Blog
John Singer Sargent’s Mugs and Madame X
John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) made hundreds of rapidly drawn charcoal sketches of society personalities, drawings he referred to as “mugs.” He made these in response to a high demand for…
Contemporary Botanical Artists
Linda Stillman uses actual plants as pigment to create her colorful drawings and paintings, often plants from a specific garden or location. The identification of the plants becomes a part of…
Watercolor Landscape with Limited Palette
How to paint a landscape (from a photograph) with a limited palette We already started to learn about the power of a limited palette to create a cohesive color world in the last class….
Alberto Baraya’s Herbarium of Artificial Plants
Alberto Baraya’s “Herbarium of Artificial Plants” is an example of a contemporary artist engaging with the technique and history of traditional Herbarium plates. Instead of collecting living plant specimens and…
Botanical Drawing and Watercolor Supply List
Here is the supply list for the upcoming Botanical Watercolor Workshop. For a guide on where to buy art supplies in Berlin, go HERE. Check List: Hot Press Watercolor Block,…
Death and the Maiden (Mixed Media class)
Last week in Mixed Media, we revisited a theme that originated in 16th century Northern Europe: Death and the Maiden. Related to earlier Medieval motifs, such as Danse Macabre or the dance of death, the Death…
Guides for Seeing Art in Berlin
In the mood to go see some art but not sure where to go? Tired of paying museum admission fees but intimidated by the long list of galleries? Already saw…
Painting Collage: Amelie von Wulffen
Would you like to start your own painting journey? Check out the Painting Workshops on offer with Berlin Drawing Room, both online and in-person. Collage can be a great starting point…
Pastel Hues of Maurice Prendergast
Maurice Prendergast (1858-1924) was a masterful painter and colorist. His watercolor paintings have a beautiful shimmering luminosity, achieved through his transparent use of color and loose brushstrokes. His use of color…
Neo Rauch and his discordant color world
Would you like to start your own painting journey? Check out the Painting Workshops on offerwith Berlin Drawing Room, both online and in-person. We discussed Neo Rauch’s work in our Watercolor…
Negative Space: from Juan Sánchez Cotán to Rachel Whiteread
The negative space in a picture is not only a powerful formal element, but can carry symbolic value as well. It is the ever present and often overlooked “background,” the space between…
Tonality and Seurat
I love to share these these drawings by Georges Seurat with my class when we learn about Tonality. Seurat is the artist most associated with Pointillism, that off shoot of…