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Jennifer Gillen
Sep 26, 20233 min read
The Importance of Experiments
Playing with art by making studies and using many materials and various styles to paint the same thing, is one way artists develop skill.
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Jennifer Gillen
Aug 30, 20233 min read
What I Learn from Helping
For the past few months, I've been involved with our local art association. This is a new adventure for me!
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Jennifer Gillen
Jun 5, 20232 min read
Finding Inspiration in Food
I'm a notably bad cook, baker, and dinner-maker. And my sense of taste when it comes to food is not particularly fine. On most days, I...
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Jennifer Gillen
May 24, 20232 min read
Sharing Art Tips (in real life)
How meeting other artists in real life improves my art.
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Jennifer Gillen
Mar 12, 20232 min read
Coming Back
Yes, real artists do quit. But they also restart. My last blog post was about exploring new avenues of creating. I wanted to know what...
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Jennifer Gillen
Jan 28, 20233 min read
Redouté: Rose Gardens and Refinement?
Art history connects us to a thread of other artists who bothered with beauty when it did not appear relevant or easy.
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Jennifer Gillen
Jul 16, 20223 min read
Artist's Hand: Proof of Presence
Hand is the trace left by the artist that lets you know it was crafted by a human.
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Jennifer Gillen
Jun 8, 20222 min read
What's Up with White Backgrounds?
The straight-forward, no-nonsense appearance of white backgrounds is really appealing to me now. No, I'm not just being lazy! Keeping the...
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Jennifer Gillen
Mar 17, 20222 min read
The Romeo and Juliet Series
It's officially a series! I'm finishing the third painting in a series of traditional botanical paintings based on Shakespeare's Romeo...
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Jennifer Gillen
Mar 6, 20222 min read
Shakespeare and the Camellias
A few weeks ago, I was on a long drive home from visiting my daughter who is away at college. Listening to audio books and podcasts helps...
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Jennifer Gillen
Mar 5, 20222 min read
The Camellias
Last February, I visited a botanical garden during an unseasonably warm afternoon. It was an overcast day. The clouds created moody...
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Jennifer Gillen
Feb 21, 20222 min read
The Size of Art
Have you ever noticed the different sizes of museum paintings? Maybe, if you're like me, when you leave a museum, you think about all of...
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Jennifer Gillen
Nov 27, 20212 min read
Painting in the Time of Climate Change
How reading and climate change lead to a new painting series.
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Jennifer Gillen
Sep 4, 20212 min read
In Defense of Beauty in Art
Is beauty radical, life-changing or even important? Maybe not, but here's my view.
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Jennifer Gillen
Jul 18, 20212 min read
The Artist as a Reader
We are what we read! Books influence artists in many ways.
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