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Sunday, April 01, 2012

1st April 2012 - Who's made a mark this week?

Cold Spring
6" x 6" watercolor
© Jinghua Gao Dalia
I think this is the first time "who's made a mark this week" has happened on 1st April. I guess I should have planned and had a nice elaborate joke at the ready. However I'm not very good at pranks and jokes so you needn't bother looking for one because there isn't one!

I was also out for the day in the sunshine virtually every day last week (we've just had the third hottest March since records began!) so not a lot of time for reading - but I caught a few items of note.

Art Blogs and Artists

We know that some artists need a little help in creating their artwork . I found this article in the Guardian 'I'd like 11 and a half tons of resin, please': the artisans behind the artists to be absolutely fascinating
The moral outrage – the idea that we're all being duped because we're paying all this money and the work's not being made by the artists themselves – is ridiculous. What's more interesting is whether a piece is good or bad.

Drawing and Sketching


Coloured Pencils and Pastels

  • I've got a botanical image in Ann Kullberg's latest Colored Pencil Artists magazine which focuses on Botanical Art and has articles by UK Botanical Artists Ann Swan and Janie Pirie who both work in coloured pencils


Landscapes


Painting

  • I was very impressed this week with the work of Jinghua Gao Dalia on her blog Jinghua Gao Dalia - Brush Magic - which highlights she has over 3 decades of Chinese watercolor brush painting experience.  You can see the type of painting she does in the images at the top of this post and below.  I love her peony and paintings of small birds.
Soaring High
© Jinghua Gao Dalia 2012
6" x 6" watercolor
courtesy Jinghua Gao Dalia


Portraiture


Art Business and Marketing



    Art Competitions


    The Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize - encourage creative representational painting and promote the skill of draughtsmanship. - threatened to take over my blog this week with three posts.  However I do know that these are interesting to those who enter - or think about entering Art Competitions in the UK - so here are the posts in order

    Art Exhibitions


    Major Exhibitions UK

    The exhibition will include iconic sculptures from his Natural History series, including 'The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living' 1991, in which he suspended a shark in formaldehyde.
    • I saw three exhibitions briefly at Tate Britain on Friday (the joys of a members ticket!) 
      • In contrast to a number of the reviews which were published I'd say that Picasso and Modern British Art (until 15 July 2012) was worth seeing if only to view the development in British Modern Art.  The Picassos are a bonus - particularly seeing the drawings and how some of the paintings developed.  My jaw also dropped when I saw some of his very early paintings
      • The Tate Britain Commission 2012: Patrick Keiller (until 14 October 2012) is a must see - if only to appreciate alternative ways of displaying art.  It was excellent, an innovation and all in all quite a revelation.  Pity the labelling wasn't on a par.  Here's a Guardian article about the exhibition which explains why it's a bit different - How Patrick Keiller is mapping the 21st-century landscape
      • I was less impressed with Migrations - although it made a very good case for how much added value migrants to the UK have brought to the UK art scene.  
      • You'd think to look at the Tate Britain website that the Tate really didn't want you to view any of these exhibitions.  There are much better ways of using taxpayer's money to tell people what an exhibition is about


    Art Society Exhibitions 



    The Wapping Group: sketchbooks and photos of artists painting plein air
    • The Wapping Group of Artists is currently holding its Annual Exhibition - London and Its River - in the new Threadneedle Space at the Mall Galleries (until 5th April).  I missed it last year and there seems to have been some turnover in members in the interim.  However it's still 100% a bloke's painting group!  I must say I preferred the exhibition when it was almost all about the River Thames


    Art Exhibitions USA


    Exhibitions involving Art Bloggers and Artists mentioned on this blog

    • Antony Williams - winner of the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2012 has work in an upcoming exhibition at Messums which focuses on contemporary representational art.  The Hard Won Image can be seen at the Gallery at 8 Cork Street between 3rd and 14th April.  Other artists include Daphne Todd and Saied Dai
    the representational survives, and even thrives in contemporary art.
    • Trevor Chamberlain ROI RSMA is not an art blogger but he is a favourite watercolour artist of many of this blog's readers.  I was chatting to him at the exhibition by the Wapping Artists on Friday and he and Bert Wright are having an exhibition in May at Island Fine Arts on the Isle of Wight between 2nd and 31st May 2012
    • Strelitzia reginae
      silk painting © Tessa Spanton
        Tessa Spanton
         (Colours and Textures) has a couple of exhibitions of her work coming up this month
        • an exhibition of her silk paintings, cards and limited edition prints at Pashley Manor between 23rd April and 29th September - see Paintings at Pashley.  
        • She will also have four of her silk paintings in the annual exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists - see Botanical Celebration - at Central Hall Westminster 20th-29th April 2012

      Art Education



      Art Studio and Art Supplies



      Copyright

      • Even if you attempt to do analysis and write guidance for others, it's always very comforting when somebody whose opinion you respect feels the same way as you do.  Which is the reason for highlighting Kirsten Kowalski's latest post on the Pinterest saga - Pinterest’s New Terms of Use Came Out. But, I’m Still Waiting :(  Like me she can see the words have been rearranged but very little has essentially changed (other than the fact that you can pin your own work without feeling bad and they've agreed they won't sell our work).  It contains some interesting comments on "fair use"
      "Fair use is tricky because it is so fact specific. Whether or not something is a fair use depends on the purpose of the use, the nature of the copyrighted work, the portion of the copyrighted work that is used, and the effect of the use on the potential market value for the work. Any number of facts can alter the balance of these factors and change whether or not something is a fair use."India Vincent (IP expert) - quoted on Pinterest’s New Terms of Use Came Out. But, I’m Still Waiting :(  

      Opinion Poll


        Websites, blogging and the Internet


        and finally......


        Matt Cutts (Head of the webspam team at Google) announced on Twitter today that Google had introduced a Really Advanced Search.  It's certainly different!


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