August 2010 - Who's made a mark this month?

This is the "summer slowdown" edition of "who's made a mark". I've enjoyed the time off from preparing my regular Sunday posts (which are more than a little time-consuming!) and being able to post rather less often.

A Cheshire garden in early August

11.5" x 17", coloured pencils and pen and ink in Large Moleskine Sketchbook

copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I've published about half the number of posts I would normally have done and I've kept a record of some of items which have caught my eyes as well.

I wished the weather hadn't decided to start being quite so windy and rainy just as I started to do other things!  Notwithstanding that we've been holidaying at home and doing lots of things we've never done before - such as walking along the Thames at Richmond and looking at the only landscape view protected by statute in the UK.  I'm waaaaay behind in posting my sketches so you'll be seeing some of what I've been up to in the coming weeks.   I've also bought quite a few new books about art!

Art Blogs

It might seem odd to start with an apparently negative post, but in reality I've only just come across this June post by Hugh MacLeod (Gaping Void) about why most art blogs fail and it has a very important message for all art bloggers

the reality is, most people are not reading your blog because they have an inherent love for (the subjects of your paintings). They’re reading your blog because THE PERSON YOU ARE inspires them. They’re not reading your blog because they’re thinking of buying your paintings, they’re reading your blog because the way you approach your work inspires them. It sets an example for them. It stands for something that resonates with them. IT LEADS THEM TO SOMEWHERE THAT THEY ALSO WANT TO GO.

Coloured Pencils and Pastels

• For Malcolm Cudmore (Malcolm Cudmore - Artist), who won the Derwent Artists competition The Waiting is Over!  and he can now see what his drawing looks like on the new tin of Derwent Artists' Pencils.  Many congrats to Malcolm who was a very worthy winner.
• Leslie Hawes (Leslie’s Art Blog) has a technique for Drawing from a photo reference which is quite unlike any other technique I've seen.

Drawing and sketching

• James Gurney (Gurney Journey) had an excellent post about producing a topographical sketch.  When the comments got dtarted it included a discussion about the relative merits of producing accuracy. A recommended read 
  
• Betsy Dadd (Betsy Dadd) was recently shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing Prize
• There's a Photograph of my sketching set-up over on Travels with a Sketchbook.  I am soooooooo behind with scanning sketches - it's so much easier to post photos!
• I'm loving watching Liz Steel (Liz and Borromini) as she wends her way round the world on her summer big trip away from Oz - she's now in Scotland.   You should also take a look at A Perfect Cuppa with Liz Steel 
• These are some of my sketches - but lots remain to be scanned.  Using a double page spreads in an A4 size Moleskine means posting pics takes three times as long!
• The Victoria Tower from College Garden
• Sketching Syon Vista
• A Cheshire garden in summer
• Cosmo weighs up the escape routes
• St John Bread and Wine, Spitalfields

Brunch - St Johns, Spitalfields

11.5" x 17", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Large Moleskine Sketchbook

copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Landscapes

• I think I might have identified a whole new use for Streetview!  I was recently intrigued to hear about what happens when you're trying to track down the location of a painting for a catelogue raisonee.  Richard Ormond, the great nephew of John Singer Sargent is current developing the volumes relating to landscapes and told us an interesting story about one picture - currently on exhibition at the Royal Academy - Singer Sargent: Where's the place in this painting?.  I was able to track down the location of the artist using Streetview
• Mitchell Albala - author of Landscape Painting: Essential Concepts and Techniques for Plein Air and Studio Practice - has two reasons to be featured on Making A Mark this month
• Mitchell Abala has a new blog provides a categorised list of the posts to date on his  new blog Essential Concepts of Landscape Painting.  This has been added to the tutor blogroll in the column on the right. 
• On Location with Stasinos and Albala: Same Subject, Different Visions - an interesting exercise in videoing two artists painting side by side
• Two important Canadian features to the The Virtual Paintout Blog this month
• first - it's the Virtual Paintout August is in Prince Edward Island or PEI as it is known in Canada
• second - Bill Guffey and Virtual Paintout on Canadian TV
• David Curtis was the subject of a series of posts about his videos:
• Landscape Painting Videos by David Curtis
• David Curtis - Light in the Landscape
• David Curtis - Light Effects in Watercolour
• David Curtis demonstrates "A Light Touch: Landscapes in Oils"
• David Curtis - Light and mood in watercolour

Painters and Painting

The Ascent of Woman by Chris Myers RI, RBA

• Alla Prima Studies by Jonathan Aller contains a lot of step by step images of the progress of his paintings
• pushing PIGMENTS is a joint enterprise between Jon Aller and Brian MacNeil.  It's a nice idea but very much seems to have lost momentum, however this is an interesting post - Master Copy Challenge by Brian MacNeil
• What's the name for a triptych when it's four? Anyway, I was very impressed with this painting by Chris Myers RI, RBA which I saw at Watercolour Academy last week.

Art Business and Marketing

• Is There a Life for Female Artists Over Fifty? You Betcha! by Lisa Adams Los Angeles painter and educator on the Huffington Post
• Charley Parker writes about MagCloud - the magazine equivalent of Blurb
• Kirsty Hall and Alyson Stanfield (ArtBizBlog)have highlighted How to Be Humble When You’ve Messed Up - it relates to how to deal with a malfunction in using your email list and, more importantly, how to deal with the inevitable cock-ups which arise from time to time.

Art and the Economy / Art Collectors

• The Los Angeles Times has a long article which suggests American art collectors ripe for study and Collectors: Becoming front and center in the art world and in art history
• There have also been various articles about the impact of the budget cuts
• BBC:Arts and culture bodies in cuts appeal to government
• Financial Times Arts donors “won't plug spending gap”
• while at the same time Vanessa Houlder of the Financial Times says Incentives for arts donors rated as generous 
• Katherine Cartwright's blog (Katharine A. Cartwright Studio) announces itself as being A blog dedicated to the advancement of critical thinking in art.  She certainly pose an interesting question with her post Fine Art: Public or Private? about whether private art collections should be made accessible to the public at large.

Art Competitions and Art Societies

• Probably the most important post I wrote last month was this one - AWS gold medal controversy - the final word.  Having corresponded with Annie I can tell you that the impact in reality was far more significant and negative than anything written in this post.  However I agree with her that it's best not to dwell on the detail too much.  The imperative now is for art societies to recognise the impact too and to give higher priority to finding an effective and efficient way of dealing with fraudulent work.
• Making A Mark had three further posts this month about the current exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery
• BP Travel Award - 2009 and 2010.  You can see my video of the exhibition of Isobel Peachey's work on YouTube.

Those attending the awards ceremony last month were amused to hear that (Paul Beer's) winning proposal is to paint a large-scale, plein-air group portrait of figures on the secluded Corfu nudist beach which he first visited twelve years ago with his wife on their honeymoon.

• BP Portrait Award 2010: List of Exhibitors and Brian Sewell - the Brian Sewell article was a good read but even more so after I'd found the links to all the artist's websites, as this was an exercise which delivered a few surprises.  
• Shaun Downey and Blue Coco which is an excellent demonstration of how this Award can give some really wonderful spin-off marketing for an artist's work.
• Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2010 - Call for Entries
• Jerwood Drawing Prize 2010 - The Shortlist
• The coloured pencil societies have both had recent activity:
• The Colored Pencil Society of America held its annual convention in California announced the CPSA 2010 - Awardwinners
• whereas in the UK, along with 65 other artists, my work has been Juried into UKCPS 9th Annual International Open Exhibition
• For those entering exhibitions at the Mall Galleries you might want to know that The Mall Galleries has two doors!

Art Exhibitions and art fairs

• These are the photos selected from those submitted on Flickr for the set celebrating Tate Modern at 10.  I thought it was really great to see a museum seeking out visitors photographs for a celebration of the museum.  While I'm all for professional photographers getting propercredit/pay for their work, some of these photographs are one which never appeared in the professional press - and a number of them certainly would not have been taken by a professional photographer - and I mean that in the nicest possible way!
• Jonathan Jones review of Impressionist Gardens, the blockbuster festival exhibition at the National Galleries of Scotland.  He also has A guide to Edinburgh's art treasures
• It's now closed - however I'm completely in agreement with Jonathan Jones's view that The Royal Academy must get its Summer Exhibition act together.  This year was unimpressive - hence no review from me.  I don't think I've ever walked through so fast.
• Natalie (Blaugustine's Other Blog) has a review of Lucien Freud (et moi) at the Pompidou.
• There's an exhibition of the work of James McNeil Whistler - On Beauty and the Everyday: The Prints of James McNeill Whistler (August 21–November 28, 2010) at the University of Michigan Museum of Art.  This is a post about the exhibition by Charley Parker (Lines and Colors)
• I went to see Watercolour Academy this week at the Mall Galleries. 
• The Nordiska Akvarellmuseet Årets (Nordic Watercolour Museum) in Sweden has been playing host to an exhibition of work by Andrew Wyeth.  The works are from the private Marunuma Art Park collection in Japan and the exhibition finishes 5th September.  Thanks to Debbie Mathison (Malekurs på Larkollen) for the reference
  
• Last year the members of the Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour came together for a joint exhibition called "High Watermark" (see Making a Mark: Exhibition review: RWS and RI - High Watermark 2009).  This year, artist members from across the different art societies which make up the Federation of British Artists (based at the Mall Galleries) have come together to produce a sparkling and varied display of watercolour works on paper.  It was disappointing not to see works by artists who are only members of the RWS as well.  On the other hand it was great to see excellent watercolours by artists who are not members of either of the two premier watercolour societies in the UK.  I hope this wider perspective on watercolour art  - beyond the annual exhibitions of the two societies - continues.  Bob Rudd continues to impress!  It was also good to see a work by John Raynes - I looked more closely at his books after viewing his work.

Treen Cliff Porthcurno (watercolour)
Bob Rudd RI

Mont Ventoux (watercolour)
John Raynes RI

Art Education / workshops / Tips and techniques

• ArtPlantae highlights how Mark Granlund Teaches Traditional Botanical Art Classes Onlin
• The Royal Academy of Arts provides a web page where you can Learn more: Paul Sandby's watercolour techniques

Sandby liked to use isinglass (made from the bladders of fish) as a binding agent mixed with gin and honey water. You can still buy isinglass in art shops today, although gum arabic (made from the sap of the acacia tree) works just as well and would also have been available to Sandby.

• Michael Chesley Johnson writes about How to Prepare for a Plein Air Workshop

Art Supplies

• Product Review: Talens Van Gogh Coloured Pencils is a revamped version of my original review following comments from a fellow CP artist saying how much he likes them.

 

Art videos

The Art Newspaper / In the Frame highlights Chuck Close on Colbert which sounded fascinating until I got the link to a video of Chuck Close on the Colbert Report - and I'm very miffed that I can't see this in the UK!

 

Book reviews

I had a number of updates and posts about books in August

• The Top Ten Fine Art Books in July - the next one (for August) will publish tomorrow!
• Best Art Books about Drawing and Sketching just had a revamp!
• Botanical Sketchbook publishes in the USA
• Caldecott Medal Winners

Colour

• For some reason this 2007 post on Making A Mark is getting a lot of visitors at the moment - Colour Schemes: Split Complementaries, Triads and Tetrads
• Here are some great articles (.pdf) by Linda Goin about color:
• Color Schemes part 1
  
• Color Schemes part 2: Triad, Tetrad, and the Perception of Depth
  
• Color Perceptions
  
• Color Usage: Color Schemes and Themes
• Three neat tools which are particularly useful when designing with colour are:
• The 4096 colour wheel - which delivers the html code tag for every colour imaginable
• HTML color codes and names produced by Computerhope.com
• Plus you can also See all color codes used by any web page.

Opinion Poll

• The results of the July Making A Mark Poll are posted in Where would you prefer to have an art studio? (Results).  This suggested that 80% of artists want a dedicated space in their own home.
• I'm repeating my Annual Survey about What's the MAIN way you have sold art in the last 12 months but am going to extend its deadline to Friday 3rd September as it started late this month and I haven't been providing reminders.  Please do vote - I'm trying to detect the changes in the last three years since I started this annual poll.  You can find the poll in the column to the right of this post.
  

Websites, webware and blogging

• Did you know that you can now get statistics in Blogger?  See Webware review: Blogger Stats
• While over Statcounter Upgrades just got better
• and Google is now Showing more results from a domain.  This makes it much make it much easier for users to find a large number of results from a single site.  If you put "making a mark blog" into Google you should now see the most popular blog posts come up under the listing for my blog - which I assume is linked to this change.  However, I still think Google can improve its performance in relation to blogs which have now been around for a long time in terms of how the search results work. 
• This is an informative post on Problogger about Why Link Exchanges Are Like Mosquitoes

By participating in link exchanges, you risk injuring your reputation, the reputation of others, and angering Google.

• I find the HTML Tags free online cheatsheet by Visibone to be invaluable when I want to look something up.

and finally......

This is a bit of a weird one but I couldn't resist it.  This is the very first sketch of life