Colin Ruffell

CAVE PAINTING Last year I wrote an article about the cave paintings in Lasceaux France. That blog post was mostly about the pigments used. And something about the state of the Lasceaux cave which has a virus problem. [link] The Lasceaux cave system is about 10,000 years old. Much older cave paintings and other evidence have dated cave art in Maros, South Sulawesi, Indonesia, to 40,000 years. Until recently it was thought that the oldest cave painting known was a 40,800-year-o

Doodles are visual evidence of thought happenings. If you have an artist inside you maybe you doodle when you have pen or pencil and paper available. I know I do. I scribble as well. Maybe that is where your doodles are made up with words. Doodling or scribbling is a super way of exercising the brain. It can be just you and a bit of paper, or a computer screen, or a bit of chalk on the wall. A few years ago I registered myself the website domains … scribbledoodle.co.uk and

BONFIRE After 55 years of selling art for a living, I am having a bonfire. I sold my first painting 60 years ago. And I have managed to make a full time living as a professional artist for the last 55 years. I have painted and sold probably ten thousand originals. For many years they were small or medium size paintings that were just right for collectors walls and purses. During the last 20 years or so I have published many thousands of my pictures as fine art prints and card

ACRYLIC versus WATER COLOUR or OIL PAINT... I wrote a blog piece about oils, acrylics and watercolour paints about a year ago. [LINK]. The subject came up again recently when I was explaining my ‘acrylograph’ technique. This is when I paint over a canvas print with acrylic paint and add extra detail and texture. [LINK] FIXED The crucial point that came up was that acrylic paints are water based and they dry quickly. Within a couple of hours usually. They mix with water when w