4th April 2009 - Who's made a mark this week?

I'm reading this morning that it's estimated that Apple sold about 700,000 iPads yesterday!  I wonder if that counted the pre-orders.  Anyway I know I was totally bemused by what seemed to the sort of enthusiasm normally reserved by children for a new Harry Potter novel!

I do like the idea of an iPad (from an individual who is near to becoming an Apple nerd - but for my creaking Magic Mouse!) and started to think about how it might be useful for artists in What's in the iPad for artists and illustrators? I've even thought of some more uses since that was written - as have people who have commented!

However it's going to take a lot to break my habit of NOT being an early adopter of anything technological. I always wait until the glitches have been ironed out, the enhancements have started and the price has reduced. I can wait.........

However if somebody can show me how to sketch on it - I might just be persuaded to break a habit of a lifetime!

Large Upright Internal/External Form 1982-82 by Henry Moore
in the fields at Perry Green
(photo copyright Katherine Tyrrell / Courtesy Henry Moore Foundation)

Elsewhere this week I had a terrific day out at with the Henry Moore Foundation at his former home of Hoglands in the very rural village of Perry Green in Hertfordshire. You'll find references to the village below, a bunch of photos on Flickr and this week I'll be writing a review of the new exhibition which opened there last week - of his prints and drawings - which is going to be a must for anybody interested in printing and drawing who can get to it.

I came away very much reminded of the experience I had when visiting the Musee Picasso in Paris for the first time, of an enormous talent who could communicate in various art media with apparent effortless ease.

Art Blogs

Art Magazine Blogs 

I'm still finding blogs published by art magazines. To my mind a number of these still don't quite "get" blogging. Or at least don't understand how they can be used to draw readers to their site and journal (as in the some of the better blogs of the better newspapers). Which is odd really when you think about it.

Anyway, this week I stopped by the Artists and Illustrators blog produced by the people who run the Artists & Illustrators Magazine in the UK. It doesn't post very often and has not persuaded me to add it to my blog roll


Making A Mark Blogroll

Talking of which I'm planning to give my blogroll a bit of an overhaul in the near future. I've already started tweaking trying to find a link which was giving problems with loading this blog. The general principle will be that blogs which don't post on a regular basis will be removed unless I'm very partial to the content when posted.


Drawing and sketching

• Liz Steel (Liz and Borromini ) has shown us what her full sketching kit and her mini trip sketching kit look like
• This is book on a blog a children's book by Andrea Joseph
• This is the blog for the the 1st International Urban Sketching Symposium being run by Urban Sketchers.

Coloured Pencils and Pastels

• Deborah Secor has now posted two more chapters in her blog of her book Landscape Painting in Pastels see Chapter 7 Sky and Chapter 8 Clouds

Illustration, Fantasy Art & Cartoons

• Can the iPad Do Whatever a Comics Store Can? By Dave Itzkoff of New York Times Blog Arts Beat given that Marvel Comics now has an app.

Landscapes

• The Virtual Paintout focus has changed from Norway to the Atlantic off the coast of Portugal - Canary Islands - The Virtual Paintout in April
• I came up with a new sort of post - where you go from your painting or drawing and then try and find the location on Streetview to see how you did when you got back home! From completed landscape drawing to Streetview. Why not give it a try? It's a lot easier now that google seems to have run those funny little cars with the cameras around the whole world. Maybe you can find a road they've not yet travelled down?

Painters and Painting

• Deborah Paris (Deborah Paris Fine Art / Deborah Paris - a Painting Life) has got an article in the April issue of Southwest Art Magazine. The painting which is featured in the article, Autumn Light, is part of the Spring Gallery Night show at Galerie Kornye West in Ft. Worth, which runs through the end of April.
• Linda Blondheim (Linda Blondheim Art Journal) is back out painting plein air but not without Trouble in Paradise!  She reflects on the wisdom and impact of paint outs and ponders on Territorialism 
• Meanwhile the Wall Stret Journal comments on The New Realities of Haitian Painting

Printmaking

• watch out for the post this week about the new book and exhibition about the graphic art and print-making by Henry Moore.
  

Sculpture

A few sculpture items this week.

• This post Sketching in a barn at Hoglands provides an overview of what is on offer when you visit the former home of Henry moore. While this one Sculpture in the garden at Hoglands, Perry Green shows you a small sample of the works on display as does my Flickr set Henry Moore Sculptures, Hoglands, Perry Green

 (photo copyright Katherine Tyrrell / Courtesy Henry Moore Foundation)

• This is the Sculpture Blog and news about a conference about sculpture in London this month.
  
  
  
  

Art Business and Marketing

• Coagula has a ' Turning Pro' article by Alan Bamberger called Wanna be an art dealer
  
• You can find 10 Tips To Tell You How To Start A Photography Business By Finding Your Photography Niche by Photography l digital camera l Photo tips
  

Art and the Economy / Art Collectors

• The David Hockney support team have updated his official website - and I've updated my information site David Hockney - Resources for Art Lovers to provide more structured links to a record of his works - paintings, drawings, photos, stage design and graphic works
  

Art Competitions and Art Societies

• Sam Leach wins Wynne Prize for landscape painting in Australia. He also won the also won the Archibald Prize 2010 (AUS$50,000) with a portrait of Tim Minchin.

Art Exhibitions and art fairs

Major exhibitions

David Mitchinson, author of Henry Moore: Prints and Portfolios
with the elephant skull at the preview of Henry Moore Deluxe: Books Prints and Portfolios

(Photo: Copyright Katherine Tyrrell / Courtesy of the Henry Moore Foundation)

• Sentinels in the Sky: Antony Gormley on “Event Horizon” in New York
• A new exhibition of Henry Moore Deluxe: Prints and Portfolios opened last week at the Henry Moore Foundation in Perry Green - and I was there for the preview. A formal exhibition review follows this week - just as soon as my notes which I left behind by mistake arrive back!
• Meanwhile Henry Moore Sheep have moved to the Hertford Museum
• 'Masterpieces of European Painting From Dulwich Picture Gallery' is reviewed by the New York times in Dreamy Fantasies of Femininity and Nature. “Masterpieces of European Painting From Dulwich Picture Gallery” continues through May 30 at the Frick Collection in Manhattan
• Also in New York is the Focus on Nature - an exhibition of natural history illustrations at the New York State Museum (April 12, 2010 - Sunday, October 31, 2010). You can see the artists selected to exhibit here.

Art Bloggers

• Deborah Paris (Deborah Paris Fine Art / Deborah Paris - a Painting Life) is participating in the Early Summer Show at Blackheath Gallery in London opening April 17th and the 15th Anniversary Show at Whistle Pik Galleries in Fredericksburg, Texas. May 1-31.

Leadenhall Market (£150)
10" x 7", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

• You can see my work in Drawing London 2010 at the Brokers Wine Bar in Leadenhall Market in the City of London (a stones throw from Lloyds of London) until June

Art Education / workshops / Tips and techniques

• How to paint clouds
  

Art History

• The BBC has a nice slideshow In pictures: Caravaggio in the frame. I'm really annoyed with myself as this was done alongside a series of three BBC radio programmes on The Secrets of the Art and the Artist: Caravaggio which are now not available to listen to. I wish they'd create an RSS feed for their Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media programmes
• Replicas made with high technology tools are changing the way tourists see art - see The Art of Replicating Masterpieces by the Wall Street Journal.  It starts by highlighting a Caravaggio.
  
• I published a new resource The History of Landscape Painting - a new resource which has been attracting some positive comments. Still lots to do to it though - this is a long term project
• I also did a major update of a couple of Resources for Art Lovers information sites about two well known artists: Vincent van Gogh and James McNeill Whistler
  

Book reviews

• Watercolour: This week I asked Which are the best art books about watercolour painting? and you've been responding with some really excellent recommendations - including a number of books which are old and/or out of print which you can as used books. I've been so impressed and wanted to take a look at the books recommended so have got going on the information site I was planning as a response. You can see books recommended by me and others in The Best Books about Watercolour Painting which has rocketed up the Squidoo rankings this week - suggesting this is obviously a popular topic! What I've tried to do is categorise the books by subject matter eg Watercolour - Painting Light and British Watercolour Artists - which is not something which happens either in book shops or on Amazon.  I'd still love to hear from more people who have books they'd always recommend to a friend.
• The New York Times speculated on the demise of the book cover with the advent of e-books and the 'marketing' it does for a book when read in public

Colour

• On Tuesday I wrote about What are fugitive colours?
• I've got a particular weakness for anybody who identifies the paletters of particular painters (this is an understatement - I;ve got large books devoted to this topic!) so was pleased to see James Gurney's (Gurney Journey) post about Vermeer’s Pigments.
• James highlights an excellent website called Essential Vermeer by Walt Morton! I particularly liked Walt's post about Selected Palettes: A White-Washed Wall

Copyright

• Cory Doctorow in The Guardian asks Does the BPI want MPs to debate the digital economy bill properly? while the Liberal Democrats say Digital Economy bill should wait for next government.  The net result at the moment is that there is a new clause whichproposes wide and sweeping powers - but there's only going to be two hours of debate in the Commons! (Ref:  Digital Economy Bill)  It's expected to pass into law next week.

provides for a limited power to propose regulations in the future. The regulations would allow copyright owners to apply for court injunctions. These injunctions would require ISPs (or other service providers) to block access to specified internet locations providing access to copyright infringing material. The safeguards are extensive, including provisions on consultation, threshold and proportionality, Parliamentary accountability, legitimate use of websites, freedom of speech, and ensuring due court process."

• Thanks to Lainie who identified this article in the New York Times for me during the comment discussion on yesterday's post. The End of History (Books) by Marc Aronson discusses the issues about the price of using photographs of artwork in books as they go digital. I'm not sure he's right. I think there's going to be huge pressure to stop public museums from acting as if they can mine gold out of public assets through the copyright fees they charge given it limits accessibility rather than promotes wider awareness and education. What do you think?

Creativity

This is an injunction from Everett Bogue to focus on the important (on Gaping Void) if you want to create art.  Which to my mind fits rather well with the title of Hugh McLeod's book Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity

The Making A Mark Opinion Poll

• This month's Making A Mark Poll What types of art book do you like best? has got off to a good start and can be found in the right hand column. So far it's proving that EITHER art publishers have got it completely wrong about what sort of books are required OR this blog is read by a more discerning audience. Could be either. Might be both! :) Why don't you take a look and vite if you haven't so far. It's a multiple response poll.
• On Wednesday I published the results of the Making A Mark poll for March - and the reesults of What's your favourite software for editing digital images? (MAM Poll Results) will come as no surprise to many of you - although, as PS Elements user, I'm still very interested by the value for money question
  

Websites, webware, blogging and techie posts

Blogging

• Can You Blog From an iPad? I Just Did - Mashable provided the answer to that question.
• Zombie Blogs and How They Can Hurt You by Feedblitz News - or what happens when you don't tidy up your loose feeds when you switch blogging platforms
  
• Thanks to Julie Oakley for identifying the Daily Drop Cap blog

Google Docs

Google is having horrendous problems at the moment with Google Docs (which is what I usually use to write blog posts as it doesn't import huge aounts of crap code into the post). Google made a change a few weeks ago to the way paste works in Google Docs and ever since the 'paste' stops working for no obvious reason for a period of time - and then works again. When it stops it can't even copy / paste within the same document. It's about time Google got its act together on this one as it's now been happening for quite some time. Given it's punting Google Docs to businesses it will be doing absolutely nothing for Google's reputation at the moment. They seem to have lost the plot. If you also use Google Docs and are likewise irritated by the paste problem can I suggest giving an explicit account of how you feel on their feedback form for Google Docs

Apple iPad

Some interesting posts for artists who are potential consumers

• Can the iPad Do Whatever a Comics Store Can?
• Looking at the iPad From Two Angles the 'techie' angle and the one everybody else understands!

Search

• How to make searching in Google even easier - GoogleGuide (not an official Google site) tells you all the operators which work in Google

and finally........

Pause for a thought from

• Seth Godin talking about the work of artists in High praise indeed
• James Gurney's post on Thursday about Dinotopia Themed Caskets for that special person who lived their life in the “land apart from time” - just in case you missed it! ;)