Old Masters Academy

How to paint like the Old Masters using modern materials

Art Competition Archive

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Time is my currency

Artwork by Graham Landgraff

… More importantly, in the wonderful way that art consumes time, it proves Einstein’s Relativity theory. Time DOES fly when someone has fun or drags during something boring or awful. He proved it with an equation. Ever experience time at the canvas, look up, and notice where did the time go? Isn’t it great? But sit in a class with someone who cannot train themselves out of a wet paper bag (knowledge and skill transfer) and it can be pure torture! You sit in front of a muddy, drab canvas and want to quit. So to the Old Masters for us both is seems? Hopefully we can meet on the other side!

Know this. Time is my currency – having gone from life’s fast lane off onto a country dirt road, full stop. I know as someone who like myself (and my birth-mom) the appeal of art falls short of appreciation in someone unwilling or untrained to explore their inner Artist’s Way. To the believer, no explanation is necessary. To the non-believer, none is possible. …

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The Housewife Artist

Artwork by Amanda Bowoade

I am a housewife with four young children. I stay at home with my two youngest, who are babies. I have hopes of eventually becoming a 3D animator and I am currently in school for this, but to become a great animator, you need to be a great artist first: and so I am always learning, trying to fill in the gaps in my art knowledge. However, I live in a very small town in the depths of Alberta, Canada and there aren’t many opportunities here to expand my skills in the ways I want to.

The time that isn’t spent changing disappears and picking up after four children and feeding six hungry mouths is spent drawing, painting, or studying.

Art is my biggest challenge, my best friend, and my greatest enemy – I’m either excited about what I’m achieving or angry about my shortcomings. Art keeps my mind from becoming stagnant and makes the isolation of being in the house all day bearable. I have carved out a sizeable chunk of our living room and that is where I spend most of my day, at my drawing board, surrounded by my pencils, drawing and painting while my sons play at my feet. …

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It is very rare that I spend a day without drawing

Artwork by Francisco Bordon

I’m 59 years old and I live on an island in Gran Canaria, I’m an art lover, art for me is the way to communicate, here are not many opportunities to study good art.

I always had a pencil in my hand, it is very rare that I spend a day without drawing, I always go out with a blog, a pencil and a pen and as soon as I have time I draw a picture.

I spent part of my childhood drawing on my own, I didn’t have an art teacher at the time, later I was in an academy where classical realism wasn’t studied. I have developed my painting skills on my own. …

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Old Masters New Visions

Artwork by Vanessa Letih

I am a 31 year old female from New Zealand.
I have always been an artist like all children and I loved to paint and draw, the things is then I just never stopped when I got older.
It is a way I can express myself and is a form of visual language. A blank canvas is an opportunity to ask myself what is it that I want to say?…

…The Old Masters Academy course looks to be what I have been searching for as it covers so many of the skills I have been wanting to learn.There are many online courses on offer in art, but I have yet to find one that stood out as much as this one. The courses look very structured and easy to follow. I think anyone who was to do one of these courses would benefit greatly. …

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Lifelong artist, first time oil painter

Artwork by Paul Potts

This last Fall, I took my first ever oil painting class at a local art school. It was a beginning oil painting class. Like from the basics. I thought, “Still, it is dedicated time to paint every week.” I knew most of the information related to the color wheel and composition from school and the use of acrylics my whole life from 7 years old. So, when we started painting, almost everyone in the class came over to me and said, “What are you doing here. You are not a beginner.” I explained that I wanted to learn how to use oil mediums and what causes the paint to dry faster and how to varnish correctly after I’m done. …

…I have been doing a painting every week since I started that class. …

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I would love to be a student here

Artwork by Inger Lise W Teichmann

It is when I draw or paint, time dissolves and become non-existing. It was always like that, because as a little girl, I had to be quiet because my mother was ill. As I never found my way in life, I thought this was not my path. Even getting the best grades in art classes, or applying for art schools didn’t convince me do to my lack of self confidence. I thought I wasn’t good enough. …