Sunday, December 04, 2011

4th December 2011 - Who's made a mark this week?

Winner of the Dobell Prize for Drawing 2011
Breath by Anne Judell
(triptych), 52 × 37 cm each image, pastel, graphite
(see Art competitions below)

It's December, three weeks today is Christmas Day - and that means I'm getting ready for The Making A Mark Art Blog Awards for 2011.

Tomorrow I'm going to post the first of the posts which introduces what the Awards are about, the categories and the arrangements for nominating fellow artist bloggers and then voting on their work.  Next week you will be invited to nominate in four different categories - there will be a post for each category.

So far as I'm aware nobody else does a comprehensive set of awards for art bloggers - so the chances are that the topic you're interested in will be covered by the MAM Awards!

In my post this week watch out below for the major explosion by Charles Saatchi - a man who usually says very little.  You can find it in the Art Collectors / Art Economy section

Artists and Art Blogs

Christmas


This month I started the Making A Mark Poll which is this month is POLL: Do you create Christmas products from your art?

So I thought I'd start the art blogs section of this post this week with some references to those who are doing something extra for Christmas.

Lots of artists are writing about Christmas on their art blogs.  Here are a few:
This is my Christmas card painting for this year. It depicts the winter solstice with Eynsham Morris Dancers in a winter field. The original drawing from my sketch book was scanned and developed in photoshop.
Eynsham Morris Men by Lorna Marrison
Drawing


    Landscape painting


    Painting
    Still Life
    • Still Life is not a conventional still life art blog - it's a curated visual feast for those who lack inspiration.
      Art Business & Marketing

      Structural change in the Arts Marketplace
      • The erosion in the paid media pyramid is an important post by Seth Godin which identifies why the marketplace for the arts has changed forever and fewer people are engaging in buying and consuming in the ways they have traditionally done.  He points out that it means that it's going to become easier to merchandise highly selective works for a specific market.  No longer do we need to need to please the masses!
      • I'll come back to this in the new year as I'm currently contemplating a new series of posts focusing on marketing for artists
      Selling art
      Art Collectors & Art Economy

      These are three MUST READ articles revolving around the explosive article by Charles Saatchi yesterday which attacks the way the super-rich end of the art market operates.
      Even a show-off like me finds this new, super-rich art-buying crowd vulgar and depressingly shallow..... Do any of these people actually enjoy looking at art? Or do they simply enjoy having easily recognised, big-brand name pictures, bought ostentatiously in auction rooms at eye-catching prices, to decorate their several homes, floating and otherwise, in an instant demonstration of drop-dead coolth and wealth.
      In the plutocratic city state of London, the art trade has become a form of money-laundering
      Leading British collector launches surprise attack saying buyers and dealers 'can't tell good artists from bad'
      Then when I saw that Blake Gopnik was asking Why Is Art So Damned Expensive? on The Daily Beast I began to wonder if there was a bit of a theme starting.

      Art Crime

      I've been resisting having a category about Art Crime but the reports are just so consistent that I've come to the conclusion there's a lot of it about than I was previously aware.

      Here's the latest:
      Good scholarship reduces the potential for parallel universes to develop where poor-quality works can be touted as potential masterpieces and fake works as the real thing.Robyn Sloggett, the director of the Center for Cultural Materials Conservation at Melbourne University
      Art Books
      • I've posted Makingamark's Top Ten Art Books in November 2011. The associated website gives you links to all the books which were top rated or best sellers in 2011 so makes a good place to start if you have any need for stimulation for your wish list.
      Art Competitions
      • Anne Judell has won the $25,000 2011 Dobell Prize for Drawing with her work 'Breath'.  Her work can be seen at the exhibition which is at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.  This is a very prestigious prize.  Judell has often been selected for the Dobell prize exhibition as a finalist in this prestigious drawing competition. Her work is widely admired amongst artists, critics and collectors of contemporary Australian art.  Her drawings and pastels are often described as abstract because she deals with that which is difficult to describe in words - so she does it in her drawing.
      Art, for me, is the mystery itself, as well as being the means to explore the mystery.Anne Judell
      Art Exhibitions


      National / Leading Art Museums and Galleries
      Art Fairs
      I think I'm far more east coast than west coastTracey Emin
      • It's the 10th anniversary of Art Basel Miami Beach - now said to be the most influential contemporary art fair in the USA.  The New York Times comments on How Art Basel is remaking Miami
      Gallery shows
      The annual ILLUSTRATORS, is the largest and most popular exhibition worldwide for cartoon and illustration collectors, with over 800 pictures and representing over 85 illustrators and cartoonists from the last two centuries.
      Art Societies
      • The 124th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (The ROI Blog) is being opened by Michael Portillo on Tuesday and is open to the public 7-18 December at the Mall Galleries.  
        • You can see a small sample of the paintings on display in their blog post Annual Exhibition Promises Something For Everyone.  Click on one of the images and you can see a slideshow.
        • There are a couple of painting demonstrations during the exhibition: Vice President Ian Cryer's demonstration 7th December from 2-4pm and Roger Dellar's demonstration 15th December from 2-4pm.
      Art Museums
      • On Thursday 1 December, Museums in the UK celebrated 10 years of free access.  As a result visitor numbers have shot up - and the merchandising has got ever more expert!
      • Here's some more information - 10 years of free entry to national museums  - about the impact of free access on accessibility by the National Museum Directors' Conference which represents the leaders of the UK's national collections and major regional museums.

        A new generation of children has grown up enjoying free admission to the UK’s world class national collections. Over 2 million more children now visit museums sponsored by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport than in 2000, with 8.3 million visits by children last year.
      Museums visitor data demonstrates a steady increase in visitors since free access was reintroduced

      Art Societies

      I came across an art group that is new to me this week - when they followed me on Twitter (I do actually look at everybody who follows me!)
      • Peak District Artisans (@PDArtisans on Twitter) are an association of professional fine artists, designer makers and contemporary artisans based in and around the Peak District.  
        • They say they're highly successful.  It's certainly a nice looking straightforward site which provides a good gateway to their individual websites.  
        • They're also running a competition to find the Peak District Artisans’ Young Artist of the Year 2012 with a deadline for entries of deadline for entries of 8th June 2012
      Art Materials
      Art Studio
      Information about Art
      • I've got about 75 websites about practical matters related to creating art that I've now got a new site which acts as a bookmark for all of them - check out Making A Mark on Art.  You can also get to it by clicking the big M in the right hand column
      Internet - webware, blogging etc

      You've probably heard about the notion of drawing on the right side of your brain - but how does this appeal to you - The Right-brain Thinker’s Guide to Beating Blogger’s Block
      Opinion Polls

      The November Making A mark Poll produced a rather surprising result - see Time spent on marketing by artists (poll results). There's a pdf file available which pulls together the content of the two posts last month on this topic. It occurs to me that maybe there's some scope to explore the marketing aspects of art in the New Year.

      Shipping / Posting Art

      Two posts by me this week on this topic. Artists typically only use a courier when they're trying to get artwork to an exhibition of client.
      • Last week I reviewed the information available from the specialist art couriers in the UK - see Review of Specialist Art Couriers in the UK.  I concluded that there was some considerable scope to improve the communication of how the services works and what are the typical rates which are charged
      • Shipping art: FedEx is the most trusted service  I've been running opinion polls about posting and shipping art in 2011. These have consistently identified FedEx as being the service most people seem to trust when shipping artwork.
      and finally......

      The current plan is for us to be up north next Sunday paying a pre-Christmas visit to relatives so there won't be a "Who's made a mark this week" next week. I now need to get my head down to write all the blog posts calling for nominations before I go!
      Posted by Making A Mark on Sunday, December 04, 2011
      Categories

      1 comment:

      1. DaceyMonday, December 26, 2011

        It is better to join some art related sites if we want to be in touch with art.Be in consult with art societies.I really like this article since it tells how one can be in contact with art

        ReplyDelete

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