The beginnings of a life-changing journey — Works of art sometimes have a way of capturing a truth that might otherwise seem hard to imagine. The first impression of this painting is rather forbidding, but give it a few moments and this image will take you into the life-changing moments of a couple relocating to a new…

Finding meaning in the world overhead — The sky above us takes up a vast portion of our visible world, yet how often do we look at it closely? Lift your eyes above the trees…

Exploring the uniqueness of Kandinsky’s expressionist painting — This painting Improvisation 35, was made by the Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky in 1914. It was part of a long series of paintings in which he used intuition as his guiding principle. He described his process as “a largely unconscious, spontaneous expression of inner character, non-material nature.” The composition is…

Where my evolving style has taken me — Writing about art has become one of my most rewarding endeavours, but long before I ever started to think seriously about the history of art, I was a painter. What kind of painter, I find it hard to say. Blessed with the proclivity for artistic indecision, my archive — to…

The art and life of Otto Freundlich — When the Nazi Party opened its infamous “Degenerate Art” exhibition (Entartete Kunst Ausstellung) in Munich in July 1937, its purpose was to lambast an entire generation of modern painters and sculptors.

Exploring the story behind “Ginevra de’ Benci” — Christopher P Jones is the author of Great Paintings That Tell Stories, exploring the narrative details in famous paintings. Let’s consider the evidence… The fingerprint, the ambiguous expression, the juniper bush, and the mysterious emblem on the back of the painting. At first glance, Leonardo da Vinci’s painting appears to…

Advice for creatives on moving on from a critical comment — How should creative people react to a bad review? Feeling hurt — hand on dagger — is all too easy, but is there a more useful way to respond? For most people, the thought of creating something and then sharing it with the world does not, in its inspiration, in…

Why luminescence means more than illumination — One of my favourite possessions is a stack of Edward Hopper postcards, each with a painting on the front. I look through them often. Some of the postcards I’ve pinned to the wall above my desk; others I use as bookmarks. They’re around me constantly. One aspect of Hopper’s art…

A bizarre painting explained — It can take a few moments of looking to fully acclimatise to this striking image. Made by the French artist Jean Fouquet in about 1458, it shows an enthroned Madonna holding the baby Christ on her lap. The Virgin Mary’s appearance is particularly puzzling, being so pale, sleek and otherworldly…