21st November 2010 - Who's made a mark this week?

Liz Steel in New York - from her second sketchbook on Issuu

Liz Steel (Liz and Borromini) is busy scanning and posting her sketchbooks from her Long Service Holiday (11 weeks) - aka her 'round the world sketching trip/adventure' which finished last month.

Liz has been publishing her complete sketchbooks on issuu - so the first link is to her post and the second link is to the issu publication.  Liz's sketchbooks focus on two things - architecture (she's an architect by day) and tea rooms (she's a complete tea addict) and little stickers associated with places where she's been.  If you've never ever kept a sketchbook as a journal before when on a trip take a look at Liz's.

• Volume 1 (on issuu) - sketches from the USA, starting with the Urban Sketchers meet-up in Seattle
• Volume 2 (on issuu) - more sketches from the USA, including Portland, Kansas focusing on New York
• Volume 3!  (on issuu)- which is all about Scotland (mainly the islands of Lewis and Harris) - and Scottish tea rooms

Meanwhile this is my long overdue post about my meeting up with Liz and Alison Staite (Art Journey) at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in September.

Kew Palace
11 x 17", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Large Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Liz has so far got all the sketchbooks I saw in person - but when she left Kew she was going to the airport to jet off to Italy - so sketching her sketchbook about sketching in Venice and Tuscany is still to come!

If you start in August and read forwards on her blog Liz and Borromini you can see all the posts as they happened.  This is what you can do when you're posting with only a phone to provide text and images!

For those who've not come across Issuu before (like me), it's a leading online digital publishing platform that allows for realistic and customizable viewing of digitally uploaded material, such as portfolios, books, magazine issues, newspapers, and other print media. It also integrates with social networking sites to promote uploaded material.  There's a free option and a pro option.   It's globally oriented (ie not just the USA), the client list is very impressive (we're talking major players) and its growing very fast - check out the numbers.   Time magazine identified it as one of the 50 best sites in 2009 - and you can read the Time review here.  You can follow the issuuu blog here.

I can't tell you any more than that because I'm not using it as yet but after seeing what it does for Liz's sketchbooks (and the client list) I'm going to start exploring in more depth!

[Actually, being an ex-number cruncher, I couldn't wait so published this review of the traffic that the different sites attract this morning on Making A Mark reviews...! My post Online publishing platforms - the numbers compared gave me a big surprise - and will probably surprise you too ]

Art  Blogs

Drawing and sketching

• Sketching from the car in November is one option for those for whom the weather has grown too cold - and you can still get splendid results - see Blois in Autumn Light by Guillaume on Urban Sketchers
• James Gurney (Gurney Journey) has highlighted the fact that the new December/ January issue of International Artist magazine includes a special feature that he wrote about Drawing with the Brush
• Berlin, all sketches in one go by Laura (Laurelines) also highlights the Maruman folding sketchbook she likes using.

Coloured Pencils and Pastels

• Gayle Mason (Fur in the Paint) is at The 2010 Supreme Show this weekend - which means an awful lot of cats and an awful lot of people who like having drawings and paintings of cats!  I'm always a bit puzzled as to why the Society of Feline Artists don't take a stand there.  Gayle's been pondering on her marketing strategy now she's a full-time professional artist and envisages a change of direction prior to the fairs in 2011

Illustration and Fantasy Art

• It's fascinating to see how Hugh MacLeod (Gaping Void) pitches for commissions to draw what he refers to as cube grenades

Landscape

• Peter Doig's landscapes and painting process This includes a video of Peter Doig introducing his paintings in his exhibition exhibition at Tate Modern in 2008 and talking about the process of creating art.  I've also started to develop a site about him as I'm interested in his approach to making art.  If you're interested check out Peter Doig - Resources for Art Lovers - which is very much a work in progress at present. 
• Lori Signori (loriann signori's painting-a-day) has started an interview with Deborah Paris (Deborah Paris - A Painting Life) - see Deborah Paris interview:part one
• Evaluating Photo Reference for a Series can be found on Mitchel Albala's blog Essential Concepts of Landscape Painting

Painters and Painting

• An excellent post by Sadie Valeri (Sadie J Valeri) on her Plein Air Setup
• Sadie has also been involved with others recently in a Women Painting Women On Expedition in Charleston
• WPW on Expedition: Charleston, SC
• WPW on Expedition: Monday
• WPW on Expedition: Tuesday
• WPW on Expedition: Wed and Thurs
• WPW on Expedition: Final Recap
• Julian Merrow Smith (Postcard from Provence) has published 30 new signed limited edition prints.  Now there's a man gearing up for Christmas! :)
• I came across this blog called Art Colony which I don't ever remember seeing before - which is unusual as it's been going a long time and I certainly know some of the participants.  It also says it's a forum for professional artists to exchange thoughts, methods and ideas and hopefully to gain friendships as well.
• Stapleton Kearns (Stapleton Kearns) has A theory about Sargents methods (as in John Singer Sargent)

Art Business and Marketing

• Yesterday I posted about a very welcome innovation - the Axis Art Map - Cardiff.  Axis hopes to develop Axis Art Maps in other UK cities and regions.  This particular map was developed with the assistance of Arts Council Wales.  Nice to see the Arts Council spending their money on initiaitives of with a practical impact on artists as digital mapping technology takes off.
• If you're sending or selling artwork as Christmas gifts don't forget you may get some useful tips on my resource site How to pack, post and ship art - Resources for Artists
• Plus Etsy's Storque Blog has its own tips about how to make an impact in Etsy Success: Packaging for the Holidays

Art and the Economy / Art Collectors

• You can view the e-catalogue for an auction in London on Tuesday of nineteenth century european paintings on the Sotheby's website. You can also view the video about the auction in which Sotheby’s Head of Department Adrian Biddell as he discusses two outstanding paintings by Joaquín Sorolla in the sale: Pescador, Valencia (Young Fisherman, Valencia), and Niños en la playa (Children Playing on the Beach).  Monet called Sorolla "the master of light".  It includes a wonderful photo of Sorolla's set-up on the beach - not the sort I've often seen in other phtoographs of artists painting and definitely wirth taking a look

Art Competitions and Art Societies

UK Art competitions

This week has been a heavy duty week on Making A Mark in terms of art competitions and their exhibitions.  I don't normally get quite the overlap we have this year between the ING Discerning Eye competition and that of Lynn Painter-Stainers.  Anyway here are all the posts from Making a Mark:

• Rachel Levitas wins Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2010.  Paintings depicting foxes have scooped the top two awards for this year's Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize.
• Two interviews with the fox-painters and prizewinners
• An interview with Rachel Levitas
• An Interview with Lauren Archer
• Call for Entries: RA Summer Exhibition 2011 This post is about how to enter the 2011 Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts:
• for those who have not submitted before - and 
• for those who have just forgotten how and need a reminder!

• REVIEW: The ING Discerning Eye Exhibition 2010 which lists all prizewinners and links to artists in the exhibition

New art prizes

• the Robert De Niro Sr. Prize is a new yearly $25,000 award funded by the painter's actor son of the same name.  It's aim is to celebrate midcareer artists who have demonstrated outstanding talent in the field of American painting.  The prize will be administered by the Tribeca Film Institute, a nonprofit co- founded by De Niro.  Artists interested in being considered for the prize should email prize@robertdenirosr.com.

The prize will recognize “an American artist whose work over a considerable period of time has made a significant contribution to the field of painting,” according to a press release. A committee of “distinguished individuals in the art world,” as yet unnamed, will select the winner from among three finalists.

Art Exhibitions

UK

• National Gallery: Bridget Riley: Paintings and related work opens on Wednesday 24th November. 
• Bankside Gallery: The Mini Picture Show opens on Friday 26th November
  

USA

• “Denys Wortman Rediscovered: Drawings for The World-Telegram and Sun, 1930-1953,” a major retrospective that runs through March 20 2011. A prolific artist's views of everyday life in New York before, during, and after WWII. 
• The Spanish Manner: Drawings from Ribera to Goya at The Frick Collection October 5, 2010, through January 9, 2011.  Here you can see Goya's drawings in this exhibition.

Though often well versed in the traditions of Italy and Flanders, artists on the Iberian Peninsula developed their own signature techniques and departed from academic conventions of representing the human figure

Art Education / workshops / Tips and techniques

• Marion Boddy Evans (painting.about.com) Understanding Tonality (Not Tone) in a Painting

Tonality is the quality of light that bathes everything

• Another use for Issuu - theartleague is the online Art League Catalog 2010-11 (a wide range of visual arts courses in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, Metro Washington, DC). More info: http://school.theartleague.org/.  It makes interesting reading.

Art Galleries and Museums

• Yesterday - a new Art of the Americas wing opened at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.  It was designed by Norman Foster and has involved an almost complete transformation of the museum.  The wing is actually bigger than most medium size-museums in the USA!  Lots of items have come out of store as a result
• this is a video about it
• you can see the new galleries here
• here's the review by the Financial Times and the one by the New York Times Enough to Cause Art Lovers to Swoon
• this is the Museum of Fine Art's Facebook page

The new Art of the Americas wing at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is home to more than 5,000 pieces spread over 53 galleries.

Art of the Americas Galleries in the new wing of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

• Meanwhile the Prado Museum in Madrid has started on its expansion - The Collection: The Second Expansion!
• The Prado is online with YouTube.  I don't know quite when it happened but The Museum on YouTube apparently includes more than 67 videos about the temporary exhibitions, restorations and museum activities
• You can see a video of its latest Rubens exhibition here.  
• It also has a PradoMedia channel on the Prado website and you can see the same video on the museum website.  The commentary is in Spanish with small English sub-titles.
• Passion for Renoir. The Collection of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute is also on exhibition at the Prado.

Art Supplies

• Derwent have a brand new look to their website http://www.pencils.co.uk
• Cretacolor Drawing Lead Travel Set is a detailed review brought to you by Rob's Art Supply Reviews

Book reviews

• Figure Drawing for all it's worth by Andrew Loomis is available on Issuu.  It's very weird - it seems to have loaded in reverse.  certainly the page sequence doesn't work as it should but I guess that won't matter to those who like looking at Andrew Loonis books.

Copyright

• This week saw a useful Reminder About Painting Derivatives by Marion Boddy Evans about the problems of using images you've found on the Internet.  She also wrote If I Change 10 Percent, Isn't It New?
• The Art News paper published Artist’s copyright versus curator’s freedom of expression in relation to the Beuys case - which I'm still trying to get my head round....

The trial between the estate of Joseph Beuys and the Museum Schloss Moyland (p13) illustrates from a legal and an ethical perspective the complications of this entanglement and the difficulties of separating the “document” from the “work”.

Opinion Poll

• The Making A Mark Poll for November is progressing - you can find links to the dollar and sterling versions of What price is affordable art? in the side column.

Websites, webware and blogging 

• The Museum of Modern Art Gets on the iPad App Bandwagon.
• You can now access the MoMA Audio on MoMA WiFi
• This is the itunes ID for MoMA

and finally........

Twenty years ago this month, Tim Berners-Lee published his proposal for the World Wide Web.

Here's the Official Google Blog with A curious guide to browsers and the web and an online guidebook called “20 Things I Learned about Browsers and the Web.”

Plus this is a link to the website of Christoff Niemann who did the illustrations