What with all the heat waves and thunderstorms, no one can blame you if your summer reading happens inside instead of on the beach. Here’s our second edition of arts-related things to read, watch and do:

• [article] Colorful stories: Allison Meier on Hyperallergic wrote a series of posts on historical art materials: pigments, pigments part 2, and paper. Painters and art historians will love reading about paints that are hard or impossible to find today because they’re “incredibly poisonous, expensive, or just involving way too many snails.”
  • For a long-form read on the subject of color, check out the comments section of that first Hyperallergic article. Several readers made suggestions for nonfiction books about color, such as Bright Earth: Art and the Invention of Color by Philip Ball.
• Talking creativity: We featured TED talks here in our video inspiration post back in January. Since then TED had started releasing curated playlists of their huge video collection. Two playlists featuring talks by artists, designers, authors, and others, “The artist is in” and “The creative spark”, might offer a jumpstart to your creative process some rainy day.
  • Returning to Hyperallergic’s Allison Meier, she has compiled a great list of web series on art, including curator talks from the Met and six photographic processes explained by the George Eastman House.
• [exhibit] Their own words: Marcel Duchamp, Winslow Homer, Willem De Kooning, and Mary Cassatt are just some of the artists represented in a Smithsonian exhibit this summer — except it’s not their artwork on display, but their letters. “The Art of Handwriting” addresses the art and biography behind the letter writers, and should provide a wealth of summer reading — read a review of the exhibit here. It’s at The Donald W. Reynolds Center at the Archives of American Art through October 27.
  • While you’re exploring the wealth of summer exhibits around DC (see Culture Capital) and elsewhere, if you’re planning to take a camera, check out this Art Law Journal article on taking photos in museums.
• [article] Accepting rejection: In case you missed it, read Art Leaguer Sarah Dale’s amazing guest blog post about her first rejection letter (and her first exhibit). If you have an Art League story to share, drop us a line!

So what are you reading this summer? Let us know in the comments!

Read Summer Reading part 1 here.