My painting studio and my writing room are not the same. I paint in the small shed/studio set off to the side of the house behind the carport and the large workshop. I’ve been putting this new place together since December, including new lights, and the numbers above are the specifications for the overhead lights. Painting is not just about paint. I write at my … Continue reading 5000K, 85-100 CRI
“Who told you that one paints with colours? One makes use of colours, but one paints with emotions.” — Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin I have been asking myself what an artist like Chardin would have to say about art created by emotionless artificial intelligence. I believe Chardin and I would agree, and that does not mean I’m saying I know it all, just that in our … Continue reading Chardin, DALL-E and the Art of Emotion
The body here, which I found some now-forgotten place, was the inspiration for my series, “Celestial Bodies.” I was attending a marketing workshop for artists about how to sell the paintings when I heard the line, “You’ll need a body of work…” At that moment, words from an old tune ran through my head: “I ain’t got no body…” And I did, in fact, have … Continue reading A Body of Work and the Traces of Art
In his fine old book, The Art Spirit, subtitled “Notes, Articles, Fragments of Letters and Talks to Students, Bearing on the Concept and Technique of Picture Making, the Study of Art Generally, and on Appreciation,” (first published in 1930), Robert Henri, my favorite writer and teacher when it comes to art, has a couple of things to say about houses. Houses are on my mind … Continue reading Houses, Boxes, and Art
“Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experience treacherous, judgement difficult.” — Hippocrates (460-400 B.C.) As the King of Siam once sang, “It’s a puzzlement!” I’ve worked my way through “puzzlements” in the past, but this one is so close to my heart that I’ve had more difficulty. I’m a born entrepreneur. Over the years, I have started and run several businesses. When other kids … Continue reading Life Is Short, Art Long
Some Other Timecopyright, 2021 Molly Larson Cook30″ x 24″Acrylic paint, latex/acrylic paint and ink on gallery-wrapped canvasAvailable “Manet did not do the expected. He was a pioneer. He followed his individual whim. Told the public what he wanted it to know, not the time-worn things the public already knew and thought it wanted to hear again. The public was very much offended.” — Robert Henri, … Continue reading Beauty, Balance and Order in the Age of Instagram
“Take the A Train” The Colors of Jazz Collection ©2021, Molly Larson Cook 28″ x 22″ Acrylic on canvas $600 “Water runs down hill concisely. There is no quibbling about it. It does not have to run up hill in order to be entertaining…. The soul of a person may reveal its mysteries through direct expression, simple speech, simple gesture, simple painting, just as … Continue reading Be the Brook – Concise, Simple, Clear, Running Down Hill
Many arts articles I’m reading these days are not so much about the art itself but about where it’s created. Perhaps the pandemic has made us all more conscious of how an artist works, but my guess is that with galleries closed and artists unable to freely invite the public to visit their studios, the studios themselves have become more interesting or appealing, the way the … Continue reading Art, the Studio, and the Intimate Presence
“Have You Met Miss Jones?” The Colors of Jazz Collection ©2020, Molly Larson Cook 30″ x 24″ Acrylic and ink on gallery-wrapped canvas “This thing of seeing things. All kinds of seeing. Dead seeing. Live seeing. Things that are mere surfaces. Things that are filled with the wondrous. Yes, color must be seen beautifully, that is, meaningfully, and used as a constructive agent, borrowed … Continue reading This Thing of Seeing Things
“Cool Blues” ©2020, Molly Larson Cook 36″ x 24″ Acrylic on canvas Where does it come from – the art impulse? Out of all the things we can do, what is it makes us pick up a crayon or a pencil, a paintbrush, pen or stick of charcoal to record one thing or another that we see or imagine? I don’t have the answer. … Continue reading The Creative Spirit – Everybody Can Play
Art and Tulips 