In my experience color and color gradation from warm to cool has a kind of magic "pull in" factor that people can't figure out but that appeals to them on some unconscious level. Warm colors that fade or blend to grays or complimentaries are the best for this purpose.

For many years cooks have been allowed the privilege of keeping their recipes a secret so why not our painting techniques. Wes's comments and Robert's response has certainly made me think about this matter. In one of our local galleries there was an artist who painted in a most unusual style everyone was speaking about his methods and were trying to work out how he created his paintings. It wasn't until he was very elderly and in poor health did he decide to take a student under his wing and teach him his secret method. We now see the same paintings in the gallery but apparently it is the work of his student, how amazing!

Wes! If someone asks me how I do something I tend to give a truthful answer. You can be sure that someone else out there is doing exactly what you do (e.g. use liquid paint), but it is your individuality that makes all the difference! I can give you an example. Someone at the extremely populated artwanteddotcom site wrote asking me for information about a method and I wrote back explaining how I had used liquid acrylics to start my painting. I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but this lady proceeded to publish a whole series of simply awful abstracts based on the technique I had described to her. It just wasn't her thing, and finally she must have realized it, because she stopped making them. I think we should be happy to share what we do, whatever it is. The fear that someone else might do it better should not make you secretive. You might be helping someone to release hidden genius and that is also an achievement! In the past, artists learnt by copying and today it's still customary. An example: Painters of would-be artists go to workshops. They choose the teacher whose work they admire or who can teach them certain tricks of the trade they perceive to be an integral part of that teacher-artist's work. If I want to paint Cézanne look-alikes there's no point in my going to a workshop concentrating on Bob Ross Landscapes. Just tell the person asking briefly how you do it! Leave the rest to that person who is interested enough and admires your work enough to ask. Whether she/he will be able to take what you say on board is quite a different matter. Now a joke: I come from the opera theater and there are always auditions (castings) for roles. One day a tenor arrived for his audition and was going to sing a big aria. He started, but had his hand in front of his mouth. The committee taking the audition stopped him and asked him to take his hand away. He replied:" I can't do that. I don't want you to see my vocal technique unless you give me the part." End of joke. End of comment.

Just something about "RED". A light cadium red...warm and luscious. I have seen it happen over and over again. Buyers are attracted to warm colors. I have a red couch and have painted my livingroom several times and they all sell. Now I wish I had kept one! Also, had a really nice painting of a Santa Fe alley with an adobe at the end of this alley/lane. The door was a Santa Fe blue. It had been shown a few times and hadn't sold so I took it to class to get a critique. One of my painter friends suggested I paint the door red. walla! It sold a week later. Perhaps it is just my lucky color as far as sales go as the work itself was no better than others I was showing. I just think that RED clicks with buyers. It grabs their attention. Try it!

Susan, I think you are right about red..........it is what a friend of mine called, "poison", a touch of it will draw the eye and attract the attention. I bought a painting a few years' back, by a fellow artist. She had done a series of small abstracts, in mostly duller colours, and this one attracted me.....it had a little dab of this bright red. It was marked sold and then several other people came along and wanted THAT one despite the fact there were several others from the series available, but none of them had that red in there! That experience stuck with me, and your comment reminded me of it.............

In cooking there is a rule of the thumb that to set out an attractive plate There needs to be both red and green on it. The green can be any green, but the brighter the red the better. Maybe our colors need to be appetizing.

The bit of red near the center of a painting was pointed out to my class in college long ago. Looking through a coffee table book of Winslow Homer's watercolors, you'll see that nearly every one has a red, or a very warm brown close to the center.

Well- Wes- this time I'm going to agree with you and totally disagree with Faith Puleston- and even Robert. I no longer believe in show and tell. Keep your way of doing things mostly private. I think we should be happy to know we are having original thoughts and creating original work- and sharing what you do with everyone only dilutes and diffuses that. But sharing is the name of the female/teacher game. I'm a fiber artist- what has commonly been referred to as an art quilter- and I've learned to hate the word quilt- as a quilter I am not. People working in this medium are about 95% female- maybe 98%. The artists in the group comprise about 5% of the total and the men in that group- well the numbers are very small- yet we men bring a credibility to the group the women don't get without us. The Land of Quilt got on CBS Sunday Morning a week ago and funnily- the person they singled out to seriously look at was male. And why him? Because he's got a gimmick. And because he decided that the thing that would bring him the attention he's getting- having been working in the field for less than 10 years- where so many of us have been working in it for over 30- would be teaching little old ladies really basic almost stupid stuff. And then virtually claiming it as his own- according to this program. Oh well. It got him on TV! Anyway- in 1998 I spent some time back east and as soon as I got there I went to a large show of some of the artists in the group. And when I walked in and looked around- I said to myself that the show I was looking at was virtually identical to shows I'd hung in out here in Colorado. And for a minute that perplexed me- until it all sunk in. It's a small group. An even smaller group have spent their time- hoping to make a living- traveling around the country teaching seminars. In the Land of Quilt- quilters think nothing of using someone else's pattern- selecting a pretty palette- and making something that is about as original as dirt. So when a small group of self-appointed mostly female teachers travel around the country teaching there own sort of but not really individual shtick- oh my god- all the work starts to look the same. And they do it because they just love to share! And because they think that that's ok. But it is NOT OK for the truly individual artist. I've already received relatively significant recognition for my work in this lifetime- though I may be dead before I finally succeed at it financially. And the reason I've received this recognition is because my work just plain and simply doesn't look like anybody else's. So Wes- by all means keep some of your individually learned and created methods to yourself. You'll be happier- and fewer people's work will look like yours. People need to think for themselves- and after whatever period of materials based training they go through- need to learn to create original work- not follow every teacher- and copy them.

I agree to disagree...I do not have ppl in my studio, nor spend time teaching them. Nothing personal, I simply say appt. only, or 'nothing personal, but that's my private space.' I've had a gal once who wouldn't leave my studio no matter how many times I yawned, time checked etc., and I learned! I had to pay for workshops, learn from books, study on the internet. I am not magical or even special in that manner, so if I can do that, so can they. And if they still ask you for it, have them pay for a class! I am no longer open for walk in entertainment, and do not feel any artist should feel they need to be. nothing personal!

A spot of red goes a long way. That is all I have to say about that.

Chefs are taught that 70% of pleasing the palate is achieved visually through presentation with the use of colour, shapes, form and textures. Maybe the colour doesn't have to be red, just interesting, as Robert says "colour surprise".

I am a new artist and brought some of my paintings I was going to put in an upcoming show to work. My Boss is an art collector with several original Group of Seven pieces. He walked by my painting, came to my office and bought one of the paintings. Go figure, it was mostly red. I have to run back since new ideas are dancing in my head.

You wrote: "To tell all is the key to yawns." As an occasional portrait artist I have always had to fight the tendency to include everything and then some! Being able to live with the works of Drew Struzan and Royal Canadian Artist Duncan Regehr in our gallery has gradually changed the way I perceive things. Finally (I'm old, it takes time!) I have been able to let go of some detail and have started to paint with a new outlook.

To J. Bruce Wilcox: I would have written you a mail, but your postcard site did not seem to make personal communication possible. Quite apart from your general opinions, I wish you to know that I did not say that every artist should reveal his or her "secrets". What I did say was that if someone asked me how I did something, I tended to tell the truth. I realize that some (great?) artists have such tremendous secrets to keep that it would be churlish of me to expect them to say what they do - I wouldn't even ask - but sharing is not losing, it is no skin off one's nose to tell a granny how to hold a paintbrush or paint a shadow or do any one of the million things that go to make up a work of art. Of course, individuality is the secret. Of course, originality is going to prevail - or is it? I don't agree with the idea that the "madding crowd" is not entitled to have a qualified go! And the educators need to make a living. If a whole group of grannies chooses to paint a strawberry in the style of x, y, or z, what is the problem? The teacher gets a fee and the grannies get something to hang on the wall. Once they leave the classroom, the group feeling just melts away. The strawberry becomes an original and is probably treasured just as much as any Picasso. Incidentally, Stradivari kept his varnish recipe to himself. You ask a violinist if that was good for the craft of violin making!

Is it any surprise that the way we tell of a sale is with "the little red dot." Ever notice how many times one little red dot breeds another?

To Faith Puleston: First of all Faith- in case you missed it- Wes isn't claiming to be a teacher. What Wes is claiming is that he figured his process out from scratch- on his own- all by himself- and that he likes it to be a bit of a mystery to onlookers- some who may also be artists. So he's met a new friend- and SHE wants to witness his process. SHE wants him to just show her how he does what he does- which he was mentally competent enough to figure out all by himself. He literally took the time to experiment with his materials for a long enough period to develop a process ALL BY HIMSELF. Yet this new female friend- well- SHE just wants to be shown. SHE doesn't want to do the research and development on her own- SHE just wants Wes to tell her how to do it- so SHE doesn't have to bother trying to have an original thought all by herself and actually spend some time figuring it out ON HER OWN. The problem here is that if Wes shows her- he may as well go figure out something totally new and different to do because SHE will immediately go show HER new technique to all of her female friends. And Wes's hard earned specialty will instantly be diluted by a whole bunch of copycat women- who in my experience just love to take workshops with the current teacher to learn the latest techniques so that their work will immediately start looking just like the current fad. This is the bottom of the creative barrel- the lowest common denominator in a group that numbers-wise- from a gender perspective- seems predominately the reality of women. Men learn at a very early age to individually think- act and create for themselves- while women seem to just want to take the easy way out- and have someone show them how to do it. If you want to be a competent artist- you will have to master your materials. But if you want to be a great artist- you will have to learn to think for yourself- even to the point of inventing processes that work for you. And not necessarily sharing them with everyone. Those grannies- working in a medium similar to mine- and poorly I might add- get in the way of this culture recognizing my individual genius- and paying me accordingly. They diffuse the value of my work by making sure buyers still see the medium as tacky craft (used in its most negative sense). Are they going to stop? Nope. But they are going to die off. artdialogue@jbrucewilcox.com

Whoa! I came hunting around back here to get a link for another artist who emailed me this morning for advice on being a teaching artist, which I am. Wow! What a heated exchange I found about whether to teach or not to teach, whether to tell or not to tell. J. Bruce, you sound very angry and discouraged to me, both here and in your artist's statement on your web site, something I actually found kind of surprising given your self-proclaimed career choices of artist, poet and shaman. It's ironic, to me, how much you do tell and what you do say. An...interesting...energy coming from you...

I'm with Robert and Faith on sharing and teaching. I find it immensely rewarding, inspiring and enjoyable. In the years I have been showing and telling, I have also contracted more commissions and sold more art, made more professional connections in my field, collected wonderful ideas from others, and spread my personal vision of "creativity for everyone" out to thousands of kids and grown ups. I say that if you want to be me, you better hurry up and start now because it took me 40 years to get here. Let the "madding crowd" have their go! I have plenty to get from them while they do.

Some people are teachers and some are not. Heaven knows that, unfortunately, the schools are full of people who hate to teach. Some people share, some people don't. I, for one, am thankful that Robert is the abundantly sharing individual he is! I'd imagine he'd admit that he's gotten his share from it, too. And none of this has nothing to do with whether you are male or female, gay or straight. Your generalizations about what you think women are like, J. Bruce, are the biggest secrets you should keep to yourself.

To Dar Hosta: I'm 54 and I have been sewing since the age of 8 and creating art embroidery since the age of 11 and I got into the art quilt arena in 1977 when I was 24 after doing several embroidery pieces that were small and took too much time. Oh- and sorry- but my childhood actually wasn't very pleasant because I was crossing all acceptable gender boundaries.

My current work allows for larger pieces that take less time. Still- I've only been able to finish a small number each year- and this time consuming issue has made regular financial success difficult to come by. On the one hand I'm finishing more work- but on the other hand- I simply do not have the freedom to spend an entire year working on one piece as some female fiber artists seem to.

And I've read it on Robert's site. So I haven't gotten into some of the larger shows- because they often go for the really complex work. But I have been- for over 30 years- involved in the group of mostly females. And I am an observer of behavior patterns- because my work is all about patterns. This format doesn't allow for anything but generalizations.

So- sorry that you can't see the patterns being presented by middle-aged women with grown children being mainly supported by their husbands- who've decided it's time to reconnect with their creativity. My question would be- why'd they ever leave it behind? Oh that's right- they made other choices and got bogged down in familial responsibilities! I made the only choice possible at a very young age to be the artist that I am and I blew off fathering any children because I knew it would destroy any chance I had at actually succeeding financially as an artist- BEFORE I'M DEAD.

Along the way- I discovered that the women around me- who don't have to succeed financially- are holding a completely different belief structure about success and personal responsibility in the most general sense. And their held beliefs- combined with the reality that fiber is still predominately a female medium- combined with the fact that even the folks who come to view fiber exhibits are mainly female- and mainly NOT BUYERS- has made financial success even more difficult for me- since my work doesn't look female- while contributing to my far more than general understanding of the differences in patterning between males and females. We males are simply culturally expected to succeed at our chosen profession. Period.

I've found- after many years of observation- that completely different expectations exist for women. I wish they didn't- but they do. Gee- I'm sorry I got angry after all those years of supporting women I thought were actually trying to become individual human beings. Seems I was wrong- somehow. I receive/create/invent complex offset interlocking patterns. I then merge those patterns with a random surface of potentially hundreds of varying textiles. My hand stitching uses huge craft needles and a huge cord- and I am presently embellishing with leather and metal washers- or hardware. Anyone could see what I'm doing in my work and copy it if they saw fit to- without me teaching them anything- but they don't- because they don't think/create that way I do and my tools and materials are simply scaled differently/larger.

I do occasionally help a single individual who's shown up in my reality- but I don't teach anything to anybody group-wise- because the thing I would be teaching is how to fully and consciously make the connection to your very own inner god/creativity- and how to bring that through your art. I've found most folks don't want to carry that much personal responsibility- so they remain mostly unconscious to the possibilities. So- do me a favor! I re-read your boys and girls like different colors! I- of course- as a masculine/feminine balanced not/heterosexual male am right in the middle. Let me know when gender becomes irrelevant. Until then...

Oh dear, Bruce, Dar hit the nail on the head. You have serious complexes which you should attend to. Gender problems are usually self-imposed. I come from the theatre, where every gender, colour, race and belief has its place, where people tolerate each other, work together, trust one another, without necessarily loving each other. I think the word I'm looking for is respect, but that only comes from self-respect and you presumably have less than your share of that. I personally do not care who you share your bed with, any more than I care who anyone writing here shacks up with. Your preoccupation with gender is obviously your affair, but don't assume that everyone thinks like you do and stop resenting people who aren’t and yet manage to get their act together. Children are a great joy and a source of endless inspiration and creativity. So you chose not to have any - or rather, beget any - and your career is brilliant as a result? I know winners and losers with and without children. I know men who knit (men were the first knitters) and women who mend cars. What's the big deal? I suppose you are using this page to let off steam. Did it ever occur to you that the women you chose were just as disappointed in you? Maybe you were a big flop. Maybe you expected too much or the wrong things or wanted more than you were prepared to give. I'm glad your understanding of patterning is so far ahead (of what - gender, human understanding?). Maybe you should now concentrate on understanding yourself, your motivation, your drawbacks, anything that gets you off the track you are now following......