18th March 2012: Who's made a mark this week?

It's very interesting to see how art is beginning to get a higher profile in the newsmedia in the UK ever since the Duchess of Cambridge embarked on her Royal duties of visiting good causes.  Her degree in art history should come in handy!

Last week she was at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in South London with the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall to see children drawing images of the Queen to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee.  The Prince was there in his capacity of founder and President of The Prince's Foundation for Children & the Arts (Children & the Arts)

Here's a video from the Telegraph of The Royals get arty at Dulwich Picture Gallery.

In addition, in January, she became the patron of two art organisations:

• The Art Room -  which is a charity which helps 5 - 16 year olds who are experiencing emotional and behavioural difficulties.  The aim is to offer art as a therapy to increase children’s self-esteem, self-confidence and independence.
• The National Portrait Gallery - her patronage is likely to encourage more young people to engage with the Collection.  Her first public visit to the Gallery related to the opening of the Lucian Freud Portraits exhibition.

So nice to see that the person who designed the emblem for Diamond Jubilee (above right) was not an ad man.  Instead it was created by Katherine Dewar, aged 10, from Chester.  She met The Queen at Buckingham Palace after winning a competition run by BBC TV's Blue Peter programme

Art Blogs




Botanical Art

• This is the website of the Botanical Artists' Association of Southern Africa - it has blogs for the different areas of the country blog eg Gauteng Branch which is active.

Drawing and Sketching

• Why Don't You Carry a Journal? by Roz Stendahl (Roz Wound Up) 
• Tonight's State of Drawing Panel and Amy Sillman's iPhone Animation reviews how a panel tackled some interesting questions about drawing on Hyperallergic.
• The new London branch of the Urban Sketchers communities had a get together in the rain on Saturday.  We wisely stayed indoors - at the Founders Arms which sits next to the River Thames and Tate Modern - and sketched the skyline, our meals, each other and artists sketching each other - like you do!  (Sketches coming soon......) One of the reasons for staying inside is that we also had lots to talk about - including two upcoming events which you'll hear more about in due course if you follow our new blog Urban Sketchers London.  

Landscapes

• In some parts of the world, the landscape is turning green - which prompts thoughts about how best to represent green in a painting
• Karen Margulis highlights Richard McKinley's 2009 post - The Problem with Green Part 2 - on Pastel Pointers in her own post A Tip for Painting Green Landscapes

“The secret of green is orange, and its friend is violet.”

• Does it matter that some of Hockney's blossoms look like evil yellow slugs? by Ian Jack - who doesn't blog about art for the Guardian.

Painting

• This is a post about The Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours
• Armand Cabrera (Art and Influence) talks about the importance of Surface Quality in painting

Printmaking

• Here's another of Belinda del Pesco's (Belinda del Pesco Fine Art) delightful insights into how she makes prints - Linocut: Reveille

Art Business and Marketing

• The Invesp blog has an Infographic which makes you think very hard about the need to market art online - see Understanding The Online Consumer Behavior [Infographic]
• Michelle (The Etsy Blog) tells you How to Get Found in Search - when people search on Etsy - as a new addition to the Seller Handbook
• Alyson Stanfield has 
• tackled the Facebook Timeline issue 4 Starter Moves for Your New Facebook Timeline on ArtBizBlog
• shared a great checklist Steal This Checklist for Your Next Product Launch
• Joanne Mattera (Joanne Mattera Art Blog) considers how you can get beyond art magazines in Marketing Mondays: Editorial Coverage, Part 2 
• You'd think the basic of your art resume would be basic - wouldn't you?  However you might want to think again after you've read Brian Sherwin's (FineArtViews Blog) articles about What Art Dealers Expect from your Artist Resume
• What Art Dealers Expect From Your Artist Resume: Part 1 - your name
• What Art Dealers Expect From Your Artist Resume: Part 2 - your contact information
• What Art Dealers Expect From Your Artist Resume: Part 3 - your short biography
• What Art Dealers Expect From Your Artist Resume: Part 4 - your education info
• ArtInfo has A Guide to 20 Top Artist Residencies and Retreats Across the United States

Art Collectors and the Art economy

• Did you know that in 2011, German painter Gerhard Richter outsold Monet, Giacometti and Rothko—combined?  No nor did I.  However the Wall Street Journal asserts he is The Top-Selling Living Artist (at auction).  The article's a very interesting read in terms of what makes an artist iconic.
• Felix Salmon (Reuters - Opinion) discusses the notion of art as a commodity or a currency - using a Richter painting as an example - in The commodification of the contemporary art market
• Different perspectives on where the art market is going in a new four-part series from Art+Auction magazine on ArtInfo - here's the first two parts

• Part 1 read more »
• Part 2 read more »
• I just know you're all going to be desperate to know what the Wall Street Journal advises about What to Wear at an Art Auction

Art Exhibitions

Major Exhibitions in the UK

• The National Gallery has collaborated with Tate Britain to deliver a new exhibition Turner Inspired: In the Light of Claude until 5 June.  I shall be intrigued to see (1) whether it can improve on "Turner and the Masters" (see Exhibition review: Turner and the Masters at Tate Britain) and (2) how much is in the exhibition which isn't usually to be found on the walls of the National Gallery or Tate Britain anyway!  I'm always amazed at how the big galleries manage to get people to pay to see paintings which are there to see all year round!   One of those commenting on one of the Guardian articles summed it up for me

I've just spat out my coffee over the keyboard on reading that the National Gallery wants to charge 12 quid to see the same Turner and Claude paintings that are normally displayed free of charge in the same building!  Yes, there will also be loans. But all these seem to be watercolours from the Turner Bequest which is housed all of 10 minutes away at Tate Britain where they are also available to see completely for free.

• Here's some of the commentaries on the new exhibition.  
• The Guardian seems to have got itself a new arts correspondent an art history essay JMW Turner, the English Claude
• This is Adrian Searle on the same topic Turner and Claude: Blinded by the light - and guess, what he's also drawing the same conclusion as me and the anonymous commenter
• Seeing the light: Turner Inspired, In the Light of Claude – in pictures is the Guardian slideshow.  It contains a lovely sketchbook painting by Turner of The Giudecca Canal, Looking Towards Fusina at Sunset (I'm always puzzled by why the newspaper slideshows are better than the gallery ones!)
• Meanwhile Jonathan Jones has started the articles reviewing the upcoming Damien Hirst retrospective exhibition at Tate Modern in Why the Tate has a thirst for Hirst

the timing of his exhibition is interesting: waves of enthusiasm for proper painting this year mean that pundits will almost certainly set this up as a "moment" when Hirst and all he has come to stand for meets his downfall.

Major Exhibitions in France

• Degas and the Nude opened at the Musee d'Orsay in Paris
• My post Major Degas exhibition opens in Paris highlights what the exhibition covers.  I've now seen the catalogue (in the Tate Modern bookshop on Saturday) and it's got masses of drawings and pastels I've never seen before
• Diane Leifheit (Pastel Painting in the Adirondacks) wrote about the exhibition when it was at the Museum of Fine Art in Boston in Road Trip! Degas!
• Art Review: Degas & the Nude is an illuminating review of the exhibition by Deborah Feller (News and Views)

Major Exhibitions in the USA

• Phillips Collection - Snapshot: Painters and Photography, Bonnard to Vuillard (February 4–May 6, 2012)

Major Exhibitions in Asia

• an exhibition of works by American Realist painter Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) is to be held in China and Hong Kong.  The exhibition will be open to the public 
• in Beijing April 14 – May 12, 2012 at YUAN Space; 
• in Hong Kong May 24 – 30, 2012 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center; and finally 
• in New York at Christie’s during early September.

Art Society Exhibitions in the UK

• 200th Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours - is my review of one of the top selling art society exhibitions in the UK.  It continues at the Mall Galleries all next week until 25th March.
• 7 Gold Medal Winners at RHS Botanical Art 2012 - is my annual review of the lovely ladies who make fantastic botanical art and get gold medals from the Royal Horticultural Society as a result

Botanical Art Exhibitions 

Spring is in the air and hence there's a host of botanical art exhibitions coming up

Capturing Flora:
300 years of
Australian botanical art

• This one's a date for the diaries of all those that love botanical art and live in Australia.  The Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney is playing host to a three week exhibition of botanical art - Botanica 2012 – The Masters & Moore - with works from over 70 of Australia’s premier botanical artists.  It opens with a party on 30th March and continues until 22nd April 2012.  Entry is free.
• I've also been asked to alert the botanical art fans in Australia to the fact that Capturing Flora: 300 years of Australian botanical art will be at Art Gallery of Ballarat between 25 September – 2 December
• The premier botanical art exhibition in California - the Filoli 14th Annual Botanical Art exhibition - is being held between 27 March - 24 June 2012.  Filoli is the only place I've come across recently that doesn't seem to feel the need to identify an address or where it is situated on its 'Visit us" page!
• Native Pennsylvania, A Wildflower Walk can be seen at the Hunt Instiite for Botanical Documentation between 2 March-29 June 2012 
• The Northern Society of Botanical Art are exhibiting in The Barn Gallery at Patchings until 22nd April 2012
• I've also been updating the exhibitions section of Botanical Art - Resources for Artists

Art Education

Demonstrations

• If you want to see how a professional watercolour painter works check out those demonstrating in London next week in Watch artists who paint in watercolours

Intern opportunity

• Deborah Paris (A Painting Life) is advertising for a summer Intern

Tips and techniques

• Graham Giles has a specialised knowledge of painting materials focuses on the qualities of transparent and opaque colours, and the practice of glazing in oil colours in this article - Glazing for Oil Colours - on the Winsor & Newton resource centre website 

Art History & Art Museums

• The Museum of Fine Art in Boston has a new app for the iPad - Paintings of the Americas in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - which works just fine on a normal screen as well.  It's the MFA’s first online catalogue dedicated to a specific area of the collection

Art Publishing

• An Artist's View of Art Publishing - Part 1 by Todd McPhetridge (Artsy Shark) This is talk about the pros and cons of working with an art publisher

Art Supplies

• Jacksons have announced free delivery on UK orders over £20, which are also under 400g.  It's a very good idea but I'm just wondering how we're supposed to know how much art supplies weigh.
• Michael Chesley Johnson (A Plein Air Painter's Blog) has been writing About Varnish

Copyright

• Ben Silbermann the founder of Pinterest has DELETED all his boards! I wonder if this might be because he was keen to get rid of any evidence that he'd been pinning images which he might be invoiced for (see http://pinterest.com/ben/ )  My site Pinterest and Copyright tries to keep up with the copyright shenanigans as practiced by Pinterest

if I LIKE your work enough to pin it - I'm also doing you a HUGE disservice as a thank you. Hey buddy - I LOVE your fab photo so much I'm risking the law to give it to someone else who can profit it from it instead of you. Love Life Blog - Not Pining for Pinning

Opinion Poll

• POLL: Do you insure your art and art business? - It's absolutely OK to admit, anonymously, that you don't insure anything to do with your art - on this month's Making A Mark Poll - see right hand column.  The numbers responding have been pretty low and the only explanation I've come up with so far is that there may be some displacement activity going on......

Web, Internet and Blogging

• Sharing Trends in 2011 has a useful infographic which repays study
• Anybody else started to notice that all of a sudden American Blogger blogs with a blogspot.com URL have suddenly started automatically resolving to blogspot.co.uk.  - or at least they do on my iMac here in London!  My very old Blogger blog (see domain name at the top) is based in London and resolutely remains blogspot.com!

and finally......

Is it artornot?