13th September 2009 - Who's made a mark this week?

I went to see the exhibition for the RWS/Sunday Times Watercolour competition yesterday which is on at the Bankside Gallery until 20th September. If you went today you will have been enjoying the Thames Festival as well (see what it looked like outside the Tate Modern yesterday below)!

I'll be writing a review of the exhibition tomorrow.

The Thames Festival outside the Tate Modern 12th July 2009

Most of this last week has seen me buried deep in the internet booking accommodation and travel arrangements for a visit to France which starts towards the end of this month. You can expect to see a few posts about this prior to that on both this blog and Travels with a Sketchbook - as I gather information together - plus some intermittent posting (or maybe some scheduled posting) due to

• next week: a trip to take my cats to stay with my mother
  
• the week after: when my sister and niece arrive in London prior to
  
• the week after that: when we go to France!

One of the bonuses of our trip is staying in a cottage near Tours which enables me visit with fellow Watermarks member, Ronell (of African Tapestry and My French Kitchen. Ronell has a wonderful post about Montlouis where she lives right next to the River Loire. I'm going to be sketching the Loire in October! :) Or sketching Ronell cooking or maybe both!

Drawing and sketching

Hydra morning by Julie Oakley

• I highly recommend you go take a look at Julie Oakley's blog Julie's Pictures. She's been sketching recently at both the Edinburgh Festival and in Greece and it's good to see so much evidence in lots of posts about 'what she did on her holidays'. So often I hear about trips but never see any sketches which makes it really great to see so many great sketches by Julie.
  
• This one came through as I was writing this post. Paul (Learning to See) has started Sargent Portrait Copy, Part 1 - with lots of explanation about process. His 100 Still Life Drawing Series - all drawn without the use of line is very interesting
• Cathy Gatland's Sad Tale of a Dikkop includes a wonderful drawing of a bird on A Sketch in Time
  

Coloured Pencils and Pastels

• Here's Pastel Class Setup by Cindy Haase (Littleton Studio) - nice pics!

Digital Art

• Not quite digital art as you think you know it. The New York Times comments on At Last, Artists Harness the Internet

Painters and Painting

• Martin Gayford asks Is graffiti art or a social nuisance? in Banksy’s Streetwise Images Amuse, Irritate: Martin Gayford
• Vivien Blackburn (Paintings Prints and Stuff) shows us a demo done for class to show techniques
• I loved one of Duane Keiser's paintings last week Plum with Abalone Shell
• I've also been enjoying Julian Merrow-Smith's paintings of the rivers in Asturias on Postcard from Provence.
• Thanks to Cindy Haase for highlighting this post The Magic of Art - about portrait commissions - by Vyacheslav Shevchenko (Maestro Art Services International)
  
• Congratulations to Lisa McShane (100 paintings) who began painting full time last November and set herself a goal of 100 paintings last week which she achieved last week - see 100 Paintings! She says she now needs a new title for her blog!

When I was in Art School one of my professors told me that I'd be an artist when I'd completed 100 paintings. There's a lot to that.

Printmaking

• I spotted a lady called Cherie Smith sat on the grass outside the Tate Modern yesterday creating a 'plate' for printmaking using an etching needle on a sheet of orange plastic. She was drawing a musician participating in the Thames Festival from life with ehr etching needle. It's a first for me.

Art Business and Marketing

• A great post by Seth Godin (Seth's Blog) which makes you pause for thought before you do any more marketing - The big drop off
• Plus Seth also thinks art galleries should be reading this post he wrote Competing with the singleminded
• This is Jonathan Jones on why Art World magazine might be closing. I confess to being very surprised that more art journals haven;t closed during the recession - particularly given changes in the business model for communication.
  

Art Competitions and Art Societies

• The CPSA Explore This! prospectus is now online - I'll be doing a post about this later next week.
  

Art Exhibitions and art fairs - and culture!

First some comments on exhbitions in general. Great minds.....? Or maybe they just read one another?

• On Wednesday, Holland Cotter at the New York Times says Top of the Wish List: No More Blockbusters - and elaborates further in this audio slideshow overview of Art in the Autumn
  
• while on Friday, Jonathan Jones - the Guardian's art blogger - receommends that you should Escape autumn's blockbuster art shows and suggests some alternatives

UK

• The Drawing Campaign celebrates its first decade of the Big Draw with Now We Are Ten, an exhibition and a unique auction at Idea Generation Gallery, 11 Chance Street, London E2 7JB, from 8 - 20 September. Amazing drawings made in the Campaign’s name, and new work by many leading artists, illustrators and cartoonists, go under the hammer on 17 September to support the Campaign. Yesterday, the famous annual Battle of the Cartoonists kick started the 10th anniversary of The Big Draw. Cartoonists from Private Eye, The Sun, Professional Cartoonists Organisation and The Independent took part. Most of the events will be taking place between 1st and 31st October.
• The Culture Department has announced the longlist to be the UK's first City of Culture - more about this later this week.
• Culture24 is a useful website for art exhibitions in the UK
  
• Spain - Goya to Picasso continues at Royal Scottish Academy Building until 11th October
  
• you can visit Swindon Open Studios 2009.

Overseas

• Lyme in Mind continues at the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme until October 18. The New York Times comments in From Old Lyme, a Setting for American Impressionists
• Renoir in the 20th Century (Sept. 23-Jan. 4, 2010) is coming up in Paris at the Grand Palais. Not my favourite artist so I'm not expecting to visit.

Art Education / Workshops / Tips and techniques

• Drawing for Learning, Engagement and Enjoyment: An International Conference (7-11 October 2009, London) is an international conference programme being held by the Drawing Campaign in partnership with the Drawing Research Network, from 7-10 October 2009, in London, UK.

This landmark event is an opportunity for cultural educators (education teams in museums, galleries and heritage sites), teachers (in formal education and lifelong learning) and artists to come together and explore drawing as a tool for learning, engagement and enjoyment. It reflects increasing interest in the learning potential of the Campaign’s flagship programmes, The Big Draw and Power Drawing Professional Development, from colleagues inside and outside the UK.

• It's good to look also at the courses and events offered by art museums and galleries and/or art societies and the campaign for drawing. Here's three examples:
  
• Royal Watercolour Society: RWS/Sunday Times Exhibition - two workshops which also includes links to other events run by RWS Members and Associate Members
  
• Tate Liverpool: 7th November: Adult Course: Mark Rothko: The Seagram Murals
• National Galleries of Scotland - what's on (various dates)
• Yorkshire Sculpture Park - sculpture courses in October - bronze casting and stone carving

• The Power Drawing professional development programme includes:

• Drawing Across the Curriculum
• Training Tutors: Supporting Professional Colleagues
• Big Draw Courses
• Heritage, built environment and other courses
• Lectures and seminars in initial teacher education
• Conference presentations or breakout workshops
• It's good to see artists who offer courses and workshops also offering tips via blogs. This is ex art professor Vyacheslav Shevchenko's Art Education Blog. Some recent posts include:
• Getting Ready to Draw about how to prepare your workspace when preparing to draw
• Before You Start Drawing with Pencil about why and how to keep your paper, eraser and hands clean of graphite
  
• Notes from Personal Experience: Preparing to Draw about why it's a good idea to come prepared to draw
• In Acrylic Painting Technique Practice, Jana Bouc (Jana's Journal and Sketchblog) identifies a DVD which helped her learn how to paint in arcrylic (as well as some from Netflix and Artistsnetwork.tv which she found useless). The results are simply stunning! I have to say I'm VERY impressed by both jana's work and the DVD if this is the result - and recommend you visit her blog to see who she recommends.

Acrylic Practice, 24 x 24"
copyright Jana Bouc

• My post Sissinghurst - and tips for time limited sketches provides some notions of ways you can tackle sketching when you only have a short span of time
• Plus a comment from me on the value of an end of course/painting holiday exhibition in my post The end of the art holiday exhibition

Next weekend The Guardian and The Observer are producing two guides to Drawing and Paintings - more details here. Now that's what I call a neat idea to get you to buy the paper editions of a newspaper! :)

Artists and Art History

• Two posts by me this week about Scottish art - and influenced by two television programmes on BBC4 - which I gather you enjoyed. :)
  
• Scottish artists - The Scottish Colourists
• Scottish portrait artists

Copyright

• My post on Monday generated a bit of debate this week - You cannot copyright nature - feel free to add to it!
  

Opinion Poll

Lots of people are responding to this months's poll and it's producing some very interesting results! If you've not yet voted you'll find it in the right hand column. This poll will run until the end of September but the analysis will only emerge in mid October.

Tips and Websites, webware and blogging

• Josh Catone on Mashable asks Is Facebook Like Google, or More Like Yahoo?
• here's a new search engine called Keyboardr - just start typing to see what it does. I like it so far.

At the start, critics often said, "Twitter is fun, but it's not useful." At one point @ev responded dryly with, "Neither is ice cream." Things have come a long way in a short time.

• The Twitter Blog posted Twitter's New Terms of Service on 10th September. Here's the link to the revised Terms of Service. Abusive behavior and spam is also outlined in these terms according to the rules Twitter has been operating under for some time. The Next Web blog highlights the main changes in Twitter changes Terms of Service, learns from Facebook – it’s all in the wording. While Mashable identifies 10 People You Won’t See on Twitter Anymore

and finally......

Don't forget to enter my A "Little Break to Brussels" competition. I haven't had any comments from people intending to enter although I have heard from people who would very much liked to have been able to enter!

If you're planning on entering it would be good to hear from you. At the moment anybody who enters has a really good chance of winning those two free tickets to visit Brussels!