2nd September 2007: Who's making a mark this week?

Night's Agents

6" x 18" coloured pencil in Pastelbord
copyright Nicole Caulfield

This weekly post is proving to be very popular and I appreciate that people may want to try and get their achievements highlighted in it. However I've been getting a few blog comments suggesting items which don't fit with the way this blog works (see comments policy). If you'd like to suggest an item, see the end of this post for what you should do.

Artists

Congratulations to my fellow Fine Line Artist Nicole Caulfield who is very definitely "on a roll" at the moment! She's got coloured pencil works accepted into five juried exhibitions - including two which are international!

• Last week Nicole got news that her work "Night's Agents" (see top) has been juried into the Winter 2008 Juried Exhibition of the International Guild of Realism. The exhibition will be held at Scottsdale Fine Art, Arizona and runs from January 13th to 30th. The formal announcement of all participating artwork occurs this week. Details about membership of the Guild are available on their website here.
• "Light Vanity" (the 'partner' to Night's Agents) has been juried into the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club 111th Annual Open Exhibition at the National Arts Club, New York, NY. The show dates are October 2-27th.
• "Fiesta Orange" is one of the 60 exhibits accepted for the sixth annual exhibition of the United Kingdom Coloured Pencil Society 6th International Annual International Open Exhibition (15th September - 15th October 2007)
  
• During September, Nicole is also exhibiting in The Art of Colored Pencil: CPSA New England Juried Show (September 2 - 29, 2007). You can meet Nicole at the opening and Awards Reception Sunday, September 2nd from 1 - 3 p.m. (that's today!) at Gallery 297, 297 Hope St., Bristol, RI 02809. Forty-three works have been selected from one hundred thirteen entries. Together they represent the diversity in technique and subject matter now being created in coloured pencil. Congratulations also to all other members of CPSA Chapter 112 who are also in the exhibition - you can see the names of participating artists here.
• Finally, Nicole has also just won the "Juror's Choice" prize for her piece "Magritte's Window" at the Food in Art Exhibition at the Sharon Art Center Gallery in Peterborough, NH.

Art Blogs

My normal policy is not to feature new blogs until they are well established unless there is something distinctly different about them - mainly because of the attrition rate in the first 3 months. However continuing the environmental line started last week.........

• Pica is a very well established blogger - she's been blogging on Feathers of Hope since 2003 ( well before I started!!!) . Her new blog "Bird by Bird" is another in the 'one post per day' vein - but this one is all about drawing a bird a day! I loved the sign-off from yesterday's post

(Remember that tomorrow is International Rock-Flipping Day. Not that there are many birds to be found under rocks, but look under your best rock and let us know what you find!)
Bird by Bird - Saturday 1st September

• Christa Forest is an established wildlife artist whose blog (Forest Wildlife Art) is newish and focuses, naturally enough, on wildlife art. However Christa also demonstrates a talent for writing cryptic and funny pieces such as The 12 step program to MySpace obscurity - which is definitely worth reading by any artist who has ever spent any time contemplating MySpace.
  

Art Forums / Competitions

• Information for artists about the The Discerning Eye competition is available here. All entries need to be delivered as unwrapped work together with Entry Schedule and entry fees to the FBA, 17 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5BD on Sunday 10 & Monday 11 September 2006, 10am to 5pm, or to one of the regional collection points.
  

The ING Discerning Eye Exhibition is a show of small works independently selected by six prominent figures from different areas of the art world: Two artist, two collectors and two critics. Work is selected from open submission

• Discerning Eye are also once again offering a £1000 Drawing Bursary to an artist in order to support the development of their ongoing artwork. The deadline for the 2007 bursary is 5th October. To apply, artists are invited to send 6 slides OR digital images of their work along with a current cv and written statement (max 300 words) detailing how you would spend the bursary.
• The Society for All Artists (SAA) in the UK exists 'to inform, encourage and inspire all who want to paint...' whatever their ability, from complete beginners to professional artists. I've always thought of it as a site which is generally focused on helping people to enjoy their art while providing scope to offer some recognition as well as access to art-supplies. It runs a competition every year. It covers various categories and is open to beginners, amateurs and professionals.
  
• Here are the details for the 2008 competition to find Artist of the Year
• This is the gallery for the 2007 competition which shows works from those who won categories or were highly commended

Art methods: tips and techniques

• Mixing colour: Question - how do I mix that colour? Answer: you read Duane Keiser's answer in the Google Group "Keiser on Painting". Duane does a post about the painting process about every 4-6 weeks. They're always good and make you think. Try subscribing to the group if you don't want to wait to see me feature them in my weekly post - it'll then arrive via e-mail as soon as it's published!
• Printing: Anybody interested in printing should take a look at a recent post by Diane Cutter in Puerto Rico (The Itinerant Artist). She provides a good demonstration of Inking a solar plate and the resulting print. You can see more of her great prints in her etsy store.
• Drafting film for coloured pencils: Another Fine Line Artist, Wendy Prior is a big fan of drawing with coloured pencils in drafting film. Girls on film - an update provides an update on her earlier blog post and a very useful overview of Wendy's experiences with drafting film. I've also included a link to it in two "Resources for Artists" squidoo lenses - coloured pencils and paper and supports.
• TV and DVDs: The SAA sponsor The Painting and Drawing Channel (Live TV). This seems to be linked to various DVDs they produce.

Photography

• I guess we all use cameras and are getting a bit better at using them all the time. Flickr collects information about cameras and reveals this unless you switch off that option in your account. This part of the Flickr site tells you which are the most popular cameras - overall, point and shoot and cameraphones. It very much looks like Canon is the supplier of choice for high end and point and shoot cameras.
  

Websites, Blogs and Squidoo

• Blog Policies: If you've ever thought about having any policies for your blog check out blog policies or blog_policies at del.icio.us - this lists all sites which have been labelled as connected with blog policies.
  
• Labels in Blogger: If you were busy and missed it yesterday, you might want to check out my blog post on why it's a good idea to use labels in Blogger.
  
• Blogs: I've removed my links to the TopBlogArea Arts Directory from both my blogs and would recommend others consider doing the same. I hadn't looked at it in some time and when I looked at it last week was pretty horrified to see that yet again another Blog Directory has swopped arts blogs for yet more 'hot' pictures of young female flesh. Shame on the owners! When are they ever going to understand that certain subject matter needs to be filtered, split out and properly certificated.
  
• Squidoo Lens: I was very glad to see when Squidoo introduced a lens rating system to address such matters. It's what every responsible Directory owner should be doing . However I'd also urge people to check any automated links within Squidoo Modules for Google Blog Search or You Tube videos which they've set up in their squidoo lens. I've been putting off having automated links on the basis that links are not hand-picked but tried some just recently for some new lenses I'm building. It appears that any filters being operated by Squidoo do not appear to operate properly in respect of automated links. All my lens are rated 'G' - meaning safe for everybody - but some of the automated links coming up were very definitely not rated 'G'!

How to get your good news in this blog

It's nice to know about people's good news but I need to make the process manageable and to avoid any news or suggestions interrupting comments on other posts. So............

• The good news - If you'd like to suggest an item there are two ways to do this.
• First - and the preferred option - is make your blog so interesting that I always pay a regular visit and I'm very happy to send other readers there too!
  
• Alternatively send me a suggestion using the 'contact me' mechanism. This is because I sometimes need to ask questions but mostly because I never ever accept a suggestion which is anonymous and lacks an e-mail address. I've amended my comments policy (see sidebar) to indicate how people can make suggestions for items to be covered by this blog.
  
• Please note suggestions may or may not be used. My general rule is to tell people in advance of when I publish that I intend to or have blogged about them.
  

• The bad news - Please note that:
  
• in general, I don't announce any new blogs in this weekly post unless I find them independently. (However, subject to checking the link, all references to other blogs and websites in comments on posts will remain - so long as they are 'on topic' and appropriate.)
  
• this blog is not a substitute for your own blog or newsletter when it comes to announcing achievements.
  
• I don't always have the time to tell people I won't be using any suggested material.

Next Sunday I'm going to be helping hang an exhibition for most of the day so if this post doesn't get written in advance it may get posted later in the day!

Have a good week.
Katherine