I've been busy again this week with matters relating to activities of the new Urban Sketchers London group. On Saturday, we held our first Sketchcrawl. This was very ably organised by Pete Scully (Pete Scully), whose hand drawn and annotated maps are an artwork in themselves!
We had a wonderful sunny day. Pete did a count-up from the attendance sheets and around about 50 people signed the sheets and more people came for just part of the day. There were some amazing sketches and lots of variety in the sketching we saw although, rather oddly, very much less watercolour sketching than I think occurs elsewhere. That said we had rather a lot of architecture in Fleet Street and the Temple to deal with!
- You can read more about it and see photos of the day in Photos from the 1st "Let's Draw London" Sketchcrawl
- You can also see a quick photo of my sketches at the end of the day
My fellow founder members of the Urban Sketchers London blog will be posting sketches on our respective sketch blogs and the urban sketchers blog later this week.
Yesterday I set up a Flickr Group for people to post their sketches to who attended the Sketchcrawl - which you cam find here. There won't be there just yet as we've not yet written to those who attended the sketchcrawl.
 |
| James Oses and drawings of Fleet Street |
I had a n awful lot of "looking at London" on Saturday! I've also highlighted the content of a fascinating BBC2 programme about A Picture of London broadcast on Saturday night. If you're interested in how people portray London in paintings over the centuries then I recommend you catchup using the BBC iPlayer link in my post.
Artists and Art Blogs
1st Urban Sketchers Sketchcrawl
We learned from those coming to the Sketchcrawl that there are various other groups out there who are also drawing London - and we aim to connect up in some way.
- In particular, a lot of people who came to the sketchcrawl also follow Drawing London on Location group via the Meetup site. We'll definitely be looking at ways in which we can keep calendar communications going for our mutual benefit
- Personally, I very much enjoyed meeting up with illustrator James Oses (James Oses Illustrator) yesterday. He produced some absolutely wonderful drawings of a couple of the old newspaper buildings in Fleet Street.
- London Sketch Crawl was posted on Franvisions. Now I think Fran is called Francesca but I'll let her identify herself.
- Lis Watkins (Line and Wash) produced three great sketches - using line and wash - during a Morning on the London Sketchcrawl
- Yor can now see even more sketches and photos of the Sketchcrawl in the NEW Urban Sketchers London - Group Pool. Try this view
- Jan Harbon has been a featured artist on the website of Artists and Illustrators magazine
- Botanical Illustration is the art blog of the Denver Botanic Gardens' Botanical Art and Illustration Certificate Program. Last week they highlighted that the way in which the Botanical Illustration program memorializes Sydney Parkinson. You can read more about the famous botanical artists Sydney Parkinson on my website - About Sydney Parkinson - Botanical Artist
- Another group which might be helpful to those seeking opportunities for life drawing in London is LondonLifeDrawing - also on meetup.com
- I found the Journal and sketchbook Illustrations by Queen Victoria to be absolutely fascinating
Landscape
- I came across this blog Jamie Kapitain Artist by Canadian landscape artist Jamie Kapitain. He posts sketches and oil paintings on canvas.
- Michael Chesley Johnson spotted this post How deep is your space on the blog of the Oil Painters of America. It's about one of his very favourite painters, Charles Movalli, who studied with Emile Gruppe.
Portraiture
- People have commented in the past about the fact that the media restrictions of the BP Portrait Award means that types of portraiture which don't involve the use of acrylic or oil paint are lost from view. Colossal Art and Design has two posts which highlight the different ways people make portraiture these days
- Photographic Specimens by Michael Mapes on explains how Michael Mapes creates specimen boxes of dissected images and other items related to the individual pinned to create an image of the original photographic portrait. I think it's a new take on an old approach and the images are amazingly effective. I just wonder how long they will last.
The boxes house thousands of individual specimens consisting of dissected photographs and biographical DNA in the form of such things as hair, finger nails, scent, eye lashes, fingerprints, food, botanical elements, fabric swatches, makeup, dirt, handwriting samples and breath.Michael Mapes website
- New Thread & Nail Portraits by Pamela Campagna are also very effective.
- This is what the social media marketing maze looks like - one glance made my head hurt!
- I'm seeing quite a few references to Susan Mumford's Be Smart about Art Academy - it looks interesting.
- Alyson Stanfield (artbizblog) has 5 Painless Fixes for a More Potent Artist Statement which i've now included in my website How to write an Artist's Statement
- Robert Genn highlighted the fate of fashionable products such as black velvet art. For the uninitiated - this is what black velvet art looks like this on eBay. I think this must have been an American phenomenon - I don't remember seeing much of this in the UK.
- Etsy have changed their fee structure in response to a lot of requests - No Longer Pay for Quantity Up Front
Sellers will only be charged $0.20 USD to list or renew an item, regardless of quantity. Fees for additional quantities will only apply when an item sells.Art Competitions
Artists and Illustrators magazine is holding a competition to find the Artists of the Year 2012. The deadline is 16 August 2012 closing date, after which a shortlist of works will be drawn up by the expert panel and then readers will also have the chance to vote for their favourite works on the Artists & Illustrators website.
Rather than submitting an artwork in a specific category, we will be holding an open competition so you can send in artworks depicting any subject, in any medium: from botanical art to figurative works, abstract paintings to rural landscapesArt Exhibitions
- I've always preferred Da Vinci's drawings and cartoons to his paintings. You can see the Da Vinci anatomy drawings at Buckingham Palace - Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomist in The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace Friday (until Sunday, 7 October 2012). The Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomy app, which accompanies the exhibition, is now available to buy on the itunes app store.
Exhibitions in Europe
- I didn't quite understand the rationale behind the focus of this review "Britain's Greatest Artist" Abandons Photography of Hockney's exhibition "David Hockney, a Bigger Picture" at the the Guggenheim in Bilbao until September 30, 2012 - even if it is written by the Onwer/Editor of Outdoor Painting. Hockney has been plein air landscape painting for quite some years but this is mentioned in passing whereas the article places more emphasis on one aspect of Hockney's career from quite some time ago. In particular, the comment about his drawing perplexes me. Hockney won a prize for his drawing while at the RCA and was generally regarded as an outstanding student! Anybody who has actually seen the charcoal and iPad drawings in this exhibition would be in no doubt of this. For a more up to date perspective on Hockney see the other recent articles about this exhibition David Hockney RA: A Bigger Picture on my website About David Hockney - British Artist
Exhibitions in the USA
- Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective is now open at The Art Institute of Chicago
- A new exhibition of self-portraits by Andy Warhol Andy Warhol: Late Self-Portraits is now open at Graves Gallery in Sheffield until 1st December 2012. The works on display are from ARTIST ROOMS, a collection of modern and contemporary art donated by Anthony d’Offay to Tate and National Galleries of Scotland for the nation.
Andy Warhol was also the most photographed American artist of the 20th century. But what do the images he created of himself really tell us about him? Who was Warhol?
Art Education
Techies
- Carol Marine has produced a A Daily Paintworks Affordable ArtByte Tutorial - "Saturation and Color Mixing". It's getting good reviews. Byte-sized and affordable seems to be the way forward for online Art Tutorials. This one has Video and a Peer Critique.
- William Schneider OPA provides tips for Self Improvement on the on the blog of the Oil Painters of America.
- On Making A Mark Reviews I've highlighted and reviewed the Art in Transit: Handbook for Packing and Transporting Paintings
Art Studio and Supplies
- My friend Nicole Caulfield (Nicole Caulfield) drew my attention to this post 1963 Airstream Trailer Transformed into Beautiful Modern Studio by Bridgette Meinhold. My immediate reaction is that would make a great way of taking art tutorials and workshops on the road.
- Ester Roi highlights how she built a new way of organising her coloured pencils
- Google Insights suggest that The majority don’t understand search
and finally.....
There are new T shirts for painters in watercolour - I thought these by Carol Carter (Paintings) were rather good
There are new T shirts for painters in watercolour - I thought these by Carol Carter (Paintings) were rather good
No comments:
Post a Comment
COMMENTS HAVE BEEN CLOSED AGAIN because of too much spam.
My blog posts are always posted to my Making A Mark Facebook Page and you can comment there if you wish.
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.