Alla Prima is an Italian term for painting wet-on-wet. The French are more direct, calling it au premier coup, or a first stroke.

The raven looks like he was sent by Edgar Allen Poe as he sits with his claws hooked under the lid of the toy box. Is he just curious? Or...

"...for me watercolor is a kind of break out medium. Like a spillway from a dam or reservoir, it likes to run free, and nothing is better...

An old pond, frog jumps in, Kerplunk! So goes Alan Ginsberg's translation of Matsuo Basho's famous haiku. A simple act can stir things up.

The actual history goes back a few centuries to a monk with the name Pseudo-Bede who wrote of a dark, fully bearded king named Balthazar.

The painting is the Madonna in the Forest, sometimes called the Adoration in the Forest by Filippo Lippi in the Medici Chapel in Florence.

This painting is an enigma. Certain things seem evident. The boat is in rough water, the mast is broken, and the sharks are circling.

So in this season of tricks and treats, All Souls Day and the Day of the Dead, remember to live while the living is good, for tomorrow....

Oh the pain of being thrown in the art world's dumpster as the medium for dabbling, Sunday painting, and amusements for little old ladies.

Yes, this is a painting by Frederic Remington, he of the illustrative paintings of the American West full of cowboys, and bucking broncos.

If two chefs can't get along in the same kitchen, how can three artists get along painting the same chapel?

Well, it is not the sunset of Vernelle Studio nor the Blog at Vernelle Studio. However, a change is being made. Starting September, there will be two art his...

Oh no, no. This is Mondrian, the neo-plastician of red, blue, yellow, white and black fame, creator of De Stijl, and no pussyfooting around.

I was fascinated by a buckskin shirt worn by Tashunca-uitco, not realizing that I knew him by another name - Chief Crazy Horse.

As an artist, the lives of artists in other cultures has fascinated me, especially so when I think about the painters of Imperial China.

I wish I could truly say, "My Name is the Persian Miniature" but I am not Orhan Pamuk. I will just tell you what I know.

We do not know his name, but his dignity speaks volumes. This is the head of the Ooni of Ifé, home of the Yoruba in Nigeria,around 1300 A.D.

Who dare but a figure sitting in the corner of the eye of a god? The Maya. That is just one of the mysterious things about their culture.

After 300 years, this great female painter is making the rounds this year of schools, libraries, doctor's offices and even prisons!

Edouard Manet captured it - that gaze, eyes a bit unfocused, looking but not seeing, with the mind lost in thought.