a portrait. There are some good tips in here on figurative oil painting. I hope you...

December 9, 2014

Greg

in How-to in Art

Technique Instruction: Basic Forms

[caption id="attachment_3515" align="alignleft" width="300"] Basic Forms - Study of Boxes and Bottles in Blue[/caption] As a self-taught artist, I needed to learn some basics before I could move on to more complicated projects. Of course I'm still developing, and still need to practice just as any other artist needs to. But when I came across a site by Bill Martin I had forgotten how fun it is to go back and practice those things that one first learns. I like to keep things simple in my own art, often focusing on bold colors and basic forms. Going back to the basics...

November 5, 2014

Greg

in How-to in Art