Sunday, February 21, 2010

21st February 2010 - Who's made a mark this week?

The image below is the one that got away and didn't make my submission to the Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists. It's still a work in progress but once I've completed it I'm thinking it might just take a trip to California instead for an exhibition I'm participating in later this year!

Scarlet Charlotte (a work in progress)
7.5" x 11.5", coloured pencils on Arches HP
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

My big rumination on computers! Some of you will have noticed that I've been having a mega think about computers this week. I've been sharing it online as I guess all artists all think about pretty much the same sort of things when we're trying to make a decision about options for the next computer.

I'm not there yet but you can follow my thought processes in the following posts plus all the really terrific advice and thoughtful comments that these posts attracted
This exercise helped to generate this chart - which some people may be surprised by. I know I was.

PC versus Apple Mac - what you recommend
(right click chart and open in new tab to see bigger image)

My conclusion to date? I'm really not bothered about operating systems or software investment as this has to be updated all the time. I just want to be secure and buy a machine from a manufacturer who will impress me and make me want to repeat the experience. It's not much to ask. You can help suggest which one in the last post above.

I really want to emphasise just how very grateful I am to those who took time out to write about their own experiences and recommendations. These comments certainly helped me but I have a sense that they've maybe helped other people as well!

Art Blogs

By way of thanks for all the useful advice given this week in response to my request for help on Thursday about PCs versus Macs a number of the blogs featured this week are ones I came across when checking out the people who responded to my post on Thursday

Drawing and sketching
Salles la Source
(19th July 1994)
8" x 11", pen and sepia ink
in black Daler Rowney Sketchbook

copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Coloured Pencils and Pastels
Landscapes
Painters and Painting
Photography
  • Tina Mammoser (the Cycling Artist) has created a special etsy shop for her photograph of the coasts of the UK and her wave mechanics project relating to the River Thames. It's called ThamesLady.etsy.com
Portraiture

Art Business and the Economy

Art Market / Art Collectors

Art Museums, Exhibitions and Fairs

  • Michelangelo's Dream opened at the Courtauld Gallery this week. The exhiition continues until 16th May 2010. It's had some very good reviews - including Michelangelo at the Courtauld by Michelangelo's drawings at the Courtauld gallery are intimate encounter with an artist in love by Jonathan Jones
Michelangelo’s masterpiece The Dream is one of the greatest of all Renaissance drawings. This complex work shows a nude youth being roused by a winged spirit from the vices that surround him.
With Tate Britain's Henry Moore exhibition nearly upon us, publicity is seeping out that his much-acclaimed shelter drawings were perhaps not as originally inspired as once thought. The myth is that these drawings, of figures huddled together in the Blitz, were triggered by encounters on the Underground. However, it appears Moore may also have been inspired by photographs in Picture Post.
The Telegraph - Art Market News
The rare trove of material on view demonstrates how studying and copying earlier models were as much a part of Chinese artistic tradition as learning from nature

Art Education / workshops / Tips and techniques

Art Education
Workshops
Tips and techniques

Art History

Art Studios



Book reviews


A lot of you were interested in my post highlighting Harold Speed's The Practice and Science of Drawing which is available to download on the Project Gutenberg site.

Colour


Did you know that PANTONE 15-5519 Turquoise is the colour of the year 2010? I know I've been seeing an awful lot of turquoise in clothes shops in the last few weeks so maybe it's a decor choice too? It's certainly one of my favourite colours. Anybody up for a 'painting in turquoise' challenge?

The Web: networking, blogging, webware and websites

Blogs
Networking

and finally........


Find out what species of web animal you are. This BBC test is linked to its recent series of excellent programmes about The Virtual Revolution. The test takes about 20 minutes and you need to have woken up before doing it! You can explore all eight animals in the test

For the record apparently I'm a web leopard! I must confess to actually feeling quite old by the time I'd finished (I shall ignore the snorts from those trying to remind me of my actual age). I got very confused by one of the tests and just couldn't finish it and had to skip it. I may just go back and try again...........

You are a Web Leopard

Fast-moving - Web Leopards like you are adept at getting information from the internet very quickly. Your speed is a trait you share with real-world leopards, which are among the fastest land animals.

Solitary - Leopards live alone, fending for themselves in isolated home ranges. Similarly, the Web Leopard likes to go it alone when looking for information, rather than rely on social networks, or other sites where the users create the content.

Specialised - Web Leopards are best suited to performing one task at a time rather than multitasking. The real-world leopard is similarly specialised, being perfectly adapted to silently tracking its prey before pouncing.

BBC - The Web Behaviour Test (What species of web animal are you?)
However given the name of the new Mac operating system I'm taking this as a SIGN!


The Art of the Landscape

8 comments:

  1. Katherine, thanks again for your continuing support for my art journey! I'm having fun, looks like you are too. I can't think of anything else I'd rather do. :-)

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  2. Hello Katherine,thanks for this post rich with content als always.

    Your flower close up is great... I am curious to see the final stage.

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  3. Great post as always Katherine - I've just started to go through your links and already spent quite some time (definitely worth it).
    I, too am intrigued by the colour turquoise. I'm definitely thinking about 'going turquoise' in my next paintings, so I'd be up for a challenge!

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  4. Great minds think alike. I loved reading your previous post on the Olympics. Thank you for sharing mine here. You must have thought "Hmmm. This sounds familiar . . . "

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  5. Hi Katherine, Thank you for mentioning my work.

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  6. Hi Katherine! Thanks for the link to my blog - I really appreciate it!!!
    Thanks to you I have decided to cancel my order with Dell (they were taking months and months to deliver a pc that they then lost, couldn't get the spec right etc etc....in short: a nightmare) and go for a Mac! You spurred me on to check out macs - I had never looked at them before or had given them a second thought. Now I am very excited to get a mac - cannot wait!
    Cheers, Kath!

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  7. Sophie - you've just explained why I decided against a Dell! Although I recognise they are generally good machines, I kept hearing horror storiees about their appalling standards of customer service - and I simply don't want to deal with a company like that.

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  8. I am an ostrich....fast-moving, sociable and specialised....LOL...perhaps no snow-leopard then...well, the 'sociable' thing just means I spend too much time on facebook etc...need to get a life obviously...and get my head out of the sand!

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