Looking closely
Reading a wall label, line by line
What each line of a museum wall label means, from life dates and medium to height before width and the accession number, and how to read it after you look.
The whole wall
Wall notes
Everything pinned up so far, newest first: how to look, where to go, what to ask before buying and how to keep a painting well once it is home.
Framing and care
What a hidden leak does to the art on your walls
How to spot water behind a wall before it reaches your pictures, what to check on the back of each frame, and what to ask the plumber.
First works
How to bring a painting home from a trip without harming it
What to ask about luggage before a mountain transfer, how to wrap a small painting for the road, and how to let it settle once you are home.
Framing and care
Before the outside painters start, take the pictures down
Exterior painting shakes outside walls and changes the light indoors. Here is what to take down, where to store it and when to rehang.
Framing and care
The hallway switchboard and the pictures that live with it
A simple checklist for clearing, recording and rehanging the art near your electrical panel before an electrician upgrades it.
Living with art
A new bathroom and the pictures that live with it
How to plan a place for art while a bathroom is being redesigned: light, steam, glazing and what to ask for before the walls close.
Gallery-going
Regional galleries worth the drive
Why Australia's regional public galleries reward a road trip, seven well-established ones to plan around, and how to fit a gallery into a weekend away.
Books and learning
Teaching yourself art history online, one week at a time
Free collection websites, museum courses, structured reading and a weekly looking habit: a practical plan for teaching yourself art history online at home.
Framing and care
Caring for a canvas painting at home
Light, humidity, dust, carrying, slack canvas and storage: the everyday care that keeps an oil or acrylic painting on canvas sound, and what to leave alone.
Books and learning
Art books on Australian painting worth keeping on the shelf
Survey histories, gallery catalogues and monographs on Australian painting: which books to start with, how to judge a catalogue, and where to find them cheaply.
First works
Collecting photographs as art without getting lost in the jargon
Editions and sizes, silver gelatin, chromogenic and pigment prints, signatures and labels, light and framing: a plain guide to living with fine art photography.
Gallery-going
Visiting the Archibald Prize and its room full of faces
Where the Archibald came from, what its rules ask of a portrait, how the Wynne, Sulman, Packing Room and People's Choice fit in, and how to look at the walls.