The Cat’s tongue #1
The Cat’s Tongue #1
05 June 26
credit: Musei Vaticani/IG
Lofty Ambitions
Hello and welcome to the very first edition of The Cat’s Tongue, the regular newsletter from Open Studio Art School.
We have been busy prepping the space and are now excited to welcome visitors and students to our beautiful studio.
But Rome wasn’t built in a day…
In June we’d like as many of you as possible to visit the studio and get a flavour of what we will be offering. When you’ve finished reading here, head over to our website to find out more about how it will all work and book a visit to see the space. Why not go ahead and book a taster session while you’re there!
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Material Matters
In each edition of the newsletter we will feature a material/tool/colour of the week. This week, what could be more appropriate than the cat’s tongue, a paint brush that combines the broad, curved coverage of a flat brush with the controlled, precise point of a round brush. It’s also known us a pointed filbert or an oval wash brush and is predominantly used in watercolour painting. Now you know.
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What Else?
We’ll also include an artwork of the week and exhibition reviews as well as suggestions of things on our radar for students to go and see. Feel free to send us your own recommendations and suggestions.
The image above is James McNeill Whistler’s Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea, a smallish painting (50.2 x 60.8 cm) from 1871, on wood panel, currently on show at Tate Britain in a room of Whistler’s nocturne paintings.
This deceptively simple painting with horizontal brush work and thin veils of oil paint suggesting the rippling surface of the Thames, is an example of the style that lead to criticism from John Ruskin and others as deficient in form and nothing more than a sketch ie not a finished painting. Whistler famously sued Ruskin for libel in a case that generated the following famous exchange:
During his cross-examination, Holker asked Whistler how long it took for him to “knock off” one of his paintings. When Whistler responded that it took just two days, Holker asked if two days’ labor was worth 200 guineas. “No,” Whistler responded, “I ask it for the knowledge I have gained in the work of a lifetime.”
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Words of Wisdom
"You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have." Maya Angelou
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A Last Laugh
Have a great week and…keep painting!
with love from Ed, Dina and the team at OSAS