Ali Hodgkinson

Something I notice again and again in my adult's oil painting classes is how little paint some people mix up. A student might have a large area to cover, and yet on the palette there will be a small smudge of colour that would barely cover a postage stamp. This happens even though materials are included in the cost of the class, and even though I remind my students, more than once, that I will always find a use for the leftovers. When I point it out, they laugh - they've done it again, they...

Was Michelangelo good at art? I imagine most people would say 'yes' without pausing. What about Joan Mitchell? Here, I believe many people would hesitate. How about Millais? Or Monet? ... Matisse? Even if we agree they are all 'good', it's clear that they are not good in the same way. Michelangelo pursued anatomical mastery and the structural logic of the body while Mitchell’s work is rooted in gesture, movement, and the physical encounter with paint. Millais worked toward precision,...

For many years I owned a beautiful set of oil paints that I did not use. An old boyfriend bought them for me one Christmas. He knew that I carried a deep yearning to become an artist, and it was his way of saying he took that seriously. The paints were artist-grade oils in a handmade solid mahogany case with brass fittings and a leather handle. When you opened the case, a lift-out tray revealed orderly rows of colour: vivid cadmiums, earthy ochres and umbers, each tube sitting neatly in its...