Praeterita

Follow this blog NOW and you can still win this book! Thank you if you are one of the people who recently responded to my 500th blog post by signing up to follow this blog. I am very grateful when anyone tells me they're reading what I post, but it's also nice to see the names and profile pictures over there in the right-hand column, too. In just a few days, I will put all the names into a hat - a literal hat, by the way, that I bought from an antique store a few years ago - and then I'll announce who won the artist's book.   Subscribe to Praeterita in a reader

There wasn't room to put this in the actual 500th blog post without making it extremely long, so in honour of the occasion, here is a quotation from John Ruskin, the nineteenth century English writer from whom I took the title of this blog. It recounts a day from Ruskin's youth when Ruskin and his father were walking on the grounds of a country estate, and came upon the painter Turner, who had been fishing in a nearby lake: " When we returned, and while waiting for the boat, Turner became quite chatty, rigging me a little ship, cut out of a chip, sticking masts into it, and making her sails from a leaf or two torn from a small sketch-book, in which I recollect seeing a memorandum in colour that he had made of the sky and sunset. The ship was hardly ready for sea before the man and boat came lumbering up to the bank, and Turner was busy directing and helping him to recover the line, and, if possible, the fish. This, however, escaped in the confusion.  J.M.W. Turner, ...

I started this blog tentatively at the end of 2009, initially posting only a couple of times a week, not sure how long I would continue with it. From February 2010 on, I’ve been posting daily, and trying to make the blog mainly a mixture of news about what I am doing in my studio, together with what other artists are doing. It’s quite a commitment, especially adding in the weekly desire to post a video web-talk, but those who know me can vouch for the fact that I tend to work hard at things once I decide to do them. However, I didn’t expect to get to the 500 th post this quickly. To celebrate, I am giving away one of my UNIQUE, ONE-OF-A-KIND ARTIST’S BOOKS. Let me try that again: A UNIQUE, ONE-OF-A-KIND ARTIST’S BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's an accordion book of paper-litho transfers on BFK Rives paper, a printed line of text, and a cover of bookboards bound in blue linen. Size: 4" x 3", unfolding to 4" x 18". Some images of it: To win this book, here’s all you...