Practice, experience and style

New Hampshire Pears
coloured pencils on colourfix
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I received an email comment from John Kinney about my post about plagiarism last week.  I suggested that it might work better as a blog post.

It reflects on the notion and value of daily practice - a point highlighted  in a number of comments on recent posts.

Here's what John thinks

As someone familiar with daily painting, although not a painter and certainly not an expert on the subject, I’d like to draw attention to a few comments already made, and share the questions these have inspired in me, and, I hope, in others...

Review: Royal Watercolour Society - Spring Exhibition 2011

This week it's going to feel a bit like watercolour back to back.

This post is about the Royal Watercolour Society's Spring Exhibition at the Bankside Gallery on the South Bank - which continues until 15th April 2011. The Royal Watercolour Society was founded in 1804 and is the oldest watercolour society in the world.

Then today Sarah Wimperis (The Red Shoes) and I are planning to visit

• the new Watercolour exhibition at Tate Britain 
• before hitting the Private View for the 199th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Institute of  Painters in Watercolour in the afternoon.

27th March 2011 - Who's made a mark this week?

Congratulations to Keiko Tanabe and the folks who are participating in the Daily Paintworks Help Japan Challenge.  334 paintings have been submitted to date on the theme of Home and sales have so far raised just over $18,000 for Japan.

Please note that the Help Japan challenge does not have an end date.  Click the link above to see the paintings on offer.

I had a good look trough the paintings on offer to find one to feature on the blog this week.  This one by S.P. Goodman (SP Goodman - Small Scale Paintings) although a painting of Vermont reminded me of the pictures of the great empty space in Japan which have been periodically covered by snow.

What must it be like to lose your home, your job and most of your friends and family in the space of a few minutes? 

Stand of Trees #II by SP Goodman (Small Scale Paintings)
- being auctioned for Japan (proceeds to Red Cross)

I have called Vermont home for almost 40 years and feel a strong attachment to its mountains, valleys, forests and rivers. All proceeds from this painting will go to the Japanese Red Cross.

I really like what Steven achieves with his palette knife and his steady habit of producing a small scale painting for sale via his blog about once a week.  He has a great set of paintings on his website as well - particularly the landscapes.  Steven is teaching a workshop on Surface and Space at the Sedona Art Center, September 26-30, 2011

Art Blogs

Original art

This week has seen a fair old debate about the topic of style, creating a body of art, derivative art, copying, copyright infringements and 'crossing the line' in relation to original art and painting like other artists. 

• Make your own art! focuses on why original art is best and why every artist has it in them to be a complete original. This followed on from
• Plagiarism or 'passing off' - it's got to stop which got a lot of visitors this week and an awful lot of comments.  It includes definitions of both plagiarism and derivative art.  The post has been revised since first published for the reasons stated in the introduction to the revised post.  It invites readers to have a discussion - with an educational intent - about what is and is not OK in relation to copying, plagiarism, imitation and derivative art.
• Sue Favinger Smith (Ancient Artist) posted a thoughtful response in When Art Becomes a Business Model - A Response to Katherine Tyrrell
• while Viven Blackburn (paintings prints and stuff) also responded with a post about A 'style' of your own?
• Meanwhile here's two views on the recent court ruling that Richard Prince's appropriated art is a copyright infringement.
• Jonathan Jones asks whether Richard Prince is betraying modern art? in Does Richard Prince's work reflect the creativity or cynicism of modern art?
• Edward Winkelman gives a gallery owner's perspective on Appropriation Prohibition (or Why I Think Judge Batts Is Wrong).  
• While The Art Newspaper has a couple of posts this month about copying art - at either end of the spectrum
• Street artist Mr Brainwash sued over “copied” image 
• Even a talent like Titian couldn’t resist copying

Alleged copyright infringements abound today, but neither the practice of artistic borrowing nor its potential legal ramifications are a novelty.....

Drawing and sketching

• Laura Frankstone has a post about My big fat black journal on The Artists Journal Workshop - who makes an important point in the context of some of the wider discussions on this blog this week
  

this new journal of mine is about process and not product. It’s about communication with the self, not with others.

Collage

• I like looking at the blogs of collage artists - artists who delight the eye with their creativity.  This is Carol Reid's blog - Carol Reid - Artist

Coloured Pencils and Pastels

• Pastel artist Astrid Volquardsen has changed her blog domain - and you can now find her new blog at Malerin des Lichts.  For English readers a lot has changed, because navigation and information about her work is now completely in English.  You can download and read more about Astrid in an interview in the February issue of the Pastel Guild of Europe's newsletter

Painters and Painting 

I've been taking a look at a lot of painting blogs this week - some new and some I've not visited in a while. 

• Kathryn Law - (KathrynLaw) made an impassioned comment on the topic of copying art so I went to take a look and found this excellent post about painting Figures
• When writing my post about Make your own art! I started to look around at daily painting blogs to see who was being unique, original and not painting the ubiquitous fruit.  One such blog is Stephen Magsig's Postcards from Detroit.  As well as painting on a regular basis, Stephen is also doing something which is culturally worthwhile - he's documenting a city which is undergoing significant change.  It adds value to his work.  (Stephen - the answer to your question about the painting below is Yes!)

72nd Street, The Dakota by Stephen Magsig
Oil on linen/panel,   2011   7x5"

Wildlife Art

• Congrats to awardwinning artist Tracy Hall (Watercolour Artist) who lives on Orkney and paints nature in detail heard that one of her miniature works has been selected for the David Shepherd Wildlife Artist of the Year Exhibition and shortlisted for the Wildlife Artist of the Year.
• If you've ever wondered what's involved in creating a book of paintings of wild flowers of an area you might like to read the blog about the development of The Orkney Book of Wildflowers.

Art Business and Marketing

Two blog posts on the topic of artists' retirement!

• Edward Winkelman (edward_ winkleman) tackled a topic not often seen on artist's blogs - Retiring as an Artist | Open Thread
• plus this is the link to the post by Jonathan Jones of the The Guardian asks Real artists never retire – or do they?"

Lucian Freud and Cy Twombly are still painting, and still doing powerful work, in old age. Nor is the career longevity (and physical longevity) of artists just a product of modern healthcare. In the 16th century, both Michelangelo and Titian lived very long lives and both worked brilliantly into their last years.

• Joanne Mattera's lastest Marketing Mondays post is all about Studio Insurance

Art and the Economy / Art Collectors

• Arts Council told to sell off masterpieces in damning report by MPs - the report from the parliamentary select committee on culture criticises the funding body for "spending far too much on itself".  Next week arts organisations will be hearing how much money the are getting from the Arts Council.
• Alan Bamberger (artbusiness.com) has a new article for Artists - How to Network and Interact at Your Art Exhibits and Gallery Openings

Art Competitions

• Anybody wanting to submit an entry for the top competition for watercolour painters in the UK should read my post about the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition - Call for Entries
• The artists selected for the first Jerwood Makers Open have been announced.  A jeweller, ceramic artist, glassmaker and an installation artist have been awarded an equal share of £30,000 to create new work, which will go on display as part of the JVA programme at Jerwood Space in July.
• James Gurney has highlighted Two Chinese Art Competitions and he's judging one of them!
  

Art Exhibitions

Art Museum and Gallery Exhibitions

• Picturing the 1930s at the Smithsonian has two films about Visual Literacy and Expressionst Artists of the 1930s.  You can also see a slideshow of: "1934: The Art of the New Deal" »

Learn about the 1930s through eight exhibitions: The Depression, The New Deal, The Country, Industry, Labor, The City, Leisure, and American People. Artworks from the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection are supplemented with other primary source materials such as photographs, newsreels, and artists’ memorabilia.

• The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900 opens at The Victoria & Albert Museum on 2nd April.  It's all about exhibition of the 'Cult of Beauty' reflects how art spread into everyday life in the Victorian period.  This si the Guardian review of the exhibition -  The Aesthetic Movement
  
• The Jerwood Drawing Prize 2010 exhibition is currently in Carmarthen until Easter 

Artists exhibitions

• Belinda del Pesco (Belinda del Pesco Fine Art) and Laura Wambsgans are having a two person show with at Gale's Restaurant in Pasadena, CA. The Artists' Reception is Sunday April 10th from 4:00 - 6:00pm.

Solitude by Sue Favinger Smith

accepted into "WAOWing the Lone Star State",

the annual juried members exhibition for Women Artists of the West (WAOW)

held at the Rockport Art Centre, Texas, from May 11th through June 4th, 2011. 

Art Societies

• I had the very great pleasure last Sunday of attending the Annual Botanical Art Exhibition of the Royal Horticultural Society - see RHS Botanical Art Show & Five Gold Medal Winners and my sketch of the exhibition can be found on my sketchbook blog - see The Royal Horticultural Society Botanical Art Show
• I also wrote a post last week about to enter next year's show - see How to enter the RHS Botanical Art Show.  I hope those contemplating an entry and who have not visited will find the photographs of work by the gold medal winners in the two posts to be of interest.
• The blog of the Botanical Artists' Association of Southern Africa ~ Gauteng Branch features a Member of the Month page.  This is a great idea which other art society blogs could usefully adopt.
• Every now and again I come across a new art society blog.  This week it was the South African Society of Artists Blog
• I went to see the Royal Watercolour Society's Spring Exhibition at the Bankside Gallery on Friday - and enjoyed the coloured pencil and pastel - more about this in my review tomorrow 
• The Annual Conference of the Portrait Society of America is being held in Atalanta, Georgia next month

Art Studios

• Checkout Belinda del Pesco's set up with regard to lighting in her studio
• SouthwestArt provides a link to interviews with artists about their studios
  

Art Supplies

• Albrecht Rissler (Drawing Landscape) has written about Ko-i-Noor GIOCONDA Aquarelle, Berol Karisma Graphite Aquarelle.   Albrecht produces delightful drawings and so his recommendations as to tools to use are definitely worth reading.
  

Copyright

There's been a landmark judgement in the continuing digitisation saga of attempts to revise the originators rights over their own original work. Google has scanned 15 million books and put them online while it negotiated a settlement of the copyright issues.  A judge has now said they can't do this.  The decision has a direct impact on thousands of book authors and publishers.   It's an interesting judgement which might end up being relevant to aspects of art reproduction.  Here are some links:

• This is the 48-page ruling - only for the seriously interested!
• BBC News - Google books agreement torpedoed by US court - the plain english version
• Publishers Weekly - The Google Settlement Rejection: What Comes Next?

Opinion Poll

• The opinion poll for March closes this week.  You can find it in the right hand column.
  

Websites, webware and blogging

• How Google works - and has shaped the web includes two graphic images I have found enormously useful as a visual explanation of how Google works

and finally........

Two questions for those who live in the UK

• Did you remember to change the hour?  Or have you invested in what I've now got - an atomic clock so you never need get caught out by clock changes again.  All I've got to do now is change my internal clock!
• Did you remember to complete the census?  I forgot - but it looks like I may have saved myself the hassle of trying to do it online yesterday.  Now how many of you said you were an Artist?

I'm planning to go and visit my mother later this week so there will be no "Who's made a mark next week?"

Sunday Times Watercolour Competition - Call for Entries

The Call for Entries has gone out for the top watercolour competition in the UK - known as the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition - although it's actually sponsored by both Smith & Williamson and The Sunday Times.

Its purpose is to encourage the use of watercolour and water based media paintings among both artists and there are prizes worth £18,000 on offer.  It is open to both amateur and professional artists.

The deadline for submissions 2 July 2011.  Read on to find out more about how to enter and also how you can see the exhibition which tours the UK after its stint in London in September.

If you want to see the calibre of entries in previous exhibitions click the links to my blog posts about this competition in the last three years at the end of this post. 

Make your own art!

Let's talk about why and how every painter can be an 'original'.   This post includes some tips for those that are struggling with this.  You are also most welcome to share your own thoughts on what has helped you to develop your own creativity and originality.

Following on from yesterday's post about plagiarism, somebody sent me a note which reminded me that Stapeleton Kearns recently wrote (ranted?) on a related topic.

Within the context of the bigger picture about creating original art, Stapleton has a post last Sunday called Some thoughts on art and money which I very much endorse.  It contains this paragraph

"Art has no reason to exist other than that it be excellent. If you are imitating another artists style, get your own! I open the art magazines and see page after page of amateur rip-offs of Scott Christensen and Richard Schmid. That's not good enough, everyone who sees those ads knows they are seeing a Richard Schmid ripoff. People are not easily fooled."

In general I don't follow daily painters as much now as I used to - simply because I grew very tired of looking at too many artists who were copying other artists.  All that really achieved at the end of the day was to highlight more clearly those artists who were different.  By that I mean those who made sure they were clearly individuals who were not following the crowd and instead were trying to find their own individual way of creating art.

Artists who are original shine like beacons in the midst of the "same old same old".

What I have noticed is that those artists who seem to be the most successful at creating their own artistic identities (which is that thing you have to be able to talk about when the gallery asks you "what do you paint?") all too often also have the happy knack of having their own individual and unique take on the world around them.

In other words, their choice of WHAT they paint and how they look at it is as much part of their ID as HOW they paint.

Essentially that means that the way a daily painter responds to the challenge of coming up with an answer to the question of 'what to paint' each day is as much part of that artist's development as the way they paint.

Your choices about what to paint reveal who you are, what you like, where you live and how you see the world. 

Plagiarism or 'passing off' - it's got to stop

Two years ago I was originally going to call this post "Duane Derivatives".  At the time I decided to let the matter pass - but time passes and the 'passing off' which has been going on for a long time continues.

Hence this post today - which is all about the issues arising from plagiarism and copying the artwork of other people - including:

• what is plagiarism
• what is derivative work
• when artists copying other artists is OK
• how to avoid accusations of plagiarism

NOTE:  Please note this post has been revised since it was first published for two main reasons.  First, it's very apparent that some people are skim reading and then asserting elsewhere that this post says things which are simply not true.  In fact it was written very carefully to avoid such statements being made.  

I'm also concerned that people focus on the principles rather than an individual artist identified.  While I believe the artist and I would agree mistakes were made and remedies were implemented, the example appears to be distracting people from the vast majority of the content of this post.  

I've implemented a revision which has removed all but one of the images and some of the text and added some text of a more general nature.  The first 50 or so comments on this post were made when the images and the original content was still in place.

How Google works - and has shaped the web

Below you'll find two infographics which both summarise and detail

1. how the Google algorithm actually works and 
2. how, over time, it has shaped the web and search results.  

If you want to see the very large versions and actually read them right click the images and open in a new tab

Infographic by PPCBlog

Infographic by SEO Book

How to enter the RHS Botanical Art Show

This post is about how enter the Annual Botanical Art Show held by the Royal Horticultural Society in the Horticultural Halls in London.

Although this blog focuses on how to enter major art society exhibitions and art competitions in the UK I've never previously highlighted what you need to do if you want to exhibit in the RHS Botanical Art Exhibition (see yesterday's post RHS Botanical Art Show & Five Gold Medal Winners )

RHS Botanical Art Show & Five Gold Medal Winners

Yesterday I met five Gold Medal Winners.

Each of the ladies had won one of the coveted Gold Medals awarded by the Royal Horticultural Society at the Annual Botanical Art Show at the Horticultural Halls in London.

This is a truly international event.  The 24 participating artists came from Australia (1), France (1), Italy (3), Japan (4), the UK (13) and USA (2) and the gold medal winners came from Australia, Italy, the USA and the UK (2).  One of the bonuses of being a gold medal winner is the RHS often buys a sample of your work for its collection (if it hasn't already been sold)!

In this review I'm focusing on the gold medal winners but there was a lot of excellent artwork on display and this exhibition should be a "must visit" in the diaries of any botanical artist who can get to London.

20th March 2011 - Who's made a mark this week?

What's the first day of Spring?  When can we start painting Spring Landscapes?  Historically spring starts on the day of the vernal equinox, which usually occurs on the night of 20/21 March!

So tomorrow is Spring!  Unless you're the Met Office - who have decided that the Spring months are March, April and May!

Sarah Wimperis got a head start. with her painting of a Spring tide - and rather a lot of daffodils on her blog The Red Shoes
 

Springtide Polwheveral by Sarah Wimperis
Oil on Board 44 x 30 cm or 17 x 12 inches
copyright Sarah Wimperis

This week there is a new section devoted to Art and Charities.

Art Blogs

Botanical Art

After five weeks stuck at home with a very bolshie damaged foot, I finally got out today - and that was because the Annual RHS Botanical Art exhibition was on at the RHS Horticultural Halls.  The really great thing about this show is that the artists are almost invariably in attendance and today I got to talk to five Royal Horticultural Society Gold Medal Winners!  Blog post to follow tomorrow........  (and the foot is killing me - but it was worth it!)

Drawing and sketching

• Kumi Matsukawa (Urban Sketchers) has been posting about the Evacuation from Minami Souma, Hukushima
• Roz Stendhal (Roz Wound Up) has been commenting on sketching people using pen and ink - see 
• Direct Sketching with Pen and Ink: Just Jump into the Deep End of the Swimming Pool.
• Direct Sketching with Pen and Ink: Drawing People from Life
• while Vivien Blackburn has been commenting on sketching moving people plein air or out and about
• and I commented on Sketching people with a brush 

Coloured Pencils and Pastels

• Paula Kuitenbrouwer (www.mindfuldrawing.com) wonders whether people prefer darker or lighter backgrounds - read her post Dark or Light Backgrounds to see why
• Nicole Caulfield (Nicole Caulfield Art Journal) has started a new panoramic work - Heartbeat City - 80's Themed Still-Life
• On this blog:
• I announced A new Making A Mark Guide which relates to my recent article about sketching with coloured pencils for the Derwent LovePencils blog
• and highlighted a sketch After Bonnard I created of a painting which was knocked down at the auction at Christies (where I sketched it) for £6,400,000 which translates after all the "add ons" to  £7,209,250 ($11,578,056)

Painters and Painting

• I missed the fact that Jelaine Faunce (Jelaine Faunce - contemporary realism) won a prize in the Richeson75 Small Works 2011 - 1st Place in Oil Painting
• Karin Jurick (A Painting Today) has returned to small works and auctioning paintings - this time it looks like we might be about to enjoy a series of landscapes
• Fancy painting in Provence in May?  There's still a couple of weeks left for those who want to try painting the Provencal countryside

Wildlife Art

• Albrecht Rissler is using a blog as a website for his drawings of animals from life.  No matter!  See Rissler Animals for some delightful drawings and sketches of insects, birds, cats and other wildlife

City Art Blogs

• Gillian Holding (Life and Art) is, in future going to be contributing to a relatively new website/blog Millpond which aims to prompt and initiate critical debate and discussion of contemporary visual arts within Leeds.

(it) provides thoughtful, comprehensive and interesting reviews of a wide range of exhibitions around and about, together with interviews and essays on contemporary art. It fills a gap in the online world of arts in the city, and I look forward to contributing to it.

Art Business and Marketing

• Aletta de Wal has written an article for EmptyEasel about Navigating The Three Stages of a Professional Art Career.  It's a very useful summary.  Aletta is also offering a class about creating Artist Statements with Ariane Goodwin - who has written the definative book about Writing the Artist Statement which I highlight on How to write an Artist's Statement - Resources for Artists
• Robin Sagara (from the same blog as Alletta) wrote recently about How to Buy and Use Mailing Lists which is an exposition of the benefits of using a printed mailout.
• Alyson Stanfield (artbizblog) details how she manages her contact lists in Storing Your Contact Lists
• Social Voice provides 5 Top Facebook Marketing Tips  
• Alan Bamberger's article You Can't Sell Your Art Until You Learn How to Sell It is a stimulating read - thanks to Alyson who highlighted this on twitter 
• Stapleton Kearns (Stapleton Kearns ) has written Some thoughts on art and money.  I have to say I agree with every word he says!

Allow me to rant a little tonight. I have a feeling I am going to upset you tonight. But I think this is important. There is a delicate balance to keep between your art and commerce. 

Art and the Economy / Art Collectors

• According to the British Art Market Federation, China has overtaken the U.K. to become the world’s second-largest art market after the U.S.  More about art markets next week.
  

Art Competitions and Art Societies

• The Spring Exhibition of the Royal Watercolour Society has opened at the Bankside Gallery.  Click the ink to see images of some of the works on view.  It's now possible to purchase works by giving the gallery a call. 

Cat and cane sofa by Richard Bawden

Art and Charities

Let me know if you are involved in any charitable endeavour which involves your art and I'll post a link in this weekly post.  I need evidence of a blog post on your blog post first and then contact me in the usual way

• Keiko Tanabe (Keiko Tanabe Fine Art) is leading a "Help Japan" Challenge as the weekly challenge on The Daily Paintworks site.  The theme is "home". 
• So far 134 artists have responded to the challenge. 
• Keiko is from Japan and you can read more about her painting here Spring in Kyoto, Japan IV, Japanese Landscape Painting.  Keiko embarked on a professional art career in 2005 and has been painting non-stop ever since. Her paintings have been juried into more than 100 exhibitions and received over 40 awards.  

Spring in Kyoto, Japan IV by Keiko Tanabe
currently at auction for the Daily Paintworks Help Japan Challenge

• Another artist who is auctioning a painting to raise funds for emergency relief in Japan is watercolour artist Jane Freeman (Watercolor Mania).  The current bid on her Auction For Japan is $1,800 
• Lesley Ninnes (Sea Blue Sky Abstracts) has donated a painting to a charity auction at the Exchange Gallery, Penzance on Saturday 26 March.  This is supporting St Julia's Hospice Appeal, which is part of Cornish Hospice Care. To download a copy of the catalogue and view artworks available from a host of talented artists and makers, please click here

Art Education / workshops / Tips and techniques

Tip and techniques

• We've been discussing holes in watercolour pans and blunt brushes a lot this week in the Sketchercise group - and thanks to Liz Steel for the tip about this excellent page of dry pan tricks  from Bruce MacEvoy (Handprint - watercolors).  He also discusses tube vs. pan
• Robyn Sinclair ( Have Dogs, Will Travel ) has a post about Reverse Piano Hinge Bookbinding

Workshops

• Michael Chesley Johnson (Plein Air Painter's Blog) has some spaces left on his Utah Workshop
• Jane Haines (Watercolours With Life~Jean Haines) has a Painting Cats Watercolour Workshop 2011 next month
  

Art Exhibitions and art fairs

• Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape - in pictures A look at the first major Miró exhibition in Britain for nearly 50 years

Art Galleries and Museums / Art History

• I wanted to write something about Japan and in the end hit upon the notion of highlighting some of the Art Museums in Japan. 
• The Top Five at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is my response to Tyler Green (Modern Art Notes) who recently posted about Museum collection top tens: The Metropolitan.
• The New York Times focuses on the impact of social media on museums in The Spirit of Sharing and how they are pursuing engagement through social media

Art Magazines

• The Artist's Magazine recently posted a Fraud alert!

Art Supplies (and technology)

• Marion Boddy-Evans, the Painting About.com Guide has announced the winners of the 2011 Readers Choice Awards for art materials and books
• Roz Stendhal has announced The Colors of Stonehenge—Four New Colors
• Elva (Elva's Field Notes) has a useful post about Exploring Fountain Pens and Ink for sketching. 
• I did a Product Review: Derwent Black Book.  
• Billie Crain (ArtbyCrain)has reviewed her new Epson 725 All-In-One Printer

Websites, webware and blogging

• Maggie Price (Painting Partners) has had an innovative idea about how to take colour charts on a painting trip - see Old and New Technology: Color Charts on the iPhone
• Did you know about CraftCult's widget?  See it being used on Amie Roman's new Burnishings Tumblr blog and the widget to post her to highlight work by other people.  Not surprisingly, many of the people highlighted are printmakers and specifically Printsy members.  Her original blog Burnishings still does what it normally does!

and finally........

Nothing to do with art - just very funny!  The Periodic Table of the Middle Class

I wonder what the Artists Periodic Table would look like?

Fancy painting in Provence in May?

It's really sunny here in London today and my mind turns to where I'll be in three months time! :)  (see My Postcard from Provence)

However, I heard from Ruth yesterday that she and Julian still have two weeks free for people to rent - between 15th - 28th May.  That's unless you can offer a house swop option very near to Garsington in Oxfordshire where Ruth is going to be playing cello in the Garsington Festival!

Poppies in Provence in May - photo copyright Ruth Phillips

If you like the idea of drawing and painting in Provence you'll find the poppies are all out and the vegetables are wonderful.

Or maybe you like the idea of just taking having a nice break from the rat race in the Vaucluse, which is a very rural part of Provence at the foot of the Mont Ventoux.

If either of these appeal, take a look at these details and, if you're still interested and the dates (last two weeks of May) work for you, contact Ruth Phillips (Julian's wife) via her website (details below)

You will however need to like Julian and Ruth's three cats a lot as they're not going anywhere!

Three cats go walkies in Provence
photo copyright Ruth Phillips

I have to say we're all VERY excited at the prospect of our painting house party in June.  If you want to do something similar why not get in touch with Ruth?  These are her contact details.

Art Museums in Japan

In writing for this blog, I've developed an interest in art museums across the world - both in terms of their art collections and their exhibitions.  This post:

• focuses on art museums in Japan
• identifies the top museums
• lists some of the museums of note - and why they are noteworthy
• ruminates on the implications of the recent catastrophes for art in Japan

I was fascinated last year to see how many of the museums in the Far East are now overtaking those museums we conventionally think of as leaders in the art world - see Top 10 Art Galleries and Museums

Key Facts about Art Museums and Art Exhibitions in Japan

In the Art Newspaper survey of attendances at museums, art galleries and exhibitions in 2009 was published last year

• Japan had three museums in the top 30 art museums in the world in 2009 based on visitor numbers.  (This may change when the update for 2010 comes out shortly)
• The top four exhibitions in the world were all in Japan!  Truly this is the home of the "blockbuster" exhibition
• The daily attendance figures for those top exhibitions far exceeds those experienced at other museums around the world.

Which basically means that Japan is not only a country with a long and illustrious cultural heritage, it also has a population which very much appreciates art.

Top Museums

The Museums in the top 30 worldwide in 2009 are listed below.

After Bonnard

In February I had a great day out visiting lots of exhibitions plus the preview of the Impressionist Sale at Christies on 9-10th February 2011.

At Christies I had the opportunity to see an amazing amount of art by leading artists including a very fine painting by Pierre Bonnard (1867 - 1947).

Postcard from my Walk - now resides with Liz Steel in Sydney Australia!

I decided to see if there was a ban on sketching in Christies so sat down, got my sketchbook out, started to sketch - and waited to be told "You can't do that here!" 

However nobody did.

So it appears as if, although this might be unusual, it is something you can do.  However do bear in mind that I was working with dry media.  I doubt if they would be quite so kind if I'd been working with paint or anything messy!

A new Making A Mark Guide

Here's the link to the NEW Making A Mark Guide - 10 Reasons to Sketch with Coloured Pencils.

This is a pdf file version of my article - 10 reasons to Sketch with Coloured Pencils by Katherine Tyrrell which the Derwent Pencil Company published on their lovepencils blog on 1st March.

You can download it for FREE from the How to Sketch section of my Making A Mark website http://www.makingamark.co.uk

The Top Five at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Tyler Green (Modern Art Notes) recently posted about Museum collection top tens: The Metropolitan.

This lists the ten most-accessed artworks - starting with the Metropolitan Museum of Art (see end)

Now it looks to me like a request was made for information and that information was supplied.  Albeit based on traffic for the last eight months.  It was also recognised that it might be distorted due to an object being highlighted elsewhere.

I sat and thought for a bit and then decided to see if I could find a way to replicate the listing via another means - which I did!

What follows are links to the top five webpages on the Metropolitan Museum of Art website (excluding the routine) in recent months across different dimensions of the museum's activities.

13th March 2011 - Who's made a mark this week?

It's difficult to start without reflecting on "what" has made a mark this week - the earthquake in the sea off Japan which generated a 10 metre high tsunami and resulted in Japan moving eight feet.

I was very pleased to hear that Russ Stutler (The Sketching Forum) and his family are shaken but OK in Tokyo 

Meanwhile Google has posted satellite images of the "before" and "after" photos of the areas affected on Picasa.  Click the slideshow and then do what I did and make a donation to one of the appeals. It really is one of those events when pictures are so much more articulate than words.  It is good to know that such technology will assist with the rescue and recovery effort.

Back to the art:

• on The Art of the Landscape  it seemed appropriate to tell The story of The Great Wave Off Kanagawa - which is the very famous woodcut image of a very large wave created by Katsushika Hokusai which was owned by Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh. The post explains why this is NOT a picture of a tsunami.
• on Urban Sketchers, this is an Unfinished sketch: This is what I was drawing when the earthquake hit Japan by

The BIG news of the week - before the earthquake happened - is that three months today I'm going to be drawing and sketching in Provence for three weeks.  I'll even be breaking out the pastels (I'm taking the car!).  I'm having a "paintout in Provence" with friends and you can read some of what's happening here My Postcard from Provence.

I'm certainly looking forward to seeing to ochre quarries again and to finally seeing the lavender at the right time of year!

The ochre quarries at Rousillon

Art Blogs


Drawing and sketching

• On Saturday afternoons between 12 March - 18 April, the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney is hosting a free Great Garden Sketchabout.  Many congratulations to Liz Steel, Wendy Shortland, Annie Mcm and Alissa Duke for helping to organise this and getting featured In today's Sydney Morning Herald... in an article titled Drawing attention to nature.  This publicity helped to make the first Garden Sketchabout in the Botanical Gardens in Sydney a huge success.  
• On the Saturday mornings, artist and teacher Wendy Shortland is also teaching a 6 week class at the Gardens about Sketching and Bookbinding . 
• There's also a Great Garden Sketchabout Competition! Participating sketchers can enter a sketch capturing a favourite sight or moment in the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney for the chance to win the $1000 Derivan Sketchabout Prize and People’s Choice Prize of $500 of Derivan art supplies. The winning entry will be printed on a Garden Shop item. 
• Short-listed and winning competition entries will also be exhibited in The Paginated Garden exhibition at the Gardens between 29 April and 1 May
• More details about future sketchabouts in the Autumn of Arts brochure.  
• Plus The Gardening Sketchabout journal will be featuring more about the sketchabout on Saturday in the coming days.
• All in all - well done to the Gardens and the artists for making this happen.  Now all we need to do is persuade Kew Gardens to do something similar!

Garden Sketchabout #1, Botanic Gardens. Sydney, Australia

Coloured Pencils and Pastels

• A stimulating post by Belinda del Pesco (Belinda del Pesco) about how to resuscitate a painting through the use of dry media - see Watercolor & Pastel: Spin (& Saving a Failed Painting with Other Media)
• Nicole Caulfield ( Nicole Caulfield Fine Art) highlights her coloured pencil drawing which is now being used on Derwent's new tin for Coloursoft Pencils - see Derwent Coloursoft Tin

• Richard McKinley (Pastel Pointers) has three posts about pastel palettes.
• Making Palettes More Palatable concerning the considerations employed when setting up a palette
• Making Pastel Palettes More Palatable | Part 2 aka the curse of the studio palette
• Making Pastel Palettes More Palatable | Part 3 which discusses the importance of the position of the pastel palette

With the multitude of pastel brands offered today, it is easy to accumulate thousands of individual sticks. Keeping them organized and readily available takes considerable effort.

Painters and Painting

• I'm really enjoying Phillip Koch's (Philip Koch Paintings) commentary on his approach to painting - 
• I certainly couldn't resist a post titled An Artist's Guide to Tea and Chocolate
• I've also started to look back through his past blog posts and spotted this one - Ten Secrets for the Painter (Short and To the Point)
• Check out the wonderful watercolour paintings of flowers on Jacqueline Gnott's blog Contemporary Realism .  I'd love to see one "up close".
  
• Carol Marine recently hosted The One Color per Stroke Challenge on the Daily Paintworks site - easier said than done!  The one I liked the best - on the top line - was by Sue Barrasi.

Squint at your subject – paint what you see when you squint. Ignore what you think you see. Step back a few feet after every single stroke – oh yeah, stand to paint! Remember that value is the most important thing to be accurate with. Your color can be completely off, but if the value is off your object(s) won’t look 3-dimensional. 

Art Business and Marketing

• Joanne Mattera reviews the process for what to do if you've been the victim of spam - in Marketing Mondays: You've Been Spammed
• Alyson Stanfield (artbizblog) had a productivity focus last week and tells us about
• 2 of My Favorite Productivity Tools 
• Storing Your Contact Lists 

Art Exhibitions and art fairs

I'm losing count of the number of exhibition previews and, indeed, whole exhibitions I'm missing while stuck at home with the foot that won't work.  It's now been a month with minimal improvement (see Walking is still a problem)

• This week the Watteau: The Drawings exhibition opened at the Royal Academy of Arts.  Here's the review in the Guardian
• The Sketchbook Project Exhibition Tour has now reached Austin Texas
• As somebody who regularly reviews exhibitions I was nodding vigorously as I read Joanne Mattera's Marketing Mondays: blog post about How Not to Get Reviewed.  Her list of tips start...... 

Here’s How Not to Get Reviewed
. Don’t allow photography in the galleries
. Don’t provide installation shots to the reviewer; in fact, don’t photograph the installation at all
. Don’t leave a press packet for the reviewer, as your PR person promised.

Art Education / workshops / Tips and techniques

• Jeanette Jobson has free tutorials on her new website www.jeanettejobson.com
• Michael Chesley Johnson (A Plein Air Painter's Blog) addresses The Color of Shadows

Art Galleries, Museums and Art History

• An interesting article about Caravaggio and his possible ue of a camera obscura - see Caravaggio exhibition gives fresh insight into painter's technique  
• Vermeer: Masterpiece a Month, Dulwich Picture Gallery is featured by the Telegraph.  The painting in question is The Music Lesson - click the video to see a commentary by Desmond Shaw-Taylor the Keeper of the Queen's Pictures
• Good news! Christchurch's art treasures survive quake.  I remember thinking about this when it happened as I'd an email correspondence with some of the people there when I was preparing Landscapes at Christchurch Art Gallery, New Zealand in May last year.

Art Studios and technology

• On Monday my iMac had its first birthday - see Happy Birthday to my iMac which reprises, for those who may not have read them before, the process which led to the purchase of my lovely iMac and me becoming an official Apple fan and proselytiser!

Art Supplies and computer kit

• Marion Boddy-Evans (About.com Painting) writes about Acrylic Mediums: Spot the Difference - great tip!

Art Videos

• Yesterday I posted a great video on YouTube which gives you 10 minutes of Picasso

Colour

• Many thanks to Lorraine Khachatourians (RedBerry Art)for telling me about Dick Nelson's website.  It is a repository of information he's used in his workshops and classes. 

While no portion of this website may be reproduced for commercial use without permission, we encourage you to print copies of the lessons for your own use, and practice, practice, practice.

• James Gurney highlights on his blog Gurney Journey that the latest issue of International Artist contains an article by him on Atmospheric Perspective 
• Two of my posts this week focused on Colour and generated some expert comment.  I've still got to follow up on these - but if you've got any more comments keep them coming!
• Color Interaction test your ability to recognise value in context
• Why your colours onscreen don't look the same when printed which had led me to review the calibration of my screen
• Both posts also have links to my FREE guides to colour which are available to download (links in the posts)

ebooks

• For those thinking of producing an ebook, here are some very relevant tips from Darren Rowse at Problogger - Chocolate to WordPress: 6 Lessons Learned Blogging for Dollars
  

Websites, webware and blogging

• Check the page rank of your blog here - the higher the number, the better the page rank eg Google = 10!

and finally........

A thought for you.

One of the things I enjoy about finding a good blog or discovering a new one is the blogroll.  I get to find a lot of new art blogs which will be good quality!  I find that one of the bellweather indicators of what a blog is like and whether it is any good is the list of artists in the blogroll.

Inevitably there are always friends - but who else is there?

10 minutes of Picasso

This is a rather nice video compilation offootage of Picasso the artist - drawing, painting, print-making, sculpting, decorating ceramics - and Picasso the man in lot of different contexts.  It made me smile.  Enjoy.

Video by guitarnica

For more information about Picasso and his work try Picasso - Resources for Art Lovers

Why your colours onscreen don't look the same when printed

Have you ever wondered why your images onscreen don't come out looking the same when printed? Below I discuss:

• how the CMYK model works
• why RGB files don't look like CMYK files
• how to convert an RGB file to a CMYK file for printing purposes

The CMYK Model

The CMYK colour model is the one used for the colour printing process and it's why we all buy inks coloured cyan, magenta, yellow and black.  That's because CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow and key black.  (It's that last one which always had me puzzled!)

CMYK Model of how colours combine

Color Interaction

Back in 2008 I did a long project on this blog all about colour.  I knew I didn't know as much as I wanted to - but never knew there was as much to know as there is!

I've been updating one of the sites I created at the time today and came across a new site which I found fascinating and thought you might do

This is a test to see how color interacts with other colours.  Click the link and tweak the arrows and try and match the inner squares so that they are the same hue and value - and then tick the box in the middle to see how you did.

Now I'd just like to point out that I have no problems seeing this in Chrome but it won't perform in Firefox for some reason - but the image you should be seeing should look something like this.

Interactivities - Color Interaction Demonstration I

This all came about because I was looking for links for the theory about colour interaction developed by Josef Albers!

Colour - Resources for Artists

The three websites I created as a result of the colour project are detailed below.  I keep forgetting that as readership of this blog increases, there's lots in the archives that people are not aware of.

The websites are followed by links to the three summaries about colour I created which are available to download for free from http://www.makingamark.co.uk/color.html - and those are listed at the end

My Postcard from Provence

....will be winging its way to Travels with a Sketchbook this June!

This summer, I'm renting the home of Postcard from Provence painter Julian Merrow Smith and his wife Ruth Phillips (Meanwhile, here in France......) for three weeks in June while they visit England.  I'll be packing and getting ready to set off in exactly three months time!

Rousillon and the Ochre Cliffs, Provence
Coloured Pencil 8.27" x 11.75"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

However the really good news is I won't be on my own! 

At long last I'm achieving a long held ambition and will be going on a painting holiday with no tutor - just good friends.  The house party will include Sarah Wimperis (Muddy Red Shoes in Cornwall), Robyn Sinclair (Have Dogs Will Travel from Tuscany) and Ronell van Wyk (African Tapestry on the Loire) who will be coming and going at various times.  We're hoping to have all four of us there at least some of the time.

We are anticipating much sketching and painting of landscapes and enjoyment of good French food and good company.  We might also find time to visit a vineyard and try a glass or two of the local vintages.

We're certainly going to hunt down some lavender fields which should be about ready to peak!

House and Lavender Field - by Julian Merrow Smith (June 2009)

I'm also looking forward to going back to places - like Rousillon with its ochre cliffs - which I first visited when painting in Provence some 20 years ago.  (Did I ever tell you all about being filmed by the BBC Holiday Programme while painting? No?)