Right as rain

Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro spent time in London, but it took James McNeill Whistler to act as artistic bridge with Britain and the ‘sweetened’ Impressionism of Jules Bastien-Lepage to inspire most homegrown painters, says Caroline Bugler

French artists have appropriated alfresco dining ever since Édouard Manet scandalised Paris with his Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe , yet many charming scenes were painted in Britain, too, and are worth rediscovering, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee

‘The real subject of every painting is light.’ CLAUDE MONET WHENEVER I’M PAINTING A PIECE, I am constantly appraising each movement, blend and nuance along the way. When you break it down, the number

Awarded The Artist prize at the annual Royal Institute of Oil Painters’ (ROI) exhibition, self-taught Belgian artist, Valérie Pirlot works predominately in the great outdoors. Depicting the essence of

With high summer beckoning, John Lewis-Stempel reflects on the incomparable richness of pond life and the rewards of pausing to peer into the murky depths on a warm June afternoon

This second article further explores the idea of using subtle drip marks to form atmospheric structures in paintings, which we saw in last month’s edition. Paint drips can be encouraged into wonderful