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| Cold Spring 6" x 6" watercolor © Jinghua Gao Dalia |
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
- I spent three days last week sketching - but at my rate of getting sketches on to my blog you might have to wait a while to see them all! However I did get a couple up last week:
- A Postcard from my Walk is coming to an end - however I think there's a chance it will reinvent itself
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
- I'm pursuing a theme of Sprind Landscapes at the moment - and I keep finding artists I'd not come across before. Here are last week's examples:
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.
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| Soaring High © Jinghua Gao Dalia 2012 6" x 6" watercolor courtesy Jinghua Gao Dalia |
- Sherrie York had me in stitches with her tale of The Adventures of Use-Only-Five-Colors Woman! on Brush and Baren. I do like an artist who knows how to write!
Portraiture
- Jonathan Jones writes that David Hockney's Stephen Hawking portraits draw greats together. The rarely-seen 1978 portrait by David Hockney is on display as part of Stephen Hawking: A 70th Birthday celebration - click the link to see both Hockney and the portrait. There is also a new iPad portrait of Hawking on display as well
- What is a portrait? is rather funny as well as being educational. Artists, curators and staff at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery were asked to try to describe what a portrait is. As you can see it's not easy when you're put on the spot - even if you do work at the SNPG!
Art Business and Marketing
- The Art Marketing Action Newsletter - associated with artbizcoach and produced by Alyson B Stanfield (artbizblog) - has been recently celebrating its 10th birthday - and had a special compendium post for readers - Top 10 Marketing Advice Newsletters from Art Biz Coach
- Luann Udell (Luann Udell) has an unexpected approach to Time Management for Creative People
- Keiko Tanabe (Keiko Tanabe Fine Art) asked Have You Googled Your Name Lately?
- This is Karen Margulis's (Painting my World) Favorite Source for Business Cards - I do agree with her on the value of postcards as well as business cards. I somehow never manage to lose the postcards I get given!
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
- Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2012 - Selected artists & artwork
- Antony Williams wins Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2012
- Review: Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2012 Exhibition
Art Exhibitions
Major Exhibitions UK
- David Hockney RA: A Bigger Picture at the Royal Academy closes on 9th April. I've seen it three times now - and want to go again before it finishes. It then moves to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao where it will open on May 15th and be on display until 30th December
- The Damien Hirst retrospective opens at Tate Modern on 4 April and continues until 9 September. This is the BBC slideshow of images of the exhibition
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
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| 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
- The Getty Center in Los Angeles has an exhibition of Renaissance Drawings from Germany and Switzerland, 1470–1600 March 27–June 17, 2012. This is an article about it in artdaily - German and Swiss masters featured in newest drawings exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum
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- 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
- Do you ever wonder about art materials as used in the past. Lost recipes and other stories of painting's past focuses on this topic on Two Coats of Paint
- Jeanette Jobson has made drawing tutorials available on her website
Art Studio and Art Supplies
- Richard McKinley (Pastel Pointers) has a post about Commercial Pastel Primers and Grounds
- Karen Margulis (Painting my World) has written a couple of very useful posts about pastels:
- first that rare post - about the use of fixative with pastels - see What I Like About Fixative on Pastels
- next she has a really neat solution for helping students choose which pastels suit them best - using the Dakota sampler box - read all about it in Getting Started with Pastels...Choosing a Pastel Set
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
- Here's the results of last month's poll. What aspects of your art and art business do you insure? POLL RESULTS. This month's new poll coming up tomorrow.
Websites, blogging and the Internet
- Pat Flynn (The Smart Passive Income Blog) has written A Step Towards Ethical Link Building – What Happened and What Now? for those building links to their websites or blogs. It's been produced after Google de-indexed thousands of blogs in blogging networks, and wiped out very many paid backlinks that were helping a lot of websites rank high in the search engines.
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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