Art History

Two paint-by-numbers canvases of historical paintings - a Baroque portrait and an Impressionist mother-and-child - with PKS paint pots between them

Famous Female Painters: 7 Women Who Built Western Art

From Artemisia Gentileschi to Georgia O'Keeffe, seven women whose work shaped Western art history, with where to see their paintings in person.

Paint-by-numbers canvas of Van Gogh's Starry Night composition with PKS paint pots

Art History

The Starry Night: How Van Gogh Painted His Most Famous Night From Memory

Van Gogh painted The Starry Night in 1889 from memory, in his asylum studio at Saint-Rémy. Here is what he actually saw, and what he changed.

Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, A Friend in Need (1903) — the most famous painting of the Dogs Playing Poker series, framed with a blurred-self background

Americana

Dogs Playing Poker: The True Story of America's Most Famous Kitsch Painting

Cassius Marcellus Coolidge painted sixteen anthropomorphic-dog scenes for an advertising commission in 1903. Nine of them showed dogs at poker tables, and one became the most-reproduced American pa...

Gustave Courbet, A Burial at Ornans (1849-50), oil on canvas, Musée d'Orsay — the founding masterpiece of the Realist movement

Art History

Famous Realist Painters: A Tour from Gustave Courbet to Edward Hopper

Realism started in 1840s France as a refusal to paint mythology when ordinary working life was right there. A founder's tour through Courbet, Millet, Daumier, Eakins, Homer, Hopper, Wyeth, and wher...

Paint by numbers canvas of a still life, colour-printed Paint Kit Studio kit

Art History

What Is Canvas Painting? The 500-Year Story of a Surface That Changed Art

Canvas became the default Western painting surface in 16th-century Venice because sail-makers wove the best cloth in Europe. A founder's guide to canvas materials, priming, oil vs acrylic, and wher...

Paint by numbers canvas of a Dutch landscape, colour-printed Paint Kit Studio kit

Art History

What Is Landscape Painting? A 400-Year History from Dutch Masters to Paint by Numbers

Landscape painting was a background genre until Dutch merchants in the 1600s made it the subject. A founder's tour through Constable, the Hudson River School, the Impressionists, and where paint by...

Cafe Terrace Night Paint By Numbers Kit by Paint Kit Studio - homage of Van Gogh’s 1888 painting

Art History

Café Terrace at Night: Van Gogh's 1888 Painting Explained

Van Gogh's Café Terrace at Night, painted in Arles in September 1888. The yellow lantern, the absent black, the Kröller-Müller home, and what it teaches painters today.

Three finished paint by numbers canvases hanging on a wall in a casual home interior, showing a landscape, a still life, and a seascape, with warm afternoon light.

Art History

Famous Paintings: A Guide to the 12 Most Recognizable Artworks

From Mona Lisa to The Great Wave: 12 famous paintings with dates, museums, and what makes each iconic. Plus how each translates to paint by numbers at home.

Artist's studio corner with a wooden easel holding a partially finished landscape canvas, jars of brushes, paint pots on a worn wooden side table, with soft window light from the left.

Art History

Famous Painters: A Guide to 12 Influential Artists in History

From Leonardo to O'Keeffe: a guide to 12 famous painters with their working dates, key works, museums, and what each one teaches a painter today.

The Starry Night Over the Rhône paint-by-numbers canvas displayed on a wooden table under a brass banker's lamp in cozy evening interior light, with a thin paintbrush resting in front.

Art History

Starry Night Over the Rhône: Van Gogh's First Real Night Painting

Van Gogh's Starry Night Over the Rhône, painted September 1888 in Arles. The Big Dipper out of place, the gas-lamp reflections, the Musée d'Orsay home, and what it teaches painters today.