Friday, November 30, 2012

Who painted this? #6

This is the sixth "Who Painted This"?

This week I've had to remove the signature which was a tad too explicit about who in fact painted this!  I have some clues worked out for if people have difficulty identifying this painter.  See below for the rules for how to submit your answer.

Who painted this? #6
How to Participate in "Who Painted This? #6"

The sub-theme of this challenge is about finding out more about artists and artworks - so it's actually as much about your enjoyment of the process as it is about the answer.

PLEASE make sure you read the rules before posting a comment - and ONLY post what you think is the answer on this blog.

THE RULES for participating in this challenge are as follows:

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Makingamark's Top 10 Fine Art Books in November 2012

I've reviewed the listings and updated Makingamark's Top 10 Fine Art Books and have identified the best art books in November 2012.

This is always a very long exercise  and one which I was getting bored doing earlier this year as the books had started to 'stick' and there were very few changes in the listings.

However, after people worked out how to "fix" Amazon listings,  it would appear that Amazon has changed its approach and it now seems likely I'll be back to doing an update on at least at least a quarterly if not monthly basis.

However right now - this is the one to inform your response to any questions from relatives or friends along the lines of "Would you like an art book for Christmas?"!

Here's the table of contents (with embedded links to the website)
  1. How this list is compiled each month
  1. *** TOP DRAWING BOOKS ***
  1. DRAWING - Top Rated Drawing Book in NOVEMBER 2012
  1. DRAWING - Best Selling Drawing Book in NOVEMBER 2012
  1. *** TOP PAINTING BOOKS ***
  1. PAINTING - Top Rated Painting Book in NOVEMBER 2012
  1. PAINTING - Best Selling Book in NOVEMBER 2012
  1. The Best Books about Painting
  1. ***TOP BOOKS ABOUT ARTISTS***
  1. ARTISTS: Top Rated Book in NOVEMBER 2012
  1. ARTISTS - Best Selling Book in NOVEMBER 2012
  1. *** TOP BOOKS ABOUT ART HISTORY ***
  1. ART HISTORY: Top Rated Book in NOVEMBER 2012
  1. ART HISTORY - Best Selling Book in NOVEMBER 2012
  1. *** TOP BUSINESS BOOKS FOR ARTISTS ***
  1. THE ART BUSINESS: Top Rated Art Book in NOVEMBER 2012
  1. THE ART BUSINESS - Best Selling Art Book in NOVEMBER 2012
Commentary November 2012

I've picked out a few of the book for comment below.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

London Art Exhibitions - Autumn/Winter 2012

These are the major art exhibitions at major art museums and galleries in London in late Autumn 2010 / Winter 2011.  The list is organised by art gallery and museum.  Within each venue the exhibitions are in date order and dates are highlighted.

The links in the names of the exhibitions are to their microsite pages (where available) of the relevant art gallery or museum where you can see them.

So - are you planning to go and see any of these exhibitions?

UK - Major Art Galleries and Museums

National Gallery
This looks at early and contemporary photography alongside paintings by Old Masters and reviews how the traditions of fine art have influenced photography.  This is the National gallery's first major exhibition of photography.
Richard Hamilton died, age 89 in 2011.  This is a retrospective exhibition of his late work and includes art never before seen in public.
Not a large exhibition - just 30 oil sketches from American collections plus one completed painting 'Niagara Falls, from the American Side' (1867) - but one which many plein air painters will want to try and visit!

Frederic Edwin Church - Niagara Falls, from the American Side - Google Art Project
Niagara Falls, from the American Side (1867) by Frederic Edwin Church 
[Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
oil on canvas, Height: 2,575 mm (101.38 in). Width: 2,273 mm (89.49 in)
The emphasis is on altarpieces and devotional drawings
National Portrait Gallery
Prince Henry and Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex
by Robert Peake, c. 1605
Copyright: The Royal Collection
Photo: Supplied by Royal Collection Trust /
© HM Queen Elizabeth II 2012
I've popped into this one and intend to go back as it looks absolutely fascinating. It's about the life of Henry, Prince of Wales (1594-1612) who died age 18.
60 portraits by contemporary photographers - read my Review: Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2012
I'm looking forward to this one as I've heard a lot about Man Ray but I think I've only ever seen his photographs in books. The first major museum retrospective of the influential and innovative artist’s photographic portraits.
The remarkable portraits created during George Catlin's five trips to the western United States.  He documented the look and dress of Native American people and their way of life.
Tate Modern

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

What is Archival Paper?

A woodcut of a papermaker
Many artists talk about working to archival standards.  But what is archival paper for artists?

This post is a review of
  • what causes paper to deteriorate
  • what is classed as archival paper - and what archival paper means for artists; 
  • how to acquire and maintain good quality fine art paper over time
What happens to paper over time?

Paper can deteriorate over time unless:
  • the production process eliminates matter which causes it to change
  • storage and handling sustain the quality of the original paper over time
You've probably all seen how newsprint discolours and becomes very brittle over time and crumbles if exposed to air and/or sunlight.

Other papers also deteriorate as well. For example, many of the pastel artworks by master pastellists in museums are shown in low lights. This is NOT because of the quality of the pigment in the pastels (although some may well be fugitive) so much as the fragility of the paper or ground used when the artwork was produced.  Similarly we can see watercolours in museum exhibitions where the paint is fine and the paper is in a less than pristine condition.

If you want your artwork to survive over time it's necessary to ensure that it's produced on paper which will not deteriorate over time.  However that's easier said than done.

So why does paper deteriorate?  Below are a list of things which affect the quality and condition of paper over time.

Things which are bad for paper quality and condition over time

Monday, November 26, 2012

26th November 2012 - Who's made a mark this week?

Marion Boddy Evans made me smile this week with her post about The 10 Personality Types at Art Workshops which are:
  1. The Fish Out of Water
  2. The Sunday Painter
  3. The Quiet Mouse
  4. The Sponge
  5. The Significant Artist's Significant Other
  6. The Art Club President
  7. The Serial Workshopper
  8. The Groupie
  9. The Overtly Arty Person
  10. The (Semi-) Professional
I'm thinking it might make a few other tutors smile - and for those yet to go on a painting holiday it gives you an insight into the sort of people who go.  I personally find the painting hats are always a bit of a giveaway!

Sketching in Mesta
© Katherine Tyrrell
I've got my fingers crossed that I'm coming to the end of the cold/flu bug and that I'll be able to get out and about again this week.  It's been two weeks so far.

Artists and Art Blogs

Drawing and Sketching
Landscape
Sketch by Vivien Blackburn
Pastels and Pencils
Painting
Sue Pownall painting her part of the mural
© Sue Pownall
  • Sue Pownall (Art of a Nomad) wrote to tell me about a recent artistic initiative in Oman where she lives. The Ghalya's Museum of Modern Art in Oman created a collaborative wall painting project. In the end, nearly 100 Omani and international artists participated in the project (for free) - including some with special needs - and have painted a a wall mural in celebration of HM Sultan Qaboos' 42 year reign. It was finally unveiled on Tuesday 20th November - see Wall Painting Unveiled - and will remain on display for 3 months. The museum plans to make this an annual event through choosing themes which are important to both Omanis and international visitors.   This is Sue's slideshow of the event
Photography
Printmaking
  • If you read back through the last few posts on Sherrie Yorks's Brush and Baren blog you'll be able to follow the process used in producing a linocut print - of a Magpie.  As always Sherrie ie very generous in her sharing and explanations of how she works.
Sculpture
Who painted this?
  • Congratulations to Adebanji Alade the winner of "Who painted this" #4. 13 people got the correct answer! The correct answer was that this was a painting of the Hawkesbury River by Australian landscape painter Arthur Streeton. It's 4 foot square and he painted it plein air!
  • This is my new website About Arthur Streeton - the Australian Landscape Painter who painted 'The purple noon's transparent might' - which was the painting of the Hawkesbury River, north west of Sydney which featured as the subject of Who Painted This? #4
  • This is Who painted this? #5 - remember to read the rules carefully.
Art Business & Marketing

The Art Gallery Business
Most do not realize that an art gallery is a business and that operating a business is a 24/7 commitment. Running an art gallery is hard work and it requires wearing many hats.
Generating Grants
Selling Art
Shipping Art
Support Groups for Artists
Art Collectors and the Art Economy
  • An article in the Economist Collectors, artists and lawyers asserts that fear of litigation is hobbling the art market.  [This one was delivered to me personally by "he who must not be bored while I sketch" - in his newly adopted role of personal clippings service! :) ]
Art Competitions
Art Exhibitions

Exhibitions in the UK


My sketch of Constable's "Boatbuilding near Flatford Mill"
11" x 16", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils
copyright Katherine Tyrrell
(see Sketching Constable in the V&A)
Letters by Gainsborough, Turner’s watercolour box and Constable’s palette will also be on display, bringing their artistic practice to life.
this is the third show this year to present Turner in company with other artists – it's as if he is no longer safe to be let out on his own.
Exhibitions in North America
Art Bloggers Exhibitions
  • Through the efforts of her hard-working husband, my friend Louise Sackett (Plein Speaking - Painting plein air in Wind Canyon) has finally achieved a personal goal - the grand opening of an exhibition in her very own studio - the 'Wind Canyon Studio' just outside Silver City in New Mexico. See Grand Opening! - Its Official.
Art Education

Tips and Techniques
Art History
Art Videos
Techies
and finally......

This is a rather good video of Royal Academician Anish Kapoor doing his bit for campaigning for human rights in China and the activities of Wei Wei - Gangnam for Freedom - Anish Kapoor and Friends (Official Video). 

Saturday, November 24, 2012

About Arthur Streeton - Australian Landscape Painter

For those of you who liked Arthur Streeton's painting of the Hawkesbury River which featured in Who painted this? #4, I've developed a new website about him.

About Arthur Streeton - Australian Landscape Painter includes all the links to information and images which I could find online last week and I have to say I'm very impressed.  It only goes to remind me what a northern hemisphere view of art history we seen to have at times.

Golden Summer, Eaglemont by Arthur Streeton (1889)
Collection: National Gallery of Australia
I thought I'd highlight one or two of the links I've found and included in the new website below:
Finally, here's a video about another of Streeton's paintings Golden Summer, Eaglemont (see  above painting) which is in the National Gallery of Australia. Click the link in the title to read more about this painting
Golden Summer, Eaglemont is one of the best-known paintings of the Heidelberg School and has long been recognised as an Australian masterpiece.


24 61325 - Arthur Streeton 'Golden summer, Eaglemont' 1889 from National Gallery of Australia on Vimeo.

Friday, November 23, 2012

Who painted this? #5

This is the fifth in my series of challenges about Who Painted This?

I've been writing about a new portraiture prize this week and this week's post is a portrait - but NOT a self-portrait. It is however half of a pair of drawings by two artists and I'll show you the other one when I give you the answer next week.

I have all my clues worked out for if nobody gets this.......

Who painted this? #5
Who Painted This? #5 - How to participate

I take an extremely dim view of people who do not read the rules and in doing so spoil the challenge for others.  As always the sub-theme of this challenge is about finding out more about artists and artworks ie it's about the process just as much as it's about the answer.

The rules for participating in this challenge are as follows:
  1. This is about using brains not technology - so please do not "cheat".  This is what you can and cannot do to search for the answer online
    • PLEASE do NOT use any of the "image matching" technology which exists (eg Chrome or Tineye) - that's just plain lazy and not the point of the challenge! My suspicions will be raised by those who appear to know the answer a bit too quickly and/or fail to identify themselves!
    • You can use search enquiries - using WORDS ONLY to search on Google or any other search engine or to interrogate databases of images
    • You can look at as many books as you like!
  2. Do NOT leave the answer as a comment on Facebook.  If you do I will delete the comment and you will NOT be declared the winner.
  3. Leave your answer as a comment on this blog. (IF CORRECT IT WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED until just before the next challenge) 
    • You can leave a guess - and if I don't publish the name you know you're on the right lines even if you don't yet have all the details
    • Howls of frustration can also be left while you try and work it out....... 
  4. In your comment, for #5, you must tell me ALL of the following:
    • the title of the artwork / the name of the artist who is the subject of the portrait
    • the name of the artist who drew the portrait
    • the date it was created
    • the media used
    • where it lives now
    • how you know all this eg how did you do your search 
  5. The Winner! The first identifiable person (ie no anonymous guesses) who, in my judgement, is the first person to get to the answer by fair means will get a mention and a link to their website or blog (or both) in:
    • my very popular weekly blog post "Who's made a mark this week?"
    • the post with next week's challenge.
Clues 

I will leave a clue - as a comment on the post - if you're not not getting anywhere in the first 24 hours.

Publication - and non-publication - of answers / comments 

Here's how the comments work:
  • All comments are moderated and I read ALL the comments prior to publication 
  • I do NOT publish the correct answers (in full or part) until a week later - assuming somebody actually gets the answer!  Which means if your comment is not published you know you could be on the right lines.  Plus it also means others can have the enjoyment of the challenge even if they are probably too late to win.
  • The comments are also published in the order they were left not the order that I open them - which means you can all see who got the right answer first and provided all the details.
  • Hence AFTER publication of this post and BEFORE the day of the publication of the next post (i.e. next Friday) I ONLY publish all the incorrect answers and all the howls of frustration! 
Who painted this? #4 - The Answer

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Self - a new £20,000 prize for self portraiture

The Royal Society of Portrait Painters today formally launched a brand new £20,000 prize called SELF - to be awarded for the best self-portrait submitted to their Annual Exhibition.

This post highlights who can enter what and how - within the content of the Call for Entries for the Annual Exhibition and the other prizes also on offer.

I'm also adding in the odd interesting self-portrait by non-members!

About SELF - a new prize for self-portraiture
The brand new SELF prize pushes the boundaries of self-representation in painting, printing and drawing, seeking submissions of original and adventurous self-portraits. Free from the constraints of commissioned portrait painting, the self-portrait does not have to flatter the sitter, pay a model, play slave to time or money, nor reflect a likeness in the literal sense; the artist is at liberty to push the boundaries and experiment.

Self-portrait as the Allegory of Painting (1638-9)
by Artemisia Gentileschi
SELF - Who can enter?

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Owen Bullet wins £5,000 ING Discerning Eye Prize

A rather impressive sandstone and oak sculpture Divided Self IV by Owen Bullet won the £5,000 ING Prize by ING Commercial Banking at the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition 2012.

In this post I highlight the prizewinners and comment on the selectors choices.

Divided Self IV - Owen Bullet - Winner ING Prize (£5,000)
ING Discerning Eye 2012

The ING Discerning Eye Exhibition continues at the Mall Galleries until Sunday 25th November. Entrance is free and the exhibition is open every day 10-5.
The ING Discerning Eye Exhibition is a show of small works independently selected by six prominent figures from different areas of the art world: two artists, two collectors and two critics. Work is selected from open submission and from artists invited by the individual selectors. Each selector's section is hung separately giving the impression of six small exhibitions within the whole.
I've been trying to get to see the exhibition since it opened but am still suffering from my dreadful bug so thought I better get on with writing up what I know about the prizewinners!

ING Prize

This would appear to be the first major prize won by Owen Bullet.  You can also Bullet's other work chosen for the exhibition - Bullet's Divided Self I, II, III, V and VI.  He was invited to exhibit by one of the Selectors Skye Sherwin writer and art critic, The Guardian.

Interestingly his work really stands out on the ING website as "a class act".

His website indicates a man who has been producing some very striking pieces of sculpture and exhibiting widely - particularly in the last three years.  You can also see more of his work on the website.  He makes some extraordinarily intelligent and elegant pieces - I absolutely love "About Turn" and Tail Spin and this from a woman who likes to buy original art in wood!
Owen's primary materials are wood, metal and stone which he crafts as individual elements, collectively developing their own sense of character. Through this process the works become animators of space or performers creating events in particular places.

Owen graduated from Camberwell College of Arts in 2003, and from the Royal College of Art in 2005. He has since undertaken residencies in the UK, France, Malta and Belize, and his work is included in both public and private collections in the UK and abroad. He lives and works in London.About - Owen Bullet

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

How to make an effective Facebook Interest List

This is the second post in my Guide to Facebook Interest Lists. 

As promised yesterday, today's post is about:
  • How to make a Facebook Interest List
  • How to make your Interest Lists work effectively for you
    • to give you the news you want to read
    • to help other people find your news
Facebook Suggestions for Art related Interest Lists you can subscribe to
Check out the numbers of subscribers!

If you've come direct to this post, you might like to check out yesterday's post which is all about A Guide to Facebook Interest Lists (Part 1) which covered:
  • Why learn about Interest Lists?
  • What determines what news we get to read?
  • What is a Facebook Interest List?
  • Why use a Facebook Interest List?

Remember - If you make your very own Facebook List you get 100% of the posts and not just the 10% that Facebook decide you can look at.

Plus if you encourage people to include your Facebook Page in their list they also see all the content you produce - better make sure it's good!

The Facebook Guide to Lists

You've got three headings to explore in the Connecting part of their Help section.  I've got an edited version below
How to make a Facebook Interest List

Monday, November 19, 2012

A Guide to Facebook Interest Lists (Part 1)

Are you conscious you're not seeing all the content you want to see on Facebook?
Maybe you're fed up with seeing rather too much of what you don't want to see?

This post looks at how you can use Facebook Interest Lists to make it very easy to access all the content you want to read.
  • In Part 1 I'm sharing what I've found out about news feeds and falling traffic and why Interest Lists are a good idea. 
  • Part 2 tomorrow looks at how to make an effective Interest List.
How your favourites get into your Interest Lists
Unison Pastels in the Pastel Drawers in L. Cornellisen & Son © Katherine Tyrrell
Unison Pastels (the manufacturer) are in two of my Interest Lists
(1) 'Art Materials & Supplies' and (2) 'Pastels and Pencils'
However L. Cornellisen & Son (art shop) is in neither as it does NOT yet have a Facebook Page
(even if it has finally developed online ordering)
Some of the organisations in my 
Art Materials & Supplies Interest List
PLUS - Today I'm also sharing some of my Facebook Interest Lists which are relevant to artists and have a public status.

Take a look and check them out (you need to be signed into Facebook). Do please bear in mind I'm still developing these!
I'm also developing one about artists......

To be honest I'm not sure I've got all the settings rights as yet but I'm sure you'll give me feedback if there's anything not working correctly!

Why learn about Interest Lists?

Two simple reasons - First, they enable all of us to determine better what we see and read relating to what interests us.  

Second, if we encourage other people to use Interest Lists too - and to include our Facebook account or Page - then our content might be read by more people and we might get more traffic to our websites/blogs.

18th November 2012 - Who's made a mark this week?

Last summer I spent nearly three weeks sketching the scenery - and the meals - in Provence (see Four Go Painting In Provence and my sketch below)

Four days ago, Julian Merrow Smith (Postcard from Provence) announced to his mailing list that next summer there are going to be Postcard from Provence Painting Holidays.  They're not cheap but dates for the two courses already announced are already fully subscribed and consideration is now being given to adding more dates.  So if you want to be painting the Vaucluse on a postcard next summer you need to be on the mailing list if you're not already!

The view from Crillon Le Brave
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook, 11" x 16"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell
I've had a really dreadful head cold all week so have not been reading as much as usual.  Mercifully the cold is finally coming to an end which is good as I'm totally lemsipped out!

Artists and Art Blogs

Drawing
Painting
At the Cafe (1887-1889) - Childe Hassam
38.1 cm (15 in.), Width: 45.72 cm (18 in.) pastel on paper
Pastels and Coloured Pencils
  • Childe Hassam used pastels (see Who Painted This? #3 and above) but he also used coloured pencils for sketching! See yesterday's post.  Suddenly all becomes clear as to why I like this man!
  • Vivien Blackburn's artwork is behind the flyer for the new Derwent Art Prize and last week she was demonstrating at the Art Materials fare.  Demonstrating for Derwent at the NEC. Vivien is coming back to us after some very necessary time out related to the illness and then passing of her husband last month. 
  • Click the link if you've not come across the CPSA Facebook Page before.
Who Painted This?
  • The winner of Who Painted This #3 was Sue Smith (Sue's Sketch Blog). She did it the correct (and hard) way and says she learned a lot about American Impressionists en route to the right answer.
  • Who painted this #4 was posted on Friday afternoon and I'm now holding a number of comments which correctly identify the artist.  I won't be publishing them until Friday so you still have time to see if you can guess it.  I'm loving the explanations I'm getting for why people got it!  For those who haven't got it yet, it's worth noting that it was painted plein air without an easel!
Art Books

Saturday, November 17, 2012

About Childe Hassam

In order to learn more About Childe Hassam - American Impressionist Painter, I've created a resource site for myself and all those people who'd not heard of him before (see the answer to "Who Painted This? #3" at the end of Who painted this? #4)

Here are a few more of his paintings

The Avenue in the Rain Frederick Childe Hassam 1917
"The Avenue in the Rain" by Childe Hassam
oil on canvas 42 in. x 22.25 in.
Courtesy of The White House Collection, The White House, Washington, D. C.
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

This one is owned by the White House and now hangs in the Oval Office following President Obama's replacement of Texas landscapes with rather more traditional White House paintings.

Here's an interesting blog post by Lisa Confetti about the painting patriotic masterpiece hanging in THE OVAL OFFICE
The man who will go down to posterity is the man who paints his own time and the scenes of everyday life around him. Childe Hassam
While I like his urban landscapes a lot, I particularly like the series of paintings of the Isles of Schoals (off New Hampshire).

Childe Hassam - The South Ledges, Appledore - Google Art Project (576052)
The South Ledges, Appledore by Childe Hassam 
oil on canvas, 87cm (34.25 in). Width: 91.8cm (36.13 in)
[Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

I'm also naturally pleased to find out that he's a man who used to sketch using coloured pencils!

The Harbor of a Thousand Masts, Gloucester
Frederick Childe Hassam - 1919
25.4 cm (10 in.), Width: 26.67 cm (10.5 in.), Drawing - pencil and pastel on papar
You can view 583 artworks by Childe Hassam on The Atheneum website

So - had you heard of him before?  Will you be investigating him more now you know he's an American Impressionist painter?

Friday, November 16, 2012

Who painted this #4

This is the fourth Who Painted This?.

The sub-theme of this challenge is about finding out more about artists or paintings. I think I'd only come across this artist a couple of times before I found this painting. Make of that what you will.

Who Painted This? #4
Who Painted This? #4 - How to participate

If you want to play the game: the rules are:
  1. You need to leave your answer as a comment on this blog.  Howls of frustration can also be left while you try and work it out.......
  2. In your comment, you must tell me ALL of the following:
    • the title of the artwork
    • the name of the artist
    • the date it was created
    • the media used
    • where it lives now
    • how you know all this eg how did you do your search (note 3 below)
  3. This is about using brains not technology - so please do not "cheat".
    • PLEASE do NOT use any of the "image matching" technology which exists (eg Chrome or Tineye) - that's just plain lazy! My suspicions will be raised by those who appear to know the answer a bit too quickly!
    • You may use Google or any other search engine to search on WORDS in databases of images. 
  4. If you're not getting anywhere in the first 24 hours I'll leave a clue as a comment on the post.
The person who in my judgement is the first person to get to the answer by fair means will get a mention in my very popular weekly blog post - along with a link to their website or blog or both.

Publication of comments

Here's how the comments work:

  • All comments are moderated and I read ALL the comments prior to publication
  • After publication of this post I ONLY publish all the incorrect answers and all the howls of frustration! 
  • However I do NOT publish the comments by all those who name the artist correctly and/or provide ALL the correct details until a week later - assuming somebody actually gets the answer!  The comments are also published in the order they were left not the order that I open them.  So if your comment is not published you know you could be on the right lines.

Who painted this? #3 - The Answer

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Georgia O'Keeffe - 125th Birthday

Today is Georgia O'Keeffe's 125th Birthday - so to celebrate here's a Pandora's box - all about Georgia.  If you like her work I'd suggest you do not open until you have some time on your hands!

O'Keeffe-(hands)
"Hands" by Alfred Stieglitz [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

All About Georgia

Her Estate keeps very careful control of her images so I have none to post here.

However I do have a lot of licensed images on my website About Georgia O'Keeffe - American Painter

Below is the table of contents of what this site covers - and there's a LOT below each of these headings.  I've been building and improving this website ever since my 2007 project to research her work!

I love this quotation of what Georgia had to say to those people who developed their own ideas about what her flower paintings were about.
Nobody sees a flower, really, it is so small. We haven't time - and to see takes time like to have a friend takes time.

If I could paint the flower exactly as I see it no one would see what I see because I would paint it small like the flower is small.

So I said to myself - I'll paint what I see - what the flower is to me but I'll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it - I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers.

...Well, I made you take time to look at what I saw and when you took time to really notice my flower you hung all your own associations with flowers on my flower and you write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see of the flower - and I don't.

Georgia O'Keeffe
Here's an Architectural Digest slideshow of photos of her home at Abiquiu in new Mexico.

And here's a video of Georgia O'Keeffe talking about her work



Georgia O'Keeffe was born on 15 November 1887 in a farmhouse near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. 

She died, age 98 in Santa Fe on March 6, 1986. Her ashes were taken up to the top of the Pedernal and as they were scattered to the wind she returned to her beloved "faraway".

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

10 x 10 Drawing the West End of London

I only found out about 10 x 10 a couple of days ago.  This is a project which enables 100 (ie 10 x 10) of the world's best artists, architects and designers to draw the City of London in order to raise funds for Article 25 - a charity which promotes shelter solutions for those without homes
The 25th article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts that adequate shelter and housing are fundamental to our human rights.

Article 25, the UK organisation, works to enable this right by building solutions to global problems.

Article 25 is an operational UK registered charity that designs, builds, and manages projects to provide better shelter wherever there is disaster, poverty, or need.
This is the second year that they have drawn London - this year they've focused on the West End - which was split into a 10 x 10 grid of squares. (Last year they drew the City of London)
The project focuses on a different area of the city each year, with a grid of 100 squares laid over the chosen area. The resulting squares are then allocated to the participants who create an original artwork based on the buildings and public space within it. These pieces of artwork form a collective snapshot of London from one-hundred personal view points, forming a unique showcase of British architectural heritage.
The Drawing Weekend - which happened this year on 15th September - is when the drawing takes place.  Here's a video of what happened.



These are the participants - I spotted two artists who I recently featured in 'Built" : recording and responding to the construction process - Patricia Cain, ("Soho Construction") Jeanette Barnes (No. 66 Lincoln’s Inn Field).

Jeanette Barnes drawing 66 Lincolns Inn Fields and cranes
Others include
They've been having a public exhibition of the drawings at Somerset House which finished today. I had intended to go and see this but unfortunately missed as my (very wonky) right foot started misbehaving in a major way this morning and it was a struggle just to stay on my feet without falling over!

However you can still see:
PS I was rather pleased to see that some of the people taking part tend to draw in a way which is not too dissimilar to Urban Sketchers (and Urban Sketchers London)!