23rd September : Who's made a mark this week?

"The Pescheria" and other fine art drawings
at 86th SGFA Annual Open Exhibition (2007)
at the Menier Gallery, London SE1
copyright all images - the artists


Society of Feline Artists - 11th annual open exhibition
two views of the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery
copyright all images - the artists

This is my first post since Tuesday in what has been a very odd week with all the trials, tribulations and repurcussions of Northern Rock .

I wasn't well earlier this month and missed the Private Views of both the annual open exhibitions in central London that I currently have work in - SOFA at Llewellyn Alexander and SGFA at the Menier Gallery so I'm going to start with these as they both closed yesterday. I visited them on Friday and Saturday and you can see a sample of photos from the exhibitions above and in this blog post.

I have to say after all the trauma recently, it was a really nice feeling to find I'd sold work in both exhibitions!

Art exhibitions

"Pause" (sold)

coloured pencil on black HP

copyright Katherine Tyrrell

• The SOFA exhibition has been another big success for feline artists and both Gayle Mason and I sold work. Gayle sold "Out of Sight" twice - read her blog post to find out how! The one I sold was "Pause" which is a drawing of my abyssinian cat Polly enjoying the sunlight - with ear cocked for sounds behind her as I walked up and found her there.
  
• The SOFA exhibition sees the full gamut of images of cats - from big cats to pedigrees to mogs and 'comic' illustrations of cats. One the whole it seems as though images of the domestic cat sell rather better than those of big cats which I would imagine do rather better in the large wildlife shows. You can see more images from the exhibition on the SOFA blog - here and here.
  

Dahlias #1 (sold)
pen and ink on HP
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

• The 86th SGFA annual exhibition had about 200 fine art drawings on show on two floors of the Menier Gallery. It's a lovely exhibition space created out of what used to be an old chocolate factory. It's across the road from the ever-popular gourmet food stalls of the foodie paradise which is Borough Market and seems to have had a very respectable stream of traffic. I'll be having some sketches from visits on my sketchbook blog as soon as I can get them blog-ready.
  
• On the other wide of the world - I was greatly intrigued by the exhibition of the 'arty' palettes produced by different artists in an exhibition seen on Treicia Gibney's blog A Reason to Paint. The exhibition at St Luke Artist Colourmen (Melbourne Australia) of The Exquisite Palette is absolutely fascinating!
  

Art Blogs

I find most of the new blogs I post here in people's blogrolls. If I see a blog with a name I'm not familiar with and an extensive history of regular posting then I will also post it. Occasionally I make an exception - such as for people who are no strangers to the printed work who deserve to have their new blogs highlighted............

Two art blogs this week with something of an educational slant, one from a very experienced blogger - Charley Parker (Lines and Colors) - and the other from an artist, tutor and author new to blogging - Richard McKinley who's a signature member of the The Pastel Society of America.

• I don't usually feature comic art but was intrigued by Charley's explanation of the storytelling secrets of comics, manga and graphic novels
• Most experienced pastel painters will be familiar with the tips provided by Richard McKinley in his new blog called The Pastel Pointers Blog - but it's always good to have a reminder and he provides excellent guidance for those new to pastel! He's posting on a weekly basis - and has some interesting posts so far, including:
• what does simultaneous contrast mean? - an explanation of how every colour is affected by its opposite
  
• why have a selection of neutrals in your pastel palette? an explanation of how he chooses colours to include and how he organises them in his pastel box. I know I've certainly learned the value of coloured greys as I've progressed. I still want to know why I never see the itty bitty bits of pastel sticks that I've got in my pastel box in other people's photos!
  
• how do you hold your pastel stick and what size are the sticks you use?
  
• what do you mean by the value scale of the landscape? - a nice explanation for how values plein air can vary from those indoors under artificial light
  
• what governs my choice for an underpainting? - looks at why some people work with underpaintings and issues to consider before you start
  
• what is your set-up for plein air painting with pastels?
  

Group Art Blogs

• Canvas by Canvas is a collaborative group of 11 Texas artists who share a love of painting and have a unique friendship. They have and an art blog.......
  
• .......but also have so much fun eating and painting together they decided they also needed a blog about painting and food. They're looking for other artists to link with their sites, recipes and food paintings.

Art Forums

• The UK publishers of The Artist and Leisure Painter have set up a new website which offers various resource for artists called "Painters Online. This includes
  
• a comprehensive database of 1,200 art clubs across the UK,
  
• lists of art tutors in different media,
  
• lists of workshops organised in liaison with the two magazines
• basic details of organisations providing art courses and holidays - presumably from their advertising database
  
• a marketplace section providing information about art materials' manufacturers, distributors, retailers, mail-order companies, printing services, exhibitions, art courses and holidays organisers, art book and DVD publishers.
• ....and finally a brand new online art forum

Art Supplies

• Art Materials Live is advertised as "The UK's biggest and liveliest art materials show". It's at the National Exhibition Centre (Hall 10) just outside Birmingham from 8th - 11th November. Given that the annual art materials event at the Business Design Centre is Islington was cancelled this year, I think it might also just lay claim to being the ONLY art materials fair in the UK!
  
• The show - which is sponsored by 'The Artist' and 'Leisire Painter' Magazines includes workshops sponsored by Derwent and Winsor and Newton.
  
• I haven't made any firm plans as yet but was wondering whether it might be worth trying to meet up with UK readers of this blog?
  

Websites and blogging

Two sites which have been running series of blog posts which are well worth reviewing

• Darren Rowse at Problogger has recently completed a series 31 days to building a better blog. This is now also supplemented by a terrific list of reader tips. Definitely one to reserve for when you've got a good bit of reading time plus are stting in a comfy chair with a drink to hand! For those of you who haven't looked at problogger recently you may be surprised by the completely new design look.
  
• Charley Parker (Lines and Colors) continues his series about how to display your art on the web with his latest post on preparing images for the web.
  

.......and finally

Many, many thanks to all those people who offered good wishes during my recent traumatic experience with the first run on a British bank in about 150 years! Last weekend I could neither sleep properly nor eat a thing, but the situation now seems to be sorting itself out and it looks like there may even be a complete revamp of the system for protecting depositers' money. I do know I wouldn't like to go through another long weekend like the last one!

Links:

• my website - exhibitions