17th January 2010 - Who's made a mark this week?

I finally got to see Turner and the Masters at Tate Britain this week - having been virtually housebound for nearly a month!

I was so glad I went to see it after doing all my research and reading for the Art of the Landscape project as it made so much more sense to me.

It's a really stunning exhibition and I'll be writing more about it tomorrow. They also had rather a lot of good books about the development of the landscape as well and I couldn't resist splashing out on three! More about these next week as well.

I then walked in the dark (to get a landscape book!) onto the prongs of an upturned plug and created a tear across my instep so back to the chair for the time being........ :(

Art Blogs

Challenges

• You are invited to send me a URL (via a comment on this post) highlighting what they are doing to generate funds for the relief of the survivors in Haiti and a link will be added to Artists supporting Haiti relief efforts.
• James Gurney's Art by Committee challenge (on for the next month is to produce an image for the following quote "Randall's avatar was a tortoise." See Art By Committee: Conversation on Gurney Journey for more details

Drawing and sketching

• Many Congratulations to my former pal Shirley Levine (Paper and Threads) whose blog has just had its 4th birthday. She celebrated with a business-like list of of goals for the coming year in Art Goals 2010 - on the 4th Birthday of my Blog.
  

• Shirley is also improving her drawing skills and doing exercises from Bert Dodson's Keys to Drawing - a book I've recommended very many times to people wanting to improve their drawing skills. See Re-energized and More Exercises from Bert Dodson's book
• Plus Recycling an Old Book as a Watercolor Sketchbook

• Bookbinding a Watercolor Sketchbook Journal: Learning from My Mistakes is a really excellent post on Jana Bouc's Journal and Sketchblog
• wonderful, wonderful sketches of animals at a zoo in Fred's Scratchings (and thanks to Cathy Johnson for highlighting this new blog)
  
• 22 - 28 nov 09 Virginia Zoo (color added)
• Giant Panda at The National Zoo
• The Virginia Zoo 22 Nov 09 - 28 Nov 09
• Mary Lambert emailed me to highlight George Butler's Sketch Travel blog in the Times Online. He is travelling 8,500km overland from London to Libreville, the capital of Gabon in West Africa. It will take about six months and cover 12 African countries. His subjects will include the Tuareg communities in Algeria, the Festival in the Desert near Timbuktu in Mali, the voodoo festival in Togo, the witch towns of Ghana and the nature reserves in Cameroon. This is George Butler's journey to the Equator. Many thanks Mary - this is one to keep an eye on and one which which I'm trying to add to my travels with a sketchbook blogroll (when I can get rid of the ski/snow updates!)
  

Coloured Pencils and Pastels

• Richard McKinley (Pastel Pointers) has two very useful posts - as always
  
• Out with the Old and In with the New
• Pastels - A Drawing or Painting Medium?
• Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencil Techniques from Shelley Minnis at Michaels - very succinct.

The Art of the Landscape

Last week I posted my index posts - which are the plan of action for this project - lists of posts which will be written! These included

• Landscape Art - A Timeline in Art History
• The development of landscape art

I also posted about:

• Canada's Group of Seven at Algoma - this post is two YouTube videos of how paintings came to be developed of this area of Canada.
• Visionary Landscapes in the Americas which references Michelle Basic Hendry's (Artscapes) post last week about native art in Canada
• Google Street View and The Virtual Paintout
• On Making A Mark I also posted my Reflections on landscape painting after 1900

Many thanks to all of you have subscribed to The Art of the Landscape since it was started in 1st January, 96 people have signed up to it in just over two weeks! The blogroll keeps being updated and I hope to get the ning community up and running very soon.

Painters and Painting

• Many of you will well remember Moose - the cat who broke ACEO records on eBay for Maggie Stiefvater. Moose died very suddenly last week - see RIP Moose
• Tracy Hall (Watercolour Artist Diary) has won 3rd prize in the watercolour category of the Miniature Art Society of Florida's 2010 Annual International Miniature Art Show (see below for more details about this exhibition which opens today). I've lost count of the number of awards Tracy has won now for her miniature art - but you can find out more about them on the miniature page her website and her blog post Miniature Art Society of Florida Show
• this is what happens to paintings you vote for - on Sally Tharp's blog you can see what happened to the picture you voted Making A Mark Award 2009 - Best Picture of the Year (Still Life) on an Art Blog

Art Business and Marketing

• James Gurney writes on the thorny topic of Selling Out
• The Accidental Creative talsk about the challenge iof the seven word bio - in 7 Word Bio. What's yours?

Art and the Economy / Art Collectors

• The Times Online wrote about Art's great squatting revolution
• The Independent wrote about The state of the arts in the context of the prospect of a "grusesome spring budget"
  
• and finally(!) Jonathan Jones (Jonathan Jones on Art) made it to the promised land - see I'm done with Damien Hirst's art

I will now make a more formal pledge: never to write another word about this artist.... His paintings betray a stupidity and arrogance that makes me lose all interest in him. I love painting and I hate to see it abused.

Art Competitions and Art Societies

• the 2010 Annual International Miniature Art Show of the Miniature Art Society of Florida opens this weekend. This is a major show in the miniature art world and has around 850 works on display. It's being held at held at the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art, 600 Klosterman Road, Tarpon Springs, FL 34689 (Hours: Tues., Wed., Fri., Sat.: 10AM-5PM; Thur.: 10AM-9PM; Sun. 1-5PM ). Judy Minor (see right) won the Grand Prize. You can check our more of her miniatures here.
  
• My post Society of Botanical Artists - Silver Jubilee Exhibition provodes an overview of the call for entries to this exhibition.
  
• The Bankside Group which I belong to has an exhibition opening at the Brokers Wine Bar in Leadenhall Market London EC3 on 19th January. I was completely pathetic about meeting deadlines so don't have anything in it - but wanted to make sure those in the area knew about it

• Watch out for a post this next week about entering work for the RA summer exhibition
  

Art Exhibitions and art fairs

• Plants Illustrated: An Exhibition of Botanical Art opened yesterday and runs until 29th January (every day 10am-4pm) at the Botanical Garden at Berkeley

• The Fleming Collection is widely recognised as the finest collection of Scottish Art in private hands and its aium in recent years has been to promote Scottish artists to a wider audience.
  
• On Tuesday, Scottish Colourists from the Fleming Collection opens at The Fleming Collection, 13 Berkeley Street, London W1J 8DU and runs until April 1. The exhibition shows the complete Colourist collection from The Fleming Collection. It is the first time the paintings have been viewed together since 2003.
  
• There's also an Evening Lecture: Introduction to The Scottish Colourists on Wednesday 20th January, Doors open 6pm, Lecture 6.30-7.30pm
  
• Jackie Wullschlager in the FT has reviewd the exhibition in A prime selection of Scottish colourists. It's a 'must read' for anybody interested in the Scottish Colourists.

• Another article last week in the FT highlights A change of focus at London Art Fair towards the inclusion of more photography. The London Art Fair at the Business Design Centre in Islington closes today

Art Education / workshops / Tips and techniques

• Gesture Drawing & Trees
• More tips from Richard McKinelyt (Pastel Pointers)
  
• Painting Magic with Sfumato
  
• The Perfect Pastel Plein Air Setup: The Search Continues

Tips and techniques

Lisa Call (Contemporary Textile Art) has been planning for an exhibition - and writing about what that involves in three posts

• Exhibit Preparation – Plan for the Artwork – Part 1
  
• Exhibit Preparation – Plan for the Artwork – Part 2
• Exhibit Preparation – Plan for the Artwork – Part 3

Art Supplies

My consumer blog Making A Mark reviews..... has two posts last week about my opinion polls which asked which is your favourite soft past

• Opinion Poll: Which is your favourite make of soft pastels? covers the poll which ran from 2006 until last week on my information site Pastels - Resources for Artists. The most popular pastel was Unison by quite a margin.
• Hence I created a new information site all about Unison Pastels - Resources for Artists
• and then wrote about it on my blog in Unison Pastels - Resources for Artists - which includes AN INVITE to submit reviews of Unison Pastels
• I also created a band NEW opinion poll for 2010 - read The NEW 2010 Soft Pastels Opinion Poll
• so PLEASE - if you use soft pastels - go and vote on this poll.

Colour

James Gurney has been writing about Colour - and is ALWAYS worth reading. Color Constancy is about how we interpret colours in changing light conditions

The Web: networking, blogging, webware and websites

• I'm trying out the Show yourself widget in the right hand column (see about me section).
  
• I'm in two minds about whether to install Google's page speed. I'm looking for reviews that promise that it won't slow down my browsing!
• The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine is availablke for those who would like to terminate their subscriptions to Facebook/Twitter etc

and finally........

My most popular book lens on Squidoo The Best Books about Drawing and Sketching has not only made it into the top 100 sites on Squidoo - which is quite a feat these days - but it has also made it to #1 in the top 100 Book sites on Squidoo.

I know it's not the New York Times but I'm pleased - it means people are actually interested in GOOD drawing books! :)