Sunday, October 14, 2012

14th October 2012 - Who's made a mark this week?

Killing Time by David Poxon
watercolour, 18"x27"
Finalist at the Shanghai Watercolour Biennial
© David Poxon
This week I'm starting with a watercolour competition which hasn't been mentioned on this blog before.

Artists from 62 countries this year entered watercolour paintings for the The Shanghai Zhujiajiao International Watercolour Biennial Exhibition - the only international watercolour competition held in China.  The aim of the competition is to develop the art of watercolour painting in China by bringing them into contact with the finest watercolour artists from around the world - and their paintings!

The artists who painted the 15 paintings with the most votes are awarded a cash prize of CNY30,000 (around US$4,700) plus a return economy class airfare to Shanghai to attend the opening accommodation and meals to enable them to attend the opening of the exhibition in November.  The winner of the competition gets a full set of 232 Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolors Collection worth nearly $4k.

David Poxon RI NWS this week sent me a list of award winners - and he's one of them. All except Charles Reid will be attending the opening celebration in November.
  • Anna Ivanova Russia
  • Andrew Kish III USA
  • Alexander Kryushyn Ukarine
  • Dean Mitchell USA check out the website - I've not seen one with a home page like that before!  You can watch a documentary about him and his art - I love his paintings of people - he reminds me of Wyeth
  • Ross Paterson Australia
  • David Poxon UK  David was elected as a signature member of the prestigious National Watercolor Society of America (NWS) in August
  • Charles Reid USA  I'm a long term big time fan of this fabulous painter
  • Joseph Zbukvic Australia - take a look at his studio!  If you look at the notes below his paintings you'll see he's providing tips on how to produce work like this.
The links in the names above are to the websites of these master watercolourists - definitely worth taking a look at!

Judging Experience in Shanghai 2012 is a report by Alvaro Castagnet about the judges and the judging process for this important competition.  He finishes with some interesting observations on the differences between Chinese and other watercolour artists.  In summary these are:

  • Chinese artists take a more calligraphic approach to handling brushes and making marks
  • Chinese watercolours focus more on the theme and meaning behind the subject. 
  • There is more personality in overseas watercolour paintings. Chinese watercolourists are more focused on showcasing techniques and expressing the deeper meaning behind the subject.
  • Most Chinese artists have a job in an art-related field and do not rely in sales to make a living.

Artists and Art Blogs

Botanical Art
Coloured Pencils
  • Congrats to all those who won the top prizes for best in the Annual UKCPS Open International Exhibition - for both coloured pencils and mixed media respectively.  You can read the list - and my observations about the exhibition - in my Review - UKCPS 11th Annual Open International Exhibition 2012
  • Ester Roi (Ester Roi Fine Art) has started to produce oversized giclee prints from works in coloured pencil - see Introducing Oversized Limited Edition Giclees.  Ester for me is one of a few coloured pencil artists (and inventors) who have a proper appreciation of how to bring coloured pencil art (and inventions!) to the market in a way which gets it taken seriously.  It's one thing to produce it, it's quite another to get it sold!
Drawing and Sketching

Yews at Hampton Court Palace, October 2012
pen and ink and coloured pencils, 8" x 10" in Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell
Landscapes
Painting
  • I came across an artist who's new to me this week whose paintings I really like.  Michael Bennallack Hart is an English artist who paints landscapes in oil and pastels - most are of landscapes in the southern counties.  American artists might want to take a look at his gallery of American paintings - which mostly seem to be about California. Ditto those living in Italy might want to look at the two galleries of Italian Paintings I and II. He triggered something in my head about what I've had in mind to do with my work.
  • An article in the Daily Mail Revealed: The real-life muses Norman Rockwell.  The modern day equivalent who springs to mind is James Gurney (Gurney Journey)...
  • ...who has written a very helpful blog post about Painting in Bright Light
Art Business & Marketing

Marketing art via Facebook
Posting photos rather than status updates has been good practice for a long time...This means that if you have a good photo or video with a story, you should consider posting the photo, with the link in the caption, rather than just posting the link in a status update.
Other art business
Art Economy and Art Collectors
Most reported that art fairs alone account for an average of 60 percent — and as much as 90 percent — of their total business.
The Menu for the Awards Dinner
Art Competitions
  • I had a great time at the Awards Dinner for the Threadneedle Prize on Wednesday night and saw a man win the top award - the £30,000 Threadneedle Prize - for the first time in five years for an artwork where key ingredients were coffee and tea.  See Threadneedle Prize 2012 - the Award Winners.  Interestingly the winners of both the Threadneedle Prize and the People's Choice Awards were sculptures!
Art Exhibitions

Exhibitions in the UK
David Hockney’s entire print series A Rake’s Progress (1961-1963) joins William Hogarth’s eighteenth-century series of the same title, which has been in the Whitworth’s collection since 1926. To celebrate the coming together of these great works, this exhibition showcases both versions, unravelling their tales of transformation, youth, sexual discovery and unrequited love.
Art Society Exhibitions in the UK
Art Education

Tutor vacancy
  • The London Art College has a vacancy for a a tutor to take over the running of their well established and very popular Pet Portrait Diploma distance learning art course.  This is likely to be of interest to those UK artists who have considerable experience in Pet Portraits and Wildlife / Animal art and are familiar with a variety of mediums - specifically pencil, pastel, acrylics, oils and coloured pencils.You can find more details in their blog post Tutor required.  Pencil artist Melanie Phillips has fulfilled this role in recent years and is happy to talk with those interested in the position. 
Art History
Art Videos
Techies
Google's fourth update in two weeks. To sum up the changes, first was Panda Update 20 on September 27th, then the EMD Update 1 on September 28th, next the Penguin Update 3 on October 5th, and now Top Heavy 2 has rolled out, as of October 9th.
  • You don't need a Google account to comment on this blog but it can be a good idea to get an OpenID - check out the website for how to get an openID
and finally......
I was greatly amused by this article which comprises 20 photos of artists and their animals.

2 comments:

  1. wow what a round up - much appreciated. would love to include the next Spirited Bodies event on 20 Oct at Battersea Arts Centre. know from reading previous blog entries that life drawing is hard for you, so that Spirited Bodies wouldn't work for you necessarily, but maybe some of the others who read yr blog? Spirited Bodies is multi-model life art, we've got 66 people signed up to model on 20 Oct, from 11 am to 5 pm, age range of models 19 to 73, all shapes and sizes, tickets available from Battersea Arts Centre, www.bac.org.uk. the models are all participating for free, most have never modelled for artists before. Spirited Bodies is organised by two experienced life models, myself and Esther Bunting, creating a rare opportunity for artists to work from more than one figure at a time. we work with the models to create scenarios and connected poses, connected both energetically and physically. some amazing work has been done at previous events, wonderful collage, watercolours, inks, charcoal etc. this one is part of The Big Draw. i'd love to tell you more about it, please do give me a call or an email. Lucy_saunders@hotmail.com, tel: 0777 55 66 074, www.spiritedbodies.com is Esther's blog supporting the events.

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  2. I was full of anticipation about all that I'd see in this week's post and I was right to be. Michael Bennallack Hart's work is very interesting, with a wide stylistic range. Thanks for mentioning my Iceland adventures and sketches. Persistence did, indeed, pay off!
    I would dearly love being able to go to Hampton Court Palace and Gardens sketching with you. Our results would be so different and so interesting to compare!

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