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Thursday, December 06, 2012

Best Pictures and Best Art Blogs 2012 - a review

Top Art 2012 - Best Pictures and Best Art Blogs
Welcome to the start of my SEVENTH END OF YEAR REVIEW of top art blogs, top artwork and the art economy!

This is my 'master plan' post which keeps me on track and focuses on the arrangements and timeline for nominations, voting and announcements relating to:
  • The MaM Award for Best Picture on an Art Blog - across 4 categories
  • The Making A Mark awards for Top Art Blogs - across 4 categories
Plus dates for my own personal end of year review of what happened to art in 2012 and what I've been getting up to.

UPDATE: Shortcuts to the posts inviting nominations for the various awards are posted at the top of the right hand column

The Making A Mark Art Blog Awards 2012 
- Best Picture on an Art Blog

Nominations

This Saturday 8th December I will post four separate posts on this blog.

These will invite you to nominate the BEST PICTURE in the different categories associated with the Making A Mark Art Blog Awards.  

These are as follows:
  • Best Portrait / Figures - portrait of a single person (or animal) or group or an artwork which is predominantly figures
  • Best Landscape / Interior - an artwork which is about a place - urban or rural, land or sea or sky, inside or out
  • Best Still Life - contrived or found, a narrative or an accident, large or small
  • Best Nature - botanical, natural history or wildlife
Do not write to me yet! To submit a nomination you will need to leave a comment on the relevant blog post once it's published on Saturday.

VOTING: The Making a Mark Prize for Best Picture on an Art Blog 2012

On Monday 24th December I will post the nominations received for the following Making A Mark Awards
  • The MaM Prize for best rendition of person or persons
  • The MaM Prize for the best portrayal of a place
  • The MaM Prize for best still life
  • The MaM Prize for best celebration of nature
The Short List for each category will be posted on Wednesday 26th December 

You will then be invited to vote - after Christmas - on the shortlist of candidates for best artwork in the different categories. 

The voting
  • starts on Wednesday 26th December
  • closes a minute after midnight on Sunday 30th December
The Best Picture in each category - plus the runners up - will then be announced on Monday 31 December 2012.

The Overall Winner of the Making A Mark Best Picture of 2012 on an Art Blog is also announced in the same blog post.
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The Making A Mark (MaM) Awards - Best Art Blogs 2012

Below you can see the previous winners of The Making A Mark Awards for the Best Art Blogs.  I'm sure you will agree that the names of those who have won these awards makes for an impressive line up!

My current thinking is I'll stick with the same awards as last year - but you never know......

Nominations:  I'll be publishing posts about the Making A Mark Awards for the Best Art Blogs in 2012 next week (week commencing 10th December) for each of the four categories and inviting nominations from you.

Announcements of Awards: I will then post the details of who has won each MaM Award will be posted in two posts on Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th December


GENERATING ART

 These awards relate to generating art either as an individual artist or as an art group - formal or informal.

The Painting a Day Stickability Shield. 

Previous winners include:

The Best Art Blog Project Virtual Challenge Cup

The Best Art Society Blog Prize (NEW in 2011)
..................................

GETTING OUT OF THE STUDIO
    This category of awards is all about people who draw and paint outside their studio - sometimes producing finished sketches or paintings plein air and sometimes producing material to develop further in the studio. They're also awards for people who place an emphasis on sharing.

    The Painting Plein Air Plus Prize. 

    This award has previously been won by:
    The Travels with a Sketchbook Trophy (which absorbs the 'Get Off Your Blogging Bottom and Sketch' Brass Plate)

    Previous winners have been:


    The Going Greener Gong

    For (artwork about nature / with a green theme)

    ...........................

    LEARNING ABOUT ART AND THE ART BUSINESS

     This particular section of the awards focuses on our personal development - whether that's via:
    • regular posts on a blog wholly focused on the development of artists 
    • a really good series of posts on a particular topic of major relevance to artists
    • a new art instruction book
    • a new book about the artist and the art business
    The FAQs and Answers Really Useful Medal

    For sharing useful information (for free)

    The Make Me Think Gong

    The previous winners of this 'gong' continue to provide many posts which are both interesting to read and also make me think. They are:
      The Best Book by an Art Blogger Blue Ribbon

      For the most helpful book written/produced by an art blogger
      .......................

      THE HOME FRONT

      The fourth section of theAnnual Making A Mark Awards relates to those matters relating to the practical aspects of our artistic art and/or make life at home with the artist that bit better.

      The Most Gorgeous Mouthwatering (MGM) Studio of the Year

      For the Most Improved Studio of the Year. It reflects the continuous efforts of many artists to improve our studio and working environments
      (Note: There needs to be a blog post documenting this improvement on the studio owner's blog.  Some people even have their very own dedicated art blogs for the process!)
      The Art Innovation of the Year Award (NEW in 2011)

      Awarded to highlight those artist bloggers who experiment and/or create and/or share innovations which help the practice of other artists. The sharing may be through:
      • the invention of a new tool or art medium to aid artists
      • testing and reviewing a new art medium or material
      • experiments with existing or new art media, materials or equipment and the creation of a new way of doing things
      This award was new in 2011.

      “The Moose” Award for the best animal in an illustrated blog - named after the first winner of this award - who was a cat! The animal can be domestic and around the home or wild. 

      Previous winners have been:

      Review of Blogging and Art in 2012

      Your reviews

      Do let me know if you're doing a review of 2012 as I'll be highlighting these in my "who's made a mark this week?"

      The Bigger Picture - End of Year review

      This is where I look back at 2012 and my predictions, comment on the impact of things nobody expected (now what were they?) and generally try and come up with some predictions for 2013.

      Before Christmas Eve, I'll be reviewing:
      • what happened in 2012 in terms of social media - including blogging - for artists and illustrators in 2012 
      • what happened to the art business in 2012
      Contributions and suggestions of things to highlight are most welcome and will be credited.

      My Personal Review

      At the beginning of January I'll write a post which looks backwards at 2012 and looks forwards to 2013.  

      Today I found out that I should get new lenses in my eyes at some point in the first three months of 2013 - so that's got to be good!


      on

      4 comments:

      1. Steve Kohr Fine ArtFriday, December 07, 2012

        Awesome Katherine - thanks for putting this all together!

        ReplyDelete
      2. Karen Johnston Daily PaintingsFriday, December 07, 2012

        Thanks Katherine...you do an awesome job!

        ReplyDelete
      3. UnknownFriday, December 14, 2012

        I´d nominate Paul J Hutchinson.

        http://postcardfrompuniho.blogspot.com.br/

        Small postcard and postage stamp sized paintings from New Zealand artist Paul Hutchinson

        ReplyDelete

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