31st May 2009 - Who's made a mark this week?

Photos from the International Garden Photographer of the Year Exhibition, Kew Gardens
Top row - Plant Portrait prizewinners; Edible Plants Prizewinners;
Bottom row - a selection of photos in the wildlife in the garden; one of the portfolios
copyright the artists

Well! In the first week of the pedometer, I walked more than 55,000 steps while doing three major walks with "he who must not be bored while I sketch", seeing five exhibitions and going on a sketching trip to sketch the 2012 Olympic Stadium - see Sketching the Olympic Park (more of this to come).

The exhibitions I saw were:

• the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers - of which more next week.
  
• the International Garden Photographer of the Year Exhibition - which is outdoors near the Pavilion Restaurant at Kew Gardens! The selected entries were chosen by a panel of thirteen judges from thousands of entries received from around the world, You can see the winners here. The overall winner of the £5,000 prize for the best single image is UK-based photographer, Jonathan Berman for In Tresco Abbey Gardens . This is an infrared photograph of Tresco Abbey Gardens on the Scilly Isles which has an ethereal dream-like quality. You can also see the photos I took of the exhibition - amongst the trees - in this Flickr set. I'm still trying to work out what the photographs are on so that they don't deteriorate or fade while outside in all weathers!
  
• three different exhibitions of botanical art at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at Kew Gardens:
• The Power of Plants
• Down Under: Contemporary Botanical Artists from Australia and New Zealand
• In Search of Gingers

Tomorrow I'm going to the Private View and awards ceremony for Wildife Artist of the Year.

Drawing and sketching

• On Tuesday I provided the results and commented on the survey about How do you draw? #2. I aksed whether you've ever drawn yourself drawing here are a couple of images of other people who drew themselves while drawing.

(Left) Felicity Grace - self portrait marathon (Right) Vivien Blackburn - self portrait for a grandchild
copyright the artists

• Pete Scully (Pete Scully) got mentioned on Fox News! - see media mentions
• I'm really getting into walking and sketching - see 8,000 steps 3.8 miles 456 calories! Watch out for an announcement about Sketchercise.

Coloured pencils and pastels

• Today's the last day of The International Association of Pastel Societies 2009 Convention in Albuquerque. It'll be interesting to see what pops up on blogs next week as participants get home.
  
• I'd be really pleased if I could produce paintings like the ones in this post 4 days of Painting in Sonoma on Bill Cone's blog (Bill Cone) - never mind produce them all while painting plein air! You can tell this is somebody who got honed his techniques by painting a lot - just look at the number of pastel paintings he produced in 4 days! It's made me have another think about Canson paper as I was convinced they were oils to start with!
  
• Deborah Secor (Deborah Secor - Art and Faith) has been producing 15 pastel paintings - and taking less than an hour for each. For more details see The Completed Challenge!! and below. It's interesting to see the new Pan Pastels on different surfaces - and some great skies and clouds!
  

All of them are 9x9", all in pastel, some with PanPastels, some with sticks, and some with both, but on different papers (Wallis, Pastelmat, Colourfix). None of them took me over an hour to paint, start to finish, and most were less--some much less. I did as I promised and posted the good, the bad, and the blah.
Deborah Secor writing about her challenge

• Karen Margulis (Painting My World) based in Georgia has been recently staying in Taos, New Mexico and plein air sketching in pastels some of the subjects painted by Georgia O'Keeffe.
• plus see the art education and book review sections below.

Painters

• Michael Chesley Johnson (A Plein Air Painter's Blog) asks On the Road: When is a Painting Worthy of an OPA National Show?

Before I left, I stood among these fine pieces and pondered the grand issue of Quality. What is it that makes a painting worthy of this kind of national show?
I observed that it's three things: Exciting composition, exciting color, and exciting brushwork. If you wish, you can boil this down to one thing: Drama.

• Last week I highlighted Marc Dalessio and this week Charley Parker has profiled him on Lines and Colors in Marc Dalessio. Seems as if Julian Merrow Smith rates him also and had recommended him..........
• Frank Gardner (My Paint Box) demonstrates how he produces Studio Paintings from Plein Air Sketches
• Adebanji Alade (Adebanji Alade) has been shortlisted as a Great Briton in a really great competition and needs your votes! He explains why in I need your vote!! Voting ends in 9 days time....

Sculpture

• Simon Schubert is an Artist who creates pictures by folding paper. You can see more examples of his work on his website. I'm still puzzling over how he does it.

Simon Schubert starts with a blank sheet of paper and strategically defines his images using only folds. The series of marks appear becomes to jump from the page as if it was a piece of pressed tin. The images are hauntingly beautiful.
_{West Collection - Simon Schubert}

Art Group Blogs

• Karin Jurick (Different Strokes for Different Folks) has a great challenge this time around - the reference photos is a monochrome image and is being used to produced paintings in colour. It looks to me this challenge has produced some really interesting paintings

Art Business and Marketing

• Linda Blondheim (Linda Blondheim Art Notes) writes about how some artists' your marketing activities can get somewhat OTT. It's always difficult to 'call it' when other artists are being both inconsiderate and unprofessional and that's why I'm supporting Linda on this one.
  

When do we become so desperate to sell our work that we will push the limits of integrity and good form?...........Think about your core values and integrity as a professional and keep them alive in all of your dealings with artists and patrons. Don't be so desperate for fame and recognition that you will leave them behind.

• Sad to say but as of June 1st, Linda is not going to be posting to Art Notes any more - see thispost for the explanation More Musing on What I should do. If you've found it helpful in the past why not go and thank her? She's now going to be focusing her efforts on her collectors blog Landscapes of the South - and back in February she told us all about Attracting Viewers to a Collector Blog, Notes From the Studio
• Joanne Mattera (Joanne Matterra Art Blog) highlights some strategies and activities employed by galleries trying to survive the recession in Marketing Mondays: Gallery Business - a must read for all those with work currently in galleries
• Jane Heinricks wrote a useful post about Art on the Airwaves: How to Get a Radio Interview. . . and Make it Count! on Empty Easel
• For those using Squidoo, there's a new ning community for Senior Squids - but it has an age bar - you need to be at least 50!

Art Competitions

BP Portrait Award

• I posted the BP Portrait Award 2009 - the shortlist on Wednesday - and you can read who I predict will win.
• Then on Thursday I analysed some of the statistics about recent entrants and selected artists since the competition in BP Portrait Award - who enters and who gets selected

The Threadneedle Prize for Painting and Sculpture

Just a reminder - you now have just TWO days left to register your work. Registration closes at midnight on Monday 1 June 2009. Go online NOW to register up to three works

Art Education / Tips and techniques

Many of you have asked for more classical art teachings from obscure primary sources. So today and tomorrow, I’d like to share some rare nuggets from Howard Pyle.
James Gurney

• James Gurney (Gurney Journey) has a post about Pyle on Tone and Edges - it's short and succinct and provides valuable advice and Pyle on Light and Shadow
• On Monday I suggested 5 guidelines for beginning to use soft pastels - thanks for the comments
  
• To reinforce the merit of 'to do' lists here's Linda Blondheim (Linda Blondheim Art Notes) with An update on the "I want List"

Art Supplies

• Yesterday I posted the MAM Poll May RESULTS: Preferred media for drawing or sketching. The medium which came second was very surprising - or maybe it wasn't - depending on your perspective. Were you surprised by any of the results
• Product Review: Ampersand Pastelbord for coloured pencil artwork is a compilation of various reviews of Pastelbord
  

Book reviews

• I did a book review of the very first pastel book I ever bought - still great after all these years! - See Book Review: The Pastel Book
• Nita Leland (Exploring Color and Creativity) wrote in Books in high places about how she saw her book Confident Color on the shelves of the bookstore at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Which reminds me - I need to tell her that I saw it on the bookshelves of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew! ;)

Websites and Blogging

• Matt Cutts (the man who fights spam for Google) has provided an update on Straight from Google: What You Need to Know Do download the Powerpoint presentation - it's got lots and lots and lots of really good tips.
• Lots of announcements about new products this week:
  
• A new search engine called Bing is about to launch this week. It's Microsoft's answer to Google. Keep an eye out for it and see whether or not it's just the same search engine as Live with a new brand name.
• Mashable highlighted Google Wave: A Complete Guide- it provides an overview of the basics of Google Wave and a link to an in-depth guide to the terminology associated with it and more on Google’s newest product. I'm not at all sure how it's relevan to artists - but then I didn't see how Twitter would be either!
  

and finally.........

Nothing to do with art - or is it? I finally got an answer to a question which has crossed my mind from time to time from Ariane a Guide Interpreter at Giverny (Giverny Impression) in Gardener at Giverny

I'm now off to go and see how another garden is getting on............