24th May 2010 - Who's made a mark this week?

This is the sketch which I did yesterday because I went out in the sunshine rather than write this post!

Yellow Irises at the Lily Pad Pond
11" x 16", coloured pencils in Large Molsekine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

It was very 'Spring' green although maybe not quite as green as this sketch would suggest!

I've got to go and have another go at drawing that water. Every time I do I begin to understand why Monet painted 240 odd paintings of his waterlilies on the pond he built at Giverny! (see Gardens in Art: Monet and the water garden at Giverny)

This is going to be a briefer post than usual - the weather continues to be good and I've got an exhibition to go to.....

Art Blogs

Drawing and sketching

• Jan Blencowe has posted recently about 3 Reasons a Sketchbook -Journal is Important for Artists
• Laura Frankstone (Laurelines) has posted her wonderful Turkey Sketchbook 2010 on Flickr. You can also see them on her blog in Turkey sketches, part one!, part two, part three and last sketches

Coloured Pencils and Pastels

• Congrats to Margaret Dyer (Small Pastel Studies by Margaret Dyer) who was runner up in the cover competition run by American Artist Magazine - see American Artist Magazine, July issue is on the stands..

Landscape art

• Landscape painting in pastels by pastel artist and tutor Deborah Secor has published more chaptes: Chapter 14: Rocks and Chapter 15: Shadows
  

Art Competitions

• This is the first year I've posted about the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2010 - Call for Entries
• Thanks to Jan Blencowe (Jan Blencowe The Poetic Landscape) for highlighting Renee Phillips's post The Artrepreneur Coach": Juried Competitions: How to Improve Your Odds and listing 44 things you should know!
  

Art Education / workshops / Tips and techniques

art education

• a very thoughtful post by Jeanette Jobson (Illustrated Life) on Paying back

I read an interesting piece tonight about an artist, perhaps intermediate level, who was wondering if she should give lessons in oil painting to people who asked. Her dilemma wasn't whether she was experienced enough in technique and teaching to do, but that if she taught people, they would become her competition.

workshops

• Sadie Valeri (Sadie J Valeri) is offering the following workshops this summer
  
• Figure Drawing Workshop, June 21-25
  
• Still Life Oil Painting Workshop, June 28-July 2
• Cynthia Padilla (Art Workshops-Cynthia Padilla) who leads the Botanical Art Group on Yahoo has a Botanical and Nature Sketching workship in Guatemala (July 22 - 31, 2010)

tips and techniques
Casey Klahn (Pastel) tells us all how to go about Reclaiming La Carte

Art Exhibitions and Open Studios

major museums

• Tate Liverpool has a major exhibition by Picasso
  
• At the British Museum, The Printed Image in China presents a history of 1,300 years of Chinese printing using the Museum’s collection,
  one of the finest and most comprehensive outside Asia. 6 May – 5 September 2010 / Rooms 90 and 91 / Free
  
• Rome has got a new museum for 21st century art. The National Museum of 21st Century Arts, better known as the Maxxi, will be Italy's first state museum for contemporary art and architecture and has been designed by Zaha Hadid. Read Rome Turns to the Art of Today. It opens on May 30th 2010.
  
• The V&A has an exhibition to coincide with the Modern Masters series on the BBC: Matisse, Picasso, Dali and Warhol

This display features prints by four of the 20th century's greatest artists: Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol. Over 50 works drawn from the V&A Museum's collections have been selected to illustrate these modern masters' engagement with the printed medium. Both celebrated and less familiar prints in a range of techniques are included, spanning a period of 75 years and representing one of the most creative and diverse artistic periods in the history of western art.

Regional venues

• This is an account of A Visit to the 2010 American Masters Show SCNY at the Salmagundi Club in New York.

Art societies

This is my Review: Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition 2010

• Felicity House has sent me an invite to come down to her Open Studio held during Dorset Art Weeks. It's an absolute model of what an invite to an Open Studios should be: good-looking art which is representative of the artist, dates and times and all the information I need to get there including a map! Plus she's got it on her website too!

• Felicity is venue 302 in Dorset Art Weeks schedule of over 600 artists in its 10th biennial event. I'm afraid I'm not a fan of their website. Its map mode is not at all obvious. See if you can spot the link in the main menu! However, once you've found it, if you click on a pin it tells you what the studio is about. Dorset Art Weeks last from the 29th May to 13th June.
  

Art History

• The Modern Masters series about four artists who changed the world continues on the BBC on Sunday nights and can be downloaded from BBC iPlayer for those who have access. For everybody else you should be able to review the virtual exhibition on the BBC website
  
• Matisse - the King of Colour
  
• Picasso - Genius of Modern Art
• Salvador Dali - Agent Provocateur of Modern Art
• Andy Warhol - King of Pop.
• You can also see some BBC archive footage of Picasso at home with his family. So who knew Picasso was a cat lover?
• Another really wonderful online resource is The amazing Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource - which originates from Birmingham art Gallery
  
• Yet another art theft and this time they're asking Who failed to switch on the alarm?

There's a lot of memorial events and items on the Internet at present commemorating 65 years since the end of the second world war in Europe

• The Imperial War Museum will host a one day Conference on 9th June which confronts a difficult issue - the making, exploitation and re-appropriation of public memory surrounding memorials. The immediate context is the display at Tate Britain concerning Moore and Auschwitz. Henry Moore chaired the Jury of an international competition (1958-9) to design a public memorial to the ‘Victims of Fascism’ at Auschwitz-Birkenau, although a commission was never realised. The conference explores the dilemma that faced that jury - how to mark a political event with a public memorial.
• the Imperial War Museum also has a pdf file about Despatches Winter 2008: Unspeakable: The Artist as Witness to the Holocaust
  Ulrike Smalley takes a closer look at art produced in response to the Holocaust.

Art Supplies

Three posts on Making A Mark Reviews for pencil artists

• CPSA Lightfastness Handbook Version 6 - out now check out how to get hold of it and how much it costs.
  
• A new colour tip for Caran d'Ache Luminance 6901
• Product Review: Derwent Pocket Pencil Wrap

Copyright

• recommended read. The Etsy blog The Storque has a recent post about UK Edition: Big Brand Copycats. The issue is the boundary and overlap between copyright infringement and 'fair use'

what happens when you suspect a Big Brand has actually ripped off your original designs? Is there anything you can do about it or is it unrealistic to expect a large corporation to take any notice whatsoever?

• Last month, there was an equally good post about Fan Art and Fair Use: One Truth and Five Myths

Opinion Poll

Last chance to vote on the Making A mark opinion Poll for May - Have you bought a painting DVD? (see right hand column if you've not yet voted)

Websites, webware and blogging

Facebook and Privacy - is getting way beyond a joke

Facebook continues to cause concern about security but its growth continues unabated as this post on the register bears witness. However......

High-profile users, including developers at Google, security experts and journalists, have quit Facebook and posted instructions on how others can do the same. Nascent privacy-conscious social network Diaspora has been earning slews of favourable ink.

• Wall Street Journal identified this Facebook, MySpace Confront Privacy Loophole - which gives rise to serious concerns about the assurances on privacy given by Facebook. The simple answer is to avoid sharing any personal data beyond what is essential on Facebook. The more rigorous answer is government regulation and big fines linked to a percentage of their total revenue stream for advertising for breaches of privacy standards. I guarantee they'll then address such issues.
  

Facebook, MySpace and several other social-networking sites have been sending data to advertising companies that could be used to find consumers' names and other personal details, despite promises they don't share such information without consent.

• According to PC Magazine - Facebook Prepping Changes to Privacy Policy to make it more understandable.
  
• Meanwhile, two Toronto-based Facebook users set up quitfacebookday.com, urging other Facebook users to cancel their accounts on May 31 - Quit Facebook Day. Matthew Milan and Joseph Dee wrote on the site....
  

  For us it comes down to two things: fair choices and best intentions. In our view, Facebook doesn't do a good job in either department

• .......and this is diaspora and this is their blog

computers

• Techie: How to remove a CD or DVD from an iMac is me recording what to do next time I fail to engage my brain. Please comment if anybody knows the answer to Robyn's problem - persuading the computer that the disc has been removed!
  

and finally........

Apparently, according to the Art Newspaper, Posh and Becks are the new power couple in contemporary art. Personally I didn't think they had quite accumulated the billions required to be a high status collector these days. However it is interesting that they have invested in art and, it is said, patronised the White Cube to do so. The 'announcement' looked suspiciously like indirect White Cube advertising to - aimed at the WAGs of the upcoming World Cup. Does this mean art has been 'elevated' to the status of something for the 'fashionistas' to talk about while the boys are off running round a pitch kicking a ball?