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National Lighthouse Day: Dong Kingman

Thursday, August 7, 2025 | Karl Cole

It was on this day in 1789 that Congress established funding in support of building of lighthouses, beacons, buoys and public piers. On August 7 of 1989, National Lighthouse Day was established by ...

Curator's Corner

World Watercolor Month: Kawakami Ryoka

Wednesday, July 30, 2025 | Karl Cole

Japanese artists have been proficient in water-soluble media for centuries. Early forms of water-soluble media included gofun—crushed white clam shells mixed with water and pigments—and di ...

Curator's Corner

World Watercolor Month: Ann Hall

Monday, July 21, 2025 | Karl Cole

I have mentioned my trepidation about using watercolors before, and how I find it to be a very unforgiving medium. The fact that there have been and still are such brilliant watercolor artists justifi ...

Curator's Corner

World Watercolor Month: Paul Cézanne

Monday, July 14, 2025 | Karl Cole

What better artist to celebrate World Watercolor Month than Paul Cézanne? His brilliant studies in watercolor clearly lay the foundations of what he called “modulation.” This is the ...

Curator's Corner

World Watercolor Month: Donald Holden

Friday, July 11, 2025 | Karl Cole

World Watercolor Month began in 2016 as a way to honor the watercolor artists from all over the world. The art of Donald Holden is truly a fitting tribute to this artform, which in many ways can be ve ...

Curator's Corner

A Consummate Realist: Joseph Raffael

Monday, June 23, 2025 | Karl Cole

Photorealism was a style that evolved during the 1960s in reaction to the prevalence of total abstraction seen in Abstract Expressionism, Color Field, and Minimalism—movements that dominated tha ...

Curator's Corner

National Love a Tree Day: Sylvia P. Mangold

Friday, May 16, 2025 | Karl Cole

Mangold is very fond of the trees that were on her country property and they became frequent subjects of her paintings. She would definitely approve of National Love a Tree Day, which encourages every ...

Curator's Corner

National Iris Day: Muhammad Zaman

Thursday, May 8, 2025 | Karl Cole

The iris is a beautiful flower that was first planted in the United States in Virginia in the 1600s. The flower started being commercially imported around 1869. The iris is the symbol for the city of ...

Curator's Corner

National Library Week: Jacob Lawrence

Tuesday, April 8, 2025 | Karl Cole

Established in 1958, National Library Week has been sponsored by the American Library Association. It now has international recognition. National Library Week was started to encourage the support and ...

Curator's Corner

Summer Is Waning: Georges Lepape

Monday, August 12, 2024 | Karl Cole

Once August is here, New Englanders are fond of saying, “well, summer’s almost over.” I prefer to resist that inclination, since summer always seems so short in Massachusetts anyway. ...

Curator's Corner

Welcome to May! Charles Burchfield

Monday, May 6, 2024 | Karl Cole

To welcome the wonderful month of May, let’s look at the work of an extremely unique artist who sought not only to capture what he saw in nature, but also what he felt: Charles Burchfield. He is ...

Curator's Corner

Black History Month: Hale Woodruff

Monday, February 5, 2024 | Karl Cole

Let’s celebrate Black artists who have brought beauty into the world through their art. This week, I’m sharing the stunning watercolors of Hale Woodruff. Since I find watercolor to be a ve ...

Curator's Corner

Saying Goodbye to World Watercolor Month 2023

Monday, July 31, 2023 | Karl Cole

Watercolor can be a very unforgiving medium—boy, don’t I know it! I started out studying for an MFA in painting using gouache and watercolor, but my professors suggested that what I was tr ...

Curator's Corner

Disability Pride Month: Hector Alonzo Benavides

Monday, July 19, 2021 | Karl Cole

The intricate, beautifully composed works of Hector Alonzo Benavides are a leap into his detail-inclined mind. Even if he did overwork some of his pieces, he still has a great sense of balance, compos ...

Curator's Corner

World Watercolor Month: Charles Brownell

Wednesday, July 29, 2020 | Karl Cole

I’m closing out my World Watercolor Month series with the work of Charles de Wolf Brownell. Many of Brownell's most standout landscapes and nature studies are his watercolors. His watercolor wor ...

Curator's Corner

World Watercolor Month: Yosa Buson

Monday, July 27, 2020 | Karl Cole

If any artists could be called the “masters” of watercolor, it would be the artists of Asia—particularly far eastern Asia (Japan, China, Korea)—who, for centuries, used in ...

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National Lighthouse Day: Dong Kingman

World Watercolor Month: Kawakami Ryoka

World Watercolor Month: Ann Hall

World Watercolor Month: Paul Cézanne

World Watercolor Month: Donald Holden

A Consummate Realist: Joseph Raffael

National Love a Tree Day: Sylvia P. Mangold

National Iris Day: Muhammad Zaman

National Library Week: Jacob Lawrence

Summer Is Waning: Georges Lepape

Welcome to May! Charles Burchfield

Black History Month: Hale Woodruff

Saying Goodbye to World Watercolor Month 2023

Disability Pride Month: Hector Alonzo Benavides

World Watercolor Month: Charles Brownell

World Watercolor Month: Yosa Buson

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