Sunday, February 06, 2011

6th February 2011 - Who's made a mark this week?

100 Faces BUST-ED by Karin Jurick
Congratulations to Karin Jurick (A Painting Todaywho has completed her 100 Faces project - see 100 Faces #100.  She has also created a new book (see 100 Faces Video, Book & Mentionables for more details - and the cover above) and uploaded a new movie about the project to YouTube.

Art Blogs


I've just noticed that my widget in the side bar says that the Blogrank Index for Art Blogs has now got Making A Mark ranked as the 17th most popular art blog in the world!  Whoohoo!  Charley Parker's Lines and Colors is in 8th place.

Botanical art
  • Linda Warner Constantino (Wet Watercolours) is a College Professor of Illustration - and a student on the Society of Botanical Artist's Distance Learning Diploma Course.
I am busy painting for a Distance Learning Class in Botanical Painting through the Society of Botanical Arts in England. It is the most challenging thing I have ever done.

Drawing and sketching
Hoar Frost - Misty morning by Vivien Blackburn acrylic on paper
The Dodo at the Natural History Museum
pen and sepia ink in Moleskine Sketchbook, 8" x 10"
all images copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Coloured Pencils and Pastels

Illustration
  • Squint News is the blog for the students, alumni, faculity and friends of the MFA in Illlustration at Hartford Art School 
  • Creative Quarterly is the blog by Creative Quarterly: the Journal of Art and Design

Landscape

Painters and Painting
Each challenge consists of an image - either a photo or a painting - and a description or instructions. In most cases, participating is as simple as submitting your version of the image.
Anyone can participate by submitting an entry to anychallenge - there are no deadlines! You can even submit more than once to a challenge. Any 2D media is welcome and don't be afraid to interpret.

Art Business and Marketing



Art and the Economy / Art Collectors

  • Do you visit the preview exhibitions for major art auctions by the big auction houses?  I’ve been recommended to go and see the preview for the upcoming sale of Impressionist and Surrealist works at Christies. These are links to slideshows (including audio podcasts) and e-catalogues 

Art Competitions and Art Societies


Art Exhibitions and art fairs

  • The Shirley Sherwood Gallery's presence on the Kew Gardens website has improved no end.  Thanks to Jessica Rosemary Shepherd (Inky Leaves) for letting me know about the improvements.  Jess helps manage the art exhibitions at Kew.  New exhibitions this month will include ones where, for the first time, botanical artwork will be available for sale!
  • It also has some new exhibitions which opened yesterday.  This is the page for the new exhibitions which in summary are:
    • The Secret Garden - an exhibition by Leicestershire Society of Botanical Illustrators
    • The Botanical Brush - This exhibition features the work of nine artists who have botanical paintings held in the archive of Hampton Court Palace Florilegium.
    • From Eye to Hand - The paintings in this exhibition include a timeline of works that have been selected from the Kew Art Collection which contains over 200,000 items. 
    • Hidden Treasure - Dr. Sherwood will also be exhibiting works from her contemporary collection of botanical art illustrating what occurs under the soil.
  • The Island of Sark is to become the focus for a new project by the The Artists for Nature Foundation.  In May it will play host to a group of wildlife artists and Art for Sark from 4th to 16th May 2011.  This is the list of artists confirmed to date.  I wonder if they will do a blog of the project?
The aim is to promote the unique natural habitat of Sark through the work of renowned international wildlife artists from a range of disciplines.

New Exhibitions
  • Pure Gold - 50 years of the Federation of British artists at the Mall Galleries.  I'm really looking forward to the preview on Tuesday.  The exhibition runs from 9th - 19th February.  It will include previously unseen works by artists such as John Singer Sargent, Walter Sickert and William Orpen, on loan from major public and private collections, including the Tate.
  • The Guardian has a review of the upcoming exhibition of watercolours at the Tate Watercolour at Tate Britain - Review
Historically, watercolour has been perceived as the medium of the dabbling amateur. Children, ladies and gentlemen of leisure have all been drawn to its cheapness, speed and apparent ease. Its subjects, too, have tended to be minor in size and scope: a domestic scene here, a botanical drawing there, stretching at most to a charming landscape. When professional artists use watercolour, so the grand narrative goes, it is to make preliminary sketches, try-outs, what-ifs that are supplementary to the real business of art, which involves painting in oils.

Tate Britain's forthcoming exhibition, entitled simply Watercolour, aims to unsettle these easy assumptions.

Art Galleries and Museums


  • The event of the week was the unheralded launch of Google's Art Project - streetview for galleries.  I've so far worked out that it's not possible to get the full functionality on my iPad, but seem to have worked out a bit more than some of the journalists writing about it!  How are you finding it?  The general consensus seems to be that it's very welcome but could suck up time in a major way.  The Work of Art in the Age of Google (New York Times) provides an interesting comment on the copyright issues for museums of contemporary art.
Google Art Project:  The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli (extract showing the hair)
The Hepworth Wakefield will open to the public on 21 May and become the largest purpose-built gallery to open in the UK since Tate St Ives nearly 20 years ago. 
Together with the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, the new gallery helps make Yorkshire a world centre for sculpture.

Art History

Similar to my opinion of John Singer Sargent, I think that the place of JoaquĆ­n Sorolla y Bastida in the canon of great painters in art history is vastly understated.

Art Education / workshops / Tips and techniques


Art Studios  

  • Here's an old post (but a good one) providing a tour of Barbara Newton's Studio - studio tour.  I want those Flat files for paper storage with framed painting storage below!

Art Supplies


Book reviews


Colour


Creativity

  • Excellent and recommended post by James Gurney (Gurney Journey) on Activating Your Imagination.  This includes a number of practical suggestions for enhancing your ability to be creative and to draw without a photo reference.

Opinion Polls


Websites, webware and blogging

  • I've introduced a "jump break" into all my recent blog posts - except for "who's made a mark this week.  This means you now get a prompt to "read more" and means you scan more quickly - but won't see all the content on offer.  It's an experiment - tell me what you think. 

and finally........

If you're wondering why this is a tad late, it's because it was inadvertently wiped when two thirds finished!  I'm afraid I have to take an expletive break when that happens!

Have I told you how I HATE Google's new block text command which goes far further than you intend far too easily?  The automatic save always instantly kicks in just after you've deleted too much text by accident so it's impossible to retrieve!

6 comments:

  1. I think I put my first comment on a wrong post, but once again I want to thank you for the mention here, it's highly appreciated!

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  2. As always, a list to keep me from getting work done for hours and hours! Thanks Katherine, both for the nod and for the work you go to assembling this treasure-trove of links.

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  3. Thank you soooo much for the spotlight Katherine. You make me proud.

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  4. Thank you for all the good info on this post. I am definitely going to Tate Britain now for the watercolors. I think the page break is a positive idea. Not that there could be too much info on art in one post, but often i browse your site on iphone and it gets bogged down if the page is too long sometimes.

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  5. That's what I was thinking Ohla. There's much more use of mobile devices for blogging so I'm trying to think of how to make this blog more accessible.

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  6. Hi Katherine, Thank so much for noticing my work and for your kind words. My recent work with memory has really opened up my painting heart in a whole different way. I feel fortunate to be pushed to do it! I REALLY appreciate your continued support.... thank you for today's spotlight as well as this one! Thank you too for all you do and share with your blog. I look forward to receiving your post in my email everyday!

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