25th March 2012 - Who's made a mark this week?

Spring (published 1570) by Pieter van der Heyden after Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Engraving - Print
Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

Spring began this week - and the clocks went back last night in the UK.  We are now officially enjoying British Summer Time!

This week's post has a bit of a "Spring" theme

The above image is in a number of collections. It's a print of an engraving by Pieter van der Heyden after a painting of Spring by Pieter Brueghal the Elder and made shortly after his death.

Over on the Guardian, Jonathan Jones has decided to create a new series of posts about My favourite spring artworks.  To date he's had

• Spring begins with Botticelli - and Rites of spring: Sandro Botticelli's Primavera
• In full bloom: Jeff Koons's Puppy
• One for the road: Camille Pissarro's The Avenue, Sydenham
• Where there's a wall: Francesco del Cossa’s April

Plus The Guardian has another new initiative - Share your art with us - and has asked people to submit their artwork on the theme of Spring

This is a new series dedicated to your art. It was inspired by the extraordinary response we got when we invited you to share your picturescreated using mobile apps.

Here's part of that response - The art of the app: works made on iPads and iPhones - a slideshow of art sent into the Guardian by people who've all been busy creating digital art

This is Share Your Art - Your Pictures so far in relation to the Spring theme.  I'm inclined to side with one person who commented that they didn't think some of them looked much like Spring!  There's also a few "Hockney wannabes" in there.  The gallery uses LiveShare.

I'm also continuing the theme of seasonal landscapes on The Art of the Landscape (I was doing it before Jonathan!) and have kicked off a mix of Spring Landscapes and landscapes associated with the month of March.  There will be a few more this week

• The Louvre, March Mist - Pissaro (Spring Landscape #1)
• Spring Landscape #2 - by Berthe Morisot

I also did my first "Spring" sketch recently - see Travels with a Sketchbook: The Thames at Kew - in March sunshine.

So - over to you.  Do you sketch or paint with a view to making a record of the Season or maybe what the landscape looks like this month?

The Thames at Kew - looking towards Richmond 12 and 15 March 2012
pen and inck and coloured pencils in Moleskine sketchbook, 11" x 16"
© Katherine Tyrrell - all rights reserved

Now for the rest of this week's post

Artists

• The house at 87 Hackford Road, Brixton that was Vincent Van Gogh's London home while he worked for an art dealer in London - is up for auction - see Vincent van Gogh's London home up for auction.  The house, which has a blue plaque, is on the market for the first time in 65 years and has an asking price of £450,000.  Watch this video to see what it's like inside - it apparently needs "some refurbishment"

“ ‘Enfant terrible’—I get called that a lot, still, and I’m 47,” Hirst complains.

• Damien Hirst's upcoming retrospective exhibition at the Tate seems to be triggering quite a few articles.  Here's a selection:
• The Telegraph writes about How Damien Hirst tried to transform the art market
• The Daily Beast: Damien Hirst repackages Warhol for our times and sells himself by Blake Gopnik.
• The Economist: Damien Hirst retrospective - Is nothing sacred? The Tate Modern stamp of approval

The exhibition consists of 73 works made over a 22-year period, arranged chronologically to convey the evolution of Mr Hirst’s ideas. The general trajectory is from gritty to glitzy

• this article was prompted by the Economist one - MOCA Can’t Afford Hirst Skull - and it reflects on the extent to which museums are now short of cash to put on exhibitions
• The Guardian: Grayson Perry: 'The most interesting thing about Damien Hirst is probably his accounts' - which is actually an article about an interview with Grayson perry where people could tweet their questions

If you do therapy you'll win the Turner Prize

• A great video of Grayson Perry being interviewed - see Grayson Perry at Guardian Open Weekend: 'Earnestness is the biggest crime an Englishman can commit' - video.  I do find it very refreshing to listen to Grayson Perry talk about art.
• Last Monday, after stumbling on a video, I wrote Diana Armfield RA, RWS - an appreciation 
• Mathew D Inis (Underpainting) discusses Leighton and his sketching and plein air painting - with oodles of images in Leighton and the Venetian Method, Part IV.  His drawing of The Lemon Tree stopped my scrolling for a lingering look.

Art Blogs

Drawing and Sketching

• I came across Ian Sidaway's art blog for the first time today.  It's called Ian Sidaway Fine Line and is described as 'A visual blog recording daily fine liner drawings'.  It's got some very graphic sketchbook drawings which reflect his illustrator roots. They actually look more finished than sketchy to me.  I like his trees a lot.
• The Guardian came up with How to draw a perfect David Cameron caricature

Culinary Colour Field by Nicole Caulfield
24" x 30" Coloursofts on Fisher 400

Coloured Pencils and Pastels

• Nicole Caulfield (Nicole Caulfield) came up with a new way to do a colour wheel - and this is her CPSA entry for this year's annual exhibition - Culinary Color Wheel.  If you track back on her blog you can see how it was developed

Landscape

• Loriann Signori (loriann signori's painting-a-day) uses one of her works to provide a summary of how to paint using neutrals and simultaneous contrast

Art Business & Marketing

• Excellent advice on Artsy Shark from Ruth Soller - Brilliant Planning Leads to a Sold Out Art Show

Art Collectors and Art economy

• The European Art Foundation - which runs the art fair at Maastricht - announced last week that China has overtaken the United States as the world’s biggest market for art and antiques ending decades of American domination.
• China Now World’s Largest Art & Antiques Market, But What Does It Mean? - and did you know there was a blog for business and luxury in China? ;) 
• At the top end of the art market, here are more on predictions about the art economy on ArtInfo
• Experts Predict Art Market Trends, Part 3: Lucy Mitchell-Innes, Nancy Murphy, Roxane Zand, Aditya Julka
• Experts Predict Art Market Trends, Part 4: Tim Blum, Philippe Segalot, Sanford L. Smith, Marc Spiegler
• I keep coming across articles highlighting the price of doing art business in the art economy.
• The New York Times: In Europe, Where Art Is Life, Ax Falls on Public Financing
• ArtInfo: The Price of Art Fairs: 4 Case Studies Illuminate the Cost of Doing Business in the New Art Economy

Art Competitions

• On Tuesday I wrote about the Finalists for The Archibald Prize 2012 + The Packing Room Prize  in Australia
• The 7th Lynn Painter Stainers Prize Exhibition opens to the public at its new venue - the Mall Galleries - on 28 March 2012 and continues until 5 April.  98 paintings have been selected from over 1150 works submitted

Art Exhibitions

This is what's known as a comment in the interests of balance.  Jonathan Jones argued this week that we should Get up and demand better British art.  He says we're too tolerant of our artists – novelty and immediacy are valued over originality and profundity. Which means bad art.  Discuss (and the reasons for reading these links are the comments as much as the article!)

I honestly believe you can get more from visiting your favourite art gallery and looking, again and again, for free, at art that interests you, than from a dozen hit exhibitions.

UK Major Exhibitions

• An excellent review of the Lucian Freud Portraits exhibition by Marion Boddy Evans
• I came across a blog I've not read before this week called The Wandering Eye - it contains sound reviews of exhibitions.  It's described as musings and reviews from a Museologist in training.  Does she mean trainee Curator? Her Twitter account reveals her to be Emily Peirson-Webber

UK Major Art Societies & Art Competitions

The Threadneedle Space

• The Mall Galleries - home to the Federation of British Artists has a brand new gallery.  The Threadneedle Space opened at Mall Galleries last week and I went to see it.  Well actually it's the East Gallery 'as was' but you'd never know it to look at its contemporary 'new look'.
• The Royal Watercolour Society's Spring Exhibition by members of the RWS opened at the Bankside Gallery on Friday.  I attended the PV on Thursday night and a review will be published this week.

Private View: RWS Spring Exhibition

Regional UK Exhibitions

• I was amazed to hear that there's an exhibition of work by Robert Maplethorpe in Dunoon.  I never ever thought those words would ever be in the same sentence (and I know Dunoon!).  Anyway here's the Guardian article Robert Mapplethorpe show heads to remote Scottish town of Dunoon.  The exhibition is part of the fourth Artist Rooms tour.

European Exhibitions

• Animal Beauty at the Grand Palais in Paris is, I think, an exhibition which will generate a lot of trips to Paris

USA Exhibitions

• The Brooklyn Museum has an exhibition of work by Keith Haring,  I wouldn;t say i like his work so much as find it intriguing.
• This is Mathew D Ini's post about What's On View: March 2012 - as he says most of the exhibitions are "mid-Atlantic"

Art Bloggers Exhibitions

• Robin Purcell (Robin Purcell) has Paintings at the California Art Club 101st Gold Medal Exhibtion.  Robin will be at the Artists Gala reciotion on 31st March.

Art Education

Tips and techniques

• Sue Favinger Smith (Ancient Artist) has a couple of tips for those who would like Easy Value References for your Palette
• Diane Mize discusses Visual Bridges in the design of your composition on her blog Compose

Art History

• I can't remember now where I saw this link - however it's a bit on an ancient one (2007) to a blog post which examines the painting of the girl with red hair by Degas - Edgar Degas and the nude red-headed girl on Thinks Happen

Studio & Art Supplies

• Kit: I've always been intrigued by the way that people manage to change bits of furniture and equipment into things which help them out in their studio.  Here's the latest from Lori McNee (Lori McNee - Fine Art & Tips) - How I Turned a TV Stand into an Artist’s Taboret
• Camera: I've thinking very seriously - I think I need a new camera - what do you think?
• Paint: The Jacksons Art blog highlights that Sennelier have reformulated their artists watercolour
• Pastels: In NEW PRODUCT: Caran d'Ache hard dry pastels and pencils I've highlighted recent product reviews by German pastel artist Astrid Volquardsen (Astrid Volquardsen pastellbilder 'Malerin des Lichts' ) 

Copyright

I had a whole bunch of posts for you re Pinterest - and then they went and announced a change to the Terms of Services which is what a lot of us have been hoping might happen.

So first off my post about that - and then the rest of them!

• Pinterest revises TOS and addresses copyright issues: a Primer - this is my very long and detailed post about all the changes and whether they go far enough and/or what the implications might be

"What I see Pinterest doing is employing you (without pay, mind you) to amass a giant library of original content for them"

• The quote re Pinterest comes from Scientific American Pinterest’s Terms of Service, Word by Terrifying Word
• Kirsten Kowalski (lawyer/photographer) asks for help from photographers re Pinterest changes to terms of service
• 'Takedown: How Pinterest moved fast to remove my pinned images (#2)' now includes the Pinterest email address re copyright (which means you get to keep a copy of what you told them!)
• plus this is a very useful site for those interested in the debate about Pinterest & copyright infringement - Pinterest? No thanks, not Pinterested 

Web, Blogging and the Internet

Blogging

• Have I ever banged on at length about how totally and utterly frustrating it is to be unable to tell who is blogging and what their name is.  If not I should do it some more.  Blogs do not get mentioned on this blog because I can't tell who you are!!!! Get yourself a pseudonym if you want to be obscure!  Everybody else go and check your blog now and make sure your name can be found somewhere.

Twitter

• I've had lists on twitter for ages - but it's only recently that I'm beginning to use lists much more to keep track of different categories of people I follow.  It does actually make it much easier!

Webware Widgets

• I am so very sad that the PostRank extension is no longer with us after 1 April. It's such a very useful tool for scanning Google Reader and I also like the external perspective on which are the top posts.

and finally.....

After the Goldman Sachs letter we have the Gagosian Letter via commentary on ArtInfo

PS If you insist - let's also not forget the Why I am leaving the Empire by Darth Vader Letter - which must be the the ultimate Goldman Sachs parody?