A delayed Who's made a mark this week?

At a time of gift-giving Lisa Call posted this quotation on Facebook this week - and I noticed it particularly because it is the celebration of the efforts of others which was the original driving force behind the Making A Mark Awards

‎"The finest gift you can give anyone is encouragement. Yet, almost no one gets the encouragement they need to grow into their full potential. If everyone received the encouragement they need to grow, the genius in most everyone would blossom and the world would produce abundance beyond our wildest dreams."
Sidney Madwed

There's still time to nominate art blogs and artists for the Making A Mark Awards.  You can see which topics are covered by which post at the top of the column on the right hand side.  I explained how the awards work in Best Pictures and Best Art Blogs 2012 - a review

However - here are some quick links for NOMINATIONS

• Best Art (Still Life) on a blog in 2012
• Best Art (Natural World) on a blog in 2012
• Generating Art 2012
• Getting Out of the Studio 2012
• Learning about Art & the Art Business 2012
• The Home Front 2012

Also it gets a bit busy in December with preparations for Christmas and getting the Making A Mark Awards underway!  So this is a delayed Who's made a Mark - and it will also be the last one until early-mid January as I'll be taking a few days off to in the early New Year.

Skaters at the Ice Rink and the Natural History Museum
Urban Sketchers 3rd Sketchcrawl December 2012

© Katherine Tyrrell

Artists and Art Blogs

Yesterday RIP - artists who died in 2012 reviewed artists and those associated with art who died in 2012.  They include somebody who got me back into art after more than a decade of doing nothing.

Botanical Art

• Simple Color Note by Heeyoung Kim (Heeyoung Kim Botanical Art) demonstrates how she produces preliminary studies and colour notes

Drawing

• The Prince's Drawing School is:
• now on Facebook
• has its own blog The Prince's Drawing School Blog
• This is An interview with Sophie Charalambous Sophie was one of three Drawing Year Alumni who exhibited recently at the Prince's Drawing School’s ‘Pretty Gritty City‘ show.

Painting

• Those of you who like fantasy or have children will doubtless be going to see The Hobbit film over Christmas - however did you read my post earlier this month about J.R.R. Tolkien - the artist. 
• 2 years in jail for the Rothko vandal = £200,000 and 20 months to restore Rothko painting damaged in the Tate. 

The restoration will be long and difficult, not least because Rothko often used unusual materials, including eggs and glue, to create his works.

• The Year of the Boat is fascinating - 'it shows you the work of artist Rob Pointon produced whilst living on board a narrowboat and travelling the UK.  He seems to find some unusual vantage points
• It's always good to see when an artist creates art about something they feel strongly about. In this instance it's Artist and canoeist Lindsay Olson (Non-Linear Arts) whose creativity stems back to her canoeing in Cook County and developing an interest in urban waste water.  She's recently been getting press coverage for her task of creating wastewater-based art. Her kickstarter project is called Manufactured River - see Wastewater enthusiast makes an impression with art.  
• I did a double take when I looked at Strung Out by Jeanette Jobson on Illustrated Life and thought it was a classic washing drying in the wind painting - but it's not!
• Jana Bouc (Jana's Journal) painted 12 Things on 12-12-12 at 12:12 - which was rather neat!

Pastels and Pencils

• The Colored Pencil Society of America have announced what constitutes a legal coloured pencils for the purposes of their International Exhibition. 'Legal' coloured pencils for CPSA International Exhibition has the list, differentiates between what is legal, what is lightfast and what is suitable for fine artwork and also has an interesting discussion in the comments section about why and whether a list is needed in the first place
• The CPSA has also given its blog Colored Pencil Society of America News a makeover. It announces that Entries Are Now Being Accepted to CPSA 21st Annual International Exhibition and Convention 
• This is the 21st web exhibition 2012 by the International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS) and this page lists all the award winners.  First place went to Glide by Michele Poirier-Mozzone

Sculpture

• The furore caused by my local council trying to sell a Henry Moore statue which was gifted to the people of London - and originally located on a housing estate in Bethnal Green - continues.  Nearly 3,000 people have signed a petition to stop the sale and a number of prominent people spoke out against it. According to the Museums Association a Legal challenge threatens sale of Moore sculpture which may yet see the statue both return to London from the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and be on view for the public to see. The Minister has also stepped in and said the legal ownership must be resolved before it is sold.  I don't think he needs to worry on that score as the auction houses won't touch it without proper paperwork which establishes ownership.

Who painted this?

• "Who painted this #7 - was indeed Leonardo da Vinci's Study of a Woman's Hands - part of the Royal Collection.  Masses of you recognised it as being a drawing by Leonard da Vinci - so I've set you a much harder one for Who painted this? #8
• The Art Institute of Chicago is running a project called "Unwrap a Masterpiece on Facebook - it's much more obscure and much easier than my challenge - these are the rules! See https://www.facebook.com/artic

Art Business & Marketing

Art Fairs

• What to Wear to an Art Fair - presentation is all - but maybe not quite what you expected?

Branding

• The Art Newspaper has an excellent article on The first modern master of the art of branding which highlights how Picasso was way ahead of the likes of Damien Hirst in making himself into a brand

At some level he realised that merely being a prodigiously talented painter was not enough. At first, it was his art that fascinated the public, but later his wealth (his brand value) became the fascinator itself. Cleverly, he dumped his given-name of Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso. He became simply “Picasso”, a brilliant bit of brand management.

Copyright

• Own-It has a couple of articles about copyright and photographers which are relevant to artists:
• Not a lot of copyright cases regarding infringement of copyright actually reach court but this one did - see Own-it's article on the Derogatory Treatment of Photographs. 
• Who owns the copyright – the photographer or the client?
• Plus Artists' Remedies - copyright or contract?
• This is a case of a photographer catching up with a plagiarist - Miami Artist Busted For Stealing When Photographer Spots Copied Images On Sale at Scope
• The European Commission's consultation offers interested parties the chance to voice their opinions on the current functioning of the enforcement system of intellectual property rights. The deadline for responses is 30th March 2013.
• Contracts in China: Know before you go provides advice on correct procedures and offers top tips specific to the intellectual property frameworks in China. This fact sheet also contains a sample NDA (non-disclosure agreement).

Galleries

• CultureGrrl sums up the current situation re Gagosian following the defection of Damien Hirst - Gagosian Commotion: Cracks in the ÜberDealer’s Fortress?  It reproduces an email which is so grossly offensive I can't imagine any seller wanting to do business with him in future.  She contrasts his habits with those of Leo Castelli, known as the artist's dealer.

Art Collectors

• Artquest - which is a site I rate - has an article about How and why do collectors collect

Art Competitions

• This is my annual post about the BP Portrait Award 2013: Call for Entries. This year the first prize has been increased to £30,000. The Second Prize winner will receive £10,000 and the BP Young Artist Award winner £7,000.  Changes have also been made to arrangements for getting work to London and there will be no organised regional collections.
• I'm sure all of you have had those emails which invite you to become part of a publication which you've never heard of.  By and large they are mostly spammy and/or aspirational stuff by entrepreneurial individuals.  However Thames and Hudson is a reputable publisher in the UK and one which has a good range of art books in its portfolio.  Hence why it might be worth taking a look at their art competition which aims to find 100 Painters of Tomorrow.  You can find out more information from this download on their website 100paintersoftomorrow.com when it launches on 15 January 2013. Plus there's a Facebook page | Twitter. Closing date for applications  will be 15 March 2013

Art Education

Tips and techniques

• I came across the Will Kemp Art School - and here are some links to some of his lessons
• How to draw perspective for beginners
• The secret of good composition
• The Rule of Thirds in landscape painting (video)
• Stapleton Kearns (Stapleton Kearns) has tips about Sanding acrylic gesso
• Louise Sackett (Plein Speaking) has been indulging in that favourite pastime of looking back through old art magazines - Inspiration In Old Readings - promoted a rethinking of palette colours

Art Books and Magazines

• Marion Boddy Evans (painting.about.com) has come up with her personal choice of the best art books of 2012 
• This is the second edition of Inspired - a new and FREE digital magazine for artists created by F&W Media.  It includes an article on 12 artists' perspectives on painting snow.

Art Exhibitions

UK - Major Galleries

• This is my post about the Daphne Todd Exhibition at the Mall Galleries which finishes on Sunday
• Constable, Gainsborough, Turner and the Making of Landscape has opened at the Royal Academy of Arts and runs until 17 February 2013
• This is the article in the RA Magazine about this show
• This is an RA Magazine interview with Ken Howard - Ken Howard RA in conversation: Following in Turner’s footsteps - in which he talks about the process of making the paintings and travelling with them
• Ken Howard at 80 opens at Richard Green, London on 16th January 2013 - there are some nice paintings on the website.  
• Reigning Cats and Dogs (11 January - 15 March 2012) is a new exhibition in the New Year at the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol.  I'm very sure it will prove very popular.

Sketch of The Royal Institute of Oil Painters' Art Event Evening at the Mall Galleries
17th December 2012
pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook, 11" x 16"
© Katherine Tyrrell

UK - Art Societies

• I created two posts about the 125th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters
• this is a review of the exhibition - and who won the prizes Royal Institute of Oil Painters - Annual Exhibition 2012
• ROI Art Event Evening at the Mall Galleries is my post about the Art Event evening on Monday evening - and who won the First Prize which was £200 art materials from Winsor & Newton
• Previously I had written the Review: New English Art Club Annual Exhibition 2012 which I didn't find as interesting as usual.

North America

• Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado has just opened at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (closing 31st March 2013) 
• Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring is one of the paintings from the Mauritshuis collection which will be touring the United States in 2012.  You can see it in San Francisco, Atlanta and New York
• The Frick Museum in New York has a new virtual tour of the museum
• The Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven has been renovated - see a NYTimes slideshow A Redesigned Museum 
• Unprecedented Loan Show From the Prado to Open in Houston Paintings by Rubens, Titian, El Greco, Goya, Velázquez and others will go on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston on Sunday, in a blockbuster exhibition called "Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado'' that represents the first time the Madrid museum has lent such a large and important group of works to a museum in the United States.

Art Bloggers

• Robyn Sinclair (Have Dogs, Will Travel) is having joint exhibition with Peter Bartlett, Rebecca Ghezzi at Bastiano Contrario Restaurant-Gallery in Vallone, Cortona. It opened on 9th December and is up for three months.

Artist Studios

• This is my blog post about Andrew Wyeth's studio and first TV interview
• Check out the Studio of Daphne Todd and take a look at the 360 movie
• This Pinterest page about Artists Studios by Robert Genn's daughter is absolutely fascinating.  However as all too frequently happens on Pinterest, the problem is some of the photos are rights protected and the pins do NOT get back to the source.
• Don't forget to nominate those who have demonstrated a commitment to relaunching their studio in 2012 - click The Home Front to nominate artists whose efforts you'd like to celebrate

Techies

• There's been a major faux pas by Instagram this week.  Amid a lot of bickering between Instagram and Twitter, Instagram announced changes to its terms of service which clearly suggested that they would be able to sell people's photos for adverts - see Instagram wants right to sell photos. Big mistake - people started to kick up a fuss and/or leave in droves.  Instagram is now trying to find a way back - but will have damaged its brand reputation forever.  They've now reverted to the old terms - but some of those who dumped Instagram - like National Geographic, have not yet gone back.
• Google's Webmaster Central blog this week identified new tools and a small list of tips & tricks for those wanting to verify their website with Google - see Webmaster Tools verification strategies
• Mashable provides a guide to Facebook Rolls Out Privacy Shortcuts in Plain English

and finally......

Wishing you all a good and safe journey if you're travelling to be with friends or family over the Christmas festive season.  Mind the ice and don't drive through those fords!  (It's raining again in the UK!)

Ai Weiwei's Christmas screensaver: let his Door Gods protect your home
click the link to read the explanation and the comments

The Guardian has very kindly arranged Artists' Christmas screensavers 2012 - here's links to three:

• David Hockney's Christmas screensaver: a snowy log in Yorkshire
• Ai Weiwei's Christmas screensaver: let his Door Gods protect your home
• and Cory Arcangel's Christmas gif: relax, it's just the holidays which seemed like it might be restful - until I looked at it!

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