25th April 2010 - Who's made a mark this week?

West Smithfield ( Smithfield market in background)

11.5" x 17", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The drawing above is from my sketching trip on Friday which is told in The Courtauld, Old Bank of England and West Smithfield. Now the weather has perked up I'm expecting to be able to get out and about and sketch for longer than I've been doing recently. (Mind you I'm not quite sure where the blue skies and 22 degrees forecast for today have gone - so far we've had an ash cloud sky and rain!

Art Blogs

Area Based Art Group Blogs

These are blogs run by and for members of art groups which are associated with a particular area. More and more art groups are realising the sense of having a group blog which can promote the activities of individual members as well as the activities which they engage in as a group. It's the 2+2=6 equation. The more they do to promote the group and each other the more benefit there is for individual members.

One such group is the the South London Women Artists Group and SLWA Showcase is their blog. It is used to highlight:

• open studios
• group and solo exhibitions in which individual members are participating
• various activities of group members

SLWA was launched at Dulwich Picture Gallery in June 2008 and has a growing community of talented artists and a highly successful on-line showcase at www.southlondonwomenartists.co.uk

Thanks to Tina Mammoser and Susan Wood for highlighting the work of this group and the upcoming exhibition (see exhibitions listing below). Do also click the link and take a look at Susan's wonderful glass work.

I just wish there was a similar group for those of us who live in North London!

If you've got an area based art group blog why don't you let me know and I'll feature it in one of my Sunday posts.

Botanical Art

More posts about the Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists which finishes today.

• Botanical art in coloured pencils
• Society of Botanical Artists 2010 Prizewinners
  

I gave Flowers in Art - Resources for Artists a bit of revamp this week and it's now much better organised - and has added videos (with more to come). If you've not visited it before this site is aimed more at the artist who loves drawing and painting flowers but doesn't aspire to botanical accuracy (in the botanical art sense).

Drawing and sketching

• Cathy Gatland (A Sketch in Time) has done a simply splendid drawing of My Hill with a Pentel Brushpen. I'm now feeling like having a go at using one!
  
• Urban Sketchers caught my eye this month
  
• Yong Hwan Lee from Korea has been sketching in Europe this month - as we can see from his post on Urban sketchers - Five sketches in Europe.
• and Operation Arctic Care: Riding the Blackhawk (not quite sure where the urban bit comes in on this one!)

Painters and Painting

• Marc Hanson (Painting My Way Through Life) is repeating the exercise he undertook last year and is spending all of April painting the sping colours plein air in April 2009 Painting Marathon Redux. You need to review all his posts in April to see what has been happening.

• Following on from last week's feature about Julian Merrow Smith's new book I remembered to go and look at his wife Ruth's blog (Meanwhile here in France...) to see what she's been writing about the big event. This is a lovely post with lots of pics called Location Location Location

It is five years since our last painting and lunch day out at Sormiou, one of the calenques near Marseille. Then it was to celebrate the beginning of a project. Painting number 102 to be precise. Now it is to celebrate the launch of a book of that project. Painting number 1309.

• Charley Parker (Lines and Colors) introduces an artist new to me Daniel Keys

Art Business and Marketing

• ArtBiz Blog has a useful post about A Strategy for Asking People for Their Contact Information I can certainly endorse the notion that it's a really bad idea to leave a list of people's email names around in public - I will never ever sign a list that does that.
  

Art Competitions and Art Societies

Art competitions

Two calls for entries on my blog this week:

• The Threadneedle Prize for Painting and Sculpture - Threadneedle - just another art prize in 2010?
• The Sunday Times Watercolour Competition - Call for entries: Sunday Times Watercolour Competition

The artists selected for the BP Portrait Award will be announced tomorrow - and will be the subject of tomorrow's blog post. They of course already know who they are!

Art Societies

• The 198th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours opened last week and continues at the Mall Galleries until 1st May. Click on the link in their name to see a selection of works in the exhibition on their website. (Three cheers for an art society which has managed to get the images up on its website while the exhibition is still on! It's also very nice to see a website being kept up to date!). You can also find links to some of the participating artists on the Mall galleries website. There's an Art Event Evening (demonstrations, talks, tours) on Wednesday 28th April 5:00pm to 8:00pm. This includes a painting 'clinic' where visitors are invited to bring in their own paintings for an expert critique.
  
• The 2010 Guild of Natural Science Illustrators Conference will be at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC, from July 11 - 17, 2010.

Art Exhibitions and art fairs

Major exhibitions

• At British Museum (the 2nd most popular museum in the world): Fra Angelico to Leonardo: Italian Renaissance drawings opened last Thursday and runs until 25 July. This is a video about the exhibition.
  
• Dance has just opened at the National Galleries of Scotland and units Degas, Picasso and Diane Arbus - see the article by Art Knowledge News National Galleries of Scotland Explores the Theme of 'Dance' (and thanks to Sheona for highlighting this)
• The London Original Print Fair opens at the Royal Academy next week. - so far I've received three invites to the Private View on Thursday
• A World Observed 1940 - 2010: Photographs by Dorothy Bohm Saturday 24 April 2010 - Monday 30 August 2010 at Manchester Art Gallery

Other exhibitions

• Dennis Hopper is seriously ill with cancer - but he's going to get a retospective of his paintings entitled Art is Life

Art Groups/Art Bloggers

Below you can find details of some upcoming exhibitions by local groups of artists

South London Women Artists @ the Bankside Gallery

• South London Women Artists: See SLWA at the Bankside Gallery 28 April – 3 May 2010 - I'm hoping to get to the Private View on Wednesday evening and will be reviewing the exhibition on this blog next week.

Nearly 100 artists will be showing work covering a range of media and genres that includes prints, painting, photography and sculpture.
Tina Mammoser - South London Women Artists at the prestigious Bankside Gallery

• Gesa Helms is participating in the Eldon Group Summer Exhibition 2010 at St Andrew's Gallery in the University of Glasgow 1st - 12th May 2010. It will be displaying paintings in acrylics, oil, mixed media and works on paper. Venue: St Andrew's Gallery, University of Glasgow, Level 5, St Andrew's Building, 11 Eldon Street. The Gallery open Monday - Friday 10am - 5pm, Saturdays 10am - 1pm and closed Monday 3 May
• The Sweet-Voiced Bird has Flown: Portraits of Common Birds in Decline is an exhibition by the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators Finger Lakes chapter (based in Ithaca, NY) about common birds facing extinction. The exhibition at the Mann Library at Cornell University finishes April 30th. You can read about it in Bird Portraits in the Cornell Daily Sun
  

Art Education / workshops / Tips and techniques

Art Education

• I highlighted Talk and Draw at the National Gallery

Workshops and courses

• Botanical Painting in Umbria with Sandra Wall Armitage SBA While at the SBA Exhibition I met up with Sandra Wall Armitage SBA who told me about the holiday course she's running in early June, painting the wild flowers of Italy in the Sibillini Mountains National Park, Umbria which is apparently an area rich in biodiversity. Sandra was telling me she's been reliably informed that there are at least 11 different species of wild orchid in the grounds of Il Collaccio where they will be staying. Click the link to read more details about the course and the accommodation.

Art Galleries and Museums

• The Guardian has an article rrelating to the 10th anniversary of Tate Modern next month - Artists, critics and readers on 10 years of Tate Modern There are some very interesting questions and answers by Nicholas Serota with some answered better than others (as in no answer provided to the question asked!)

The sheer scale of Tate Modern has been its triumph. Forty-five million visitors have now ventured through its cavern-like entrance to be confronted by the strange wonder of the Turbine Hall

Art Supplies

• Jackson's art Blog did a post about Watercolour Paper Sizes

Book Reviews

I had planned to get Ann Swan's book Botanical Portraits with Colored Pencils reviewed this week but a combination of the Planning Hearings and then feeling really tired after the Hearings finished left me without a lot of concentration. So it's coming up in the very near future - hopefuly next week

Colour

Two more posts from James Gurney about colour and lightfastness

• Lightfastness and Alizarin Crimson - the colour which has caused more than a few problems. A great illustration of why different brands and relative lightfastness really matters
  
• Lightfastness: Final Thoughts - which provides a snippet of a view of what looks like a very helpful table in James' new book.

Copyright

Four posts about copyright and the Digital Economy Act in the UK

• Stop 43, the photographers campaign which stopped Clause 43 of the recent Digital Economy Bill from being enacted has three interesting posts last week
  
• Gone, but not forgotten which is a rebuttal to the assertion by Timms that the government intends to reintroduce it in a new parliament. (Mind you, first they have to win the election which isn't exactly looking like a foregone conclusion at present!)
  
• BAPLA, the aftermath, and the future which I found to be an absolutely fascinating and stimulating read about Big Culture and Big Media
• Stop 32 have now produced a guide for all legislators (some of whom clearly demonstrated a need to be educated during the course of debate in Parliament) in On Digital

Statements have been made by the Government to the effect that regulation of digital copyright is too complex for primary legislation, because too much remains unknown and powers must be granted in advance to regulate unpredictable future developments. This after more than four years of research and "consultation", starting with the Gowers Review in 2006 and continuing with the Lammy Review in 2009.

That is a patronising and lazy attitude unworthy of the intellects who took part in Clause 43's gestation and drafting. The primary characteristics of digital data, digital media and digital networking have been widely known, well understood and straightforward to describe for nearly thirty years.

• By way of contrast, according to the Guardian, Nick Clegg promises to repeal the Digital Economy Act. While clearly something needs to be introduced to legalise different aspects of the Digital economy it needs to be good law which has received proper debate as opposed to the very poor bill which was being rushed through at last knockings just over a week ago. Repeal followed by a decent Act would be a much better way forward.

Opinion Poll

Don't forget the opinion poll about What types of art book do you like best? - it's in the side column and will finish next Friday.

A new poll will be posted on Saturday - suggestions for poll topics are most welcome.

Websites, webware and blogging

• Nitecruzr's Real Blogger Status (tagged ' what blogger won't tell you') is very helpful. Over the years I've found his various sites to be the best source of expert comment whenever I've had problems with Blogger - plus he responds to comments! You can also find him in the Blogger Help Forum
• an interesting aspect of cartooning for Apple apps How Apple could bite the free press
• The next dotcom boom is predicted to be in websites which are safe for children (following concerns about the safety of Facebook et al). Now what does that mean for artists where children are the consumers?
  

and finally........

This is what design hell is like for website designers. Have you been guilty? I'm planning to post soon about Websites for Artists and usability criteria!