22nd January - Who's made a mark this week?

David Hockney 
The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven) - 2 January 
iPad drawing printed on paper 
144.1 x 108 cm; one of a 52-part work 
Courtesy of the artist 
Copyright David Hockney

This post this week has rather a slant towards Hockney, digital art on an iPad and pastels - which pretty much reflects my week.

His iPad drawings and how he has reproduced them for the exhibition really stimulated me to investigate further

Art Blogs and Artists

Digital art

Sight of the iPad Sketches at the Hockney exhibition on Tuesday prompted a quest to find out how he prints them so big and the purchase of a second stylus for my iPad - having lost the previous one within the first 24 hours!

• I tackled the print size first. How to produce a large 300dpi TiFF print of an iPad sketch recorded what I could find out by scouring the Internet.  It also prompted two comments which suggested Perfect Resize is the software for the job.
• "Pastel" iPad sketch as a movie is my animated record of what I did to get a record of how I lay down pastel strokes onto my blog.  Except the pastel strokes were made by a stylus while I was using the Brushes app on my iPad.  
• The art of the app: works made on iPads and iPhones is a slideshow by the Guardian of art sent in by our readers that was created using various apps on the iPhone and iPad.  It's by way of response to Hockney - making the point that he's not the only artist using an iPad to create new work. 

Drawing and Sketching

• It was the 34th Sketchcrawl yesterday - here's a couple of impressive contributions
• These are watercolour sketches by Enrique Flores 4ojos who was in Seville
• Lynne Chapman (An Illustrator's Life For Me!) who along with Sketchcrawl North had a Mad Hatters Tea Party!
• Lynne was extremely diligent in sketching a weekend away with her husband - see Robin Hood's Bay in the Frost

Lunch in the Friends Room
8" x 10", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

• I was sketching at:
• The RA Friends Room - Lunch in the RA Friends Room
• The National Gallery - drawing children drawing art

Now draw this Turner painting....
8" x 10", pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Landscape art

• More Hockney:
• David Hockney RA talks about landscape painting includes a rather nice interview with him plus links to where you can see him paint
• Hockney: sketchbooks, iPad sketching and the Yosemite Valley highlights how Hockney seems to approach his sketching and painting of landscapes using sketchbooks and iPads.

This is a fast slideshow of Hockney creating another painting in the series related to the trees which were cut down. From this you can see how he works from smaller sketches both to get the painting started and also to refine the final colour palette. The sketches are essential to both the composition and design, the tonal values and the colour palette.

• I love what Stuart Brocklehurst is doing with his landscape prints on his blog Wildlife with Pen and Brush

Pastels and Coloured Pencils

• I had lunch with well known pastel tutor, author and artist Jackie Simmonds (Jackie Simmonds Artyfacts) this week.  Hence a renewed interest in pastels.  
• She told me about a group on Facebook Passionate About Pastels - National and International 
• I then found another Pastel Society of America
• and discovered that The Pastel Society has a Facebook Event Page for its Love Pastels 2012 Exhibition next month.
• Ester Roi (Ester Roi Fine Art) has a new slideshow of a work which has recently been selected the Explore This! 8 exhibitiion 

Sculpture

• It's not unusual for people to sketch the dying or to create death masks or sculptures after they have died.  It's a way of remembering who they are and what they looked like. A Guardian article Jane McAdam Freud: a farewell to my father is an account of an interview with Jane McAdam Freud talking about life with Lucian Freud and her new exhibition (see Art Exhibitions).  It explains how she dealt with her feelings about the death of her father Lucian Freud through sketches and sculptures.
• Laurent Debraux is a kinetic sculptor living in Paris who wrote me a nice letter explaining about his recent successes in recent exhibitions.  You can see YouTube Videos of his work - and this was my favourite

Art Business

• Barney Davey (Art Print Issues by Barney Davey) suggests 
• Ten Art Marketing Points to Ponder for 2012
• 12 Mistakes Every Artist Should Avoid In 2012
• Wildlife Art Journal suggests that With Magazine Advertising, Artists and Galleries Need To Ask Tough Questions
• The New York Times suggests in Online Shoppers Are Rooting for the Little Guy that many consumers are moving their custom to smaller online retailers as they view, with some disgust, the way in which the giant online e-retailers squeeze out the competition.  I certainly support "local stores" (whether B&M or online) and would very much recommend others to do likewise. 

Art Economy and Art Collectors

• Who's Zhang Daqian? You may well ask - especially after reading that Zhang Daqian Surpasses Picasso to Become the World's Best-Selling Artist.  It's worth noting that he is also regarded as a master forger.
• This is a wonderful headline by ArtInfo - On-the-Lam Gallerist Arrested for the Biggest Art Swindle in Australian History - it certainly grabbed my attention!
• A new enterprise called The Curator's Eye approached me last week.  It looks like online art dealer to me - somewhere inbetween eBay and Christies.  I'm not quite sure how they get away with saying they are liable for nothing - what happens if their site is used to dispose of stolen goods?

Curator Services are intended for private collectors of arts and antiquities, art or antiques dealers or resellers or appraisers, as well as those educators, curators, or other professionals associated with museums or cultural institutions.

Art Competitions

Call for Entries

• This week I posted a summary of 
• the RA Summer Exhibition 2012: Call for Entries
• the National Exhibition of Wildlife Art Exhibition 2012: Call for Entries
• A number of art competitions closed to entries this week and I also updated my blog page - Major UK Art Competitions 2012 - which now lists competitions in the order of the deadlines for entries.  Hopefully this makes it a bit easier to use as a quick reference.
• A reminder for all those hoping to submit work to the BP Portrait Award 2012 (First Prize £25,000) - you've got just over three weeks left as the registration deadline is 13 February 2012 - see Call for Entries: BP Portrait Award 2012 and, if you want to see what the exhibition looks like and what sort of work gets selected see my video BP Portrait Award 2010 Exhibition.m4v
• This is a very green art competition. The 2012 Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) international design competition opened at the beginning of January. LAGINYC 2012 is an ideas competition to design a site-specific public artwork for Freshkills Park (in New York state) that, in addition to its conceptual beauty, has the ability to harness energy cleanly from nature and convert it to electricity for the utility grid.

Art Exhibitions

Exhibitions in Art Galleries and Museums - London / UK

• David Hockney (RA) - A Bigger Picture opened this week.  Read my rave Review: David Hockney RA - A Bigger Picture.  
• I've been saying not very nice things about Alistair Sooke (David Hockney succumbs to hubris + video of the exhibition) and Adrian Searle (David Hockney landscapes: The wold is not enough) ever since I read read their ungenerous reviews of the exhibition.  In my view they simply don't "get it".  All I can think is that maybe they don't come from the North, don't get out into the country enough and/or have never tried plein air painting or creating very large works from studies! 
• In the meantime, Yorkshire people do "get it" and are much more impressed - see David Hockney paintings 'make you want to go home' to Yorkshire and David Hockney - Home is where the heart is

Perhaps it’s a generational thing, but I don’t understand paintings like these. Fresh, bright and perfectly delightful, they are much too polite and unthinkingly happy for my taste: if they offer a vision of arcadia, it is a mindless one. Moreover, they resemble the sorts of landscapes that we expect from amateur Sunday painters. Hockney is anything but that – yet whatever game he is playing here eludes me.Alastair Sooke

Two openings in the near future

• Ragamala Paintings from India: Poetry, Passion, Song opens at the Dulwich Picture Gallery on Wednesday 25 January 2012 and continues until 27 May 2012.  A ragamala is a set of miniature paintings which depict Indian music and connect the visual and aural.
• Lucian Freud My Father A personal portrayal: Sculpture by Jane McAdam Freud opens at the Freud Museum next week 25 January 2012 - 4 March 2012
• The Watercolours Art Fair is at the Science Museum in early February

Exhibitions in Art Galleries and Museums - North America

• My Whole Career Is About the Romance of Painting’: Damien Hirst on Infinite Spots, Studio Assistants and Aging is a GalleristNY interview with Damien Hirst on the eve of his spot shows opening at various Gagosian Art Galleries. How the upmarket gallery markets art follows........

Visit all eleven Gagosian Gallery locations during the exhibition The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011 and receive a signed spot print by Damien Hirst, dedicated personally to you.

• I liked this article and slideshow by GalleristNY very much - Tired of Damien Hirst Spot Paintings? A Brief Guide to Other Spot Paintings

Art Education

Sharing your approach and techniques

• Questions You Don't Have to Answer: A Question From an Art Teacher by Luann Udell addresses the question “How can I be a better art viewer and appreciator without offending my fellow artists?”.

ASK if the artist is willing to share, and if so, when/how/under what circumstances and for how much. BE GRATEFUL when they say yes. RESPECT them if they say no. Try to make it WIN/WIN for all concerned.

Techniques

• "Pastel" iPad sketch as a movie describes how to get your animated movie in the Brushes app on your iPad on to your blog.  It's a bit circuitous but gets there in the end.  I'm guessing there might be a simpler way to do this?  Any suggestions?
• Karen Margulis (Painting My World) has a tip for those who like Laying it on Thick...A Recipe for Thick Pastel Ground
• Silk Aquatint: The Captain's Cabin is another impeccable post by Belinda del Pesco (Belinda del Pesco Fine Art)'s about how to print art - with lots of tips thrown in.  This time she's tackling a silk aquatint.

Art Materials and Equipment

• I bought my second stylus - see Product review: A stylus for iPad sketching #1.  I'm aiming not to lose it within 24 hours this time!

Canson Mi-Teintes Touch - sanded textures board

• Canson Mi-Teintes Touch Paper is a new paper board with a sanded abrasive surface suitable for  various media and of particular interest to pastel artists.
• Jackie Simmonds (Jackie Simmonds Artyfacts) reviewed and recommends Canson Mi-Teintes Touch paper.  This is a paper board with a sanded texture.  She's looked at it from the perspective of a pastel artist who likes to use mixed media for underpaintings
• Karen Margulis (Painting My World) has also reviewed it in two posts Guess How Many Layers I got on Canson Touch? and How Wet Can it Get? My Review of Canson Mi-Teintes Touch part 2
• I came across an art competition which wanted all artwork submitted to be contained in a Stiffybag or similar.  Naturally I had to look them up.......
• Stillman & Bern seem to be the new name being bandied around when it comes to premium quality Sketchbooks which have good quality paper.  They also have a Facebook page - where people are showing off what they've done using different sketchbooks - and are also on Twitter @StillmanandBirn.  They're not yet available in the UK - but I'm very fussy about the paper in my sketchbooks and while I'm totally devoted to my Moleskines I'd be very happy to test them with coloured pencils.......  

Art Studios

• I came across this article on the Grumbacher inhouse magazine Thalo  - Show and Tell - Studio Do's and Don'ts - it's about what you should be doing if somebody important comes to see you in your studio
• If you have a studio project in mind for 2012 don't forget to let me know about it when you start blogging the planning/execution/results.

Book reviews

• Book review: A Yorkshire Sketchbook by David Hockney (For Hockney and sketchbook fans) - RECOMMENDED - This is the nearest you'll ever get to handling a Hockney sketchbook.

Copyright

This week the Internet joined belatedly in the uprisings of the common people.  On Wednesday a lot of people closed their sites on the Internet and lobbied hard for a rethink on what was being proposed in the SOPA and PIPA bills in front of

• The week the web changed Washington is a good a way to summarise the momentous backtracking which happened last week and is the title of the post summing up what happened on O'Reilly Radar - a tech blog which provides insightful comment on emerging technologies and internet developments
• Other posts also worth a read in relation to the backtracking by both the Senate and Congress re the SOPA and PIPA due to the collective action by a huge number of people.  
• This is why SOPA is an issue on Read//Write/Web - What You Need to Know About SOPA in 2012
• PC Mag's Top 5 Objections to SOPA, PIPA
• A UK perspective from The Guardian Sopa and Pipa votes shelved after Congress climbs down on piracy bills
• and for a European perspective Sopa is bad legislation, tweets EU's internet tsar

Kroes favours a less invasive approach, tweeting: "Speeding is illegal too, but you don't put speed bumps on the motorway."

• Interestingly - and this is what should really worry the media behomeths and US politicians who've been attempting to wield a sledgehammer - the fastest growing political group in Europe is that started by Rick Falkvinge: the Swedish radical leading the fight over web freedoms.

Also in the news were auction houses Christie's and Sotheby's who are being sued by Chuck Close et al for violation of the California Resale Royalty Act. Their argument is that the law is "unconstitutional, and therefore unenforceable."  The Art Law Blog also provides an Update on the California Resale Royalty Class Action.  I'd love to hear how the two auction houses respond to questions from artists' lawyers when asked why do they then pay out resale royalties within the UK where the law on the Artists Resale Right is mandatory.

and finally...........

This week Jonathan Jones of the Guardian highlighted The Art of the Remakes - and, in particular, the art blog called Remake/Submissions.  Basically the notion is that a work of art is recreated by ordinary people today - or do I mean contemporary artists?

Here's a remake of girl with a pearl earring.