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Sunday, January 11, 2009

11th January 2009 - Who's made a mark this week?

The result of the End of Year Portrait Challenge
copyright Different Strokes from Different Folks and the artists


These paintings were was done from by a photograph provided via the Karin Jurick's group blog Different Strokes From Different Folks, where artists are encouraged to paint or draw their own interpretations of the photographs supplied. You can see all the results of the Year End Challenge - to paint each other in pairs - in Painting Us Different Folks.

I thought the artists did a great job at painting the people rather than the photograph. This project is really demonstrating and underlining all the different styles of painting which are possible even if your only source material is a reference photograph. Charley Parker (Lines and Colors) also did a review of project in Different Strokes from Different Folks portrait swap

21st Sketchcrawl

Yesterday was the 21st Sketchcrawl and it was anticipated that it was the biggest yet. I have to confess I wasn't a participant yesterday - the weather is too cold for me contemplate sketching outside at the moment plus I have an active dislike of Museums on Saturdays - the London Sketchcrawl Group proposed going to the Natural History Museum (see results ).Jeanne Grant (Jeanne Grant) also stayed at home due to fog but made sure she sketched and quite put me to shame! See My Sketchcrawl Day

So here to make up for it I'm sharing links to the blogs of some of other people who participated:Art blogs
There is no secret to a signature style: it's the result of the way you think and respond to what you want to communicate. And the more that you work in your chosen medium, the more you will find those ideas that make your work unique.
Artists
Years ago Craig-Martin took the view that it was more interesting to deal with the things that people deal with all the time. “It was much easier to be interested in the extraordinary and the special, whereas what is really interesting is finding interest in things that are not automatically extraordinary and special and to try and make them special.”
Art blogs - groups Art business and marketing
Art economy
  • The Gagosian Way is an email from Larry Gagosian to his staff from FlashArtOnline. In 2004, the annual chart compiled by the British magazine Art Review called Gagosian "the world's greatest art businessman" and the emal indicates his business practices.
Art suppliesBook Reviews

I did a couple of posts this week which have attracted some of the most interesting comments about art books that I've ever had on this blog. I'm very grateful to all the people who took time out to write such thoughtful responses. Do read them and do also feel free to add your own particular perspective. I'm going to do a summary next week of the key messages emerging from the comments.Exhibitions and art fairs
  • The UK's first major art event of 2009 is next week's London Art Fair at the Business Design Centre in Islington showing modern British and contemporary art - typically for sale at less than £10k. You can see the artists represented here - I noticed an awful lot of names of dead artists. I've got my complimentary ticket and will be going along at some point. A variety of journals have commented:
    • Times Online - All's fair as crunch bites which reflects that art fairs like art dealers will need to adapt as the economic downturn continues
    • The Financial Times - London Art Fair comments on its role as the pragmatic alternative to Frieze
The London Art Fair has been forced to find a new role. After some difficult years, it has settled on an effective but less glamorous alternative: it is the fair for the British art lover attracted to challenging 20th-century art of every period who prefers to spend up to £10,000 ($15,200) on something that is easier to live with than the provocatively avant-garde.
The Financial Times - London Art Fair
Original Obama image by Shepard Fairey


Making A Mark Poll - How often do you post to your blog?

100 people have so far responded to the question "How often do you post to your blog?" If you've not voted yet you can still do so as the poll runs until the end of January - see the side column (just under the Followers section)

Tips and Techniques
A very old watercolour - Pura Taman Saraswati (September 1992)
watercolour on Arches NOT
copyright Katherine Tyrrell
  • I had a simply stunning response to Outstanding performance - a talent or 10,000 hours of practice? which like my posts about art instruction books attracted an awful lot of comments. Some people were kind enough to comment on that very rare sight - a (very old watercolour by moi!) I still think the trees are awful!
Fish linoprint 4 x 5.5
copyright Jeanette Jobson
It’s early days yet but I think that Toodledo may be different - in less than a week, it’s completely embedded itself into my life. I like the fact that it plots things on a calendar and you can easily assign folders, importance and deadlines to tasks plus it’s quick and easy to alter things. It’s nice and visible on my bookmark toolbar (I’m both visually orientated and forgetful - if I can’t see something, it may as well not exist), opens instantly and most crucially, it’s very intuitive.
  • Yesterday I announced that I'm improving my botanical knowledge - which is about the the Botany Photo of the Day missive plus links to a group of my information sites of interest to artists interested in botanical art and painting flowers and gardens.

  • Websites, blogging and social networks
    and finally........

    I found this in the arts and culture section of digg! Nothing to do with art - but very uplifting - and a reminder of what is possible. [Many apologies for the dreadful format errors which crept in to today's post - I nearly went cross-eyed removing them!]


    2 comments:

    1. Katherine, thanks for the promo on Jurik's end of year challenge. I was honored to participate, and enjoyed every minute of it!

      ReplyDelete
    2. Thank you Katherine for the link to my blog. I had a wonderful time doing my sketches and adding some bright colors. Sorry you weren't able to participate this time.

      ReplyDelete

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