You're a tour guide at an art museum. You're telling the story of an artist who lived a long time ago. You want to explain when this person lived. You say:
To put this piece in historical context, it was created during the period when Europeans were just beginning to explore the New World.
You have a friend visiting you from out of town. You're telling her about the good qualities of the city that you live in. You tell her:
We have a really vibrant art scene.
You work at an art gallery. You're describing a piece of pottery to a customer. You're talking about how the artist made it. You say:
After shaping it on his wheel, the artist trims off the excess clay to form an angular shape.
art, before/after, phrasal verb, shapes 
Your brother-in-law is a well-known artist who has an art show going on in a gallery now. You're telling a coworker about him. But you don't know much about art, so you say:
That world seems so foreign to me.
art, foreign country, industries, stative verb 
You're an artist. You met someone who likes your work. She asks if you have any formal training in painting. In fact, you don't have any formal training so you say:
No, I'm self-taught.
Someone who learned how to do something without taking classes or going to school is "self-taught". If you read books about it or got a little advice from other people, it's still OK to call yourself "self-taught".
You usually use the phrase "self-taught" to talk about people who learned complex skills that other people have to take classes for. For example:
Being "self-taught" is seen as kind of cool and interesting in a lot of English-speaking cultures.
You meet someone who's a really talented artist. You want to know how he became so talented. You ask:
Do you have any formal training?
You are an artist, and you're having an art show at a gallery. You're explaining the ideas behind your art to one of the people who came to the show. You say:
I was going for something abstract and kind of edgy.
You go to an art show. You really like the art, and the artist is there. You walk up to him and tell him:
I love your work.
There's an art competition that you were thinking about entering, but now you're thinking you won't enter it because you don't have a chance of winning. You tell your friend that you're not going to enter, but she disagrees. She says:
Come on! You've got to at least give it a shot.
art, competition, encouraging, suggestion, winning There's an art contest at your school. You're an artist, but you don't feel confident in your ability so you don't think you'll be able to win. You don't think you should enter the contest. After telling your friend that your work isn't good enough to win, you say:
It's probably not even worth entering.
art, competition, contest, gerund, value 