The colour survives in the work of 17th Century Spanish colonial painters, a symbol of the wealth that ultimately doomed the Mayans, writes Devon Van Houten Maldonado.

When the war finally came to an end, artists on both sides had to face the problem of how to paint the peace. By Michael Prodger.

A catchy tune and one of Stephen Gammell’s illustrations from Alvin Schwartz’s trilogy, ‘Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark.’   If you look at the unassuming photo used by publisher Simon and Schuster of illustrator Stephen Gammell, you will, in no way, perceive the smiling, white-bearded and spectacled man was responsible for creating images which have terrorized the minds of children since 1981. But he is, and I hope this helps reinforce the golden rule one should never judge a book (or a person) by their cover.

Art is hard. It often looks easy from the outside. ‘I could have done that,’ says Jane. ‘But you didn’t,’ says Peter. That’s art. A true artist is not born. They are certainly not made overnight. Art is the result of a series of events that came together thanks to a commitment. A decision made by the artist or practitioner to show up every day, and to put something to paper. Many never make the art they are capable of. Many will never realise the music that is quietly humming in their souls. Sometimes, art erupts out of a rush of excitement and joy in the artist — from a moment of insight. That works.

The Chinese dissident artist tells NPR his studio is in the process of being demolished. The workspace is located in Beijing's Songzhuang District, on the outskirts of the city.

Acrylics on canvas - 60 * 80 cm

If you, too, want to appreciate ugliness, the first thing you have to do is stop assuming that it is the inverse of beauty. By Katy Kelleher.

The naturalism that defines Art Nouveau has its roots in the Arts & Crafts movement, a melting pot of art and philosophy that was opposed to the changes imposed on society by industrialism. People began to realize that small-scale homemade crafts that were produced with care and skill were being lost among the mass of factory-produced items.

Long before Aladdin Sane or Ziggy Stardust, a skinny 16-year-old with ambitions to be a saxophonist agreed to do lead vocals on a demo track, in a small studio in south London. Now the only known recording of the resulting session, with David Bowie singing I Never Dreamed with his first band, The Konrads, has resurfaced in an old bread basket, and is expected to fetch £10,000 at auction.

Every artist explores dimensions of space and place, orienting themselves and their works in the world, and orienting their audiences. Then there are artists like Vincent van Gogh, who make space and place a primary subject.

Acrylics on canvas - 60 * 90 cm

Testing some new paints (Windsor & Newton). :-)

Going old school with new school paint. :-)

The long read: Forgeries have got so good – and so costly – that Sotheby’s has brought in its own in-house fraud-busting expert

The writer, who died at 89, invested common words with the power of a constructive, shaping force.

Two sunny days for painting two sunny birds. :-)

Have you ever dreamt of surfing on clouds or exploring the sparkling spiral arms of the galaxy?

Images by the photographer, spanning across all of Poland and taken for a period of 20 years, reveal the interiors of Polish homes, the objects in fashion, and what was considered valuable by people in the late 20th century.

His obsession with the Nazi genocide brought forth “Shoah,” a film recognized as both an important historical record and an original work of art.

Etched into the outback 20 years ago, the vast figure remains a subject of fascination.

Art is all about freedom. Culture and the pursuit of knowledge are dangerous for chavismo. That’s why tyrants try so hard to subdue, suppress and annihilate both. How do artists and scholars manage in Venezuela nowadays? By Mile Castro. (July 2, 2018)

Artist Christina West sculpts eroded portraits of anonymous faces which reveal colorful patches existing just below the surface. Segments of the subject's face are worn away or chopped off, focusing the viewer's attention on the layered interior of the busts, rather than their exterior features. The

How Leonardo da Vinci engineered the world’s most famous painting

At the London mega-fair, a special exhibition champions (and de-politicizes) feminist art, Hans-Ulrich Obrist is everywhere, and political art is conspicuously absent.

the Blaschkas, who had already established a thriving glassmaking business, Leopold, the elder Blaschka, had begun his career making costume jewelry, chandelier attachments, and other luxury goods. He even made glass eyes, both for human use and taxidermy. They used a process called lampworking or flameworking to craft their masterpieces. The collection is housed in a dedicated gallery at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.

It was created in 1533 by Hans Holbein the Younger.

It is a travesty that a million works of art are hidden in crates in a secretive Swiss storage facility.

This is not something researchers at museums see every day. When curators at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art put the Vincent van Gogh 19th-century masterpiece Olive Trees under the microscope to better understand the Dutch painter’s artistic process, a little critter was found entombed within the thick oil paint.

Teeth, skeletons and sea sponges fill the eclectic studio of this buzzed-about artist, who we visited upstate as he prepares for his first European solo show.

The artist's homecoming, after a critically acclaimed pavilion in Venice, doesn't lack for ambition—or size.

Legal victory for 5Pointz, world-famous graffiti haven painted over by building’s owner in 2013, could lead to greater protection for US street artists

In an excerpt from his latest book “The Orange Balloon Dog,” economist and art market commentator Don Thompson discusses how auction houses court collectors.

The price was astounding, even more so because some experts criticized a Christie’s marketing campaign that glossed over the painting’s flaws.

The city installs more public art than any other in the world, and it serves developers as well as artists