When I was given the job of filing and recording all of the artists and writers in each issue of The Artist magazine which go back to 1931, naturally I was nervous and a bit overwhelmed by the importance of the job and how accurate I needed to be. As soon as I started the job I loved it and thoroughly enjoyed going through all the magazines, I think one of the reasons that I loved it so much was because I love history, not at school admittedly but I love being able to see the progression of something throughout time and I also loved seeing the development of the magazine! I found it so fascinating looking at all the different issues and comparing the ones from the 1980s and the ones from the 1930s, a lot has changed! I also got very into reading the adverts in many of the issues and some of my favorite adverts were ones that advertised painting holidays, I always wondered what would happen if I sent in one of the slips from a magazine in the 1940s today, I may try it and see what happens! I think painting holidays would be a good thing for The Artist or Leisure Painter to branch into, I can see it now ‘Leisure painter holidays. Come and enjoy all the beautiful scenery that Kent has to offer, one of the best painting holidays in Kent!’ I don’t know about you but that sounds wonderful, weather permitting of course! Another thing that I found myself doing was comparing all of the different magazine covers; I found it so fascinating seeing how each year the cover changes. I thought that it would be a good idea to pick out a few of my favorite covers. Personally I love the simplistic style, which isn’t to everyone’s taste but these are just my personal favorites! Also I just came to discover that all of the covers I have picked out are in the 50s, I was born in the wrong era! A very interesting article that I found in The Artist September 1968 and it is called ‘Readers’ paintings analyzed’ By Victor Askew, the reason I found the article so interesting is because of the first sentence and it reads ‘If painting is an expression of what we feel and see, then we must be very careful not to judge or criticize purely on technique and standard of draughtsmanship.’ I thought that this was a terrific first sentence and it made me stop for a while and just think about it. I have grown to love the readers’ paintings analyzed, for one it shows you how the piece of work can be improved but also teaches you some valuable techniques for example Askew wrote ‘always keep the whole in mind whilst doing a particular part.’ which i thought was very useful advice for all you artists out there! The dates and months of the magazines in the pictures are as follows: top left December 1952, top right January 1952, bottom right, December 1950 and bottom left April 1956. i hope you enjoyed my first blog and i will keep you updated on how my work is going! Millie