MAM Poll (August) results: the MAIN way you've sold art in the last 12 months

Results of the survey run on Making A Mark - August 2009
(n = 56 responses in 3 weeks)
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The three most important ways you've sold art in the last 12 months are:

• via traffic to/from your own website and/or blog (21%)
  
• through commissions (21%)
  
• via a gallery - as a gallery artist (15%)
  

This means that the two major sources of sales for the artists who responded to the poll were both entirely driven by their own marketing efforts.

The Making A Mark Poll for August asked What's the MAIN way you have sold art in the last 12 months? It's important to emphasise that:

• you may have made sales in a variety of ways - this poll just examines the MAIN way in which artists achieved sales.
  
• this poll only focuses on the last 12 months - while we've been experincing a really serious recession which has doubtless had an impact on the sales of very many artists.
  

This post also compares the results with the results of the same poll done at the same time last year (which you can find out about in this blog post What's the MAIN way you sell your art? - The Results). The number of respondents were virtually identical - and this number is significantly lower than the number who regularly respond to polls on this blog.

You can see the results of the 2009 Poll in the chart at the top of this post right click and open in a new tab or window to see the chart as a bigger image.

Below you'll find my analysis and a commentary - but I'd be very pleased to hear your views about the results - and any explanations you may have for why the results are as they are.

A note of caution about interpretation at the outset.

1. This is a poll rather than a properly conducted survey. People responding selected themselves and as such almost certainly do not represent artists in general. I have no knowledge of whether or not they are professional, semi-professional or amateur artists. Nor do I know whether or not they make a living from their art or sell an occasional drawing or painting.
2. Artists make sales in a variety of ways - this poll focuses on the main way respondents sold their art ONLY. This could mean it's the channel which is most effective or, alternatively, it could means this is the channel which they find easiest to use.
   
3. Similarly since the poll asked about which channel produced most sales, NOT most profit. Quite a lot of artists never crunch the numbers to work out which are their most profitable channels for marketing and sales. Asking which is your most profitable channel for generating sales may have generated a completely different pattern of results - although I rather suspect it could have been very similar.
4. The results of this poll do NOT suggest that you can set up a blog or website to sell art and resign your job tomorrow! ;)

Analysis of the 2009 Poll

My analysis is influenced by reading widely in the 'trade press' and artists blogs and forums. Also influential are the observations I've made while viewing the very many exhibitions I go to see in London - only some of which have been reported on this blog in terms of specific galleries, exhibitions and artists.

Of the artists who responded to the poll:

• 60% indicated that they generated most of their sales without the involvement of a gallery or art fair. Last year some 53% of artists responding to the poll say that the main way they sell their art is independent of organisations which sell art for artists. I have to say I'm not surprised is the trend is towards more sales generated by artists largely independently of the activities of third parties.
  
• 21% of artists said their main sales came from commissions. This wasn't identified as a category last time (aklthough it should have been!). It seems likely that most of these artists work as portrait artists as this tends to be the main source of commissions. I didn't clearly identify illustration work commissioned for a fee as a way people sold art but it is possible that some artists have counted their illustration work (as opposed to sales of fine art works) in this category. Reviewing your website or blog to identify just how easy it is for people to commission your work might be an exercise that some artists will now think worth doing.
• 18% of artists make their sales as gallery artists and via galleries. Getting to be a gallery artist is not easy and this source of sales is never going to be a significant source of sales given the wide range of artosts who read this blog and respond to the polls. However it is worth noting that the percentage of artists reporting gallery sales as their main source of sales has increased since last year!
• Friends and family continue to be important - 11% of artists identified this network as generating most of their sales. However this is a smaller figure than last year when it was 16%. This in all probability reflects the general impact of the recession on levels of spending on non-essential items.
  
• 11% of artists identified online third party gallery/auction sites as being their main source of sales - via eBay, etsy and other online sites. In theory - if everybody interpreted the categories the same way - these are sales where traffic is not generated by the artists' own website or blog
• 10% of artists generate sales though renting a space - either at an art fair (5%) or in a gallery (5%). Renting a gallery is generating about the same level of response as last time. However sales via art fairs are way down when compared to last year.
  
• Art competitions and Art Society Shows are very unlikely to generate significant sales for most artists - although it's likely that some artists may make an odd sale through this route. No artist generated most of their sales through this route - which is a significant decline on the response this got in 2008 (7%). Overall I'd say this is a picture of contrasts. From personal observation I've seen good quality and attractive art (dare one say decorative!?) sell well and established and well known artists also continue to make sales via this route. However overall sales appear to me to be down and there are some very definite thresholds on pricing which are influential. Large pictures appear more difficult to shift and I've seen an awful lot of smaller paintings this year. I've also seen some shows where sales were minimal - but generally have not reported them on this blog. I would not be surprised if some art societies have to start thinking long and hard about about the duratation and location of their annual exhibition next year. However - by way of contrast - the buying public are still turning out in high numbers for certain specialist genres (eg miniatures, botanical, wildlife). My overall view is that artists should never depend on such shows to generate major sales. However I do believe they might see more sales when art societies start to understand the work and website support involved in generating sales in the context of the current climate and frameworks used for selling art. It's such a pity as such exhibitions could generate much more income for both artist, art society and the gallery where the shows are held if they got to grips with their websites and the support it requires. One suspects it's more a question of not knowing what's involved and not knowing where to start rather than a total disinclination to make a move.
  

Conclusions

I've revised my conclusions from last year and reiterate them - with revisions below. The comments on the change from 2008 are indicated in italics.

Overall, the conclusion one might draw from this survey is that

• working hard at selling via your personal networks and your own blog and website can really pay off in terms of sales. (same as last year) This applies whether you are an individual artist or an art society or other art group which aims to sell art
  
• If established artists become convinced of the merits and profitability of selling direct, then selling which has a high cost to sales ratio - through art fairs and galleries - might start to come under review if the economic situation worsens. (Gallery sales as a gallery artist have increased while sales via art fairs have decreased) Well we all know what happened about two weeks after this post last year! The global economy went into a banking meltdown as a result of the credit crunch and many countries entered a recession. It seems likely to me that artists selling art at art fairs decided to cut their costs in various ways - including how many art fairs they did or how far they travelled to an art fair. Gallery artists which are fortunate to belong to a gallery which is surviving the recession (and not all have) are possibly benefiting from the fact that there is now reduced competition for the purchasing £/$ which are still around
  
• By way of contrast, the "less expert" or "less focused" channels or entities which do not market art as well as the artists themselves appear to be much less successful at generating sales. It's very interesting that once we focus on how sales are generated via online sites it becomes very apparent that HOW the artist gets people to their online third party site where sales are made is absolutely critical to making a sale. Sales by online galleries/auction sites independent of the artist's website or blog are minimal. Last year the situation was confused due to the way the categories were described. I believe that changing the designation of the categories has created a much clearer picture of how artists who responded to the poll make most of their sales. By combining the website and blog and indicating that sales should count if generated by the website or blog - even if the sale actually took place on another site - this has highlighted that an artist's own website and blog are now very important in generating sales. I'd also observe that some of the organisations holding exhibitions (eg some art competitions and some 'go ahead' art societies) now also recognise the importance of having their websites are now set up to drive traffic to an exhibition and support the creation of online sales. I've got some more questions about this aspect which I'll explore with those who are interested in a future poll.
  
• Artists using less successful options should consider how they compare to available alternatives which are more successful for some artists - and what they need to do to work at marketing their art (same as last year)
  

For me the results of this year's poll are an emphatic reinforcement of the need to make sure that:

• you are organised around direct sales and
  
• you don't rely on third parties to make the sales for you.
  

Only if you are a gallery artist can you hope to make serious sales via third parties.

Below you can find the chart - and the categories - from 12 months ago.

Results of the survey run on Making A Mark - August 2008
(n = 55 responses in 5 weeks)
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Do you agree with my analysis? I'd love to hear your views onbe way or the other.

Do you have any further comments that you'd like to share?

30th August 2009 - Who's made a mark this week?

What's been making a mark on me this week is a book I'm currently reading - The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art by Don Thompson.

It's about the curious economics and psychology which underpin how the contemporary art market now works and the ways in which the auction houses it - notably Christies and Sotheby's.

Sotheby's, 34-35 New Bond Street, London
photo from wikipedia

Why would a very smart New York investment banker pay twelve million dollars for the decaying, stuffed carcass of a shark? By what alchemy does Jackson Pollock's drip painting No.5 1948 sell for $140 million? And why does a leather jacket with silver chain attached, tossed in a corner and titled 'No One Ever Leaves', bring $690,000 at a 2007 Sotheby's auction?
Book jacket of The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art

It provides an insight into the overall marketing strategies and and branding tactics used for contemporary art and explains how the contemporary art market transformed itself from being about art to being about investment portfolios.

It's so good I've started to feel the need to say something about it before I've even finished reading it - hence this blurb today!

There will be a review of the book posted on Making A Mark reviews...... in the very near future - I've just got a few more pages to go!

Also this week, of particular note, is the fact that one of the main 'players' in the book, advertiser and mega art collector Charles Saatchi has today provided an interview to The Observer newspaper - see 30 things about art and life, as explained by Charles Saatchi is. Saatchi very rarely gives interviews

In the past, he has explained his silence with, "I'm very shifty and very nervous - that's why I keep my gob shut," and he's renowned for never attending his exhibition openings.

.....so I was more than a bit astonished when I saw this article. Plus it's got some really great quotes - the one below starts the article. This article is very much the second of this week's recommended reads!

By and large, talent is in such short supply that mediocrity can be taken for brilliance rather more than genius can go undiscovered.

Don't whatever you do miss the bit towards the end where he provides caricatures of those constants of the art world - artists, curators, dealers, collectors and critics.

Curators

With very few exceptions, the big-name globe-trotting international mega-event curators are too prone to curate clutching their PC guidebook in one hand and their Bluffer's Notes on art theory in the other. They seem to deliver the same type of Groundhog Day show, for the approval of 250 or so like-minded devotees. These dead-eyed, soulless exhibitions dominate the art landscape with their sociopolitical pretensions.

The interview is of course also about marketing and is an article with a global advertising icon which is NOT unconnected with the fact that he has a book about to be published and a television series in the making - but c'est la vie!

NOTE:

• My Name is Charles Saatchi and I am an Artoholic: Everything You Need to Know About Art, Ads, Life, God and Other Mysteries and Weren't Afraid to Ask (Phaidon Press 2009) by Charles Saatchi is out on 8 September 2009, www.phaidon.com
• Saatchi's Best of British on BBC2 this November, is an "X Factor for artists", will feature six artists plucked from obscurity by Saatchi himself and put through a specially created art school for three months.

Art Blogs

Drawing and sketching

Amalie's birthday - at the Boating Pond on Hampstead Heath
11.5" x 17", pencil and coloured pencils in Daler Rowney Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

• On Wednesday I became a 'very nearly' Great Aunt and then went sketching - see Hampstead Heath and the Boating Pond. I've even now mastered the art of producing the sketchercise walking map with sketching locations - You can see the circular route we took from the tube, across Hampstead Heath and back again on this Google Map of Hampstead Heath Walk #1 - circular walk to the Boating Pond. Theer'll be a post coming soon on Travels with my Sketchbook with more examples and tips on how to do it.
• On Monday I was trying out a new exercise I invented One lake x 4 views x 10 mins each
• Ronell van Wyck reflects on Sketching with greens
• Robert Genn muses about Sketches on location
• Back to the drawing board with Ted Cullinan - 2008 RIBA Gold Medalist Ted Cullinan to talk about his passion for drawing, his favourite architects’ implements and why we’re seeing a return to pen and paper.

Cartoons

• I've always had great admiration for cartoonists - bringing as they do an abuility to get a graphic image down on paper while using elements of irony and wit. Peter Preston of The Observer laments the demise of the political cartoonist The coils of the net are filled with dead cartoonists. In particular he laments the apparent disappearance of the idea that a picture tells a story instead of just accompanying a story
  

Illustration and Fantasy Art

For those who like their illustration art to be firmly located on the fantasy side take a look at

• Irene Gallo's The Art Department blog has got mentioned by Lines and Colors and also rated as one of Parka Blog's Art Blogs of Note (25 Aug 2009). She has an interesting post about the future of book covers and the impact of e-books on the delivery and economics of illustration.
  

In addition to her own terrific blog, The Art Department (required reading for anyone interested in science fiction and fantasy illustration),...........
Charley Parker

• Jon Schindehette's blog ArtOrder and the Flaming Coward Challenge. Jon is the Senior Art Director for Dungeon & Dragons®
• The Spectrum Exhibition which will open on Tuesday. James Gurney provides a review in anticipation of it in Spectrum Exhibition Opens September 11 - except's it's the 1st it opens not the 11th!
  

"Spectrum" is on display at the Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators. Featuring the best contemporary "fantastic" art from renowned fantasy, science fiction, horror, and surreal artists from around the world. September 1 through October 17, 2009.

Painters and Painting

Congrats to Marie Fox (Marie Fox) whose work "Sounds of the Sea" was accepted to the 2009 California Open Exhibition in Santa Monica, California (65 selected out of over 400 works entered) - and then won first prize and $500! She then wrote to me to tell me about its story.........definitely worth a read

The magic for me is that "Sounds of the Sea" is only my 2nd figurative painting - and 2nd large painting. After all this time creating small still life oils (and years of folk art), I took a great leap to a new subject matter and size - to be rewarded by this level of recognition. I've always had a passion for drawing the human figure, but never dared paint it. I'm painting big too - which feels good because I'm tall....All this excitement on the eve of my 64th birthday! Happily, I'll be creating more big paintings of strong women at age 64, rather than worrying who will "still need me, who will still feed me", as the song goes.....
Marie Fox

Sculpture

• This was fascinating - a slideshow about how Dozens of artists transform a 100ft tall oak tree into art. The diseased tree was felled a year ago in front of 500 people during the annual Oak Fair on the 1,800 acre Stock Gaylard Estate in Dorse. I'm now wondering what they got up to a year later - yesterday!

Art Business and Marketing

• What Is In a Title? asks Richard McKinley in a thought provoking post on Pastel Pointers
• Jeanette Jobson (Illustrated Life) has been mulling over Business cards for artists
• Have you got a brag book? If not try reading about a lady who has in Anne's Story...
• That tip was provided by Tony Moffit who also recommends 5 Ways To Put Your Client's Mind At Ease
• Should I give up? Robert Genn responds to a question from a painter with a directness some may be surprised by.
• Annie Liebowitz is unfortunately providing an object lesson in what happens when it all does wrong with the debt management side of an artist's business - although it looks like she might not lose everything - read Leibovitz’s $40 Million Astor Barns, Townhouses Might Ease Debt

Art and the Economy / Art Collectors

• The Government Art Collection has spent £556,911 of taxpayers money on new artworks in the past year, including £14,000 on a piece of art made from old lightbulbs for an embassy. - see Government art cost taxpayers £500,000. Do you think the Shadow Culture Secretary has a point?

"It is deeply disturbing that during a recession the Government is spending so much of taxpayers' money on additional material for the Government's art collection....There are already thousands of pieces in the collection that aren't on public display so surely this is an area where the Government should cut back during tough times."

Jeremy Hunt, the shadow culture secretary

Art Competitions

Just a reminder that:

• the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2009 - deadline is 21st September
• The final deadline for receipt of entries (in London) for the ING Discerning Eye 2009 is 5th September 2009! See ING Discerning Eye 2009 - call for entries

Art Exhibitions and art fairs

• The Crowds queue as Banksy show nears its end
• The second this year’sThreadneedle Prize Exhibition opens to the public at the Mall Galleries on Wednesday 2 September 2009. Voting for the £25,000 first prize closes at 12 noon on Monday 14 September 2009. I'm going to Press Preview on Tuesday and there will be a review of the exhibition posted either late on Tuesday or early Wednesday.
  
• The 10th Annual Exhibition of the Society of Feline Artists opened yesterday and the Private View is on Tuesday. There'll be a review on this blog on Thursday.
• “Georgia O’Keeffe: Abstraction” will be at Whitney Museum of Art between September 17th and January 17th 2010.
  
• I've been looking at future exhibitions at the National Gallery - which includes The Sacred Made Real: Spanish Painting and Sculpture 1600–1700 which opens on 21 October

Art Education / workshops / Tips and techniques

• Yesterday's post about Watercolour pencil techniques highlighted a YouTube Video about watercolour pencil techniques by Tim Fisher.
• Meanwhile Cathy Johnson (Cathy Johnson Fine Art) is giving away a free CD of her Watercolor Basics
• and Cathy Gatland (A Sketch in Time) has been writing about How to Sketch Crowds
• Dan at Empty Easel has a number of tips for How to Keep Acrylic Paints from Drying Out on Your Palette

Art History

• On Monday I highlighted how the Musée Picasso in Paris now closed until 2012
• It was great to to see posts last week by Charley Parker (Lines and Colors) about
• Vermeer’s Milkmaid in New York
• Georgia O’Keeffe
• One of the paintings I have always really liked made it to the featured painting slot in The Independent this week - see Great Works: Doge Leonardo Loredan (1501-2), Giovanni Bellini. Once seen, never forgotten. I loved reading the analysis of why it works.
• You can Subscribe to the Artwork of the Day feed generated by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
  
• On Steve Doherty's Blog (American American website) he asked Is Sargent the Greatest Art Teacher?
• While Germaine Greer took no prisoners in her Guardian article Desperate Romantics? The only desperate thing about the pre-Raphaelites was their truly bad art

Art Supplies

• Read my Product review: Pentel Waterbrush which also references two very useful reviews of waterbrushes by Russ Stutler and Roz Stendhal
• pencil talk has a review of the Faber-Castell Pitt Oil Base pencil
• Richard McKinley has been writing about A New Surface for Pastels - a new paper called Pastelmat - on his Artists Network blog Pastel Pointers. This is always an excellent blog with lots of good advice and helpful reviews
  
• I'm afraid the same can't be said for another Artists Network blog Anatomy of Art Materials and this has now been removed from the blogroll of Making A Mark Reviews. There were only ever sporadic posts at best - but 5 months is quite long enough! I just find it so surprising that an art magazine empire which gets such a lot of its advertising from people advertising art supplies should have so much trouble providing useful blog posts about art materials. Maybe it's time to have a rethink of the blogging model used for this blog? After all blogs don't have to be written by one person!
• Which means I'm still looking for art blogs which are as useful in terms of reviewing art materials as one's like Roz Wound Up by Roz Stendhal. Roz always does a very thorough and very informative review - see for example her review on Friday of Commercial Sketchbooks: Exacompta 9920 Sketchbook and also Paper Choices: Strathmore Illustration Board for Wet Media
• I'm 'auditioning' a few new blogs for the MAMreviews blogroll. However if you've seen another reviews oriented blog which is worth taking a look at please do leave a comment and provide a link.

Every so often you have to make an expensive purchase to support your art habit and that was certainly the case for me this week - as recorded in Printers come...and printers go..... It's had lots of comments and it sounds like a fair few other people need to change/upgarde their printers too. Isn't it amazing how long we continue to 'make do' with something that has stopped performing (or never could) at the level we really want and/or need?

Book Reviews

• Another summary of a previous book review has been posted to MAMreviews - Book Review: The Art Atlas

Opinion Poll

• Just a quick note to say that you have less than 24 hours left to vote on What's the MAIN way you have sold art in the last 12 months? I'll be posting an analysis of the results tomorrow in terms of the poll and a comparison with the results from the same poll carried out a year ago.

Websites, webware and blogging

• if you're using Twitter to help with your marketing you may well be interested in this post by Jakob Neilsen (the "guru of usability") and Twitter Postings: Iterative Design

Clickthrough decay: Twitter time passes 10 times faster than email time.

the shorter it is, the more important it is to design text for usability.

and finally........

Has a President ever generated quite so much art before? Take a look at this website which is about The Art of Obama? There's 416 entries and counting.........

Watercolour pencil techniques

Thanks to Pauline Longley (Pauline Longley's ArtBlog) who discovered this YouTube Video about watercolour pencil techniques by Tim Fisher.

It's crammed full of tips for working watercolour pencils and is well worth a watch. In just under ten minutes it manages to compress an awful lot of the information you get in many books about working with watercolour pencils - and this video is free!

I've got details about the watercolour pen brush he's working with over on Making A Marks reviews...... - see Product review: Pentel Waterbrush

Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2009 - deadline 21st September

The deadline for submissions by artists for the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize - which seeks to encourage creative representational painting and promote the skill of draughtsmanship - is fast approaching.

This is the fifth year and the Prize is now a well established feature within the fraternity of the UK figurative artists.

• Artwork starts being collected from regional collection points next Thursday 3rd September.
  
• Those who can get to the London Hand In Centre at St Mary Abbots Centre, Vicarage Gate, London W8 4HN have until 20th-21st September 2009 to submit their work
  

How to enter

To give you an idea about numbers, in 2008, the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize attracted nearly 800 entries from all over the UK. From these the selectors chose just 64 paintings for an exhibition held at Painters’ Hall, City of London in November 2008.

Images from the first five years of the Prize

That means there's less than 10% chance of getting work accepted - but this is a prestigious exhibition so you're in very good company if you do.

This art competition is administered by Parker Harris. Entry forms, further information and labels are available on their website to download as follows:

• LPS Leaflet - this provides guidance on the entry and details dates for regional collection of submissions
• LPS Entry Form
• LPS Labels

The basic rules of the competition and conditions of entry are as follows:

• To enter you must be over 18 on 20 September 2009 and resident in the United Kingdom, Channel Islands or Isle of Man.
  
• You may only submit original, two dimensional works in any painting media which have been completed in the last three years and have never been been previously exhibited.
  
• All works submitted must be available for exhibition until the 31 December 2009
• You can submit up to four works which must not exceed 72 inches (183 cms) in their largest dimension including frame.
  
• Specific requirements regarding framing and/or cross-bearers for canvases. There must with no projections are the rear of the frame.
• All works must be for sale, except commissioned portraits.
  
• All work needs to be fully labelled (artist’s name, address, title of work, price)
  
• All work must be submitted unpacked (ie no support for unpacking/packing) with a fully completed Entry Form and an entry fee of £15 (per work) to a collection point
  
• Final deadline for receipt of entries in London: 21st September 2009. The guidance provides details of receiving dates for 16 towns and cities (and motorwat service stations) throughout the UK besides London. The earliest receiving date (in Birmingham) is 3rd September
• Unselected works to be collected from London on 25-26 September
• Commission of 40% +VAT will be levied on works sold during or as a result of the exhibition, or by means of the website, www.painterstainers.org.
  
• Unsold works to be collected 27th November
• The judges’ decision will be final and binding.

On Thursday 24 September 2009, a list of the accepted artists’ names and registration numbers will be viewable at www.painterstainers.org or www.parkerharris.co.uk.

Selectors
The 2009 panel will include the following judges:

• Angela Flowers, Director, Flowers Gallery
• Mick Rooney RA, artist
• Daphne Todd OBE PPRP NEAC, artist
• Susan Wilson, artist
• Andrew Wilton, Visiting Research Fellow at Tate Britain

Ian Fair, a Trustee of the Lynn Foundation, will act as the non-voting Chairman of the panel.

Prizes

The prizes are

• The Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize - £15,000 plus an engraved Gold Medal
• 5 Runner-Up Prizes each at £1,000
• Young Artist Award - £2,500 - to be awarded to an artist who is 25 years of age or under on 20 September 2009
  

Exhibition

The 2009 Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize Exhibition will be held at The Worshipful Company of Painter Stainers at The Painters’ Hall in Little Trinity Lane, London EC1 on 19 November to 30 November 2009 10am to 4pm Monday to Saturday. Admission is free

During the exhibition a series of Master Classes have been organised on the art of still life and portrait drawing. All classes are free, but booking is essential. Further information will be available shortly.

The Lynn Painter-Stainers Fish
(Four fish out of water)
14" x 18", coloured pencils
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I attended one of these last year and had fun drawing these fish while sitting in the magnificent Livery Hall hall of Painters' Hall - the home of the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers in the City of London - with magnificant chandeliers overhead!
____________

REMINDER: The final deadline for receipt of entries (in London) for the ING Discerning Eye is 5th September 2009!


Links to previous posts on Making A Mark about the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize - which include images of previous exhibitions

• Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2008 - deadline 15th September
• Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize - selected artists announced
• Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2008 and Exhibition
• Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize and exhibition (November 2007)
  

Links:

• Art Competitions in the UK - Resources for Artists
• Major art competitions in the UK in 2009 - dates and deadlines
• Painter-Stainers
  
• Parker Harris - Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize
  

Printers come...and printers go....

My new printer arrived today - and I'm just about to unplug the old one and get the new one installed.........(gulp!)

My old one was a Canon Pixma MP780 - which is a multifunction with a good quality scanner and a copying and fax function as well as the normal colour printing set-up.

It's a huge beastie and needs replacing as it's developed a red line across scanned images and frankly although I can adjust scans to get rid of it I've got really fed up of doing that!

I've also never ever used the fax function so paid extra for a facility I didn't need - so haven't done the same thing with its replacement. It's now being relegated to the bottom shelf as the back-up printer. I might use it just for black and white text printing. (Which means it's time to find a good home or heave my trusty old HP Laserjet which I haven't used in yonks!)

My new machine is a Canon PIXMA MP630 All-in-One Printer, Copier and Scanner - you can see the Canon product tour here. The main difference besides qualitative improvements to the technical spec. is it's much smaller and neater.

The MP bit means that it's set up as a photo printer rather than as a general dogsbody workhorse.

It's being replaced next month by the Canon PIXMA MP640 Network ready Premium All-In-One Photo Printer which means that's the 630 is still listed as £179 by Canon but is now listed for £109 by Amazon who obviously would now like to shift the old stock.

I sat and compared the two specifications and decided I didn't need what the 640 offered and hence could save myself £70 and one of them shifted itself in my direction!

I don't think I'll be installing all the software supplied as I use Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 (PC) for scanning and digital manipulation of images. I also previously found that the software for scanning supplied by Canon to be absolutely awful. Plus I didn't install the scanning software on the new computer and haven't needed it to use the 780.

I did idly think about going for an A3 scanner and/or an A3 printer and decided that for the prices charged I could leave it. I do wish though that they'd reduce the good quality A3 scanners in price sooner rather than later!

Now to find out whether it comes out of the box and hooks up to the computer OK.

There'll be a review on Making A Mark Reviews...... in due course.
_______

There was no post yesterday as I was spending time becoming a 'very nearly' great aunt and was also out sketching - see Hampstead Heath and the Boating Pond

Links to Canon UK:

• Canon Pixma MP 630
• Canon Pixma MP 640

Musée Picasso in Paris now closed until 2012

Musée Picasso

Yesterday was the last day that the Musée Picasso in Paris will be open until the end of 2012. The museum plans to:

• spend €20 million on extensive renovations and expansion of the museum building which will upgarde the electrical/digital capacity, improve access for people with mobility problems, expand exhibition space and improve facilities for educational activities.
  
• move the collection to a super secure location. Nobody is saying where as the value of the 5,000 works in the collection is literally inestimable.
  
• stop loans of items to other museums for the duration of the closure
• start the works in January 2010 and complete them by February 2012 - meaning the museum will be closed for the next two and half years. (However it could be much later if the renovations to the Musee de l'Orangerie are anything to go by - that museum was closed from 2000 until 2006!)
• Continue educational and cultural activities in other locations.

Besides the works listed by the museum, I'm guessing that two further aspects of the museum's activities will receive increased attention:

• Security: I think it's very likely that further thought will be given to how the works are housed from a security perspective following the theft from the museum, in June this year, of a Picasso sketchbook worth more than €8m (£6.9m). It had apparently been kept in an unlocked cabinet without an alarm system!

Picasso is the most stolen artist in the world because of his prolific output, recognisable signature and valuable works. There are more than 500 missing Picassos on the London-based Art Loss Register of stolen art.

The Picasso museum houses the world's largest collection of his work, ranging from paintings and ceramics to sketchbooks, handed to the French state by relatives in lieu of taxes after his death. The museum has about 1,500 Picasso drawings, many in sketchbooks.

Guardian - £6.9m Picasso sketchbook stolen in Paris

• Digitisation: I'd be very surprised if they didn't take the opportunity to create a complete digital record of the collection while it's off site. It's the logical thing to do which will enable much better access to the complete collection.
  

Picasso died in 1973 and the Musee Picasso was opened by the national museum authority in 1986. It's housed in the Hôtel Salé in Rue de Thorigny, in the Marais district of Paris. It's a very imposing old building (it was built between 1656 and 1659).

Location of the Musee Picasso
map from the museum website

I'm a big fan of the Museum.

I started out as not being particularly interested in Picasso but paid a visit to the Musee Picasso while on a stopover in Paris and became an instant convert!

What I particularly liked was the way you could follow his development as an artist in chronological terms - with works of art paralling information about what was going on in his life when the artwork was created. For me, it just made sense of the man for the very first time. That visit led to a much better appreciation of both the man and his genius, the work he has produced - and how hard he worked over the course of his lifetime. This was an artist who reinvented his work again and again and again and grew and developed right to the very end.

If you'd like to see a little more of it before 2012, here's all the photos on Flickr which are tagged Musee Picasso

Future Picasso exhibitions and other places you can see works by Picasso

So - what does that leave us with until the museum reopens?

• My information site Pablo Picasso - Resources for Art Lovers - which lists various museums around the world which house his works and various online sites where you can see them. I've also listed a couple of recent additions below.
  
• Tate Liverpool: Picasso: Peace and Freedom 21 May – 30 August 2010 (see this article for a commentary on what this involves)

this exhibition will reveal a fascinating new insight into the artist's life as a tireless political activist and campaigner for peace, challenging the widely held view of the artist as creative genius, playboy and compulsive extrovert.

• Picasso in Provence - this site provides details of where you can see museums and places relating to Picasso's life and work
  

23rd August 2009 - Who's made a mark this week?

Art and design bloggers go to Brussels for the day!

The big deal this week for me in 'making a mark' terms was getting a letter indicating two of my works had been accepted into this year's UKCPS annual international exhibition. This means I've now earned my signature membership of UKCPS - see Signature membership.

Here's a list on the UKCPS News blog of all the other people who got their work into the exhibition - Artists selected for the 8th Annual UKCPS International Open Exhibition. This year for the first time artists were allowed to submit up to four works and it's worth noting that four artists got all four pieces into the exhibition:

• Julie Douglas - who's just won one of the top prizes at the CPSA Annual Exhibition (Julie Douglas wins CPSA award)
  
• Patsy Lindamood PSA, AFC - an American artist who won the Chairman's Award in 2006
  
• Janie Pirie SBA, GM- who is a signature member of the Society of Botanical Artists and who earned her first RHS gold medal recently (UKCPS member Janie Pirie wins an RHS Gold Medal!)
  

Art Blogs

Art and Design bloggers go to Brussels

More from the day trip to Brussels - including the You Tube video which you can see at the top of this post - and yes I really do have my sketchbook out on every possible occasion! Violette looks like she's a dab hand at editing!

Part of the Grand Place in Brussels
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

• I wrote about A Little Art Break in Brussels and Exhibition review: Magritte at the Magritte Museum
• Mehrdad (Aref Adbi) posted about Street Art in Brussels
• Mo (Fresh Eyes on London) had Sun and Fun in Brussels
• This is Little Art Break to Brussels by Alex of 30gms - a Visual Digest
• Plus a barbie on the beach and other weekend adventures by David (davidthedesigner)
  

Lunch at Bruxelles Les Bains
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

But what I also want to focus on David's is second post are we connected? which provides an interesting reflection on the the trip and talks about the role of bloggers in the context of social communication, random connections and reviews. David in part focuses on the way the world has changed for him as an older blogger. Anybody else make a connection?

But here's the rub: ten years ago it would have been journalists being offered free trips with the aim of getting a feature into a Sunday supplement. But we all know what's happening to the newspaper industry, don't we? And so now we've reached a point where in order to make a connection with you, Eurostar no longer expects that to be via the Sunday Times or the Observer, but via this humble little blog, and others like it. So for any readers of my generation who might have got this far down this post: this represents the world that's changing before our very eyes. And yes, I know, it's harder for us, because we have to adapt: anyone under the age of thirty doesn't, because this is their world.
Davidthedesigner - are we connected?

Drawing and sketching

• I do agree with what James Gurney (Gurney Journey) has to say in Draughtsman - my feelings entirely!
• An interesting reflection by Ed Winkelman on people visiting art galleries Slowing Down to Sketch : A Flashmob Challenge. It's a comment on a piece in the New York Times At Louvre, Many Stop to Snap but Few Stay to Focus - recommended reading!
  
• Shirley (Paper and Threads) has joined the Central Park Sketching and Art Meetup Group. It has over a 1,000 sketchy artists and get around 30 people turning up to meetings.
• Roz (Roz would up) would like to see you all at the Minnesota State Fair Sketch Out on 1st September . MCBA Visual Journal Collective August State Fair Prep Meetingprovides some preparation and advice
  
• Plus here's what happens to you if you come with me to art fairs! Felicity writing about a few recent purchases in Books? Oh no, I don't need any more...
• Jana (Jana's Journal and Sketchblog) has been Sketchercizing My Errands.
• What happens when you decide to sketch a famous landmark - see Dumbo on Urban Sketchers for Tommy Kane's recent experience
• I loved Tommy's sketch of Berkshires on his own blog (Tommy Kane)

Coloured Pencils and Pastels

• There's a couple of posts about coloured pencil exhibitions elswhere in this post today.
• We're used to seeing pencil sculptures by Jen Maestre but this Telegraph slideshow reveals how she creates them. She also explains about the sculptures on her website
  

Fibre Arts

• Inspiration a nice post from Felicity Grace (Felicity's Philosophies and Other Curiosities) about how her family hijacked her desk, chair and laptop and inadvertently led to a change of working area and direction

Painters and Painting

• Painting today, painting last week and a paint box! is an intersting post by Marc Hanson (Painting My Way Through Life) who is trying out a new way of painting plein air.
• James Gurney has posted a a short video showing steps in a plein air oil study - Lehigh River Video

Dorset in Gouache
copyright Robyn Sinclair

• Robyn (Have Dogs, Will Travel) has got me inspired to try gouache with her lovely Dorset Landscape in Gouache- experiments coming up next week. Robyn has also been creating an Art Map - as indeed a number of us on Sketchercise have. I've still to get mine done and when I have there will be a post!
• We've all been inspired of course by Nathan Fowkes (Land Sketch) - I'm grateful for his Untitled demo - and would like to see more!
  
• Deborah Paris (Deborah Paris - A Painting Life) has had a Summer Skies project inspired by Constable's work. She wrote a nice piece about him last year A Natural Painter

Printer and printmaking

• Sherrie York (Brush and Baren) has finished the printing from her ditch linocut Ditch linocut finished! and is starting a new one Next up!. I just don't know here eyes keep going through the cutting!
  

Group Blogs

• the Virtual Sketch Date challenge has finished - for all the usual reasons of why things come to an end New Ventures

Art Business and Marketing

• Ed Winkelman (edward_ winkleman) has an interesting post about perspective in A Quick Word of Encouragement for Your Ongoing Project.
• a pep talk from Luann Udell

• TEN MYTHS ABOUT ARTISTS (That Will Keep You From Becoming a SUCCESSFUL Artist): Introduction
• TEN MYTHS ABOUT ARTISTS #1: Artists Are Born, Not Made
• TEN MYTHS ABOUT ARTISTS #2: You’re Not Good Enough
• Don't forget to vote in the Making A Mark Poll for August What's the MAIN way you have sold art in the last 12 months? (see right hand column for poll to vote)

Art and the Economy / Art Collectors

• Lindsay Pollack's blog Art market views is new to me - Lindsay is a journalist covering the art world. She reports for Bloomberg News and other publications including The Art Newspaper, ARTnews and Art + Auction.
• Peter Aspden had Lunch with the FT: Jeff Koons - in a carefully staged sort of way (a lot of of which gets repeated verbatim in Jeff Koons Opens Up at Lunch by Art Market Monitor! Copyright? I'm not quite sure this is what the FT meant by "share"), The FT article includes a neat synopsis of the life and times of Koons "From smalltown Pennsylvania to giant ‘Puppy’"
• A video by the Tate of
• Jeff Koons talking about his work
• Anthony d'Offay talking about Anthony d'Offay on Andy Warhol
• The Art newspaper advises that Recession fuels attendance of artist sites and historic homes in both the UK and USA. All part of the holidaying at home phenomena?
  

Art Competitions and Art Societies

• I finally posted about the CPSA - 17th Annual CPSA International Exhibition - 2009
• Here in the UK, for coloured pencil artists who skipped the top of this post - here's the Artists selected for the 8th Annual UKCPS International Open Exhibition
• The Summer Exhibition of the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers has opened at the Bankside Gallery and I'm hoping to get to see this next week. I do wish this society would get a proper dedicated website for this art society - it's neither rocket science nor expensive and it could make a lot of differences to their members livelihoods! The exhibition runs until the 6th September.
• The inaugural show of the Women Artists of the West will be online until 30th September. There are four galleries: Signature and Emeritus;
  

Art Exhibitions and art fairs

• There's still time to catch the Dove O'Keeffe - Circles of Influence exhibition at the Clark Art Insitute until 7th September. If viewing via the website check the links - and note that there's an excellent audio tour. Nite Leland (Exploring Color & Creativity) says Dove & O'Keeffe not to be missed. I've also updated Georgia O'Keeffe - Resources for Art Lovers

From the outset of her career, Georgia O'Keeffe credited her introduction to modernism as deriving in part from a reproduction of a pastel by Arthur Dove she saw around 1913.

• UKStreetArt have created a special microsite dedicated to Banksy in Bristol
• Nice to see photos of Tracey Helgeson's Opening at Carrie Haddad Gallery. It's always good to see the pictures actuallyon the walls
• David Brickman reviews art exhibitions on Get Visual. Here's his review of Francis Bacon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Also there's an interesting article by the New York Times about the impact of the credit crunch on exhibitions And Now, an Exhibition From Our Sponsor

Traditionally museums have been loath to allow the sponsors of an exhibition a significant role in curatorial decision making — particularly when the sponsor is a corporation, given the potential taint of commercialization and artistic compromise. And most major museums still draw the line there......Given the economic downturn, which has forced the cancellation, postponement or prolonging of exhibitions across the country, more small and midsize art institutions may be increasingly open to ready-made shows (by sponsors with art collections)

Art Education / workshops / Tips and techniques

• An opportunity for you to sign up for James Gurney at LAAFA October 10
• R Garriott (R Garriott) has a tip about making plastic sleeves for paintings
• He also has tips for artists about using Photoshop proper
  

Art History

• On Thursday i highlighted smARThistory - an online resource with a difference
• Major image archives at London’s Courtauld Institute under threat according to the Art Newspaper
  
• A Forthcoming Frida Kahlo book denounced as fake

Art Studios

• Tracy visited the Pollock Krasner House on my break which accounts for how it's only showing up here now - do take a look at all the great photos in Visiting the Pollock Krasner House including the one of Jackson Pollock's monogrammed suitcase!
• Tina Mammoser (The Cycling Artist) has completed her studio move - Studio move - the very last box plus she's been making a few adaptations - this one is ingenious!
• Tracy Hegelson (Works by Tracy Helgeson) is now officially Cool!!

Art Supplies

• Great minds think alike! Roz has got hold of the same stool as me - but hers is more colourful! see Minnesota State Fair Prep—Part 1: The Heavy Equipment

Book reviews

I've started to transfer book reviews which I've done in the past on to Making A Mark Reviews - partly because I've got the LinkWithin Widget on that blog and it pops up relevant and similar items for any post you are looking at. I'm not repeating the reviews - just boiling them down to a summary!

• Book Review: Art - the definitive visual guide
• Book review: The Coloured Pencil Artist's Drawing Bible
• Book Review: The Art of Impressionism

Of interest to botanical artists and coloured pencils artists: Ann Swan (Ann Swan) announced this week - Latest News - that her new book is completed and should be in the shops next March.

Websites, webware and blogging

On Friday I posted about :

• a useful tool I've found on Making A Mark Reviews...... - see Webware review: SEO Analysis Tool
• and reminded people who've not already read them of the series of posts earlier this year about getting your website or blog into shape Techies: SEO for artists

Other useful posts I came across last week included:

• HOW NOT TO: Build Your Twitter Community
• Twitter Basics Twitter 101: Twitter Basics – The 5 W’s

and finally........

This is just weird - Ursus Wehrli tidies up art