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iHeart is a free streaming platform that combines live radio stations, customizable artist stations, playlists, and podcasts in one place. You can start listening without paying by opening iheart.com in a browser or using the iHeart app, then searching for a station, artist, song, or podcast. A subscription is only relevant for certain premium features; the core listening experience described on iHeart's site is available for free.

What you can listen to on iHeart

iHeart organizes its content into a few main types, and knowing the difference helps you find what you want faster.

The key distinction is live versus on-demand. Live radio plays whatever is broadcasting right now, so you can't skip tracks. Artist stations and playlists behave more like on-demand listening, where you control the starting point.

How to start listening for free

You can begin on either the web or the app. The steps are similar.

1. Open the platform. Go to iheart.com in a browser, or install the iHeart app on your phone or tablet.
2. Search or browse. Use the search function to enter a station name, artist, song, or podcast. Alternatively, browse categories to see what's available.
3. Select what you want to hear. Choosing a live station starts playback immediately. Choosing an artist creates or opens a station built around that artist.
4. Press play and adjust. Use the player controls to pause, change volume, or move between stations. On live radio, expect no track skipping; on artist stations, you have more control over what plays next.
5. Save what you like. Favoriting a station or artist makes it easier to return to later without searching again.

Expected result: audio begins playing shortly after you select content, and your favorites appear in your account for quick access next time.

Creating your own stations and playlists

• Artist stations: Start from an artist you like, and the station plays music in that style. This is the fastest way to get continuous music without building a list yourself.
• Playlists: Add individual songs to a playlist when you want a specific set of tracks rather than a continuous stream. This suits workouts, commutes, or a fixed party set.
• Tip: Use artist stations for discovery and playlists for control. If a station drifts away from what you want, switch to a playlist instead of fighting the stream.

What's free versus what needs a subscription

iHeart's own description states that its music, podcasts, and radio stations are available for free, and that you can listen to thousands of live stations or create your own artist stations and playlists. The site also references a subscription, which indicates that some features sit behind a paid tier.

Because the exact free-versus-paid split isn't fully detailed in the available information, treat it this way:

• Assume free: live radio stations, artist stations, playlists, podcasts, and general music/news browsing, based on iHeart's stated offering.
• Check before assuming: any feature labeled as premium, ad-free, or subscription-only. If a paywall appears, that specific feature requires payment.
• Don't assume: that a subscription is required to listen at all, or that everything is free. Verify at the point where you're asked to sign up or pay.

Common snags and how to handle them

• A station won't play. Live stations can be unavailable due to regional restrictions or temporary outages. Try another station to confirm whether the issue is the station or your connection.
• You can't skip a track. That's expected on live radio. Switch to an artist station or playlist if you want control.
• Search returns too many results. Add the type of content to your search, such as the artist name plus "station," or search podcasts separately from music.
• You lose your favorites. Sign in to an account so saved stations and playlists persist across sessions and devices.

Quick decision guide

• Want background music with no effort? Open an artist station.
• Want a specific set of songs? Build a playlist.
• Want a live show or local broadcast? Pick a live radio station.
• Want talk or storytelling? Go to podcasts.
• Want to avoid paying? Stick to the free listening options above and check any prompt before entering payment details.

Dance appears in figurative oil painting as a study of the body in motion: artists use pose, gesture, and the direction of limbs to suggest rhythm and timing that a still image cannot literally show. If you want to understand or evaluate these works, look at how the painter handles weight, balance, and the implied beat rather than at whether the figures look "accurate." Shoshana Kertesz, a figurative oil painter, lists dance and music among the subjects of her practice, which places her work in this tradition.

Why dance keeps returning as a subject

The human figure is already the core of figurative painting, and dance pushes that figure into its most expressive state. A dancer's body is:

• Committed — every limb has a direction and a purpose, so there is no neutral, resting pose to fall back on.
• Rhythmic — the pose implies a before and after, which gives a still image a sense of time.
• Social or solitary — dance can be a couple, a crowd, or one person alone, so the same subject carries very different emotional weight.

That combination gives a painter more to work with than a seated portrait: movement, tension, and an implied soundtrack.

How a painter captures movement in a still image

Oil paint is well suited to this because it stays workable for a long time, letting the artist rework edges, blur a limb, or drag a brushstroke to imitate the path of a body. Common techniques include:

Pose and line of action

The "line of action" is the imaginary curve running through a figure from head to foot. A strong curve reads as motion; a vertical, static line reads as rest. Painters exaggerate this curve in dancers.

Blur and lost edges

Softening the edge of a fast-moving arm or leg suggests speed, while keeping the face or torso sharp anchors the figure.

Repetition and overlap

Two or three overlapping positions of the same figure can imply a sequence of movement, similar to how a photograph with a slow shutter speed records a gesture.

Weight and balance

A believable dancer is off-balance in a controlled way. Look at where the hips sit relative to the supporting foot — that relationship tells you whether the figure is mid-turn, mid-leap, or settling.

The role of the body, gesture, and music

Gesture carries the emotional content. An open, upward gesture reads differently from a closed, inward one, even in the same pose. Music enters in two ways: as an actual subject (musicians in the scene, an instrument in hand) and as a structural idea, where the composition itself has a tempo — repeated shapes, pauses, and accents.

Georges Braque's line, quoted on Kertesz's site, is a useful lens here: "There is only one valuable thing in art: it's the thing you cannot explain." In dance painting, that unexplained element is often exactly the sense of timing — you can see the pose, but you feel the beat.

What to notice when you look at dance-themed figurative art

Use these as a checklist rather than a rulebook:

Exploring exhibitions with dance-inspired figurative work

If you want to see this in person, start with juried and regional shows, which often mix figurative painting with other media. One current example from Kertesz's site: the "22nd Annual Juried Art Show" at Belmar Arts Center, 608 River Road, Belmar NJ, running Aug 21, 2026 – Sept 27, 2026, with an opening reception on Aug 21, 6–8pm.

To find similar shows near you:

1. Check local arts centers and juried annual shows, which post dates and open calls publicly.
2. Look at an artist's exhibition page directly — Kertesz's site lists current and upcoming exhibitions.
3. At the show, spend time on one dance figure and trace its line of action before moving on.

The practical takeaway: judge dance painting by how it handles weight, direction, and implied timing, not by how closely it copies a photograph. That is where the subject actually lives.

Figurative art is painting that derives its forms from real, observable sources—most often the human body—even when those forms are simplified, distorted, or loosely handled. A painting stays figurative as long as a viewer can trace what's on the canvas back to something recognizable in the world. It becomes abstract or non-objective when that link is broken. This matters if you're trying to place a work in a genre, describe it accurately, or decide what kind of painting you want to make or collect.

The core definition

"Figurative" describes the source of the imagery, not the style of the execution. A tightly rendered portrait and a gestural, half-dissolved figure study can both be figurative. What they share is a referent: a body, a face, an object, a scene that exists or could exist outside the frame.

The term is often used as a contrast to abstraction, but the boundary is a spectrum rather than a wall. Many painters move along it deliberately—starting from observation, then pushing form toward flatness, fragmentation, or color-driven distortion while keeping the figure legible.

Figurative vs. related terms

These labels get used loosely, so it helps to separate them by what each one actually claims:

The practical takeaway: all figurative work is representational, but not all representational work is figurative in the strict sense—a precise still life of a bowl is representational, while "figurative" usually signals the human form or a strongly body-derived subject. In everyday art writing, though, the two are often used interchangeably.

Common figurative subjects

Figurative painting tends to cluster around subjects where the body carries meaning:

• Portraits — a single sitter, identity, expression, and psychological presence.
• Dancers — movement, gesture, balance, and the body caught mid-action.
• Musicians — hands, instruments, posture, and the absorption of performance.
• Everyday scenes — figures in interiors, crowds, markets, or domestic spaces.
• Grouped or narrative figures — multiple bodies arranged to suggest a story or relationship.

Contemporary figurative painters often work across several of these at once. Shoshana Kertesz, for example, describes her practice as figurative oil painting, with dance, music, and portraits among the recurring subjects—a combination that puts movement and performance at the center rather than static posing.

How to recognize figurative technique in oil

Oil paint is a common medium for figurative work because it allows slow blending, layered glazing, and correction over time. When you look at a figurative oil, these are the things doing the work:

• Form — how volume is built through light and shadow, so a limb reads as three-dimensional.
• Gesture — the implied line of movement, especially important for dancers and musicians.
• Composition — how figures are placed, cropped, and balanced within the frame.
• Edge control — where forms are sharp and where they dissolve into the background.
• Color temperature — warm and cool shifts that suggest flesh, fabric, and space.

A useful exercise: pick one figure in a painting and trace where the light falls, where the edges soften, and where the pose implies motion. Those three observations usually tell you more about the painter's intent than the subject alone.

Building visual recognition

If your goal is to recognize figurative work confidently, compare rather than memorize:

1. Look at a clearly abstract or non-objective piece and note the absence of any external referent.
2. Look at a figurative piece and identify the specific source—who or what is depicted.
3. Find a work in between and describe exactly how far the form has been pushed from observation.

That middle category is where most interesting figurative painting lives, and it's also where the genre's definition gets tested.

A note on exhibitions

Seeing figurative work in person clarifies things that reproductions flatten—surface texture, scale, and the physical presence of the figure. Kertesz's site lists current and upcoming exhibitions, including the "22nd Annual Juried Art Show" at Belmar Arts Center in Belmar, New Jersey, running Aug 21–Sept 27, 2026, with an opening reception on Aug 21 from 6–8pm. If you're near a figurative show, that's a faster way to train your eye than reading definitions.

The short version: figurative art is defined by where the forms come from, not how polished they are. Once you can point to the source, you can place any painting on the spectrum from observation to abstraction—and that's the skill the label is actually useful for.

Digital painting is the process of creating artwork with brushes, colors, and layers inside a software tool instead of on physical paper or canvas. You can start entirely in a browser: Sumo's Sumopaint app is described as "the ultimate drawing and painting app" that works on modern devices including mobile, tablet, and computer, so no download is required. This guide covers what separates painting from photo editing, how to pick a browser tool, a first-session workflow, and how to fix the problems beginners hit most.

Digital painting vs. photo editing

These two tasks often live in the same app, but they start from opposite directions.

Sumopaint is positioned as both a drawing tool and an image editor — it lets you "draw pictures or combine images with filters, text elements or symbols," with over 300 brushes plus tools and effects. If your goal is to make something new, stay in the painting side of the app. If your goal is to fix a photo, Sumophoto is the more direct fit.

Choosing a browser-based painting tool

Before committing to a tool, check four things:

• Device compatibility. Sumopaint is stated to work with any modern device — mobile, tablet, or computer — and is described as fast. Test it on the device you'll actually paint on, since stylus support and screen size change the experience a lot.
• Brush and tool range. More brushes matter if you want texture variety; fewer, well-behaved brushes are fine for flat or pixel styles.
• Style fit. For pixel art and GIF animation specifically, Sumopixel is the dedicated option, with custom brushes and a symmetry tool.
• Export and storage. Confirm what formats you can save before you invest hours. Sumotunes, for example, supports MP3 export and cloud storage; Sumoaudio saves to WAV or MP3. Check the equivalent for whichever painting app you choose.

A practical shortcut: Sumo bundles painting, 3D, coding, photo, audio, video, and pixel tools in one cloud suite, and the apps integrate through a shared library, so assets like models, images, sounds, and textures can move between them.

Your first painting session

1. Open the canvas. Launch Sumopaint in your browser and start a new file. Choose dimensions based on the final use — screen artwork and print artwork need different resolutions.
2. Set up layers before you paint. Keep the background on its own layer and paint on a layer above it. This lets you erase or restyle without destroying what's underneath.
3. Pick a small brush set. With 300+ brushes available, start with two or three: one hard round for linework, one soft for shading. Add more only when you know what you're missing.
4. Block in shapes first. Work from large shapes to small details. Zoom out regularly to check the overall composition.
5. Use effects and text sparingly. Filters, text elements, and symbols are available in Sumopaint, but applying them late on a separate layer keeps them reversible.
6. Save and export. Save your working file, then export a flattened image for sharing. If you plan to post to social media, export at the platform's recommended size.

Saving, exporting, and sharing

• Keep two versions: the layered working file and a flattened export. Only the layered file lets you go back and edit.
• Match export format to destination — a flat image for social posts, and check the app's supported formats before you start if you need something specific.
• If your suite offers cloud storage (as Sumotunes does for songs), use it as a backup, not as your only copy.

Common problems and fixes

Lag or stuttering while painting. Large canvas sizes and many high-resolution layers are the usual cause. Reduce canvas dimensions, merge finished layers, and close other browser tabs. Sumopaint is described as fast on modern devices, so persistent lag usually points to canvas size or system load rather than the tool.

Brushes missing or not behaving. Confirm you're in the painting app and not a photo editor — Sumophoto and Sumopaint have different tool sets. If a brush feels wrong, its size, opacity, or blending settings are the first things to check.

Lost work. Browser-based tools depend on a stable connection and on you saving. Save manually at intervals and keep a cloud or local copy. Don't rely on the tab staying open.

Wrong tool for the job. If you're animating pixel art, Sumopixel is built for that; if you're editing a photograph, Sumophoto is. Using the painting app for photo correction or vice versa creates avoidable friction.

Where to start

If you want to try digital painting today with no installation, open Sumopaint and complete one small piece — a single object on a two-layer canvas — before exploring the wider suite. Once that works, expand into Sumopixel for pixel art, Sumo3d for 3D models, or Sumophoto for editing your results.

Being an artist means sustaining a working practice, not just producing occasional pieces. The clearest way to see the difference is through a painter like Holly Farrell, a Canadian artist who lives and works in Toronto. Her practice shows how subject matter, routine, and intent separate a working artist from a hobbyist: she paints the common tools of day-to-day existence, and she treats those still lifes as meditations on people and places she has known.

Working artist vs. hobbyist

The line is not talent or income. It is whether the work is organized around a continuing practice.

For Farrell, the through-line is explicit: nostalgia drives her subject matter. That single stated driver explains why her paintings return to ordinary objects rather than ranging across unrelated themes.

Still life as portraiture

The most useful idea in Farrell's practice is that still life can function as portraiture. She considers her still life paintings to be simple meditations on people and places she has known.

That reframes what a still life is for. Instead of a study of objects, it becomes a way of holding a person or place in view through the things associated with them. The objects are not the subject so much as the evidence of the subject.

How to read a still life this way

• Ask what person, place, or period the objects point to, rather than what they depict literally.
• Notice which objects are chosen and which are left out — selection is the portrait.
• Look at how ordinary the items are. Farrell's subjects are the common tools of day-to-day existence, which keeps the reference personal rather than monumental.
• Treat the painting as a meditation, not a document. It records a feeling about someone, not a likeness.

Why nostalgia and daily objects sustain a practice

Nostalgia is often dismissed as sentiment. In a working practice it does real structural work:

• It supplies an inexhaustible subject. Everyday tools and domestic objects are everywhere, so the artist never runs out of material.
• It creates consistency. A single emotional driver keeps a body of work coherent across years.
• It lowers the barrier to starting. The artist does not need a grand theme to begin a painting — only an object tied to a memory.
• It gives the viewer an entry point. Everyone has ordinary objects charged with personal meaning, so the work reads without explanation.

If you are building your own practice, this is the transferable lesson: pick a driver specific enough to repeat and broad enough to never exhaust.

What a studio-based painting career looks like day to day

A studio practice is less romantic and more administrative than it appears. Based on how Farrell's practice is described — living and working in Toronto, with painting as her occupation — the recurring elements are:

1. Studio time as a default. The studio is where the working day happens, not a place visited when inspired.
2. A settled subject territory. Time goes into exploring one area deeply rather than searching for a new theme each time.
3. Slow accumulation. A body of work builds piece by piece; no single painting carries the career.
4. Presentation and context. Work is shown and explained — the phrase "still life as portraiture" is itself a framing that helps viewers understand the intent.
5. Place as input. Living and working in one city means the people and places feeding the nostalgia are close at hand.

How to look at this kind of work

If you encounter still life painting that reads as portraiture rather than decoration, use these questions:

• What is the emotional temperature — warm, elegiac, matter-of-fact?
• Are the objects elevated or left plain? Plainness usually signals personal memory rather than display.
• Does the composition feel like a portrait's framing — a single subject given full attention?
• What would you need to know about the artist's life to complete the reading?

The last question is the point. Still life as portraiture asks the viewer to supply the relationship, which is why the artist's own statement — that these are meditations on people and places she has known — matters more than any visual analysis.

The takeaway

Being an artist, in this model, means choosing a subject you can return to for years, tying it to something you actually feel, and showing up in the studio to work through it. Farrell's practice demonstrates the whole chain: nostalgia as the driver, everyday objects as the material, still life as the form, and portraiture as the meaning.