14th December 2008 - Who's made a mark this week?

I'm actually away at the moment so some of the posts before and after this one have been scheduled in advance - such a great facility! This is a lightweight version of my normal post and is missing images - which are difficult to do on the computer /connection I'm using connection. I'll be back to normal posting next week - I hope (given that the 'cold from hell' is currently trying to take me out for the third time!!!). I wonder if anybody will guess when I left and when I get back!

I'm starting this week's "who's made a mark this week?" with the three remaining artists who have posted their introductions to Watermarks this week. That's

• Introducing Tina Mammoser
• Introducing Sarah Wimperis
• Introducing Ronell van Wyk

Yet again, I'm amazed at how we can all relate well to water and all have different perspectives!

Having been stimulated to finish two works which have been 'stuck' for over two years (see Studying Lines and Squiggles), I cannot recommend enough the notion of getting together with people who are interested in the same things as you

Plus Watermarks has now achieved over 100 readers/subscribers in its first two weeks.

The Making A Mark Awards

The names of the artists who have been nominated for one of the Making A Mark Awards so far are Susan Abbott, Linda Blondheim, Margaret Dyer, Laura Frankstone, Tracy Helgeson, Qiang Huang, Jeanette Jobson, Karin Jurick, Bonnie Luria, Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco, Ed Terpening, Olga Wagner, Ester Wilson, Cindy Woods, William Wray, Sharon Wright.

On Monday, I announced the scope and timing of My End of Year Review which includes the Making A Mark Awards. You can find out more about some of the Awards and the interactive nomination process by also reading these posts:

• Call for entries: best artwork completed & posted on an art/illustrated blog in 2008
• MAMA Call for entries: Best Portrait by a female artist on a blog in 2008.
• MAMA Call for entries: best online art exhibition in 2008 - there's been no suggestions on this one - maybe an invite too many?

There's a week to go so lots of time yet to get those nominations in. If you're put off by me asking for the URL of the blogpost, just tell me the name of the blog, the date of the blog post it and it's title and I'll see if I can figure out the URL.
If there is somebody you'd like to nominate then please make sure you make that nomination before the deadline of midnight on the 21st December!

Art Blogs

• It was my 'sort of' 3rd blog birthday yesterday - read Happy 3rd Blog Birthday - sort of..............
• Truly Awesome Tracy Helgeson (Works by Tracy Helgeson) had the most amazing wheeze last week which you can see in Happy Birthday To Me Plus a Contest. I think Tracy was slightly amazed at the number of people who were keen to take part in the contest but it's really nice to see somebody giving back! ;) Plus a lot of people delurked - including Binky the winner.
  
• James Gurney (Gurney Journey) wrote about Art Opinions of Ingres and had a QUIZ! The quiz is over but it's good trying to guess before you get to the answer.
• Read an interesting interview with Nita Leland (Exploring Color and Creativity) in Inspire Your Creative Brain Via the Visual Arts by Susan K. Perry, Ph.D. in Creating in Flow which is a Psychology Today blog
• Another interview about creativity involves Karen Winters (The Creative Journey) talkig to Liz Massey of Creative Liberty. See In the Studio With…Karen Winters
• Liz has previously interview Jana Bouc (Jana’s Journal and Sketch Blog.) for In the Studio With … Jana Bouc
• Creating a Photographic Record is an excellent idea for a new daily record by Gayle Mason of FUR IN THE PAINT
• Take a look at the Arts and Crafts fair at the Christmas Market at Karlsplatz in Vienna - posted by Merisi in Merisi's Vienna For Beginners
• I came across Susan Abbott's A Painter's Year as a result of one of the nominations for the Making A Mark Awards. Nice watercolours!
• I'm also impressed with the work on Nathan Fowke's blog Land Sketches
  

Art Group Blogs

• Urban Sketchers has been taking on more correspondents and they're now up to 60+ people (more? Gabi - are you keeping count?)

Art Business & marketing

• Sue Smith of Ancient Artist has an excellent piece about Are You Putting the Cart Before the Horse?
• I neglected to pick up on this link to an interview with Ed Winkleman back in November when he highlighted it on his blog. It's a long podcast and don't think something has gone wrong as you listen to the start - it takes ages before the interview starts - but it's worth waiting for and gets better as it gets towards the end in terms of advice you emerging artists wanting to get into galleries.
  
• What happens to an Art Gallery when they don't pay attention to business and the bottom line? That's the one with $ signs not glowing reviews in the culture columns. To find out - read Soaring in Art, Museum Trips Over Finances in the New York Times. It's all about the big mess at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. The comments are also interesting - it gives you an insight into the different perspectives!
  

Yet by putting art ahead of the bottom line, the Museum of Contemporary Art has nearly killed itself. The museum has operated at a deficit in six of the last eight years, and its endowment has shrunk to about $6 million from nearly $50 million in 1999, according to people who have been briefed on the finances.

• 10 Legitimate Ways for Artists to Sell Art by Cathy Robertson on EmptyEasel.com
• Scotland Yard has recruited some art insiders to be special constables - sounds like it's a bit of a change from the day job!

Art Economy

• Art Calendar has got an article Art and the Economy Crisis or Transformation by Renee Phillips

Art Collectors

• You may recall me writing about the Vogels a bit back. Here's another post about them ABMB | Meet the Vogels - including a video - on The New York Times art blog The moment. It has a great quote from Dorothy Vogel. For more information on the “The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: 50 Works for 50 States,” go to vogel5050.org.

It’s helpful when you have two salaries. We lived on mine and my husband’s went to the art. I don’t know if we were to start now if we could afford art; things are very expensive. Our timing was very important. My best advice is, don’t go into debt to buy art, live within your means.
Dorothy Vogel

Art competitions

• I forgot to mention the chap who won the Turner Prize 2008 last week. Mark Leckey, 44, was awarded the £25,000 prize for his video exhibition, Industrial Light & Magic, and was essentially memorable for the way in which he criticised the YBAs who he said had done a disservice to art in the UK.

Leckey added that he welcomed the end of the boom. “A lot of bad artists have made a lot of money,” he said
Turner winner Mark Leckey attacks 'shock art'

Art Exhibitions

• The Musée du Louvre in Paris has a mini-exhibition on The Louvre website at the moment about 'Andrea Mantegna, The First Painter' the exhibition which continues until 5th January 2009. I was surprised to find out about this from Farrow and Ball, the paint specialists who sent me an email about the fact that their paints were used for the galleries!! I quote
  

A stunning selection of pigment-rich Farrow & Ball paint colours including Brinjal®, Picture Gallery Red®, and Cook's Blue® decorates the galleries and displays the art in each room to best effect.

• The exhibition for the John Moores 25 Contemporary Painting Prize continues at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool until 4th January 2009. I'd hoped to get to see this but I don't think that's now going to be possible. You can see the paintings in the exhibition here.
• Dale Chihuly has an exhibition called "The Nature of Glass" in full bloom at the Desert Botanical Gardenin Phoenix Arizona - First Impressions on Waterblossoms by Margaret Storer-Roche
• That flippin' Jeff Koons dog gets everywhere - now he's at Versailles - thanks to Paris Breakfasts for the story and the image
  
• There's an exhibition of the ever popular Bill Jacklin's paintings, prints and monotypes in People and Places II at the Marlborough Fine Art. His website (click his name) is worth a visit to see how his themes, style and work have progressed over time and his paintings and prints are very impressive when seen in person. I particularly like the way he manages to make his people very real and anonymous at one and the same time - it's what I always attempt to do when drawing people in London. This is the essay about People and Places

Jacklin is always intent on building a relationship with the people and places he portrays. His imagination is sparked by an encounter, often recorded with direct immediacy in the observational drawings and pastels he makes while moving around the streets. In the artist’s own words, drawing is “like turning on a light – something suddenly happens and the space between you and your subject is electrified as you begin to see.” But when it comes to painting, Jacklin forges a more complex, durable relationship with time and space.

Tips and Techniques

• Sarah Wimperis (Muddy Red Shoes) shows us her sketching equipment in Sketching List
• Check out Avoiding Tangents: 9 Visual Blunders Every Artist Should Watch Out For by Dianne Mize on EmptyEasel.com

Blogging and websites

• I've reorganised my side column and some of the blogs in the blogroll have moved around a bit. The main change has been to include a two new sections for group blogs ones I contribute to and the others of note.
• Anybody else frustrated with the timekeeping of Feeburner? Here's my pet techie whinge at the moment Feedburner doesn't know what time it is

And finally......

We're beginng to see the end start of the end of the year reviews in various newspapers. Here's Laura Cumming's (The Observer) take on Money, money money - and plenty of Bacon. She has a list of top 10 exhibitions in the UK plus a few awards with caustic names.