Arches, Passages, Portals and Bridges demonstrate and celebrate our greatest achievements in engineering and act as architectural protagonists in paintings.  They appear as commemorative monuments in the form of triumphal arches and spanning bridges. Artists used this celebration of bridges … Continued

Nets offer the gift of the veil with its the fog of mystery.  Nets offer enchantment by preventing full disclosure. The bride hides and hints at her beauty behind it.  We conversationally refer to the veil of mystery not, the … Continued

While giving a demonstration which merged lyrical gestures  with closely observed  meadow foliage  I discovered I was channeling Paul Cezanne, Gerhard Richter and my own childhood memories beneath the Christmas tree  looking up at  glass balls suspended over me like … Continued

By the 15th century stained glass artists like Antonio da Pisa experimented with lighter colors in glass with complex patterns (example 1).  They wanted more light to illuminate church interiors.  Earlier Mosaic artists had used reflective ceramics and polished semi-precious … Continued

Perceptual illusions can present tantalizing ambiguities in painting. By the mid-20th century, as neuroscience and psychology began merging Richard Gregory identified and explained some of these illusions.  For example, Gregory proposed three different pattern-recognition illusions. One illusion is based on … Continued

By the 1600s painting flowers was a common custom for artists from China to Holland. Our exploration begins here with carefully observed flowers represented not only as a theme in painting but also as a motif on china, silver, tapestries … Continued