8th February 2009 - Who's made a mark this week?

Tuesday 3rd February - Adebanji Alade painting South London in the snow

The snow! That's what made a mark in the UK this week. I know there's lots of places in the world which get far worse snow than we did - but just imagine, if you will, what it would feel like for you if your area has just had the worst snow for 18 years! I know all the kids noticed! :)

Lots of people were out taking photographs and videoing the reaction of their pets to snow - but here's a selection of artists blogging about snow in the UK this week. I'm starting with a couple of artists who erected their easels in the snow!

• Adebanji Alade (Adebanji Alade: my art, my passion for sketching) deserves a special mention for getting outside, setting up his easel and painting a 12" x 10" of Norman Road, Belvedere in the snow!
  
• Ben Hughes (blart) in Bath is rather new to the blogging habit but did a long and interesting post - with tips - about painting the snow amongst the Georgian crescents in Bath in Snow!
  
• James Hobbs (Hobbs Blog), one of the Urban Sketchers and the former editor of Artists and Illustrators magazine, was also recording the London thaw sets in.
• Vivien Blackburn in Leicestershire sketched Aylestone meadows in the snow for Watermarks
• while Julie Oakley (Julie's Pictures) in Hertfordshire did a memory sketch which recorded what children get up to when it snowed in No school
• Elizabeth McCrindle (Art from Scotland) in Ayrshire, Scotland painted The Opening a gate into a field in the snow. (Also check out her very nice acrylic paintings of the trees and the countryside which she's exhibiting at the Aberfeldy Gallery in the Spring Exhibition)
  
• Jane Heinrichs (Jane Heinrichs) drew a snowman with a "sideways mohawk and one plank arm" - see Snow in London - drawing lines. She also talks about drawing and I loved this quote

Beloved children's book illustrator Randolph Caldecott once said, "the fewer the lines, the less error committed."

• Naj (My Depictions ) did a Woodland Snow Painting
• while Rachel Groves (RachelCreative) in Lichfield, Staffordshire drew the snowman she would have built if she'd been well in Would Be Snowman (Drawing)
• while I took my photos and came home and then posted A Million Ponds - and two views in a series on Wednesday showing how different a pond looks like four days later - after the snow.

The Ecology Park Pond Series - #7 - Moor Hen Pond from the roof of the Ecology Centre (2nd February 2009)
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

whereas

• Caroline Johnson in Manchester (An English Artist in Britanny) has been writing in “Baby It’s Cold Outside!” about howThe Ladies Sketch Club is now meeting in each other's kitchens - and are sketching kitchens - and the gadgets and the clutter and the cake!

while "downunder" in Sydney Australia Liz Steel (Liz on Flickr) is writing and sketching about how it's too hot to go out sketching again on Urban Sketchers!

Art Blogs

• A really interesting post about a museum/Flickr project by Charley Parker (Lines and Colors) about Wikipedia loves art. This is where I'm going after I've finished this post!
• A good title for a blog post is almost always guaranteed to get me looking to see what you've written - such as this one from Nita Leland (Exploring Creativity) - Stop me before I glaze again. Almost matched by the previous one My guilt trip (which is where you find the self-portrait)
• I love what Robyn Sinclair (Have Dogs Will Travel) has been doing with her art lately. Plus you can't beat reminiscing - as a number of us did on Paper Doll.
• This morning Marion Boddy Evans (About.com Painting) posted a response to her blog post Why Shouldn't Artists Paint from Photos? as a post on her blog. It concerns a topic of perennial interest Quality of Results When Painting From Photos.
• Andrea in Vancouver (colouring outside the lines) writes about her experiments in painting over giclee prints in never say never. I agree with one of the comments which is as long as you're being open about what you're doing you can make art any way you want.
• I posted the sketches I did recently in Spitalfields in The religious extremes of Fournier Street in Spitalfields (see my drawing of the building which has been a church, synagogue and mosque on the right)

Art Group Blogs

Urban Sketchers has a new feature - the Flickr Fave which is regular feature highlighting the work from contributors to Urban Sketchers on Flickr.

• This week's Flickr Fave is about Fred Lynch drawing in Viterbo, Italy and has an interview with the artist concerned. Fred Lynch is the chair of the Illustration Department at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, Mass. just outside Boston, teaches at Rhode Island School of Design and is an accomplished oil painter.
• Last week's Flickr Fave was Bozeman's Main Street by Paul Heaston - Bozeman being a city in the southwestern part of Montana, USA - a series of very detailed drawings in a panoramic sketchbook. This is Paul Heaston's website.

Art Business and Marketing

• Edward Winkelman (edward_winkelman) has created an exceptionally useful post with Advice for Artists Seeking Gallery Representation. This is a RECOMMENDED BOOKMARK.
• The New York Times had an article about Nicola Vassell, a Director of an Art Gallery and A Shaper of Talent for a Changing Art World. Alternatively view the core messages as a slideshow - Breaking into an art world in flux
  
• This is Robert Genn's Painter's Keys clickback about Economics 101

A number of artists have been asking about the current economic downturn. More than anything, they want to know what's going to happen to us creative spirits. While I'm no economist, there's evidence of a hard truth.

Art follows money.

• Joanne Mattera (Joanne Mattera Art Blog) has a useful post about what it feels like if a gallery doesn't like your work in Marketing Mondays: Rejection. Get Over It
• Empty Easel also published the latest in the "Fear of" series - Overcoming the Fear of Failure: A Guide for Artists

• At the end of the week I created a couple of new information sites in the "selling your art online" series. Judging by the comments I've been getting from people these are a welcome addition to existing information. The new sites are:
• Sell Daily Paintings - Resources for Artists - which is a site for people who want to know more about how to sell daily paintings online - or improve their knowledge about the painting a day movement generally
• Resources for Artists - Selling Art Online - which is a new group site which houses all the various sites I've been creating in the the "selling your art online" series.
  
• The Artspan Blog has a couple of posts about
• Using PayPal to Sell Your Art
• Turn Your Art into a Rotating Ad Banner
• This is a ning community for Art Fair Insiders - I don't know anything about it, feedback would be appreciated. It says it's an "Art Fair network for artists exhibiting at juried fine art fairs and art festivals. Info on best craft shows, call for entries nationwide." This is their discussion forum
• Market Insider has a strapline which says it's the craft artists' guide to the business of selling to galleries, museum shops and retail stores. It's previously been run as a newsletter and has converted to a blog - but I'm wondering if they're struggling to get into the blogging habit. Posts have been good but sparse.
• The Wholesale Matters blog is currently running a series of 100 small actions - all aimed at improving business. They're a bit sparse - along the lines of 'do it' rather than 'how to do it' - but they're all generally good ideas. Here are 100 small actions #1-38. Again the blog seems to have stalled.
  
• One of the small actions which I noted - as I'd not come across it before is HARO (Help a Reporter Out ) run by Peter Shankman (Peter Shankman) - which is a service which has won awards. The idea is that it connectes up reporters seeking information with people who can provide an 'on-topic' constructive response. If you subscribe you get an email in your inbox three times a day and I guess the response is to write a blog post about the topic in question and then send a link by way of a reply.
  
• This is thought provoking post from Seth Godin The customer is always wrong

If your art has no market, it's still art. It just might not be a living.

Art exhibitions and juried shows

• Joanne Mattera (Joanne Mattera Art Blog) has an interesteting post about Juried Shows
  
• It's always good to see coloured pencils getting recognition in non-coloured pencil society exhibitions - which means it's being accepted more and more as a serious art medium. This week we saw Patsy Lindamood UKCPS in PaintAmerica Top100 on the UKCPS News blog
• CPSA: Explore This! 5 is now online and I commented about first the new website exhibition - which has some innovations which other art societies would do well to emulate - and second the exhibition itself.
• Yesterday I posted about the entry details for two art society exhibitions which are closing shortly
• Society of Botanical Artists - Annual Exhibition entry details. This too is noting how popular coloured pencils is becoming for botanical art.
  
• Society of Women Artists - Annual Exhibition entry details
• The 2009 “Paint the Parks” Call to Entries has a final deadline of May 30, 2008. 2009 Judges will be announced in February of 2009. I guess given the number of visitors to the USA some of the candidates could be international!
  
• There's an interesting article in the New York Times about the Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge Mass. - The Rise of the House of Rockwell
• “On the Money: Cartoons for The New Yorker” on display at the Morgan Library & Museum until May 24, shows how cartoons shed light on money. You can see a slideshow of some them in The New York Times slideshow Drawings about Dollars
  

Tips and techniques

• I don't know who started this one but I'm using Julie Oakley's blog post Create your own handwriting font which highlights the site in question which is Your Fonts. I'm going to have to try it when I get a minute or 30!
  

Websites and Blogging

• Successful Blog had an item this week about 10 Blogger Best Practices: What Guides You as You Extend Your Reach?

Here are 10 Blogger Best Practices for the social web. These 10 best practices guide me as I write and meet new people on the social web. They help me stay focused on my quest and explain it when people ask. When I remember them, they serve me well. I hope they’ll serve you too.

• Feedblitz News has an interesting and critical comment - Support Forums: Just Say No - about the use of Support Forums by a number of companies who are generating enough income to do rather better than they do in terms of customer support. I have to say I tend to agree.
  

And finally......

For all those who made a New Year's Resolution to try and shift some weight, I'd just like to record that as at the Saturday night weigh-in last night I've lost twelve and half pounds since New Year's Day!!! Which I think means I'm losing weight at around two and little bit pounds per week which seems like a sensible sort of weight loss rate.

I just hope it continues!

Is anybody else having similar success?