7 Artistic National Treasures to Celebrate This 4th of July
In the spirit of the holiday this week, we’re celebrating some of our national treasures. . .that is, national artistic treasures! We’ve gone through our curriculum and have narrowed down seven iconic artworks created by American artists featured in our program to celebrate this July 4th. We’ve also included the museums in which they’re located, in […]
This Larger-Than-Life Balloon Art by Huge is a Fun Optical Illusion
It’s graduation season, which means celebrations are in order. However, any well-picked graduation balloons pale in comparison to the gigantic pieces created by street artist Huge. At first blush, Huge’s spray paintings don’t even look like paint. They’re so lifelike that they seem to be large balloons floating at odd angles on the wall. It’s […]
Our Top 8 Artistic Gifts for Kids Under $20 This Holiday Season
Scrambling for a gift for the kid(s) in your life that’s a bit more creative than this year’s big-ticket items? Don’t worry: we’ve got you covered! We were inspired Museum Shop Sunday (check out more on this movement here) to search for more arts-related gifts this holiday season that kids would actually want to receive. […]
“Loving Vincent,” The World’s First Oil-Painted Feature Film, Is Here (And It’s Stunning)
The world’s first feature film illustrated completely in oil paint is here…and, fittingly, it’s all about Vincent Van Gogh. Loving Vincent brings Vincent Van Gogh’s death—and the more mysterious bits surrounding his life—to life, through the medium which he is most known for. The film is one hour and thirty-five minutes of exclusively oil-painted illustration, in […]
Exploring Laguna Beach’s Festival of the Arts
We’ve explored the Pageant of the Masters here at the Art Docent Program blog, but we’ve never dove into its sister event, the Festival of the Arts. The two events occur at the same complex in Laguna Beach, with the Festival of the Arts open to Pageant patrons to peruse. In its 85th year, the […]
Audubon’s “Birds of America” Illustrations are Now Online
As the world becomes progressively more digital, we here at the Art Docent Program have been covering more and more stories about art going digital. Collections at places like the Met are now available online, and Google Maps even has a tool that can take you right inside some museums. The Audubon Society’s updated website […]
Still Life Paintings: The Original #Foodstagrams
Still life paintings were one of the most popular genres of the 17th century and have only grown in popularity since. The sheer amount of still life paintings produced in the Low Countries (present-day Netherlands, Belgium, etc.) numbers to hundreds of thousands, with many still uncatalogued. Why so many? In addition to serving a quasi-religious […]
You Can Add to this Library of Sketchbooks
The phrase “The Sketchbook Library” sounds like a book title (specifically, the next big Elizabeth Kostova [or, if you imagined hard, possibly Dan Brown] novel. Honestly, it doesn’t matter–either one of those would make for an awesome read.) But for once in life, real life may have beaten the authors to the idea. The Brooklyn […]
I Madonnari Takes Over at Mission Santa Barbara
You may have seen chalk art before (whether it’s creating with kids in your own driveway, or Bert’s creations in Mary Poppins), but you’ve probably never seen it quite like this. Every Memorial Day weekend, the Mission Santa Barbara hosts I Madonnari, an Italian-style street painting festival. Named after Italian street painters, the event benefits […]
Check Out This Next-Level Coffee Art
We all know that coffee and latte art keeps consistently approaching new levels of creativity these days. (Just search #latteart on Instagram or Google and take a look at the results. Crazy, right?) But out of all these, there’s one barista whose coffee art takes the cake. Coffee artist Kangbin Lee was doing so well […]