Back on track with the Life Class

What a relief today's life class on Channel 4 was compared to yesterday.

At last - a tutor (Judy Purbeck) who is both an artist and somebody who has previously taught life drawing (for the last 9 years). She knew exactly how to talk to people wanting to learn in the right sort of way.

No more eulogies about how wonderful the body is and lots more practical pointers about actual drawing and why joining a life class is a good thing to do if you want to learn how to draw!

Two five minute quickies from Life Class Channel 4

pencil on heavy cartridge paper
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

She even uttered the immortal line which was the one which originally got me switched on to life drawing many years ago.

If you can draw a figure from life then you can draw anything.

Here are my efforts from today. Two quickies of 5 minutes each and one longer one which I guess was about 12 minutes.

Ken Fahey - Life Class with Judy Purbeck, Channel 4(12 minutes)
pencil on heavy cartridge paper
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Here's what she highlighted and did right - from my perspective. You do realise I'm taking notes and drawing at the same time! ;)

• she talked about why it's important to start with quickies. She explained that are like the warm up exercises you do before you start to exercise properly at a gym. They're necessary to be able to exercise hand/eye coordination
• she made the distinction between different sorts of drawings - what you can expect to get done in a quick drawing and what you might be doing in a longer drawing. For example, she indicated she'd expect more formal measurement to be something associated with a longer drawing. Shorter drawings were about recognising beginning to form and tonal variation - as she demonstrated with the drawing she did.
• she emphasised anatomy - talking about the line of the spine and the shape of the head in relation to the first two quick poses. This began to make me feel like this was a lady who had taught very many people before.
• she indicated tonal variation and how best to see tone (squint!)
  
• she talked about the importance of observation. She created a long pose which was one which challenged our concepts of how the body worked and the size and shape of different parts of the body. She then talked through the different lines and aspects which might be highlighted by a drawing. She emphasised the need to draw what you see and not what your brain thinks it knows is there.
• she demonstrated complete understanding of and respect for the job of a life model. It was nice to see her check with the model that the pose was OK for him before she started. In addition she highlighted that very few people can stay still for a long time and that life drawing is a sort of relationship or partnership between model and artist. (A quick aside - one of the best models I ever had was somebody who practiced yoga and who used to meditate while posing!).
  
• She highlighted the importance of finding your own style and how that comes in time. She explained how in every life class, everybody will draw the same model and every drawing will be completely different.
• she also highlighted the main benefit of attending a life class on a regular basis - which is that you begin to make a lot of progress if you attend on a regular basis. It's the practice that makes the difference.
  
• Finally one of the things I liked best about this class is she remembered the student drawing at home. For example, she signaled to the people drawing exactly how much time people had left - at the right time.
  

Just look at the number of pointers I've been able to reproduce from notes and memory. This was an artist who really did behave like the sort of good tutor you can get in a life class.

It's such a contrast to yesterday's programme It's getting embarrassing in the Life Class! and the many comments that generated.

Here's an extract from one of my comments from yesterday

I'm quibbling with the word 'CLASS' in 'Life Class'

If the word was 'drawing' as in 'life drawing' then the issues about the model and the tutor yesterday would have been more incidental.

However the programme is billed thus

"This week-long series gives viewers an opportunity to learn to draw through five half-hour nude life drawing classes, one a day, with access to a renowned artist tutor in each."

The point is that these classes are about learning to draw - facilitated by a tutor - somebody who knows how to teach and what's required of models in a teaching situation.

Besides having regard for the life model as a professional we also need to have regard for the profession of teaching.

While any artist as an individual can choose to draw anybody willing to sit for him or her, in a class you expect professional models to be used. They are an integral and very important part of the whole learning process.

Similarly, let's not underestimate the importance of teaching as a profession. You can't teach adults in a publicly funded adult education class now unless you're qualified to do so.

So why not use a tutor who is both qualifield and used to teaching adults and used to talking to people who are learning how to draw?
Comment from It's getting embarrassing in the Life Class!

The programme today completely addressed the point I was making which arose out of the content of yesterday's programme

Interestingly, somebody emailed me yesterday to thank me for highlighting the Life Class programme. Notwithstanding all the problems which existed in relation to yesterday's programme, yesterday this individual picked up a pencil and began to draw again - and feel enthusiastic about drawing - for the first time in ages. That really made my day! :)

Note: More about Judy Purbeck
Judy Purbeck has been teaching life drawing since January 2000. She has an M.A. in Drawing in Fine Art Practice from Wimbledon College of Art and a B.A. Hons in Fine Art from Brighton Polytechnic (now the University of Brighton). She is also a practising artist specialising in drawn portraits and in clothed figure drawing.
Find out about her classes at LifeDraw
__________

Here's the link to the last programme this week - Series 1, Episode 5 - the tutor is John Berger (in a dance studio in Paris)

My drawings can be be found in Life Class, Channel 4. I've had to remove the link to the Group Pool as the drawings are not being moderated and the Group Admin appears to be asleep.

Plus I've now moved A Making A Mark Guide: Life Drawing and Life Class to my Making A Mark website. You can now read it on the website without downloading it.

If you've enjoyed this post or found it useful, why not

It's getting embarrassing in the Life Class!

I think I'm beginning to think that whoever organised Life Class should have made a bit more effort.

Gary Hume, a graduate of Goldsmiths renowned for his paintings of simplified forms, was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1996 and represented Britain at the 1999 Venice Biennale. He was made a Royal Academician in 2001. His subject is fashion model Kirsten Varley, who had never sat for a life drawing before this visit to Gary's London studio.

Kirsten Varley - Life Class with Gary Hume RA, Channel 4

pencil on heavy cartridge paper
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Today's class had Gary Hume RA as a tutor and one got the distinct impression that he doesn't do much life drawing (who has a completely untouched drawing board in a working studio?). He normally produces very simplified and very flat paintings. In principle, his approach to drawing should have been interesting. In reality it became embarassing for both him and for us. Do I mind making this sort of comment about an Royal Academician who shows his work at White Cube? No - he's a professional artist and I assume he knew what he was letting himself in for.

It was certainly a good example of the fact that when drawing from life it's very easy to make a hash of it.

Especially if you've not drawn a lot or haven't practised doing drawing from life on camera (while being watched by an awful lot of people on television)!

One of the weaknesses in this episode was the fact his model was a young lady who's a fashion model. This was the very first time she had posed for a life drawing and my goodness did it show! Not that I blame her in any way - it's a very demanding job!

I've a huge respect for professional life models and it's a great pity that Channel 4 and the people who are organising this series didn't make more of an effort to make sure that they only used professional life models. Professionals know which poses cause what sorts of problems and how to avoid/manage them. In this instance, the model struck a pose which is difficult to sustain unless you know a bit more how to distribute your weight so you don't cut off the circulation of blood! I wasn't in the least bit surprised when her posture started to alter and she had to keep moving her hand to keep the blood flowing!

His attitude when she returned to her pose and it wasn't quite the same was to adopt a "that's one of those things you have to cope with". Oh no it's not! In a proper class both model and tutor would know to put down sticky tape to mark her position before she left it!

The simple fact of the matter is that a good model really makes a difference in a life drawing class. An inexperienced model (or tutor) rarely makes things easy for the artist. I really don't think either professional models or working life tutors would be very pleased with the impression of a life class that was given in today's class.

The worst bit was it became very apparent that he knew he'd got his drawing wrong. It started with groaning and moaning and got worse. To give credit where it's due he was very open about the fact that it was going wrong and didn't make any attempt to defend it. At the end he announced that he was abandoning it and starting again. I rather suspect that he hoped that it would be the second one that was used for the class on TV!

Now as a lesson in the fact that things can and do go wrong in life class, this was an admirable effort. Whether it helped to teach anybody about how to draw is very debateable.

Here's a tip on life drawing from Gary Hume from the beginning of the class. The irony is certainly not lost on me!

In order to look you need to relax and to relax you've not got to worry about getting things wrong

Here are the links for the rest of this week.

• Series 1, Episode 4 - the tutor is Judy Purbeck (in Hornsey Library)
• Series 1, Episode 5 - the tutor is John Berger (in a dance studio in Paris)
  

My drawings can be be found in Life Class, Channel 4. I've had to remove the link to the Group Pool as the drawings are not being moderated and the Group Admin appears to be asleep.

Plus I've now moved A Making A Mark Guide: Life Drawing and Life Class to my Making A Mark website. You can now read it on the website without downloading it.

If you've enjoyed this post or found it useful, why not

Life Class - with Humphrey Ocean

Series 1, Episode 2 of Life Class on Channel 4 found us in the Life Room of the Royal Academy Schools with Humphrey Ocean RA as our tutor.

Tinka Zif - Life Class with Humprey Ocean, Channel 4

all images pencil on heavy cartridge paper
all images copyright Katherine Tyrrell

This time the model is one who I've drawn before in my Drawing a Head class at the Prince's Drawing School. I find I can NEVER draw her head and have torn up too much paper to try too hard with the head this time.

Humphrey Ocean opted for one pose for the whole session and was painting. You can see how he paints portraits on his website

It wasn't that long before he identified the main problem with this sort of approach to teaching. It's virtually impossible to talk sensibly and draw in the way you would wish to at the same time. It's one of the reasons why life classes are such peaceful places!

He started by talking through what he was doing in terms of measuring and locating parts of the body which were all on the same vertical or horizontal line. He also emphasised what hard work drawing is when you draw a person.

Below are a few of the things he said which I jotted down while drawing.

Don't worry about whether it looks like them. Don't try too hard. With a bit of luck it will look like them

You'll draw a better nose if you don't draw 'a nose' but only draw what you see in front of you

every shape you draw is worth enjoying

Here are the links for the rest of this week.

• Series 1, Episode 3 - the tutor is Gary Hume (in his London studio)
• Series 1, Episode 4 - the tutor is Judy Purbeck (in Hornsey Library)
• Series 1, Episode 5 - the tutor is John Berger (in a dance studio in Paris)
  

My drawings can be be found in Life Class, Channel 4. I've had to remove the link to the Group Pool as the drawings are not being moderated and the Group Admin appears to be asleep.

Plus I've now moved A Making A Mark Guide: Life Drawing and Life Class to my Making A Mark website. You can now read it on the website without downloading it.

Links:

• Life drawing in the Royal Academy Schools Life Room
• 
  

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Review: 'Life Class - Today's Nude' on Channel 4

Matthew's back, Life Class with Maggi Hambling, Channel 4

all images pencil on heavy cartridge paper
all images copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The first of the Life Class programmes on Channel 4 kicked off this lunchtime (12.30pm) in Maggi Hambling's studio in Clapham. The idea is that you draw a model 'as if' in a life class - exceot you're viewing the model through your tekevision screen.

Here's a link to works by Maggi Hambling and a little bit about her from her website

Born in Suffolk in 1945, Maggi Hambling is a distinguished painter and sculptor whose work can be seen in the British Museum, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Tate Collection, The Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon and many other public collections in the UK and abroad. Hambling is also represented in London by Marlborough Fine Art and IAP Fine Art.

This is how Channel 4 described her

Despite her wide range of subject matter, Hambling is commonly known for her portraits, which are expressionistic in nature and executed in bold oil and watercolours. Filmed at Hambling's bright, airy studio in Clapham, where she lives and works, her class features highly sought-after male life model Matthew Oghene.

Matthew Oghene is an incredibly well built chap who looked like he might be a bit of a body builder - he lots of very beautiful well rounded muscles. He also had the capacity to strike and hold a pose very well and I can well understand why he is sought after as a life model. Good models make all the difference in a life class.

Three 'quickies' Life Class with Maggi Hambling, Channel 4

We got through three quick poses and two slightly longer ones. The quickies were about the same sort of time as one might get in life class while the longer ones were not quite as long as "the short poses". Somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes. Those who've done life class will know what I mean.

What was really good was that when she talked she said sensible things - and that she didn't talk all the time. Halfway through drawing Matthew's back I felt as if I was in a real life class as it was so quiet! She also had some brief practical pointers - such as when setting up with an easel, set it up towards which ever side is your drawing hand (ie don't get the easel and your drawing arm in between you and what you're looking at). She also recommended charcoal as being the nearest thing to painting in dry media. She was using the very thick charcoal used for scenic art by stage designers.

Drawing from life is the best way of executing what the eye is seeing
Maggi Hambling

Profile of Matthew (5-10 minutes)

I updated yesterday's post with the details for the rest of the week. Here are the links again - for the rest of this week. It looks to me like they may be planning more than one series of these classes.

• Series 1, Episode 2 - the tutor is Humphrey Ocean (in the Life Room of the Royal Academy of Art)
  
• Series 1, Episode 3 - the tutor is Gary Hume (in his London studio)
• Series 1, Episode 4 - the tutor is Judy Purbeck (in Hornsey Library)
• Series 1, Episode 5 - the tutor is John Berger (in a dance studio in Paris)
  

There is also a Flickr group for drawings. This is the pool of drawings from life classes run in conjunction with the project and drawings done while watching the programme. They have a limit of one drawing per person per programme. [Update 9th July 2009 - I've had to remove the link to the Group Pool as the drawings are not being moderated and the Group Admin appears to be asleep.]

You can also see all the drawings I did today (and will do this week) in a new set on my Flickr account Life Class, Channel 4.

Just a reminder - this is a guide I put together a while ago for anybody contemplating taking a life class - A Making A Mark Guide: Life Drawing and Life Class

If you've enjoyed this post or found it useful, why not

5th July 2009 - Who's made a mark this week? #103

(left) Silver Morning (Watercolour 40cm x 50cm or 16 inches x 20 inches)
(right) Homeward Bound (Watercolour. 40cm x 40cm or 16 inches x 16 inches)
copyright Sarah Wimperis

At this time of year there seem to be a lot of competitions - bringing both deadlines and announcements as to who has and hasn't got in. I'm getting emails from people and seeing quite a few blog posts about 'what happened next'

For me the stand out response to date has been by Sarah Wimperis (The Red Shoes) who posted Salty old Sea Dogs on a Saturday Night on our Watermarks blog after she didn't get into a competition. She then followed up on her wonderful watercolours in that post by doing a couple of more posts on her own blog in the week which both had stunning paintings - see Silver Morning and Homeward Bound

Mangetout
oil on cannvas, 25cm x 44cm
copyright Ilaria Rosselli del Turco

Ilaria Roselli Del Turco (Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco - News ) had some better news from the Artists and Illustrated Magazine when she heard that her painting "Mangetout" was the a runner up in their Artist of the Year competition, for the still-life category (see Artists and Illustrators Art Competition)

Art Blogs

Compendium

• I commend June roundup by Anna at See.Be.Draw. to you. It's a thoughtful review of posts she's enjoyed in June

Drawing and sketching

Expanding visual horizons this week - I'm focusing entirely on people who sketch who don't live in North America or the UK!

• Isabel Fiadeiro (Sketching in Mauritania) is an interesting sketcher - but that's partly because she's sketching in Mauretania and I don't often see real live camels in other people's sketchbooks! She does sketches from sketchcrawl in a sandstorm! This is her sketchbook blog (with text in French) of Nouakchott, ses gens et ses marchés (which she's used a bit like a website) and this is where Nouackshott is. Finally this is her sketchbook about Saharauis en exile - Sahara Women in exile
  
• I haven't got a clue what the Italian says - but these sketches of Santa Maria Maggiore by Benedetta Dossi (Urban Sketchers) are absolutely wonderful. Check out his drawings of lots of people as well on Ben's blog CARNET de VOYAGE di Benedetta Dossi - they're great.
  
• Given the number of posts that Urban Sketchers now has, you can click on one of the labels - Italy, for exmple - and get a wonderful stream of drawings and sketches of that country.

Coloured pencils and pastels

• Lauren Milroy is a design engineer with a Masters in Product Design from Stanford University. She had one or two interesting ideas about how you can use up all those little stumpy coloured pencils.........you need new flip flops? Or new heels?

shoes and flip flops made out coloured pencils by Lauren Milroy

Painters

• Canadian Cory Trepanier is painting the Arctic. He's got lots of support from sponsors and lots of ways of 'broadcasting what he's doing including
• video journals
• written and audio journals
  
• photo journals
• plus videos about his paintings - see for example The making of Mount Thor
• and blogs by sponsors - eg Daler Rowney's Into the Arctic - The journey so far
• Postalguarelas is a blog of small watercolour paintings by Paulo J. Mendes of Matosinhos in Portugal. I like how we can see the progression from sketch - as in this recent post - to painting in the following week - as in this post Picking potatoes / A apanha da batata. You can also see a gallery of his delightful work in his Etsy shop Postalguarelas. His work very much reminds of June Berry a member of the Royal Watercolour Society who paints scenes of rural village life in France (but works large)
• Take a look at some neat vs well loved paint boxes in the plein air ning community

Portraiture

• A very inteersting post by Laura Cumming in the Guardian about portraiture - Face to face with your own maker

Artists - David Hockney

• On Friday I reviewed recent work by David Hockney as seen in recent exhibitions in David Hockney - recent exhibitions
• On Thursday I reviewed a television documentary about David Hockney Review: David Hockney - A Bigger Picture. I've now heard from Bruno Wollheim (the man who made the film - filming on his own) and it seems likely that an announcement will be made about the DVD of the documentary in 3-4 weeks.
• Recommended read for all Hockneyphiles: Yesterday I posted Book review: David Hockney - Nur Natur - Just Nature which is about the catalogue of the major David Hocney exhibition in Germany.

Art Business and Marketing

Whilst stories of online gallery sales exist, they're sadly all-too-rare, considering the gazillion online galleries currently choking the web......Online galleries are established and marketed at artists. The gallery promotes itself to attract more artists. The more works displayed on a site, the more it's measured as successful.
But all that marketing and promotion towards getting more artist members doesn't address the issue of buyers!

• Let's talk about which sort of galleries are typically less successful for artists. Tony Moffitt (Tony Moffitt's Art World) has a couple of posts about
• Why Online Galleries Don't Work - excellent post - and I couldn't agree more!
  
• Vanity Galleries
• He also highlights a rather curious view in this post Most Collectors Don't Want To Meet Artists, Claims Gallery

Art and the economy / Art Collectors

• The Rage to Buy Vanishing Art Works is about how the works aren't there any more even if the buyers are. Suddenly there's an enthusiasm for orks on paper!
• An alternative perspective was that Impressionist and modern art sales figures have fallen because Super-rich hunt for the wow factor

Artists Communities and Art Forums

• This week I came across La Asociación Española de Artistas de la Naturaleza for the first time. The link is to their blog. If you'd like to check out what the Spanish wildlife artists are getting up this is a good way to find out!
• WetCanvas is now on Twitter

Art Education / workshops / Tips and techniques

Art Education

Just a reminder about the Life Class is being screened on Channel 4 12.30pm every day this next week. Here are the links to

• Series 1, Episode 1 - the tutor is Maggi Hambling (in Hambling's studio in Clapham)
  
• Series 1, Episode 2 - the tutor is Humphrey Ocean (in the Life Room of the Royal Academy of Art)
  
• Series 1, Episode 3 - the tutor is Gary Hume (in his London studio)
• Series 1, Episode 4 - the tutor is Judy Purbeck (in Hornsey Library)
• Series 1, Episode 5 - the tutor is John Berger (in a dance studio in Paris)
  
• Presumably it's going to be available to view online as well BECAUSE there's also a Flickr group for drawings

Tips and techniques

• Does your white paper look grey when you post a photo or scan online? If it does, try reading my post yesterday about Correcting colour: How to stop your white paper looking grey. I used an example of an image which started off as periwinkle blue!
  

How to get from this (left) to this (right)

• Richard McKinley (Pastel Pointers) has some very sound advice about Plein Air Positioning
• Google knol has various articles on various topics - this is the knol about file formats in digital photography
• Marion Boddy highlights the waterbrush in painting with watercolours
  
• Mona Conner paints in egg tempera and provides useful tips on her blog Grander Joy of Spirit in Portraiture
• tips about working with egg tempera
• "How to Mix Egg Tempera Medium," my video demo

• Charley Parker at Lines and Colors has written Blue and Green or is it? - the topic is about the illusion of colour created by adjacent colours
  
• Here's a really good tip about creating a watercolour workbook from a photograph album

Here's how to stretch watercolour paper (that bit which always seems to get left out of books!)

• How to Stretch Watercolor Paper - the traditional way of doing it
• Or try watching a video about Ken Bromley's Perfect Paper Stretcher a very simple way of stretching watercolour paper
  
• Then again, this is how Cathy Johnson does it
  

Workshops

• Nancy Standlee (Nancy Standlee Art Blog ) has been writing recently about workshops she's been taking with Gerald Brommer (Jerry Brommer Collage Workshop ~ First Projects and Gerald Brommer Workshop ~ Floral Collage ~ Art Journal Pages) and Tony Saladino (Tony Saladino Abstract Acrylic Class). I think blog posts like this are really helpful to people thinking about whether or not to make a booking. I'm always happy to share posts by genuine students and their views about a workshop.
• Richard Bell of Wild West Yorkshire is giving a free workshop 'Drawing on Reserves' workshop at Brown Knowles Farm, Stocksmoor, near Huddersfield (9.30 a.m. to 3.30 p.m.. The workshop is free but you must book in advance

Art Exhibitions

• Garden Museum: I visited the exhibition of the original botanical art paintings which went to make up the Highgrove Florilegium at the last week - I'll be blogging about this next week. This was my blog post about it last year - Volume 1 of The Highgrove Florilegium is published
  
• Royal Academy of Arts: This Daily Telegraph slideshow is of images from J.W. Waterhouse: The Modern Pre-Raphaelite - which opened at the RA on 27 June and continues until 13th September. This is review by Laura Cumming in The Guardian - Who needs another lurid damsel?
• Compton Verney in Warwickshire: Constable Portraits: The Painter and His Circle has moved here from the National Portrait Gallery. This is the gallery guide to the exhibition

Joe - Boy 2
copyright Peter Monkman

• Peter Monkman, winner of the BP portrait prize this year, wrote to tell me that he more Changeling portraits and some new work in an exhibition Uncanny Likeness about New Perspectives on Contemporary Portraiture (11th July to 22nd August 2009) under the auspices of Ovada (the The Oxfordshire Visual Arts Development Agency). Peter will be exhibiting Joe - Boy2 and Changeling 1 and Changeling 4.
• St Louis, Missouri: A new sculpture park in St. Louis, filled with works by Fernand Léger, Tony Smith, Jim Dine and Bernar Venet, has been created to draw tourists and art fans to the city - as described in this New York Times article Sculpture to Invigorate a Shrinking City. You can also see it here in this slideshow A Look Inside Citygarden
• This New York Times article is interesting Where Art Meets Social Networking Sites. It focuses on the artist who come to digital technology of later and how it generated “Status Update” which comrpises nearly 50 works by more than a dozen artists. See it at Haskins Laboratories in New Haven

“Is it art to do art on an iPhone and put it on an easel?” he asked. “If you go back to Duchamp and put a toilet on the wall — is it art? Yes, it is.”

Art Museums and Galleries

De-accessinioning is what happens when art galleries and museums sell of parts of their collection.

• De-accessioning - Public art sell-offs heading into troubled waters
• Another perspective from The Art Law Blog is Debating Deaccessioning II
• This is The Deaccessioning Blog

Book reviews

• Yesterday I posted Book review: David Hockney - Nur Natur - Just Nature which is about the catalogue of the major David Hocney exhibition in Germany.
  

Opinion Polls

• MAM Poll July: Which are your preferred media for painting in the studio? has got off to a very good start. Have you responded to this poll yet? 68 people have already voted last time I looked - and it's a quite different response to painting plein air
  
• On Tuesday I posted MAM Poll June RESULTS: Preferred plein air painting media and commented on my theory about why people seem to stick to more traditional painting media for painting plein air

Websites, webware and blogging

• When you want to show the computer who's boss! is about what happened to me on Monday and how I lost a very long posted which I'd drafted using Google Docs. Thanks to:
• all the people who commented on strategies for dealing with computer angst
• Zsu who told me about a feature of Google Docs which meant I hadn't lost all my draft post - and it was duly retrieved

if you use Google Docs, it has revision history, which lets you go back to any previously saved point! So you should be able to undo the cut even after it saves the modification. You can get to it from the Tools menu.

• For all of us who were original Compuserve members/numbers (those were the days!) - read the requiem.
• Twitter: What is a retweet, what does it look like and how do you make one
• reteewist tells you how
• plus mashable also has its own perspective on retweets
• You can now Flickr 2 Twitter, members need to first authorize Flickr to post to their Twitter accounts.
• Some interesting lessons in New Twitter Research: Men Follow Men and Nobody Tweets. (OK - so I read the Harvard Business Blog!)
• Have you taken a look at Google Wave yet? It's got some interesting possibilities for online marketing of art. (But let's just remind ourselves that there's a fair few galleries which struggle to deal with email and don't have websites!)

and finally........

Tomorrow the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square starts to be occupied by a series of people for an hour at a time. Read all about it:

• The Fourth Plinth....
  
• which is currently the home of Antony Gormley's project One & Other (which is an incredibly slow website)
  
• This is the explanation of the project

Every hour, 24 hours a day, for 100 days without a break, a different person will make the Plinth their own. If you're selected, you can use your time on the plinth as you like. One & Other is open to anyone and everyone from any corner of the UK. As long as you're 16 or over and are living or staying in the UK, you can apply to be part of this unforgettable artistic experiment.

• Those commenting on it include The Times - Fun, but is it art? and the BBC Empty plinth volunteers step up

So far 15,374 people have applied for the 2,400 places. You can read the blog about the project here.

I can see sketching opportunities. Maybe we should have a special Trafalgar square sketchcrawl?

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