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| Autumn by Sophie Ploeg - selected for the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters opens Thursday 3rd May © Sophie Ploeg |
By coincidence both were born in Europe - Sophie is Dutch and Ilaria was born in Geneva and is descended from Florentine painters. Both also live in the UK - and they both paint still life and portraits. I very much commend their websites and blogs - both referenced below - to you.
I'm also very much looking forward to seeing the above portrait next week. I'm always impressed by Sophie Ploeg's paintings which always look absolutely fabulous in real life - plus this time I get to meet Sophie too.
Artists and Art Blogs
Botanical art
- The American Society of Botanical Artists have a new design for their website - and their website address has also changed - check it out http://www.asba-art.org/
- A 'Making A Mark' Profile of Fiona Strickland records my interview with botanical artist Fiona Strickland DA SBA GM CBM '09, CBM, 11 and CBM 12 who is a superb botanical artist
- Jonathan Jones (Jonathan Jones on Art) to take potshots at those who denigrate contemporary art - see Don't sneer at 'con art' unless you care about great art.
- Here are some of the articles which I think may have caused his ire
- BBC - Julian Spalding attacks Damien Hirst 'con art'. He's the chap who's been arguing that collectors should offload Hirst's work before the world wakes up to the fact it's not really worth what people paid for it.
A new book by former gallery boss Julian Spalding argues that owners should offload now before the market realises that work by Hirst — and other major figures including Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons and Antony Gormley — is a case of the emperor’s new clothes.
- London Evening Standard - ‘Con art’ or real art? Critics clash over attack on Hirst
- The Telegraph: Damien Hirst interview: 'Even Michelangelo had his critics'
- What separates the drawers from the drawer-nots? This is the question posed by Natalie Wolchover in an interesting article in The Huffington Post which highlights research findings that suggest that Drawing Ability Has Psychological Basis In Perception And Memory
- Carole Pivarnik (Carole Pivarnik) recently did two profiles of her sketch kits
- First My Big Fat Sketch Kit which has a video
- Next Another Sketch Kit. It's always nice to see another hand-drawn sketch of a sketch kit. In fact I think it's a rule isn't it? ;) You have to do a sketch of your sketch kit? If your sketch kit hasn't been sketched as yet and/or featured on this blog do please let me know when you have a blog post about it
- I had a lovely time sketching "Big Sue" Tilley - who used to be a model for Lucian Freud - at the National Portrait Gallery - see Life Drawing with Sue Tilley at the National Portrait Gallery
- Then had an equally pleasant time drawing the period gardens at the Geffreye Museum in Hoxton - see The gardens at the Geffreye Museum
- Original Watercolours by Tim Wilmot - very simple, very lush, very saturated. Tim is an amateur artists based in Bristol, UK
- Oleg KOZAK watercolor features the work of Oleg Kozak who lives in Lviv in the Ukraine - I recommend you take a look at Watercolour 1
- I was very taken with the pen and ink drawing/painting of Christopher Green in the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize - and fortunately, somebody turned up his website - which has galleries of great views of London
- This is an Interview with Gillian Pederson-Krag by Elana Hagler and was recommended by Ilaria Rosselli del Turco
- I loved the very fresh Brush Marks on Stampel - which is an Australian blog
Plein Air
- Stapleton Kearns (Stapleton Kearns) asks What is Plein Air?
- This is a story in Sophie Ploeg's local paper about how her work has been selected for the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. Sophie lives in Thornbury in South Gloucestershire. This is her website - and this is her blog The Art-ventures of Sophie Ploeg
- Pinterest has an exploding spam problem - and it's hurting people who use images to sell their products
- Mashable commented on How Pinterest Spammers Hurt This Small Business Owner - a crafts person selling jewellery
- The Globe and Mail highlighted how Social networking site Pinterest in battle against spammers
- I've updated my website so it has a brand new section devoted to the exploding spam problem on Pinterest - and it's now called Pinterest, Copyright and Spam - for Visual Artists & Photographers
- Cindy Haase (Cynthia Haase Fine Art) has started a new blog What are you really selling? which will focus on The Nitty-Gritty Nuggets of Selling Art Online. This is very first post The Product is the Thing!
- This post about pricing - What price to use when talking to retailers by The Design Trust - struck me as potentially being very useful for some people Although they are focused on different products the principles remain the same
- We are Social have 12 Provocations on The Future of Social - I know it sounds weird but it's good
- I suppose after the death of Kinkade, it was inevitable that people might focus on whether you can be a real artist and earn money. No painting, no gain: don't judge an artist by his bank balance Jonathan Jones argues that From Raphael to Leonardo da Vinci, artists have been getting big money for centuries. So why do we judge contemporary artists such as Jeff Koons on the fortunes they make?
- Sothebys now makes auction catalogues available in iPad editions. Are your exhibition catalogues or paintings available as an iPad catalogue?
Art Competitions
- You have until May 4th to enter The Artist’s Magazine’s 29th Annual Art Competition (see guidelines here)
Exhibitions in London
- The Queen opened the Royal River: Power, Pageantry and the Thames Exhibition at the National Maritime Museum last week. Its influence speads beyond the bounds of the museum in Greenwich....
- ....Visitors to London Bridge station can now see a 30m-long version of the Canaletto painting (below) gracing a temporary wall at the new station entrance. Find out more
- All of this is of course a prelude to the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant which takes place on Sunday 3rd June when 1,000 boats will go down the Thames. Will it look like the painting below - and will there be artists out recording it? (UPDATE: see Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant and Canaletto's Thames Pageants #1)
The formal river procession will be between 2pm and 6pm, starting upriver of Battersea Bridge and finishing downriver of Tower Bridge.
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| The River Thames with St. Paul's Cathedral on Lord Mayor's Day (1746)
Canaletto
oil on canvas, 26.8 x 37.6 cm The Lobkowicz Collections, Prague Castle, Czech Republic |
- 2012 Prizewinners at Society of Botanical Art's Annual Exhibition identifies the artists and the images which won prizes at this year's exhibition
- Call for Entries: Royal Society of Marine Artists - Annual Exhibition 2012 provides the deadlines and an overview of the submission details for this very popular exhibition which sells an awful lot of paintings.
- The Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters opens to the public at the Mall Galleries on Thursday 3rd May and closes on 18th May. There is a President’s Tour Thursday 3rd May 11am with Alastair Adams PRP
- Taking Time: Chardin's Boy building a House of Cards and other paintings is on display at Waddesdon Manor - the home of Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild - until 15th July. Many thanks to Ilaria Rosselli del Turco for highlighting this exhibition on her blog - Chardin at Waddesdon Manor. Chardin is one of my favourite painters and I simply hadn't spotted this exhibition.
This exhibition brings together some of the greatest works to come out of 18th-century France. Prompted by Waddesdon’s recent acquisition of Boy building a house of cards(1735) by Jean-Siméon Chardin (1699-1779), the exhibition will unite all four of the artist’s paintings of the subject for the first time ever.
- New works for sale by two marine painters and art society luminaries - Trevor Chamberlain, ROI, RSMA and Bert Wright PPRSMA, FRSA - can be seen in a new exhibition which opens at Island Fine Arts on the Isle of Wight on 2nd May and closes on 31st May. Click this link to see the images.
Art Societies - USA
- CPSA 20th International Exhibition 2012 - Selected artists - I had a go at trying to understand a question which had always puzzled me - where do CP artists in the USA live? It always struck me that where you have a very active District Chapter there tends to be more artists. So - this post takes the names of the selected artists and then reorganises them according to where they live - and then links their names to their websites or blogs where these exist. Spot the states where CP art is popular!
- The third artist featured this week is my friend Nicole Caulfield (Nicole Caulfield Fine Art) whose Culinary Colour Wheel has been selected for the CPSA exhibition. She also has prints available - see Prints! Culinary Color Wheel for a discount!
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| Culinary Color Wheel by Nicole Caulfield selected for the CPSA 20th International Annual Exhibition coloured pencils
© Nicole Caulfield
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Exhibitions by Art Bloggers
If you've been reading Making A Mark for a bit you'll know that besides major exhibitions, art competitions and the exhibitions of art societies I'm very happy to publicise the exhibitions of established art bloggers (Galleries should note that I do NOT publicise the exhibition of every artist anywhere in the world - and please stop writing!).
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| Wrap Series paintings © Illaris del Turco Interiors - Galleria Ellearte in Palermo |
- I've featured work by Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco (Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco - News) on this blog many times in the past. This next month she has an exhibition of still life paintings in an exhibition called Barbara ARRIGO e Ilaria ROSSELLI DEL TURCO / INTERIORS Interiors at the Galleria Ellearte in Palermo in Sicily.
- You can see a couple of the paintings in her "Wrap" series on her blog in this post and
- more on her blog in the Still Life Paintings gallery
- Marion Boddy Evans (Mad Cat Studio Art Blog) - who is the guide for Painting.About.com - has an exhibition at the Skyeworks Gallery on the Isle of Skye. Grazing the Minch has already sold - but there's more to be had!
- Sophie Ploeg (The Art-ventures of Sophie Ploeg) has work in the RSPP exhibition (see image at the top) and also has work in the Severn Vale Art Trail, held in and around Thornbury from May 4-13. 11 paintings will be exhibited during the Art Trail at Pound Barn in Wickwar, Gloucestershire GL12 8LB. Sophie is doing a demonstration on 5th May between 10-11am.
Art Galleries and Museums
- Jonathan Jones (Jonathan Jones blog) makes the case for Lucian Freud to be given a museum - Why Lucian Freud deserves his own gallery
Richard McKinley (Pastel Pointers) has two posts about The Two Ts of Painting
- Theory and Technique, Part 1 | The Contrast Effect - which comments on simultaneous contrast
- Theory and Technique, Part 2 | Atmospheric Perspective - highlights aspects which are not quite so straightforward
- Jana Bouc (JanasJournal) has been showing been doing a lot of work to relocate and improve her studio space - see My New Remodeled Art Studio Tour (at last!) - which also has a video. Note that it's gained more space - and an outside deck! Jana has some good tips for saving money on improving your facilities and storage
- I came upon an old post of Ester Roi (Ester Roi Fine Art) last week - all about Glassless Framing - as a response to all the artists who have asked her how she frames her CP artwork on paper without glass. I know I've highlighted it before but it merits repetition.
Carol Marine (Carol Marine's Painting a Day) is responsible for two posts about art supplies this week.
- Her newsletter alerted me to the Carol Marine Canvas Panel Holder - a simple way of keeping small canvas panels secure while painting. This was invented by Carol's husband David Marine. I'm not quite sure of the role the K Rike Gallery plays other than arranging for the panels to be made, fulfilling orders and dealing with the shipping
- This is Another tripod option for holding the shadow/light box at a decent height
- Have you come across F+W Media Artist's Network eBooks: Art Book Club. For an annual subscription of $199, you can gain access to over 100 art instruction ebooks. Read what I think about this offering on Making A Mark Reviews - Review: Artist's Network eBooks: Art Book Club. There's also a discussion on the Making A Mark facebook page where this post is featured.
- Mashable noted that Self-Publisher Lulu Announces Google Drive Integration - and this is the page on Lulu which you need to look at Lulu - Collaborate with Google Drive. This is the link to the Lulu One Click Publishing App (note you must use Chrome to download it)
Lulu announced integration between the Lulu One-Click Publishing app and the newly released Google Drive on Tuesday — a combination that will allow you to create and collaborate on a project in Google Drive and then publish that project through Lulu with a single click.Colour
- A Winsor and Newton article in the latest newsletter puts the Spotlight on Colour: Indigo
- I'm always surprised that more of the manufacturers don't follow W&N's lead in creating an excellent resource centre for artists. Here, for example, is an article about Colour Palettes of William Holman Hunt & The Pre-Raphaelites
- Neelie Kroes: "Openness on the internet does not mean anarchy" on The Future of Copyright. Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission is responsible for the Digital Agenda
“Openness does not come at the expense of privacy or safety.” Kroes stated. “Laws and social norms, rights and responsibilities exist in cyberspace, just like in the real world. Openness does not mean anarchy.“
- Pinterest – Copyright Infringement Made Cool? - on Mansurovs Photography - is one of the very best articles written to date on the topic of Copyright Infringement and Pinterest. It explains some of the reasons why people just don't get it re copyright infringement - and I hasten to add the fact they don't get it is still no excuse!
- Postrank Blog - PostRank Sunsetting May 1, 2012 I'm going to miss the PostRank widget - which is very much NOT duplicated by Google Analytics content as Google tries to suggest. At the moment it differentiates between posts in Google Reader and tells me which posts have proved most popular in postrank terms. I find it very helpful and I'm going to miss it a lot.
- According to Google this is what replaces it - Capturing The Value Of Social Media Using Google Analytics - which, for me, only goes to show they really don't understand how people have been using the Postrank Widget - as the new reports simply do not replace the simple one measure data.
- If you have problems commenting on blogs have you tried getting an Open-ID?
- Matt Cutts (Matt Cutts) explains why sites which get deindexed really have been hacked - see example email to a hacked site. It contains lots of links to sites which can show you where things went wrong.
- The Google Webmaster Central blog - Another step to reward high-quality sites explains how they are changing the algorithm. Do you know where to find Google's quality guidelines?
In the next few days, we’re launching an important algorithm change targeted at webspam. The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s existing quality guidelines.
This is The Art World of the 50s and 60s by Magnum Photographers on Slate. See how many artists you recognise before you look at the caption.
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