Rick Janson Art Studio
My Art Journal
Category: Art and Society
-
Can you imagine a job posting that disqualifies applicants with any experience? I recently came across a call from an art gallery looking to expand its roster of talent, limiting it to only artists who are either new grads or self-taught artists just beginning their art career. I had heard of this before, but didn’t…
-
One of the New York Times recommended books from 2025 was Sue Prideaux’s Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin. Gauguin was an artist who influenced many of the most important figures in 20th Century Art, including Picasso. He was championed by Degas and his relationship with Van Gogh has been imprinted on the public’s…
-
Some Of It Is Still Being Recovered Almost 90 Years Later A recent court case over a $25 million painting by Modigliani resulted in its return to the estate of the Jewish art dealer who had originally owned it prior to fleeing Paris from the Nazis in 1939. Nearly 90 years later, we are still…
-
Recently attending an on-line workshop with the Artists’ Network in Toronto, there was considerable discussion about marketing our work. If there was a point that needed underlining, it is that artists are not just creators, but we are collectors too. Who loves art more than an artist? By gathering our colleagues within our digital circle…
-
I got notice today that it has been two years since I subscribed to Duolingo, an on-line language tutorial app. At first I was using it to prepare for an upcoming trip to Portugal, then once we returned, decided it was time that I get over my difficulty with the French language. Oddly, the first…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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.…
-
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…
Rick Janson Art Studio 