Sunday, September 19, 2010

19th September 2010 - Who's made a mark this week?

Oil Baron by Martin Roberts
(who I met at the Threadneedle Debate about Arts Funding
of which more next week)
I find September in the UK is always a month when a lot if happening in the Art world.  Major new exhibitions open, major events take place and major competitions are making significant announcements.  This last week has been very busy!

The Liverpool Biennial

The Liverpool Biennial (or Biennale is you're going to be European about it!) started yesterday in Liverpool and runs from 18th September to 28th November.  It's the UK's leading festival of Contemporary Visual Art.    
The big question this year is going to be whether this will be the last time we see the Biennial in its current form given the fact that public funding cutrs loom large on the horizon and one of its funding sponsors has already been axed.
For ten weeks every two years the city of Liverpool is transformed into the most amazing living gallery of new art, showcasing the best contemporary artists from around the world.
and
Works by almost 900 artists from around the world are going on show as part of the UK's largest contemporary arts festival, the Liverpool Biennial.
The event attracted 975,000 visitors the last time it was staged, in 2008.
BBC News - Cultures clash at Liverpool Biennial of art
Major UK Art Competitions and Prizes

The John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize is also based in Liverpool - with the exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery - and is always associated with the Biennial.  On Thursday night - just before the Festival started we heard the announcement that Keith Coventry (won the) £25,000 John Moores Painting Prize 2010

Building the Riverside Museum by Patricia Cain

Which was 24 hours after Wednesday night here in London when I heard who had won the Threadneedle Prize for contemporary figurative art.  Now if I'd got digitally enhanced I could have written my blog post while sat at the dinner table listening to the speeches - but instead I took photos - including one of the winner who you can see and read about in Patricia Cain wins £25,000 Threadneedle Prize 2010.  She's a very nice lady and it was really good to see a pastel drawing win a major prize!

Jonathan Jones on the Guardian was rather less complimentary about the Threadneedle competition and figurative art - which I'd be a tad more persuaded about if he didn't keep trailing the artist (Michaelangelo) he's just written a book about because it increases the chances I'll think he's writing advertising copy rather than critical commentary!

Meanwhile this is My Threadneedle Prize shortlist - right artist - wrong pastel drawing!

Art Blogs


Audio Interviews with/about artists
  • This is a post about an audio interview with Kurt Jackson about his new exhibition - words and pics are definitely worth listening to and looking at - see Kurt Jackson and the River Dart
  • You can also listen to Lisa Jardine's A Point of View The Sistine tapestries about the four huge tapestries from the Sistine Chapel which the Vatican have lent to the Victoria and Albert Museum to mark the visit of Pope Benedict XVI.  The V&A is the home of Raphael's huge Cartoon (preparatory drawings for the tapestries). The tapestries were not seen alongside the cartoons by Raphael in his lifetime as they were not completed until after his death
The reuniting of Raphael's Sistine Chapel tapestries and their original designs is little short of a miracle
Raphael: Cartoons and Tapestries for the Sistine Chapel, at V&A, Seven magazine review

Drawing and sketching
There's a new drawing blog Line by Line - on the New York Times of all places.  Thanks to Rose Welty for the tip-off. 
  •  This is how it describes itself (below).  I've added it to the drawing blogroll and will be keeping an eye on it to see how it does.  Quite a lot of these type of blogs start well and then peter out....however this one has a limited life of 12 weeks.  I wonder how much he will post in that time?
LINE BY LINE:  A series on learning the basics of drawing, presented by the artist and author James McMullan. Line By Line begins with installments on line, perspective, proportion and structure, and continues from there, using examples from art history to illuminate specific issues. Pencil and paper recommended.
Coloured Pencils and Pastels
I've got the 'official posts from UKCPS News about the 9th Annual Open International Exhibition below.  Here are the artists who've been blogging about their pictures being in the exhibition!
Portraiture

Art and the Economy / Art Collectors

Art Competitions

It's fascinating to see that we now have Visitors Choice awards for paintings chosen by people on Twitter and Facebook!  So here's the update for the BP Portrait Awards

Art Exhibitions

New exhibitions, viewing today......
Sixteen examples of the fantastic composite heads painted by Giuseppe Arcimboldo will be featured in this exhibition, their first appearance in the United States. Bizarre yet scientifically accurate, the unusual heads are composed of plants, animals, and objects. 
Opening next week.......
  • Angus McEwan ARWS RSW - his new work "Resonance" opens at the Open Eye Gallery, 34 Abercromby Place Edinburgh EH3 6QE on Thursday the 23rd of September 2010 and continues until to 12th October 2010. Click the link to see works in this show about Cuba
  • Hilary Paynter - an exhibition of Wood Engravings at the Bankside Gallery 22 September - 3rd October.  She has a very weird website but it's worth the effort.

Art History, Galleries and Museums

Art Society Exhibitions

Loire Valley Harvest by Janie Pirie
These are the posts relating to the the 9th Annual Open International Exhibition held by the United Kingdom Coloured Pencil Society at the Stamford Arts Centre
The ‘THE NATURAL EYE’ - The 47th Annual Exhibition of the  Society of Wildlife Artists opens at the Mall Galleries on 22 September and runs to 2 October 2010

    Art Education / workshops / Tips and techniques

    Art instruction books
    Art class / workshops
    Art Demonstrations
    Art Videos
    Tips

    Art Studios

    Art Supplies

    Billie also alerted me to Daniel Smith's Watercolor 66 Try-It Color Sheet which I wrote about on my Making A Mark reviews blog - and then daniel Smith sent some suggested videos they'd loaded on to YouTube about to use the sheet (and the post is now updated with those links)

    Colour

    Websites, webware and blogging


    Using Color to Increase Participation

    and finally........

    This was amusing - Revealed: the colour of the social web is the colour of Twitter.  What grey, blue and pink say about you on Twitter.  Maybe avoid the pink? ;)

    2 comments:

    1. I've been scratching my head trying to work out how I would find each instalment of Line By Line in the NYT. It didn't occur to me it was a blog - until you pointed it out. Thanks yet again.

      Another cracker post, by the way. :)

      ReplyDelete
    2. The colour of Twitter. hehee!

      Thanks for the mention of my blog class, and thank you SO much for colourlovers.com, can you believe I've never seen it before? (and I follow quite a few graphic design blogs too)

      ReplyDelete

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