8th November 2009: Who's made a mark this week?

Summerlight, Clapham Common
Winner of The Artist Magazine competition
24" x 18" Oil on Linen 2009
copyright Adebanji Alade

I've got very behind with seeing exhibitions so I'm offering a belated congratulations to Adebanji Alade (Adenaji Alade: My art, my passion for sketching) who won the Artist Magazine Prize at the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters at the Mall Galleries - see his post about how he found out Winning "The Artist Magazine/Royal Institute of Oil Painters Competition" 2009.

He followed up with a very insightful post about painters in the Young Artists part of the competition - see his post Some young painters I loved at the ROI Exhibition 2009

I'll be reviewing the exhibition myself tomorrow. Here's a detail (on the right) of Adebanji's fluid and effective style of painting.

Art blogs

art blogs - landscapes

I'm still working towards the landscape project I aimed to start earlier this year - before life hijacked me!

• Reflections on a Pond now has it own website. It includes videos by Kevin McPherson and the paintings by season.
  
• it's always a pleasure to look at Marc Hanson's landscapes on his blog

Lazy River
19" x 25" , Pastel
copyright Casey Klahn

• take a look at Casey Klahn's River Series - I think it's the best thing I've seen Casey do - plus you can see it in an exhibiton - (details below) - use for images
• Keiko Tanabe (Keiko Tanabe Fine Art) is new to me. She's an award-winning watercolour artist who was born in Japan but who now lives in San Diego and a relatively new member of the Daily Paintworks team.
• Sarah Wimperis (The Red Shoes) how has a fan page on facebook - Sarah Wimperis Paintings
  
• this is my sketch of Autumn at the Sackler Crossing, Kew Gardens which includes a link to a video of our walk on an Autumn afternoon at Kew Gardens - you can try and judge whether I caught the values and colours of the scene - as it changed colour! ;)
  

Autumn colour at the Sackler Crossing
8" x 10", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

art blogging from/about France

• Ronell van Wyk (African Tapestry) has a stunning post about Carnets de voyage - many of which have been produced by French artists
• Joan continues to post about France and is putting me to shame. Not only did she do more painting but she's getting them posted to her blog faster as well!
  
• L' Tour Eiffel Paintings - Posting #4
• Paris Life Paintings (Posting #5)
• More Paris Highlights (Posting #6)
• More of Paris (Posting #7)
• Painting Monet's Garden - Day 1
• Painting Monet's Garden - Day 2

• James Gurney (Gurney Journey) has a whole series of posts about this visit to Nantes . It includes a post Jules Verne Museum about him working on a drawing using water soluble coloured pencils
• Meanwhile Laura (Laurelines) has posted part six and last! of her Brittany sketches.
• I managed just one sketching post this week - A Day in the Musée du Louvre - as well a post about The Louvre Museum in Paris on this blog

art business and marketing

• Joanne Mattera (Joanne Mattera Art Blog) writes about Marketing Mondays: "Unsolicited" Submissions
• Art Marketing Secrets has posts about optimising how you website is found by the search engines Artist Website SEO Strategy #1: Help Google Read! and Artist Website SEO Strategy #2: Stellar Page Titles!

art competitions

• the Shortlist for Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2009 announced was announced this week
• This post by Casey Klahn (The Colorist) gives you his take on How to Paint for the Prize
• The exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery (see below) has a competition to Create your own drawing in the style of Picasso, Schiele or Matisse. You can email your entry. There's only one entry online so far but you can view the entries received to date here. I think I might have a go..... ;)
  
• This is the Shortlist for Saatchi Gallery – Sunday Telegraph Art Prize
• artrepublic and streetsmart (which raises money for the homeless charities supporting people living on the streets) are running a Street Art competition. The competition criteria is simple – artrepublic are searching the nation for an artist to create an original ‘Street Art’ image that makes a positive contribution to the urban environment and raises awareness of the homeless situation in the UK. If you are a member of Flickr, images can be uploaded for the Street Art competition via the StreetSmart’ group on Flickr. Closing date is Friday 8th January 2010.

art economy and collectors

• Beyond the boom - is an overarching view of the global art market by the Financial Times in London (last month) - it's a recommended read
• some contradictory reports about the state of auctions
• Bloomberg - Sotheby’s Third-Quarter Loss Widens as Weak Economy Damps Sales
• and then Sotheby’s Outguns Christie’s With Sale of Giacomettis, Picassos
• meanwhile Bloomberg also reported Picasso Flops as Impressionist Auction Misses Target (Update2)
• leading the Financial Times to comment - The art market: ‘When you have the right property ... you get fireworks’

The autumn sales of Impressionist and modern art held in New York this week demonstrated that big money is still available on the right works of art but that the market will mercilessly reject the run-of-the-mill.

• In 1 November the Lehman Brothers Art Collection was auctioned off in Philadeplhi. These are the Wall Street Journal's pre-auctionreport on Wall Street's Orphaned Art - plus this is the slideshow of some of the pieces for sale in terms of what Lehman Bros. left hanging on the walls - plus the post-auction report Lehman Still Hot on Art Market
• The New York Times repots that Art Buyers Bullish on Lehman Brothers Collection; while Carol Vogel reports that On the Block: Traditional Offerings, Bargain Prices
• Interestingly the Wall Street Journal also opined that The Art World Goes Local and that collectors are staying closer to home in terms of the artists they collect
• meanwhile the FT last month also comments on How Ebay compares with a flea market

The Ebay experience is not unlike a flea market visit – wading through endless tat in search of a gem.

• Jonathan Jones attracted a diverse set of comments on his article Contemporary artists must do better. I was inclined to agree with some of the comments - guess which ones!
  

Art education and workshops

art school

• This is a Times article about the The Prince's Drawing School which I've attended- The Prince's Drawing School aims to revive an unfashionable skill

workshops

• How to make a lot of money as an artist? - become a famous painter and give 5 day workshops @ $2354 for instruction (excluding transportation, lodging or dinners). After gasping I stoppd and crunched the numbers - Kevin MacPherson will be earning $70,620 if he fills his two 5 day workshops next June (link not yet posted to his workshops page on his website). Do tell if you sign up whether you think it's worth it.
• In the meantime, for those who would like to express their opinions on what makes a good art teacher, do please take part in the November Making a Mark poll - see MAM Poll (Nov. 2009): What makes a good art teacher? It's attracting a lot of very interesting comments and perspectives on just what sort of person and what sort of approach makes for a good art teacher.

Tips and Techniques

• How to clean a Rapidograph Technical Pen on the IamAnt blog is a great detailed step by step explanation with images
• You can now download ready made templates for e-books on Blurb
  

Art exhibitions, galleries and museums

Anita from Hungary - on the pavement in Trafalgar Square
outside the National Gallery in London yesterday

Art museums

• In Milan you can see Inside Leonardo's Notebook - With 1,119 pages of drawings and notes, almost all of them in Leonardo da Vinci's own hand, the Atlantic Codex is by far the largest set of works by the archetype of universal genius.
• you can view a BBC video of the Ashmolean in Oxford which reopened this week following its major refurbishment
• The Dulwich Picture Gallery's current exhibition is Drawing Attention: Rembrandt, Tiepolo, Van Gogh, Picasso and more Master Drawings from the Art Gallery of Ontario. Thanks to Bernard Victor who reminded that this was on. These are the video-logs about the exhibition
  

This glorious group of 100 of the best works ranges from Renaissance Italy to 18th century France, from English watercolours to masterpieces by Picasso and Matisse, from German Expressionism to Canada's own Group of Seven and David Milne. It includes Guercino, Boucher, Gainsborough, Ingres, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Turner, Leger, De Kooning, and Canada's remarkable Emily Carr.

• there's a nice slideshow about an exhibition of rock and roll photography on at the Brooklyn Museum. Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present' is on until January 31, 2010 in the Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing, 5th Floor. You can also read an associated NYT article Every Picture Tells a Story, Don’t It?
  

artist/blogger exhibitions

Artists and bloggers who are having exhibitions now or in the hear future include:

• Casey Klahn (The Colorist) at the Northwest University, Health and Sciences Center - his exhibition River Passages - Currents in Landscape Art opened last week and is on until January 4th., 2010

Blue & Gray River
10" x 14.5", Paste
Copyright Casey Klahnl

• Jamie Williams Grossman is Celebrating the Hudson Valley with four other artists in a show which opens on Saturday, November 14, 4-8pm, Bannerman Island Gallery, 150 Main St, Beacon NY. You're all invited!
• Klunk Garden by Gelitin, 2009.........but how do they breathe?

Copyright

Google is trying to rewrite the copyright regime by monetising content - but what about if your copyrighted work is a painting rather than a Mr Bean video - and you can only sell it once?

Opinion Poll

I started a new MAM Poll (Nov. 2009): What makes a good art teacher? on Monday - and if you've not voted yet the poll is in the side column. There is one characteristic which is way out in front.

Websites, blogging and twittering

Making A Mark is now on Facebook - feel free to offer hints and tips!

• I posted about The state of Technorati - and the blogosphere in 2009 and a techie post about how to Customize your art news

In 2009, there's been a 68% increase in blogs with ad tags installed........54% of part-time bloggers make money from their blogging...........89% of part-timers and self employed insist that adevrts must align with the personal values of their blog

• inveterate users of Google apps might want to take a look at Transparency, choice and control — now complete with a Dashboard! and then go take a look at their dashboard - and get a shock! ;)
• The Google Reader blog announced that Reading gets personal with Popular items and Personalized ranking. Also see this help page about recommended feeds
  
• Mashable has a couple of useful posts for social applications:
• it tells you how to have a successful Facebook fan page
  
• plus HOW TO: Use Twitter Lists saves me having to write the same conclusions down!
• Meanwhile Problogger highlights 14 Types of Stories You Can Tell On Your Blog

and finally................

A slightly unusual post - 255 artists to meet Pope to revive relations.