29th April 2013 - Who's made a mark this week?

Zea Mays © Sharon Fox

The images in the exhibition this week are from the recent Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists.  There were so many blog posts with that and the RHS show at the same time that I decided in the end to leave my usual 'these are the ones which caught my eye' post until later - and am instead incorporating them into this post (and have more to post!)

Interestingly I subsequently learned that one of these was by Sharon Fox, a student of Fiona Strickland GM SBA AMBA.  Then I found out that Fiona had eight students last year and six had work accepted into the show.  So if you're an aspiring botanical artist living in Scotland you might want to find out about Fiona's classes!

This coming week I'm in hospital having a permanent lens replacement in my left eye which should begin to resolve the current problems with my eyes.  I'm in and out the same day (Thursday 2nd May) despite having a general rather than local anaesthetic.   However I'm not too sure what my vision will be like in the immediate aftermath and how that will affect computer work.

I've then got the next one on the 23rd May and then hopefully I'll have the prescriptions for my new glasses for close work by the beginning of July.

I'm very much looking forward to getting new eyes!

However I'm not looking forward to the eye drops!  I've been shown how to do it but am still fighting my huge eye phobia.  Tips for getting drops into my eyes post-op are very welcome.  So far I've managed to get as far as taking the top off my practice bottle of stuff for dry eyes and actually looking at what I need to do.......

Artists and Art Blogs

Artists on television

• "Rain, Steam and Speed" by JMW Turner - was featured last night at the end of a really good programme on BBC4 which looked at how Turner recorded the technology and activities of the Industrial revolution in the UK. This is the link to it on iPLayer - The Genius of Turner - Painting the Industrial Revolution (available until 9:59PM Fri, 3 May 2013)

Artists at the Theatre

• Jonathan Jones (the Guardian) asks and answers his own question Is Ai Weiwei still an artist? - given the fact he's now a book, a play and a film as well.

Botanical & Natural History Art

• I love the idea of edible botanical illustration - as exemplified in Lizzie Harper's post Edible Botanical Illustration – Eat what you draw

Drawing and Sketching

My last sketch without glasses and with dodgy eyes - you can read more about my recent visit to Sissinghurst - and see a photo of me sketching in Sissinghurst - from 3rd hottest to 2nd coldest! and The Rose Garden at Sissinghurst - late Spring

The Rose Garden at Sissinghurst Castle Garden (22 April 2013)
11" x 16", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Painting

I recently read Lori McNee's post about When My Serious Painting Became A Joke On Facebook.  I liked the quote

“To succeed in life you needthree things. A wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone.”
Reba McEntire

Plein Air

• Robin Purcell's painting "Curve of the Earth " won a Honorable Mention Prize in the 2nd Annual Plein Air Salon Competition
• James Gurney (Gurney Journey) has highlighted Marc Dellesios one minute videos 
• My friend Louise Sackett (Plein Speaking )came back from the Plein Air Convention in Monterey having spent too much money and an account of what it was like Monterey Plein Air Convention 2013

Portraiture

• Here's a slideshow of the Readers' Art submissions to the Guardian's Readers' Art competition about self-portraits

Who painted this?

• There's a mantrap in Who painted this? #26. It's snaring about 40% of the people who have responded so far
• Congratulations to Alastair Fraser who was the first person to get the correct answer to 
  Who painted this? #25

Art Education

• Stapleton Kearns provides an education about closed corner frames in A visit to the frame makers.  This is PS Art Frames of Rhode Island who feature in his post and who produce custom art frames for fine art.

Art Competitions

• Turner Prize 2013: Tate Britain announced the Turner Prize 2013 shortlist. The four artists shortlisted for the Turner Prize 2013 were announced by Tate Britain this week. David Shrigley was a bit of a surprise. In recent years the exhibition has been travelling and for 2013, the prize exhibition will be on show in Derry-Londonderry starting on 23 October 2013

• The Telegraph has a slideshow Turner Prize 2013: nominees in pictures
• The Guardian takes the view that Turner prize 2013: a shortlist strong on wit and charm
• The Independent commented on David Shrigley’s fine line between art and fun nominated for Turner Prize

Self Portrait with Lace Collar

© Sophie Ploeg

• BP Portrait Award: Here's my post about the BP Portrait Award 2013 - The Shortlist.  Congratulations to Sophie Ploeg on having her self portrait with lace collar  selected for the exhibition.  It was also very interesting for me because I had discussions with Sophie earlier this year about possible options for her entry to the competition.  The exhibition runs from 20 June - 15 September 2013, in the Wolfson Gallery (Admission Free)

• Sunday Times Watercolour Competition - the call for entries for the 26th annual competition has gone out and here's my annual overview of the criteria for artwork and arrangements for the call for entries - Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2013 - Call for Entries

• Jerwood Drawing Prize 2013: Here's my overview of the Call for Entries - Jerwood Drawing Prize 2013: Call for Entries

Art Exhibitions

Major Art Galleries & Museums - Future Exhibitions

• Last Sunday I published a summary of the major Art Exhibitions in London: April - June 2013
• News this week that Peter Doig is to have have a major retrospective exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh this summer according to an article in The Guardian (Peter Doig: a free spirit captured in Scottish National Gallery's retrospective). No Foreign Lands: Peter Doig is at the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, from 3 August to 3 November.
• The National Portrait Gallery has announced that it's having an exhibition of Laura Knight Portraits 11 July - 13 October 2013.  You can read more about Dame Laura Knight on my website About Dame Laura Knight - British Artist. Laura Knight (1877-1970) was the first woman artist to be made a Dame of the British Empire.
• 
  
• The Shirley Sherwood Gallery in Kew Gardens is gearing up for a new exhibition - Rory McEwen The Colours of Reality.  We're lucky to get accounts of
• what's happening via Jessica Shepherd's blog Inky Leaves - see Changes at the Gallery.  I gather  will be quite something.
• Impressions from somebody who saw his work a long time ago - this post by Coral Guest is about her memories of an exhibition some 40 years ago - The Rory McEwen Retrospective and the Legacy Exhibition at Kew

Art Societies

A corner I liked in the SBA Annual Exhibition

I've been having a bit of a botanical art bonanza of late.  Here's my catch-up for anybody who missed it.

• RHS Botanical Art Show: These are:
• my Interviews with RHS Botanical Art Gold Medal Winners
• plus their Ten Top Tips for winning an RHS Gold Medal for Botanical Art.
• Society of Botanical Artists:  
• These are the Prizewinners at Society of Botanical Artists Annual Exhibition 2013
• These are the Other prizewinners at the SBA Annual Exhibition 2013
• Sandra Wall Armitage SBA has been elected as the new President of the Society of Botanical Artists.  She was previously the council member for the Society of Botanical Artists responsible for PR & marketing and is also a Director of the retail arm of the Society

Slipper Orchid by Lynne Proudfoot

Here's the rest of the news about art society exhibitions

• The National Watercolour Society in the USA has published its call for entries and 2013 Annual Prospectus Web
• The Royal West of England Academy has an exhibition about drawing - Drawn continues until 2nd June

Drawn aims to raise the profile of drawing, presenting it as both an autonomous discipline and an interdisciplinary tool.

• The Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters opens at the Mall galleries on Thursday 9th May and closes on the 24th May at 1pm.  Announcements about prizewinners will be made on the 8th and it will be interesting to see who has won the new £20,000 Self Portrait Prize
• I'm pleased to see I shall be seeing  Astrid Volquardsen's pastel work at the Annual Exhibition of the Pastel Society in June 

Art Business & Marketing

The Artist Statement (and writing online)

• I came across an Infographic which I thought seemed very helpful to those developing or revisiting their artist statements. Is my artist statement done? has a pathway approach to  working out whether or not your Artist Statement is both completed and accessible.
• I'd like to suggest that Alyson Stanfield's post Finish Your Writing on Art Biz Blog is also very pertinent to those finalising any sort of statement about their artwork or art career.
• At the same time Artpromotivate articulates the various ways in which, in its opinion,  artists can write online and succeed in creating the sort of situation which can see their art career go down the tubes.  Make sure you read  How Artists Can Ruin their Reputation Online and then read the comments.

Commissions

• Stapleton Kearns advises about commissions - Negotiating commissions for paintings - and is adamant that you must get half up front and that this is always non-refundable.

Communication & Marketing

• For all those marketing their art via Facebook, you may well want to have a read of this Guardian article Facebook loses millions of users as biggest markets peak.  The Guardian followed up with an interactive post Facebook's user exodus: our readers tell us what's wrong

Getting Funding for your Art / a Gallery / an Exhibition 

Artquest provides five audio guides to artists paying their bills and getting their artwork together

• Audio Self Assembly: Negotiation, talk by Emily Speed - and this is the associated blog post The Fine Art of Negotiation
• Audio Self Assembly: Crowdfunding talk by Marc Wilson
• Audio Self Assembly (Fundraising): by Artquest
• Audio Self Assembly (Fundraising): talk by Hannah Liley
• Audio Self Assembly: Print on Demand, talk by AND Publishing

Displaying your Art

• The Arts Business Institute provides advice about 6 Booth Display Mistakes that Can Ruin Your Show

Art Economy 

• Wouldn't it be nice to have enough money to make it really worthwhile considering the arguments and counterpoints expressed in ArtInfo's Does Investing in Art Make Sense? A Look at Both Sides of the Debate

Art Materials

• Vivien Blackburn (paintings prints and stuff) has been road testing a new sketchbook and writes succinctly about Using the new Stillman and Birn Zeta sketchbook and it is now available in the UK!

Techies

• Try putting https://www.facebook.com/messages/other/ in your URL line and see what comes up. You may find a lot of messages you didn't know you'd received! Why do some messages end up in this "other" folder? I've no idea! Thanks to Cathy Johnson for the tip.

and finally.......

I came across a post which highlighted this chap - who has been drawing pictures on his kids sandwiches for years and years - and of course photographing them all! Now  he's got  1,111 photos, 1 video and 524,793 views

Plus a feature on the Flickr blog - Dad illustrates kids sandwich bags with imaginative drawings
and a feature on the Sharpie blog - David Laferriere

So there you go - fame starts with a Sharpie marker and a plastic bag...................