Sunday, January 13, 2008

13th January 2008: Who's made a mark this week?

Welcome to the very first (if rather late!) "who's made a mark this week?" of 2008.

For new readers of this blog, every Sunday this post highlights various art-related items I've seen and found interesting in the previous week.

Thank you!
First off I'd very much like to thank all those people who've been mentioning "Making A Mark" in lists of 'must read/favourite art blogs' and/or highlighted my blog on theirs in recent days - your kind words are much appreciated. I was in the middle of compiling this list when my computer died and I'm afraid my brain doesn't do back-ups either and I now can't recall whether I've got everybody listed or not so apologies if I've left anybody out! (I've got one which is deliberately not mentioned for a very good reason!)
I'm also very touched by all those fellow artist bloggers who e-mailed me or commented while I was off-line for virtually a week with my computer woes. For the record, if it's a planned absence I always announce it in advance! ;) If it's an unplanned absence it's almost always due to a computer or broadband malfunction!

Anyway, as a result of all you kind people, I'm very happy to announce that while I was offline my blog broke through and then raced past two key blogging thresholds of 500 subscribers and 250,000 pageviews in two years of blogging. Statistics for visits and pageviews for this blog have recently been going crazy!!!

OK - now back to normal posting.

Art Blogs
  • Art Blogs have started January full of new year resolutions (well done everybody!). Here are a couple of different perspectives:
    • Kirsty Hall (Up All Night Again) - has decided to join in with 101 things - which is a really neat way of taking on board projects which might take a bit longer than a year
    • However Karen Jurick (A Painting Today)seems to have found a new way of dieting in January - she's painting instead of eating anything naughty and teases us with images of her cheesecakes instead - here and here and here and here. Enough! ;)
  • Duane Keiser (A Painting a Day - by Duane Keiser) has started posting to "On Painting" again after a long break with a very interesting post about a Whistler exhibition at the Freer Gallery. He's also had a week's break from posting to his main blog because last week he went to Madrid to see Las Meninas in the Prado! I'm looking forward to seeing his account of his trip - hopefully this next week.
I figure being a painter and not seeing "Las Meninas" is a little like being a Yankees fan and not seeing a game at Yankee Stadium.
Duane Keiser
Dachshund Dog Portrait by Tracy Hall
  • Each week during January and February, Tracy Hall (Tracy Hall - Watercolour Artist) is doing a painting for Art Helping Animals (website and blog) to benefit the True Blue Animal Rescue in Texas. Tracy is based in the Orkney Isles off the coast of Scotland. It's great to see yet another example of art and blogging reaching out to support good causes around the world. I understand from Tracy that in the last two years they've raised nearly $33,000 for various charities
  • I've discovered through blogging that creative people like buying work by other creative people (no need to worry if your blog only gets read by artists then!). Lisa Call (Lisa Call) has an interesting and very helpful blog post - Do You Buy Art?
Art Blog Tutorials

This is a new category for 2008. Do let me know if you are planning a series of tutorial type posts.
Art Business and Marketing
  • A report by The Future Laboratory for My Space, based on a poll of 1,000 social network users aged 18-24 suggests that social networking is more popular than TV with the young and is also being used by young people to sell artwork. This Observer article about the report also provides some interesting stats. It would be interesting to know how activity and practice varies through the different age ranges.
The survey found that women usually spent more time on social networking sites than men, and that the sites were increasingly being used to make money. Fourteen percent of users had made money from social networking sites selling T-shirts, artwork, and jewelry.
webProNews - commenting on the report
Art competitions and juried exhibitions
  • I forgot to mention in December when my paperwork arrived that The Pastel Society's submission dates for its annual show are 18th and 19th January 2008. The recent hiatus with the computer may have knocked my entries out of the running as I'm now not sure I can get them sorted in time - however for those with pastel artwork framed and ready to submit you should go to their website for more details about the exhibition and to see artwork which was in last year's exhibition. Copies of the entry form are available at carlton House Terrace on the submission days. I shall be really sorry not to see new work by John Ward this year (see image at top) - although I've got my fingers crossed and am hoping there will be a retrospective. He was one of those artists who always made me want to draw even better. This is a link to posts on this blog in which he is mentioned. My blog posts about last year's exhibition can be found here and here.
  • Derwent announced the winners of their 175th anniversary drawing contest in the USA using Coloursoft pencils in December. Congrats to fellow bloggers Ranjini Venkatachari (Ranjini V's Studio) and Nicole Caulfield (Nicole Caulfield Art Journal) who got 2nd place and an Honourable Mention respectively in the adults category. Personally I really liked some of the kids' art!
Art courses/workshops
Art Exhibitions
  • There were lots of scares just before Christmas about about whether or not the blockbuster Royal Academy exhibition "From Russia" of Russian paintings from Moscow and St Petersburg was going to lose its paintings. The Russian government have now given their approval (see RA site) and it's now confirmed as being officially back on - but the law had to be changed first! It's expected to get some 800,000 visitors - although given the publicity it may well now exceed this figure.
Art Supplies
Websites, blogging and feedreaders
...and finally

Just before my laptop died I spotted this post on Lines and Colors about the 2008 Bloggie Awards and the fact that the categories had changed (at long last!!!) to include Best Art and Craft Blog!

I've not seen any other mentions of the Bloggies on other blogs so I guess we were all pretty much in the dark about the change to these awards! It will be interesting to see which blogs gets nominated this year. I'll be highlighting those that do on this blog after they are announced on January 22nd.
Posted by Making A Mark on Sunday, January 13, 2008
Categories , , , , , , , , , , , ,

6 comments:

  1. Laura FrankstoneSunday, January 13, 2008

    That Ward pastel at the top of your post is exquisite! I kept checking you through the week (before last) to see where you were. Sorry about all of your technical difficulties, but you have, of course, vanquished them ;D. Your blog now rivals the Sunday edition of the New York Times for meatiness and sheer size! I can dine off of it for the rest of the week. I like the new tutorials category. Congratulations on all of your celebrity, too!

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  2. A Reason to PaintMonday, January 14, 2008

    There is always something worthwhile to find here at Making a Mark; thank you for directing us to the interesting discussion on Lisa Call's blog.

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  3. Belinda LindhardtMonday, January 14, 2008

    I seem to be in lukerville atm and not posting but i too had computer malfunctions over the christmas new year period. its so frustrating i am only just now getting back up to date with all the software.. i am in sympathy with your Katherine. And btw i missed who's made a mark this week i am glad its back :)

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  4. Making A MarkMonday, January 14, 2008

    Thanks for the compliments about 'who's mmade a mark this week?' - I really enjoy putting it together each week - although I confess this one might have two weeks rolled into one as it was supposed to have restarted last Sunday!

    Laura - the Ward pastels are even better when you see them 'in the flesh' so to speak because of the way he approached his work and used pastels.

    Belinda - it's ironic isn't it. You get computer problems, you solve problems - and heave a huge sigh of relief - and then realise that you have a lot of software which now needs to be reloaded!

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  5. AnonymousTuesday, January 15, 2008

    As always thanks for the links, Katherine. Glad to have you back.

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  6. Marsha RobinettTuesday, January 15, 2008

    You were missed...glad all is well. I didn't realize how much I look forward to your articles...and thank you so for the links. I to am glad to see the new tutorials category. I do WIP's for my commission customers and have lately been turning them into TUTORIALS. I should have the last one transfered to my blogspot this week sometime.

    You are a blessing to all of us, even those who just brows and seldom post. Thanks

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