This week I'm starting with a focus on children and an exhibition of really great children's art with a very powerful message. It's a privilege to be able to view this art - children see so very clearly and are so very creative!
The International Children’s Painting Competition on the Environment is organized annually by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Japan-based Foundation for Global Peace and Environment (FGPE), Bayer and Nikon Corporation. It's been held every year since 1991 and in that time has received over 190,000 entries from children in over 100 countries.
The image at the top is the painting which won global first prize last year by Charlotte Sullivan from England who was then aged 12, the image below is this year's global first prizewinner - Gloria IP Tung, 14 years old China.
Paint for the Planet is both an exhibit and an auction of children's art to launch the global United Nations campaign "UNite to Combat Climate Change". 25 original winning artworks from across the years have been selected from a total of over 190,000 entries from over 100 countries for this exhibition .Yesterday, a selection of paintings were auctioned at the Harvard Club of New York City to raise emergency funds for UNICEF for children affected by climate-related disasters. The exhibit will also travel to various climate-related events around the world including the climate change talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 2009.
I found this exhibition via this Guardian slideshow of nine of the paintings - Child's eye: Paintings offer unique perspective on climate change. You can also click here to view the children's videos about climate change. Plus there is a video of all the paintings in this very impressive exhibition - in Paint for the Planet auctioned paintings.
There is still time for children to get involved in the 2009 competition. The theme of this year’s competition is ‘Climate Change. Our Challenge’. Children, aged between five and 13, from all around the world, are being invited to submit a painting that focuses on things that we can do to combat climate change, such as using renewable energy, energy saving light bulbs, car sharing and using public transport, planting trees, and so on.
Scholastic News
Paint for the Planet1st prize global winner (2008) Gloria IP Tung, 14 years old China
Staying with the theme of children, Congratulations to...........
- to Duane and Mrs Duane (A Painting a Day) on the arrival of the very beautiful Julianna Keiser - see My Masterpiece - who was born on Monday I'm now expecting baby items to creep into the still life paintings!
- Laura (Laurelines) on becoming a grandmother for the first time. Laura drew inbetween supporting her daughter in the delivery suite and has produced some really gorgeous drawings of young master Jonas who arrived on Thursday, October 16th.
- Congratulations also to Gesah (Paint and Pastel ) in Glasgow - who has had a letter from The Pastel Journal to say one of her oil pastels will feature in the April 2009 edition (which if I'm right is the edition which features those selected for the Pastel 100 competition) - see 'Pick up your rejects'.
- Urban Sketchers continues apace and seems to be doing really well - and I've now received an invite to be one of the correspondents! :) It's such a pleasure to see a new project having a well managed and well publicised take-off! Here are some of the "Meet the correspondents posts" about urban sketchers who have previously featured in 'who's made a mark this week'
- San Francisco, - Martha McEvoy - (Martha's blog: Trumpetvine Travels)
- Chapel Hill, North Carolina - Laura Frankstone - (Laura's blog: Laurelines)
- Norfolk VA - Walt Taylor - (Walt's blog: crackskullbob)
- David CA - Pete Scully - (Pete's blog)
- Stockhom - Nina Johansson - (Nina's blog)
- Pittsburgh - Elizabeth Perry - (Elizabeth's blog: woolgathering)
- Madrid - Enrique Flores - (Enrique's blog: cuatro cosas)
- New York - Tommy Kane - (Tommy's blog)
There was more sketching by people participating in the The 20th International Sketchcrawl yesterday. These included Cindy Woods (Learning Daily) who had a worldwide sketchcrawl at home; and Carolyn Pappas (Koukla Carolyn) on her very first sketchcrawl 20th World Wide SketchCrawl: Results and Analysis. It contains some really sound learning points. You can find other updates in the 20th Sketchcrawl forum - look for 'results' threads - although some will post into the planning thread for their location. My very nasty head cold is threatening to turn into bronchitis so I didn't go out yesterday, missed my Big Draw event and won't be going to the Art Event Day down at the Bankside Gallery today either. :(- Charley Parker (Lines and Colors) had a follow-up review in Postcard from Provence (Julian Merrow Smith) - he has some very astute comments - as always!
Michael Chesley Johnson (A Plein Air Painter's Blog) has been painting the town red at the Sedona Plein Air Festival which finishes today. Check out this post for some splendid paintings from the first couple of days (see right for one example). I remember those red rocks well from my visit two years ago. The painting from Day 5 is also pretty eye-catching!- Many thanks to Sue Smith (Ancient Artist) and this post Advice to the Advice Junkie- One of the posts she highlighted is Maybe you can't make money doing what you love by Seth Godin (Seth's blog )
- Feline artists may drop their paint brushes when they see Computer Kittehs Pounce on Art World.
Recent posts have focused on the the Art Economy and its implications for artists - including who really buys art. First, continuing from last week, the news from the auction houses doesn't get any better...........
- Art Info had a couple of posts -Funereal Mood at London Auctions and A Sharp Correction to Contemporary Art Market Likely, Report Says
between midway through 1991 and midway through 2008, contemporary artwork rose in value at a rate of 132 percent, or five times the appreciation of Old Masters, 19th-century, and modern and postwar pieces.
- although the Economic Times of India is recommending
Buy art for the long term investment - Next, a couple of posts by Linda Blondheim (Linda Blodheim - Art Notes ) - the first about the hard work involved in tackling current challenges and a second one about getting an insight into who collects art and why. That second one is a real wake-up call!
In fact, it is the people who treasure art and the friendships that form with an artist which motivates them to save their pennies and invest in their favorite artist. It is not the high toned elite or the self made millionaires who are helping artists to survive, but rather the middle class who really cares about beauty and original art, though they can't really afford it.
Linda Blondheim
- Luann Udell (Luann Udell) has a related post at Internet Marketing and me
- while Michelle Hendy (Artscapes - Musings on Art & Life) mused on The Fate of the Arts
- while I tried to look for some Bright spots in the gloom and doom (there's an update on this one in art supplies below)
- an article by Bob Bissett on How to Self-Publish a Book of Your Art At Lulu
- a list of 42 publishers accepting ongoing artist submissions in Get Your Art Published which accompanies an article on what publishers are looking for and how to apply in "Working with Publishers: How to earn royalties from your prints and reproductions," in the November issue of Art Calendar
- a digital subscription offer - great option for those don't want to cut down trees or people like me who don't live in the USA. But is Art Calendar relevant for people living outside the USA?
- People who are interested in learning more about portraiture should take a look at my post about The Bulldog Bursary - an apprenticeship in portraiture
- There's just over 5 days left until the deadline for entries to the 2008 Pet Portrait & Wildlife Art Competition run by Melanie Phillips. I like the countdown clock!
- Art Calendar also has a magazine cover contest with no entry fee (now there's a novelty!). In the past art magazines would produce a cover from artwork from an artist featured in the magazine. It cost nothing and was a fair exchange. Now when I look at some of the entry fees asked by certain magazines for cover art competitions I begin to wonder whether this is really an exercise in income generation. I'm therefore delighted to see a magazine which has cut out the entry fee. The closing date for submitting an entry is 23:59 on October 31, 2008, Eastern Time (USA). Note the format requirements.
- Alyson B Stansfield (ArtBiz Blog) had a newsletter item titled Play nice (artist ethics) and a follow-up on her blog relating to the question of use of other people's photographs Ethics and using other people’s photographs.
- Update on the AWS gold medal/copyright controversy: the very long threads on both Wet Canvas and Shutterstock have been removed from the public domain following a request from the artist's attorney. There's no indication yet as to when this matter will be resolved.
- This is the link to the 12th Juried Exhibition of the International Association of Pastel Societies
- A Long Exposure: 100 years of Guardian photography is at The Lowry
- The V&A has an exhibition about the impact of the cold war on design
- This first ever exhibition of the finest Flemish paintings in the Royal Collection opened at the Queens Gallery on 17th October. Masters of Flemish painting continues until 26 April 2009
- The Rijksmuseum has an extensive programme of works to update its building and facilities and has found other places to hold and host exhibitions. Here's a couple of new ones
- The Rijksmuseum is a guest of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam for an exhibition about Indian Miniatures which runs until 4 January 2009
- Thanks to Rembrandt is an exhibition of some of the finest drawings from the Dutch Golden Age at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport and marks the 125th anniversary of the Rembrandt Society (Vereniging Rembrandt).
- Plus I'm very impressed with the developments on their website which includes a widget for your desktop or website (and I've not seen one of these before)
- This one's going to keep all the art history buffs very entertained. The Guardian has developed a list of 1000 artworks to see before you die and has a slideshow of 21 of the works in the list. This addresses a critism of their 100 best artworks list - seen as very Eurocentric. Now they've risen to the challenge of a multi-cultural globe starting with Art and Artists from A to C (see below):
- Artists beginning with A - From Albrecht Altdorfer to Eugène Atget
- Artists beginning with B - From Francis Bacon to Pieter Bruegel the Elder
- Artists beginning with C - From Sophie Calle to the Chapman brothers via Caravaggio
- 1000 artworks to see before you die: All about Buddhist art
- 1000 artworks to see before you die: All about African masks
- 1000 artworks to see before you die: Aztecs and Incas
- 1000 artworks to see before you die: Ancient Americas
- 1000 artworks to see before you die: Benin
- 1000 artworks to see before you die: All about Byzantium
- It also has a very useful 1000 artworks to see before you die: Where to find them - Artists from A-C (Chapman)
Since the list was compiled, I've lost count of the works I can't believe I didn't include. But you are bound to have enthusiasms for art and artists that never came near our considerations. Perhaps entire cultures and traditions have been left out. I don't want to sound too apologetic here. I think the Guardian's 1000 artworks to see before you die amounts to a newspaper doing its own world art encyclopedia, and I really believe we have made a good job of it.
Jonathan Jones - 1000 greatest artworks: Do you agree with our choice?
- You can also see an online exhibition The Best of the MFAH: An Online Exhibition on the website of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. This was stimulated by the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die, a guide to the best art around the world.
- I announced three new information sites in Resources for Artists - 3 new information sites.
- Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada, an artist in Spain is going to ...create massive Obama portrait near Barcelona beach
Art Project - Creating a SeriesThe artist plans to create a gigantic face of Obama sculpted from gravel and sand, which will cover nearly 2.5 acres (1 hectare) of Barcelona beachfront before the U.S. elections. "The size of the piece is intrinsic to its value," the artist, Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada, said Saturday. He hopes it will be big enough to be seen on Google Earth.
CNN World News
Stacks of wheat (end of summer) - after Monet / Stacks View (after Monet)
copyright Katherine Tyrrell
There's just under a week left to vote on my poll What's your MAIN reason for working in a series? (see right). I did two posts this week for my Making A Mark project on understanding series paintings better before the brain cells were struck down by a nasty head cold.
Art supplies
- 199 people have voted in the poll I've been running on Pastels - Resources for Artists which asks which is your favourite brand of soft pastels and the answer is..........Unison
- Richard McKinley (The Pastel Pointers Blog) has a post On the Surface about using different grades of Uart Premium Sanded Pastel Paper
- I got an email from Deborah Ross (Art by Deborah Ross) in response to my Bright spots in the gloom and doom post to say
I saw today where you mentioned art supplies getting cheaper and I wanted to tell you that here in the states some of the big suppliers are cutting their shipping costs. Right now Art Supply Warehouse (aswexpress.com) and Dick Blick (dickblick.com) have both lowered shipping to $5.95 no matter what size order. Also, they both have other deals now. ASW has 10% off every order, and Blick has $5 to $20 off each order, depending on size. Jerry's Artarama ( jerrysartarama.com) has 20% off all orders now, and I have an email saying they are going to do something about the shipping soon. So all of that makes a big difference!
Deborah Ross
Illustration - Practice Notes
and finally...........- Quentin Blake's new website provides a ten minute video of Quention producing an illustration. It's really excellent. What a pity more well known artists don't take the time out to make videos and 'pass it on' for free.
- According to Wired the era of the blog is over - Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004! I do agree with Paul Boutin about one aspect. I know the blogs I enjoy reading tend to be the ones written by those people who - like me - write all their own words for no pay!
Writing a weblog today isn't the bright idea it was four years ago. The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge............Scroll down Technorati's list of the top 100 blogs and you'll find personal sites have been shoved aside by professional ones.
Paul Boutin - Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004.
- Those of you who use AdSense will be interested know that Google Analytics is now integrated with AdSense - see Make a date with data in Google Analytics.
- E-Selling for Artists: Web Design Rules by Petra Jones (in Art calendar) provides a useful reminder of what to do.
I added this video about Rembrandt Self-Portraits to my information site Rembrandt - Resources for Art Lovers. It's absolutely fascinating watching him age and his style develop at the same time.
PS This weekly post has got far too long again!
I was just thinking how timely this post on children was for me when I saw the mention of my Jonas drawings---thank you so much, Katherine. I'm also so happy that you'll be one of the Urban Sketchers, too. Gabi has, indeed, done a masterful job of creating the Urban Sketchers blog----I predict great excitement and fun for all of us, participants and viewers alike! Finally, thank you for another stimulating, informative Sunday roundup!
ReplyDeleteKatherine,
ReplyDeleteI glanced at an article while on the Metro which discussed the value fluctuation in an article about contemporary art sales vice traditional (ie Rembrandt et al). Apparently the value of the traditional masterpieces are not subject to types of changes that seem about to hit the com temporary art market.
I will try to find the link and post it here, it was a great read.
Katherine,
ReplyDeletemany thanks for the congratulations. I noticed a sudden stream of visits from your page after I had come back from a short break. What a nice surprise. I am also looking forward to the group endeavours to follow.
I had trouble commenting the last time - so I am late....!
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting - it is great to be included in such an amazing resource for artists.
Linda's article was definitely what inspired a different look at art and its reflection of how we perceive.