12th August 2007: Who's made a mark this week?

Large reclining figure 1984
Henry Moore
located at Kew Gardens
Photo copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Henry Moore is beginning to make quite a mark on Kew Gardens which I visited yesterday. His large reclining figure lay prone on the grass next to the Palm House, lake and others enjoying the last rays in the early evening yesterday. This is the first of a number of pieces which are being craned into position at Kew ready for the exhibition of his work at Kew Gardens which starts in September. I anticipate quite a few paintings of Moore in Kew Gardens featuring in exhibitions next year!

This is going to be a shorter "Who's made a mark this week" as my main preoccupation in the last week or so (apart from the August Gardens in Art project) has been exhibitions. That's getting work selected for exhibitions, getting work framed for exhibitions, and getting work physically to exhibitions - and it's not over yet! See my separate blog post about Exhibitions coming up next.....and apologies to all those people whose blogs I normally visit and comment.

Art Forums

I've come across a few art forums this week on my travels around the web which were omitted from the list of those highlighted in Art Forums - the Ins and Outs. Some I knew about while others were new to me.

• For those who are serious portrait painters - try reviewing the admission criteria for A Stoke of Genius which is a forum for professional portrait painters and serious students. Note the rationale for the criteria and the requirements for admission as a member - and the leaning towards painting from life. However, if you're interested in portrait painting and don't meet the criteria you can still read the posts written by those with a high degree of expertise in their field.
  

Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to help in training those who have not achieved a minimum level of skill, thus the approval process for full Forum privileges.

• I first came across the Cennini Forum which largely focuses on artists' materials and different art products when I was trying out egg tempera last year and was finding out about pigments. It's a very specialised forum but those who like recipes will love it!
  
• The forum which was new to me - and which I haven't explored much yet - is the Photoshop Techniques Forum. Logical really when you think about it - there had to be one out there somewhere to help us all with Photoshop! Its stated mission is to "To create a friendly, community supported site dedicated to helping users of all skill levels get the most out of Adobe Photoshop."

Art Education

Somebody wrote to me from my Resources for Artists - Pastels squidoo lens asking

"I am looking for pastel classes on line. How much do you charge and when do they start in the fall? Thank you." --Donna

Well I don't personally deliver classes - although it's a thought! (Which I shall park for the time being in the queue of ideas after the notion I'm currently developing as a workshop).

I don't personally don't know about any on-line classes and I'm wondering whether anybody out there can help me - do you know of any online classes?

My pastel lens contains details of pastels workships and tutors I know about in the Learning About Pastels section, This also includes a link to those listed on the workshops section of the www.artshow.com site. If you're aiming to get away in late summer and fancy a pastels workshop there is a great choice to review. However, as I indicate on the lens, do check the workshop details carefully as some seem to be for mixed media people rather than pastels pure and simple.

For those who don't know about my squidoo lenses, this is the link to the squidoo group Making a Mark Group - Resources for Artists.

Demonstration: Cat - a work in progress
16" x 20"
copyright Wendy Prior

Earlier this week I asked Does size matter? in relation to coloured pencil work and exhibitions.

Coincidentally, fellow Fine Line Artist Wendy Prior (New Zealand) has gone "massive" and is currently developing some work in progress demonstrations on her blog for a variety of animal subjects. The size of Wendy's work was brought home to when I saw some of the stage photos in the cats eye demo part two!

[Update: The image above (reproduced with kind permission of Wendy) is 16" x 20" and is where the cat in Wendy's current demonstration / work in progress has got to. However she's got quite some way to go before this gets posted to the blog because she's also working on a number of works all at the same time. If you'd like to see what comes inbetween keep an eye on her blog - we all think it's amazing - and Wendy may have just found her niche!]

...and finally

....Scribbler is a fun site. Check out the gallery of scribbling and scribbles here!