Sunday, September 18, 2011

18th September 2011 - Who's made a mark this week?

This weekend it's been Open House London weekend - and I came home feeling like I'd just been exposed to one of the most extreme visual experiences ever!

We hopped on the Tube to the City of London, avoided the long queues to see the inside of the Bank of England and visited the artwork known as the Lloyds Building  instead - for some absolutely fantastic views from the 11th floor.  We also visited the Guildhall and Guildhall Art Gallery - which just happens to have a Roman amphitheatre in the basement - PLUS for this weekend only one of the 13th century copies of Magna Carta AND an exhibition about Atkinson Grimshaw which opens tomorrow.  Atkinson Grimshaw - Painter of Moonlight is on display until January.

I came home with the catalogue and will be returning for a visit to the exhibition.  That's how I found out a night sky is a pale shade of chromium green!

Liverpool from Wapping 1875 John A Grimshaw
Liverpool from Wapping (1875) by Atkinson Grimshaw
The Guildhall also had some fabulous stained glass windows in the crypt (which I'll post once I've got them out of my camera!)

Now for the rest of what I noticed last week.... 

Art Blogs and Artists

Drawing and sketching
  • Some more architecture for you.  Eduardo Bazjek is one of the architectural perspective sketchers on Urban Sketchers.  This is his blog Perspectivas E Sketches / Prospects and Sketch (in English) (maybe it should be Perspectives?)  - which actually starts with a commission about sketching beaches - see Aquarelas para Cia Marítima Beachwear.  It's in Portuguese but Google does a pretty good job of translating it if you set up your browser to prompt you for a translation
  • Danny Gregory (Danny Gregory) has been making videos about illustrated journaling - see 
  • I then found Tommy Kane (Tommy Kane) in Tommy Kane draws France - also on Vimeo - you can really tell he's made television commercials!  I've only just come across this video of him sketching while on holiday on Britanny although it's 11 months old.  Makes me want to hand somebody a video camera for when I'm sketching!  (Thinks - send newly retired person on course about making films maybe?)
  • I've finally got round to starting off my account on my own Travels with a Sketchbook blog of my recent holiday in Provence.  Two posts last week - this time with all the photographs and other graphics which I couldn't do back in June
    Menu du Terroir Champenois, La Grillade Gourmande
    see the post for the full menu in French and English!


    Landscape
    It is the warm yellows and reds in a sky that make it have light, besides its value. You can pound all the blue in the world into a sky and it won't light up.
    Island in the Attersee (1902) by Gustav Klimt

    Painting
    • Here's a different type of art blog Paulina Little (sportsportraitartist) paints sports people - doing sports!  She's planning to do paintings of the Olympic events.  
    • Another artists - this time Larry Moore (Larry Moore Studios) - discovers the iPad and ArtRage in a new way to painting and the scope it offers to produce digital paintings which look a whole lot like the real thing
    Art Business & Marketing
    Myth: Social media initiatives drive customer loyalty and acquisition.Fact: Engagement with a brand drives social engagement.

    Art Competitions

    I had posts about two very popular art competitions this week.
    • First up - we found which artist got most People's Choice votes in the BP Portrait Award Exhibition see BP Portrait Award 2011: People's Favourite & Statistics.  I'm pleased to see my "pick a winner" faculties are still in good order!  Plus I had some fun doing some charts for the stats - this is one of them
    Selected artists by age group
    statistics supplied by National Portrait Gallery / chart by Katherine Tyrrell

    Art Exhibitions

    National Museums and Art Galleries
    Exhibitions in different parts of the UK
    Art Societies / Art Groups
    • I went to pick up my wood engraving this morning and found out that last week's exhibition by Florum managed to attract a lot of buyers and to double its sales!  Not bad given that it looks like we're entering into a double dip recession!  I know I had a lot of traffic for the blog post about the exhibition which I guess means there's still lots of people interested in botanical art.
    • The 10th Annual Exhibition of the United Kingdom Coloured Pencil Society opens at Methodist Central Hall tomorrow.  The Exhibition runs from 19th September to 1st October 2011 and is open Monday-Saturday 9.00am - 5.00pm and Sundays 12.00 - 5.00pm.  There's a programme of workshops - although the one run by botanical artist Ann Swan has sold out.
    Art bloggers' exhibitions and open studios
    Art Education

    Tips and techniques
    Art History
    Art Supplies
    • This is the Pencils.com blog by the people who make the Blackwing pencils.  Besides announcing matters relating to its products it also features pencil artists
    • I'm not quite sure when Prismacolor developed its own blog - but this is it Art Unihibited.  They've made it past the three month mark as entries, although not frequent, date back to March of this year.  
      • The posts are fairly typical of art manufacturers.  Here's an example of a post about Sheila Theor
      • Not sure I'm too impressed by their Terms of Use - I can't think of a single blog I've ever read which has anything like that.  I wonder who advised them?
    Copyright
    On the East Coast, a New York federal court ordered the destruction of millions of (potential) dollars worth of artwork created by Richard Prince because, the court held, he “unfairly” used copyrighted photographs by French photographer Patrick Cariou in his artwork without permission.
    Internet and blogging
    • Jakob Nielsen provides a very useful article for all website owners and bloggers. How Long Do Users Stay on Web Pages? was published in his Alertbox Newsletter which he has published on the Internet ever since 1995.  His website which focuses on web usability indicates that this fortnightly publication and its much-used archive currently gets 12 million page views per year.
    • Not to be confused with the Neilsen Company(in English) which is a very important global marketing and advertising research company.  Its blog is called neilsenwire.  They recently published the Nielsen: Social Media Report hich focused on the current state of social media - social media networks and blogs - and what people ACTUALLY do - and how that varies according to demographics and use of technology used for social media sites.  Did you know the 55+ age groups use of the mobile internet use doubled in the last year?
    and finally......

    I was at a total loss at one point as to what to share with you in this spot this week as the candidates kept on coming! In the end this one won out....

    The Art Cops: Art School Confidential by John Perreault - the source of the art glut is exposed!

    1 comment:

    1. Art Cops rocks! :D Thanks again for a great post and for all the BP Portrait posts, I just caught up with them last night. Nice to see who won the people's choice.

      ReplyDelete

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