Posts by Dave Kaminski

Your art never leaves you. I learned this the hard way when I stopped making art for months, then got called to complete a restaurant commission. With no confidence and no direction, I created my first large painting, terrified it was proof I’d lost my way completely. But when the owner saw it, she wept…

The number one thing that keeps artists stuck when starting a painting is using values that are too similar. When you put paint on a white canvas with close values, you can’t actually see what’s happening, so you spend hours tweaking and perfecting things you can’t clearly evaluate. The solution is beautifully simple. Start with…

I just discovered a powerful technique that will instantly make your work bolder and clearer. Choose three words that define what you want your art to feel like, then make one of those words dominate 75% of your painting, with the other two taking up 20% and 5%. This hierarchy creates work that’s immediately impactful…

Waiting for the “right time” to make art will never work because art-making operates on a completely different principle than other challenging tasks in life. Unlike difficult conversations or obligations that drain you until you push through them, art actually gives you energy and momentum once you start. The secret isn’t finding more time, a…

We all love making art, but why is it so hard to overcome the resistance and actually do it? After talking with artists in The Studio, I’ve identified five specific strategies that help you stay connected to your practice without massive effort. From the 20-minute bloom practice to leveraging community accountability, these simple shifts can…

There are obstacles that get in the way of our art and life. Some are real.  But many of them? They only feel real because we keep thinking about them. Art, in its own way, teaches us how to move through them. Of these obstacles, three come up again and again for artists. They don’t…