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Sunday, August 26, 2007

26th August 2007: Who's made a mark this week?

Mullet Creek
(2007 Dobell Drawing Prize Winner)
Ana Pollak
(Dobell Drawing Prize exhibition, Art Gallery of New South Wales 24th August - 4th November 2007)

Congratulations to....
  • Ana Pollak - who has won Australia's prestigious Dobell Prize for Drawing worth AUS$20,000. Her drawing "Mullet Creek" (above) depicts an oyster farm on the Hawkesbury River and was drawn on rice paper. Her drawing is minimal and seemingly abstract. Reeds, water atmosphere are rendered with spare but delicate marks of charcoal. Ana Pollak studied at Byam Shaw School, London, Tom Bass Sculpture School, Sydney National Art School and Alexander Mackie College, Sydney. She is a painter, sculptor and printmaker as well as draughtswoman - and is currently a resident of Dangar Island on the Hawkesbury River. This article "Up the creek without a paddle; sketch takes prize" from The Sydney Morning Herald pictures her in front of her work. This is what the judge had to say about this work.
'This is an articulate and generous drawing that clearly refers to a river landscape. Also, the work says something about the general language of drawing through the quality of line - the juxtaposition of both relaxed and tense lines.'
Colin Lanceley, Artist and Judge
Art competitions

Two more competitions worth noting are:
  • The Lynn Painter Stainer Prize - with awards totalling £22,500. The First Prize £15,000 and there are 5 Runner-Up Prizes each at £1,000 and a Young Artist Award £2,500 for an artist who is 25 years of age or under on 3 September 2007. Artwork needs to be delivered to the FBA at Carlton House Terrace on 2nd-3rd September.
This is the third year of the Prize. The purpose of the Prize is to encourage creative representational painting and promote the skill of draughtsmanship. The 2006 Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize attracted nearly 700 entries from all over the UK, from which 71 paintings were selected for an exhibition held at Painters’ Hall, City of London in November 2006.

The Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize is open to living artists over the age of 18 on 3 September 2007, who are resident in the United Kingdom, Channel Islands or Isle of Man. Only original, two-dimensional works in any painting media, that have been completed in the last three years, and that have not been previously exhibited, are eligible. All works must be for sale, except commissioned portraits.
  • The Pastel Journal's 9th Annual Pastel 100 Competition is accepting entries - including online - in five categories but has a deadline of 4th September. Image files cannot exceed 500KB. The file format must be JPEG. See here for eligibility criteria and more details about how to enter and prizes worth $15,000 including a top prize of $5,000.

Great Comp Garden
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencil in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell
(see Travels with a Sketchbook blog for yesterday's solitary
sketchcrawl sketch)

Artists and sketchbloggers

These are all new artists and sketchbloggers people that I came across for the first time this week.

First two artists with a keen interest in the natural world and great drawing skills.
More sketchboggers
Finally, last week I mentioned Vivien Blackburn and her blog post about doing art degree as a mature student. This week I'd like to give a bit of exposure to Sue Smith and her blog Ancient Artist: Developing an art career after 50. Are there any more ladies aged 50+ out there who are actively working at developing their art? And do we need a virtual club?

The Art Business

Tina Mammoser
( website and blog The Cycling Artist) has an online presence in various places - one of which is Etsy.
  • Last week she highlighted an article on 18th August "A virtual, virtuous revolution" by Jenny Dalton in the Financial Times about the indie handcrafted credentials of Etsy as an alternative to e-bay.
  • Tina also has the widget for UK etsy sellers who blog webring on her blog. I have to say I've always found the presentation and aesthetic of Etsy much more appealing than e-bay.
Websites, blogging and squidoo lenses
  • Anna at See.Be.Draw has got a poll on her blog which is proving to be very interesting (see below). I'm hoping Anna may have a few tips to offer the poll finishes of things to think about when setting up a poll. For me this one is currently proving the impact that participating in Everyday Matters has on blog traffic. (Anna also has a very interesting post about the processes of drawing and painting)
The polls just closed and the results are in! From the votes I learnt that the majority of my readers come from EDM, do not subscribe to this blog but visit regularly, and bookmark a blog based on contents and posting regularity. They are mostly interested in artwork, watercolors, the creative process, and other artists.
See.Be.Draw - The Poll Results are in

Note:
The Dobell Drawing Prize was instituted by Sir William Dobell Art Foundation to encourage excellence in drawing and draughtsmanship. The prize in 2007 is aquisitive and valued at $20,000. Entry conditions are as foll0ws:
Medium: Unique work on paper or other suitable support in any medium or combination of media. This includes those media and materials traditionally associated with the practice of drawing (pencil, pen and ink, charcoal, etc.) and those which are part of contemporary drawing practice, including pastel, watercolour, collage etc.
Other information: Applicants must have been born in Australia or hold Australian citizenship, and have been a resident in Australia for a period of 12 months prior to the closing date. Works are to be completed during the 12 months preceding the closing date.

8 comments:

  1. Wow! I just discovered your blog from Sherrie York ... I can't wait to sit down and follow all of your links. Thank you for your generous postings...

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  2. Thanks for including my blog Katherine! I know your 'mark makers' are always impressive so I feel quite special. :) Since you specifically mentioned my Etsy blog I hope you don't mind me recommending that any UK makers starting out on Etsy should join the UK "chat" thread each month in the forums. There's a really nice and very active community of UK sellers and they have swap and promotions teams too.

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  3. Thanks Tina - it's great to get information like that - I'm sure it will prompt a few more people to have a go and join you all.

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  4. Thanks for the link, Katherine, I really appreciate it. I'm glad you're enjoying the articles.

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  5. The "why flickr?" link links to "setting up flickr." :-)

    I have always found flickr annoying, as it is so slow, so I was interested to see why someone likes it. I did find the link from her blog.

    I surely appreciate all the links you post!

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  6. Your link to sally Strand is much appreciated. When I think about returning to my own roots with the figure, her work comes to mind.
    Especially great are her white-heavy figures (women with laundry, drenched by sun; chefs in the kitchen), which make the most of high contrast and work beautifully.
    The selected work for the PSA show is spectacular and simple at the same time.

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  7. I really enjoyed visiting Sue Smith's blog which I found thru your post here. I also liked your comment on her blog regarding having a plan for your artistic development. I think that's something that would really make my explorations more productive and fulfilling.
    Thanks.

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  8. Bill - glad you found it helpful. If you look back around the beginning of January this year you'll see what I did for my plan for this year.

    Casey - Sally's work is wonderful isn't it. She was really the person who made me want to try harder with my pastels. Learning her technique was a real revelation - so obvious, so simple, so different from everybody else!

    'I need orange' - I think I just copied Kirsty's links straight across to my blog.

    Kirsty - it's always my pleasure to share good stuff on this blog.

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