8th July 2007: Who's made a mark this week?

After Monet - Palazzo Conterini
coloured pencil on Art Spectrum Colourfix
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Sadly, the weekly round-up starts on a sad note...

Artists - in memoriam

Thanks to blogs from the Pastel Journal and the Artist's Magazine respectively for alerting me to the fact that pastel artist Richard C. Pionck died on 5th June aged and artist and instructor Charles Sovek passed away unexpectedly on 8th June.

I was hugely impressed by pictures of Richard Pionk's work in some of the very first pastel books I ever bought. They always seemed to me to be an excellent example of the classical tradition in terms of construction of a still life (and how to do a 'plain' background!). His portrayal of light in his set-ups was most attractive (and read his biography for how he achieved this). A memorial service at the Salmagundi Club is planned for 29th September and a Memorial Fund in his name has also been set up to promote excellence in oil and pastel works of art.

I posted about Charles Sovek in March last year in Charles Sovek - Lessons from the Easel. I never ever met the man but he struck me very much as being one of those people you'd always wished you had met. I know that my post is one of the most popular on this blog. I'd like to take this opportunity to once again commend to you all the wonderful resource which is his website - and is now his legacy.

Art Business and Marketing

Lots of art business items this week - apologies for whom this is an irrelevance. I've put some of them with the websites and blogging section at the end.

• Copyright: Thanks to Lorelle for alerting me to the most amazing compilation of links to websites and articles and definitive statements about copyright available on the internet. Smashing Magazine's blog has an article called Copyright Explained: I May Copy It, Right?. Definitely recommended reading.
• Forums for artists who sell their art online: I've only recently come across the online visual artists community forum but it looks very useful. One particularly useful aspect is that it provides individual forums for each of the major websites which sell artists work online. They have boards for Art.com, Imagekind.com, ebay.com, artwanted.com, EBSQart.com, yessy.com, cafepress.com, zazzle.com, Deviantart.com, Boundlessgallery.com, etsy.com, artbyus.com, UK and European Sites, Lulu.com
• The art.com debate: There's a lot going on at art.com and I'll maybe post about this when it becomes clearer. It appears that art/com is changing its focus to include marketing into the hospitality and contract design markets for art and framing and at the same time limiting their selling to art suppliers who are low risk. This means focusing on traditional artists (the dead ones!) and established artists who have previously sold well on art.com rather than higher risk emerging and less well established artists who were beginning to swamp their site. In the meantime check out Barney Davey's take on the poster publisher business, this blog post by DLKeur "Much Ado and a flurry of stews and/or the art.com forum (see above)
  
• Barney Davey also has an interesting comment on the change of ownership at wet canvas as did Lindsay on her blog Non Linear Arts.
  

Art Fairs

• Casey Klahn has a blog all about the Endless Summer Art Fair. He offers some good solid advice in his post about how to frame and how to hang work in his recent post about "Installation". If you go to art fairs, show at them or are contemplating doing so you'll find this blog a good read.
• Maggie Stiefvater is doing a double act with Casey (watch for them commenting on each other's blogs) and also offers some very good advice on her blog on the same topic in "Sit Pretty".

Art videos

Check out a couple of videos produced by the people behind the Pastel Journal and North Light Books. They're the best produced videos I've seen to date in the 'quickie art instruction video' field (maybe not surprising since this is by a commercial entity and this is marketing!).

• The first video shows Deborah Christensen Secor, a pastel artist living in Albuquerque, at the Pastel Journal stand at the International Association of Pastel Societies, explaining how she approaches her pastel landscapes and organises her pastels. Lots of good information in a short space of time - and I imagine a great treat for those who frequent the Wet Canvas Pastel Forum where Deborah used to be a Guide
• The second video has plein air pastel artist Richard McKinley talking during a demonstration at the same event about choosing materials and the organisation of his palette in his pastel box.
  
• Click the product demo menu item to the left of these videos to see more videos about various products

Art Education: Websites, Books, Workshops, Tips and Techniques

• Continuing with the pastel theme, Susan Borgas had an excellent post last Sunday which demonstrates very clearly how she works with pastels. She has illustrated the post with all the pastels she used in a recent work posted on her blog and also how she distributes them, moves them around while working and cleans them.
• Switching to coloured pencils - Linda Lucas Hardy has a very informative article in The Artist's Magazine's July/August 2007 issue to view a step-by-step demonstration of her unusual colored pencil techniques and how she produced Light,Crisp and Tasty. The magazine's website also provides 16 coloured pencil tips by Linda. You can also check out Linda's workshop schedule - scope and dates - here. I met Linda last year at the Annual CPSA Convention in Albuquerque and she's great fun. I asked her about her technique then and found her to be very helpful as well as very knowledgeable.
  

Websites and Blogging

• What are the best 100 Web 2.0 sites? the top 100 webware applications for 2007 have been announced.... and I've already started to explore!
  

There were more than 5,000 nominations for sites to be included in this awards program, which Webware's editors pruned to a list of 250 finalists. Users then voted on those finalists--there were 489,467 votes cast--to come up with these...(www.webware.com)

• Why have an art blog: If you're still reading rather than writing, Empty Easel has come up a stimulating article with 9 reasons why every artist should have their own art blog

The image at the top is one I did quite a while ago as part of an exercise about learning how to draw water and most particularly to learn how Monet did water. It's by way of a trailer for the Monet Month later this year.

Finally....the mystery learning point about Van Gogh's "Almond Blossom" is now posted at the end of the comments on Flowers in Art - and Van Gogh #1