Not Painters online, but the Artist - some comments.

I have just got the December Artist Magazine and would like to make a few comments. First of all the Editorial. I think it is a shame that Ms Bulgin uses it to join in the traditional art good, new art bad debate, with her contrast of the Tate Modern and the Bankside Gallery. Now I have never met Ms Bulgin, and she is probably a very nice person, but I think it is wrong to perpetuate this old canard that modern artists are in it for the money and are cynical about the production of art. Magazines like the Artist should try to educate about modern art, not perpetuate the ignorance about it . Perhaps a series of articles discussing the birth of modern art from the Impressionists onwards perhaps? Further on, in between the articles on How To Paint Fishing Boats ( two in this edition) and another watercolour demo on How To Paint Venice (yet again!) (which includes the priceless line "perhaps a good place to start is Venice" Wonderful. I'll go this afternoon.) , there were some good articles. The life drawing by Mark Beaven gave sound advice, showing how to work in blocks and working from the centre. The Light in the Dark was good by James Willis, as was the article on Claire Norrington's sculptures, which has in it the sound advice about doing hundreds of drawings and noting that if you are not looking at the subject the work will lose its vitality and sense of movement, which is true of just about every painting I have seem copied from a photo. So, an issue, that was, despite my comments, better than usual, but I wish it would stop perpetuating this myth about modern art.