Saturday, July 25, 2009

26th July 2009 - Who's made a mark this week? #106

Harry Patch
Peter Kuefeld RP, NEAC
Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition 2009 (May 2009)
copyright the artist

Portraiture is more than just art. Portraiture is sometimes used to honour people by recording their presence in this world. Portraits of an individual can also serve to remind us of a community of people with the same experience.

Yesterday morning Harry Patch died. He was 109 years old and was our last living link with all those soldiers who fought in the trenches of the first world world war. Harry Patch was a Private who survived the Battle of Passchendaele. He never talked about the war until after his 100th birthday and when he did talk he was was passionate that no war was ever worth the killing of a single soldier - on either side.
More than any other battle, Passchendaele has come to symbolise the horrific nature of the great battles of the First World War. In terms of the dead, the Germans lost approximately 260,000 men, while the British Empire forces lost about 300,000, including approximately 36,500 Australians, 3,596 New Zealanders and some 16,000 Canadians from 1915 to 1917. 90,000 British and Dominion bodies were never identified, and 42,000 never recovered. Aerial photography showed 1,000,000 shell holes in 1 square mile (2.56 km2).
This is the BBC's website record of the experiences of "The Last Tommy". This is the Guardian's obituary and this is Private Harry Patch in the Daily Telegraph.

In May I was fortunate to see his portrait, which had been painted by Peter Kuefeld RP NEAC, at the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. It made me think then and it made me think again yesterday - and that's the power of portraiture.

As I said about his portrait in my Exhibition review: Royal Society of Portrait Painters 2009 (May 2009)
I really appreciate seeing portraits of ordinary people in amongst the ranks of the royals, politicians, academics, military and wealthy families who too often are the subjects of portraits in this exhibition. I'd really like to see a prize for the best portrait of somebody who's worthy of commoration but who is actually just an ordinary person.
A Portrait of Henry Allingham the last survivor of the founding of the RAF and of the Battle of Jutland will be seen in a BBC documentary and then be exhibited in London in November before being auctioned in aid of St Dunstan's, the home for ex-servicemen where he lived. Allingham became the oldest man in the world before he died last month at the age of 113.

Allingham's portrait is by Dan Llywelyn Hall who also has a portrait of Harry Patch in this year's BP Portrait Award exhibition. This particular portrait was done from a single 3 hour sitting.

The SSA Artist of the Year

On a happier note I'm pleased to highlight the fact that Hashim Akib has been awarded Artist of the Year by the SAA. The website hasn't changed yet but when it does you should be able to see the works which won the various categories. At present you can see the work which has won in previous years.

In the meantime, can I suggest that all those who are trying to improve their drawing and painting of trees take a look at his gallery of trees. Similarly his urban figurative work is most impressive - and the winning painting is an excellent example of this

Notting Hill Crowds by SAA Artist of the Year Hashim Akib
(Also Winner of the Best Townscape of Industrial Scene)
Acrylic on canvas
copyright the artist

Art Blogs



Coloured Pencils and Pastels
Painters

Art Business and Marketing

Art and the Economy / Art Collectors

  • At the New Statesman - you can start reading a series of investigations into art and the financial crisis, Tim Adams traces the falling stock of the melodramatic poster-child of Britart The tent is empty by Tim Adams. He starts with Tracy Emin.

“The art market is on a knife-edge,”

Tracey Emin

Art Competitions and Art Societies

The New York State Museum hosts a biennial exhibition of natural history artwork called Focus on Nature. Artists all around the world are eligible, and the show has grown to be one of the most prestigious in natural history art. The upcoming 11th edition will be held April 29- October 31, 2010. The deadline for entries is October 1.

Art Exhibitions

Art Education / workshops / Tips and techniques

Art History

Art Studios

Art Supplies

American Artist is participating in a comprehensive study to find out how you currently use artists' paints and surfaces and what products you might want to try or have changed to better suit your needs. What do you like best about acrylic paints? What would you change about oil colors? Do you use watercolors because they are portable or because they are water-soluble? Those are the types of easy questions you will be asked to respond to if you participate in the survey.

Art television


A reality show about artists!? Like American Idol??????
"American Artist" will bring together twelve aspiring artists to compete for a gallery show, a cash prize and a sponsored national tour. In each episode, contestants will create unique works of art highlighting art's role in everyday life, while they compete and create in a range of disciplines including sculpture, painting, photography and industrial design (to name a few). In working beyond their preferred mediums, artists will have to adapt quickly to changes in order to succeed. Completed works of art will be appraised by a panel of top art world figures including fellow artists, gallerists, collectors, curators and critics. The finalists' work will be showcased in a nation-wide museum tour.
Bravo TV
Read on:
Saturday was the final casting call for the new art reality show tentatively called The Untitled Art Project, which is being produced for Bravo by Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker in collaboration with Magical Elves, the company responsible for the popular reality contest shows Top Chef and Project Runway, on which the new art show will be modeled.

Colour

Copyright

Websites, webware and blogging

I look at a lot of artists web sites, and a lot of them are unnecessarily difficult to navigate. I thought I'd write up the common design problems I find, based on the opinions I developed as a web and interface designer for 11 years.

and finally........



This week started on a serious note and is finishing on a very light fun one. Sarah Wimperis is hard at work on her Scilly Cow on her blog Hand and I. That's Scilly |Cow as in a cow painted to look like the Isles of Scilly.

A Scilly Cow in Sarah's Studio

Sarah has been asked to paint a cow for Truro's Herd of Cows this summer and she's taken delivery of one life size fiberglass cow ready for a bit of artistry at the hand of La Wimperis.

You can read about her progress in painting her cow in the following posts - which have lots of ace images of the step by step process! :) I'm just wondering how she's going to get the "independent streak" in! :)
PS I'm racing out the door to go sketching with the Friends of the Royal Watercolour Society in Kensington Gardens - I'll be back later with more pics for this post!

Making a Mark reviews......

Posted by Making A Mark on Saturday, July 25, 2009
Categories , , , ,

1 comment:

  1. adebanjiSunday, July 26, 2009

    Thanks for this post! I have never heard of the artist that won the SAA of the year, GREAT WORKS AND GREAT WEBSITE-I instantly fell in love with the urban scenes and the fact that the are works mostly painted in acrylic!

    ReplyDelete

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