Rick Janson Art Studio
My Art Journal
Category: Art and Society
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This is probably the worst sales pitch ever. The second painting of mine to be completed in 2026 has to be among the saddest I’ve ever done, although I have been thinking about it since I snapped a photo of two people in a Paris cafe who seemed to be totally absorbed in their cell…
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I don’t really do pastoral images largely because it is not my lived experience. I’m an urban dweller, and most of the places I like to visit are urban. I decided almost immediately that I would paint this image not because of what was in front of me, but because of what was immediately behind…
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I get tired just thinking about it. It’s about storms, both metaphorical and real. Instead of making art, I find myself spending hours clearing snow from around the house, and in between, prevent ice build-up during the times when the temperatures hover around zero. I also keep on wrestling with the idea of changing my…
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The year I graduated from Art School, the art world was in one of its “painting is dead” moments in 1987. It had been three years since New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) had last held an exhibition of contemporary painting – MOMA having included my professor among the world’s 100 most promising painters.…
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Some good news that is a little embarrassing. It got little attention in Ottawa’s fall budget but will impact artists going forward. Canadian artists have been fighting for it for years. In the fall budget the Federal government has finally signalled that it will adopt Artist Resale Rights — visual artists (or their estates) will…
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When we first arrived at Glasgow’s Burrell Collection we got offered a tour before even taking stock of where we were. Given the somewhat disorientating layout of the building, it turned out to be a good idea, although I was somewhat distracted at the time by the medieval players off in one corner of the…
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Recently I found a copy of Kate Bryan’s new book “How To Art” while in Waterstone’s in Glasgow. It turns out, the signed copy also had an extra chapter on Banksy that was exclusive to the UK chain store. What surprised me about the book is both how accessible it was and the wide audience…
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What is kitsch? The word origins are German, but it is generally felt to describe art, objects or design that’s in bad taste because of excessive sentiment or garishness. Some Pop artists, like Jeff Koons, have deliberately played with the idea, such as his porcelain statue of Michael Jackson and his monkey Bubbles. If you…
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There appears to be a lot of hand wringing in the global art market after the first half numbers came in for 2025. Almost daily Artnet is reporting on another major private gallery closing its doors, and in turn, making it that much harder for emerging artists. These are the galleries that have made art…
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When you paint something, the image sticks with you. How do you look at and consider a subject for ten or fifteen hours or more and then forget it? You remember the details, what gave you difficulty, where the magic happened in the process. It’s hard to explain, but after a painting is complete, there…
Rick Janson Art Studio 