Collected
A letter for artists who apply. Every other week: the open calls, residencies and grants closing next, one thing you can do the same evening to be ready for them, and one place worth the trip.
Open calls, every other week
A short letter from Rebecka every other Tuesday: three open calls worth your evening, who each one is really for, and the one she would apply to herself. Unsubscribe in one click.
How to store paintings in a small studio, and find any of them again
Upright, off the floor, a board between every canvas and no sun on any of them. Then a number on the back and an address on the rack, so the work an application asks for is a minute away.
14 Oct 2026Art movements explained, and how to tell them apart
A field guide to the movements of Western art, from the Renaissance to Pop Art, with the one or two signs that give each of them away.
14 Oct 2026The ten most famous paintings in the world, and where they hang
Ten paintings almost everyone has seen in reproduction, what to look for when you stand in front of the real thing, and how to describe the copy on your own wall.
14 Oct 2026Ten Swedish artists worth knowing, and how to recognise them
By the end you will be able to put a name to the paintings in Swedish museums, and to a good many of the ones in Swedish homes.
14 Oct 2026How to tell a real open call from a vanity award
What a fair entry fee covers, what a vanity prize sells, and what to read in the terms before you pay.
13 Oct 2026How to photograph your artwork properly
A repeatable studio setup, the measurements that matter, and the few facts worth writing down before a work leaves the room.
5 Oct 2026Spreadsheet or cataloguing software: what works for artists
Four ways artists keep a record of their work, what each does well, and the point at which a spreadsheet stops being enough.
3 Oct 2026How to catalogue your own artwork, and keep it catalogued
The details worth recording for every piece, a numbering system that survives twenty years, and where to begin when there are already a hundred works.
3 Oct 2026How to put together a portfolio for an open call or grant
What juries actually ask for, how many images to send, how to caption them, and the one thing a submission portfolio should never contain.
3 Oct 2026What you own when you own a candy spill
A sweet spill by Felix Gonzalez-Torres can be eaten down to the floor and still be lent to the Met. What survives is the certificate, and it asks something of anyone who keeps a record.
29 Sept 2026Where to find open calls and residencies in Europe
The handful of places worth checking, what they each cover, and how to keep the paperwork behind an application down to twenty minutes.
29 Sept 2026What is provenance in art? A guide for collectors
By the end you will know what belongs in a provenance record, what a certificate of provenance is worth, and what to do when part of the chain is missing.
24 Sept 2026Studio Visit: Maya Laurent on Møn
In a converted barn on the Danish island of Møn, Maya Laurent works in a register so narrow it is almost silence, grey against grey, sanded back over weeks until the surface holds light the way weather does.
2 Jul 2026A Collector’s Eye: Oliver Bennett
The London collector on twenty years of buying by material and instinct rather than by name, and why he believes taste is built one honest mistake at a time.
24 Jun 2026Behind the Work: Tide Table (Grey to Grey)
One painting, seen from two sides of the archive, the maker’s record and the owner’s.
12 Jun 2026Ash Glaze: Notes on a Material
On ash glaze, the oldest accident in ceramics, and why it rewards the patient.
3 Jun 2026