Making a Mark

10 good habits for good times or bad

2008-10-07T10:21:00.007+01:00

Study of Tate Trees #1 210mm x 297mm, Edding 1800 profipen 0.1 with archival pigment ink on Daler Rowney Bristol Board 115lbs copyright Katherine Tyrrell Following on from Taking action after the bubble has burst and Managing Business Risks as an Artist this post is about 10 good habits for running your art business. When you can't seem to see wood for trees, these are often the sort of habits

UKCPS Annual International Open Exhibition 2008

2008-10-06T12:52:00.006+01:00

The United Kingdom Coloured Pencil Society's 7th Annual International Open Exhibition opened in Bristol on Friday and continues for the next three weeks. Later today, the exhibitions page of the UKCPS website will publish a link to a new page which displays all the works in the exhibition. The UKCPS has done amazingly well in promoting both itself as a society and the exhibition. In 2008

5th October 2008 - Who's made a mark this week?

2008-10-05T08:00:00.011+01:00

Flying Dunlin by Celia Smith ASWLA Wire and Tunnock Cake Wrappers copyright - work: Celia Smith / photo:Katherine Tyrrell The feature this week is wild! I was supposed to be sitting in the New Gallery of Royal West of England Academy in Bristol this morning at the AGM of the UK Coloured Pencil Society (UKCPS) - and then attending the Private View of the 7th UKCPS's 7th Annual International Open

Making A Mark Poll: What's the main reason why you work in a series?

2008-10-03T12:00:00.001+01:00

The Allium Series 2008 coloured pencil copyright Katherine Tyrrell I'm getting a lot of truly fascinating answers to the question I posed on Monday What are your reasons for working in a series? The thinking I did to write that post and come up with both categories and types of reasons - plus all the responses to date have helped me formulate the Making A Mark opinion poll survey for October

The Campaign for Drawing's Big Draw 2008

2008-10-02T09:00:00.003+01:00

The Campaign for Drawing is again inviting people of all ages to participate in The Big Draw - and use drawing to engage with the past, present and future. The ninth Big Draw runs from 1 to 31 October 2008, with a special focus on Saturday 11 October when a very large number of events will be running. I'm a huge and vocal supporter of the Big Draw having participated myself for the last

Final Survey Results for "Do you collect art?"

2008-10-02T08:00:00.003+01:00

Making A Mark Survey: Do you Collect Art? 67 respondents in September 2008 (survey now closed) 67 people responded to the Making A Mark Survey in September which asked the question Do You Collect Art? I didn't ask anything about background, but I know from my stats that most of the people who read this blog have some sort of arts-related connection. The main conclusions arising from the

Managing Business Risks as an Artist

2008-10-01T08:50:00.009+01:00

Do you know what is the biggest business risk you're exposed to? Have you ever thought about how likely it is to happen - or indeed what sort of impact it would have if it did? Do you have any plans in place to address that risk - and any other major risks that you face? The Catnapping Series: Sleeping on the job pen and ink copyright Katherine Tyrrell This is the first in a short series of

Taking action after the bubble has burst

2008-09-30T06:48:00.011+01:00

Yesterday it got bad. The $700 billion bailout did NOT get agreed. The Dow dropped by nearly 800 points. Major banks in seven different countries either went broke, got bought up or bailed out by their respective governments. Today the Asian and London markets have been in freefall. Let's agree - the bubble has very definitely burst. The economy isn't working in the USA and the global financial

What are your reasons for working in a series?

2008-09-29T09:58:00.010+01:00

I was very pleased to find out from a number of readers who responded to A Making A Mark Project - Working in a series that you're already 'working in a series' or are about too. Today I'd like to ask you a question! I like to start all my art projects by thinking through a way of structuring an approach to what can be a big theme. That's just me - I like to try and see the big picture first

28th September 2008: Who's made a mark this week?

2008-09-28T11:58:00.015+01:00

September Scenes from RHS Wisley copyright Katherine Tyrrell This last week ushered in the autumnal equinox and, on a visit to RHS Wisley yesterday on a beautiful I could really smell Autumn in the air. The images above and throughout this post are various shots of Wisley yesterday. I can see me returning very soon to get some drawings of trees done for my new series on trees - the leaves

Ways of seeing art on television

2008-09-27T09:40:00.006+01:00

There's a bit of a surfeit of TV programmes about art and arts TV this week - but only if you live in the UK (I can hear the wailing now!). This is so all my readers who'd like to watch can make plans to take control of the remote control.......... Ways of Seeing Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak. But there is also another sense in which seeing comes

Gardens and Botanical Art

2008-09-26T08:00:00.009+01:00

Tropical Sussex - a work in progress 8" x 10", coloured pencils on Arches HP copyright Katherine Tyrrell Do you draw inspiration from natural forms? Do you like observing everything about plants? If you do you probably like gardens and you may have become interested in botanical art. Speaking personally, I love trees and plants and flowers - and gardens, but I guess regular readers of my two

The new Icarus Drawing Board™

2008-09-25T07:21:00.012+01:00

CPSA award-winning artist Ester Roi emailed me from the CPSA Convention in Seattle this summer to agree to an interview for this blog. Well this isn't the interview - but it's about the reason why we're doing the interview - her new Icarus Drawing Board™ (patent pending) Ester Roi with "Into the Light" photo courtesy Ester Roi Ester produces work with absolutely brilliant saturated colours.

What is Cartridge Paper?

2008-09-24T11:06:00.006+01:00

Do you know what cartridge paper is or why it's called cartridge paper? I came across an article this morning (while writing a Product review: The Derwent Safari Journal - the Journal uses cartridge paper!) which explained all about it. It was so intriguing I started to look for more references as I always get questions from people in the USA whenever I use the term cartridge paper. It's NOT

A Making A Mark Project - Working in a series

2008-09-23T10:00:00.006+01:00

Wheatstacks (end of summer) 1890-91 - Claud Monet Oil on canvas, 60 x 100 cm (23 5/8 x 39 3/8 in); The Art Institute of Chicago Working in a series - looking at the benefits of repetition and developing a series around one motif; picking up on Monet's series paintings and other artists who've developed major themes and painted the same motif several times. I'll be looking to feature artist

Statement on AWS Gold Medal controversy from President

2008-09-22T18:17:00.007+01:00

Below you will find the recent AWS Statement made by Jim McFarlane, the new AWS President, which has now been posted on the 2008-2009 Gold Medal Award page of the American Watercolor Society's website. It's reproduced in full below. This relates to my earlier post Art competitions and copyright - the AWS Gold Medal debate. 2008–2009 AWARDS Founded 142 years ago, and the oldest watercolor

The art of marketing is the art

2008-09-22T01:21:00.009+01:00

I'm recommending Robert Hughes and The Mona Lisa Curse - despite Germaine Greer's review this morning! I also agree with quite a lot of what she says too in Germaine Greer Note to Robert Hughes: Bob, dear, Damien Hirst is just one of many artists you don't get in the Guardian Online. Mona Lisa (Italian: La Gioconda, French:La Joconde Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1503–1506 oil on poplar, 77 × 53 cm,

21st September 2008 - Who's made a mark this week?

2008-09-21T14:00:00.005+01:00

The Annotated Fuld portrait of Dick Fuld by Geoffrey Raymond copyright and courtesy of Geoffrey Raymond Geoffrey Raymond (The Year of Magical Painting) is a 54 year old artist who creates portraits of big shots on Wall Street - and a few others. His approach is to do his drawing or painting and then to let other people annotate it with their thoughts on the individual. The Final Fuld is a

Seth Godin on The back list

2008-09-20T11:15:00.001+01:00

Seth Godin had a really interesting blog post recently ostensibly about How often should you publish? but it's actually about recognising the importance of the backlist - or the blog archive as we might call it. What actually happens to all those pearls of wisdom that you laboured to produce and which then disappeared into your blog's archive? How can they be shared, again and again, with

Contemporary Art as a Hedge Fund

2008-09-19T10:04:00.013+01:00

You'll all be familiar with the Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tale about the Emperor's new clothes. Today I'm looking at the more recent fairy tale relating to contemporary art values - and I definitely see some parallels. This is the second post on this theme this week (see Art values - gold standard or more derivative rubbish?) but the parallels just seemed to become more and more obvious

Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize - selected artists announced

2008-09-18T08:00:00.007+01:00

The artists selected for this year's Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize were announced yesterday by the organisers Parker Harris. The prize was created in 2005 by the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers and the Lynn Foundation with The Spectator as media sponsor. The purpose of the Prize is to encourage creative representational painting and promote the skill of draughtsmanship. This annual

CPSA calls for entries for Explore This! 5

2008-09-17T13:00:00.002+01:00

The Colored Pencil Society of America (CPSA) has published the Call for Entries to Explore This! 5 on its website and there are some very major changes which will interest a wide variety of artists - not just those who usually work in coloured pencil. Some of the changes are also ones which other art societies would do well to take note of. The Explore This! exhibitions allow other media to be

Maggie Stiefvater goes Scholastic!

2008-09-16T09:50:00.022+01:00

You have no idea how long I have been waiting to write this post or how proud I am to write it. This post is nothing to do with art and yet it is everything to do with art and how to be both creative and successful. It's starts with a formal announcement yesterday. This was a very momentous event in the life of Maggie Stiefvater, my close friend and cyber chum who I talk to every day. Maggie

Art values - gold standard or more derivative rubbish?

2008-09-15T12:43:00.011+01:00

On the day that Merrill Lynch is taken over, Lehman Brothers declare bankruptcy and banking shares take a major tumble all around the world - could somebody try and explain to me why top end art values have surged ever upward in the last 12 months? Maritime Inversion, - Bixby Bridge, Big Sur 8" x 12", coloured pencils on Arches copyright Katherine Tyrrell It seems to me that bankers around the

14th September 2008 - Who's made a mark this week

2008-09-14T14:00:00.003+01:00

Julie Oakley 'at home' with One Mile From Home - the Exhibition curated by Flo and Tom Oakley Walk a minimum of one mile from home. Record where you’ve been with a drawing, sculpture, photo or painting and then walk back. Every day for a year. Julie Oakley - The One Mile From Home Challenge On Friday night I went to a preview of the One Mile From Home Exhibition at the Oakley household in