15th July 2013 - Who's made a mark this week?

I'm still trying to find a way of making this post regular and interesting and at the same time avoiding it wiping out me and my Sunday every single week.

I think the model I'm now going to try is one which involves a greater integration with my public facing Making A Mark Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/makingamark2) - for those on Facebook.

Making A Mark - Official Facebook Page

That way I have a tool to help me construct a post plus it allows me to see which type of posts interest the people who follow me - which is good feedback to have.  So:

• I already list  every blog post on my Facebook Page - so it's a bit like having a feedreader(!) - and will continue to do this.  As with the feed for my blog to read the post you need to click the link.
• I also frequently share posts by organisations or artists I follow on Facebook
• Plus I also share links to things I've spotted which interest me

By basing "who's made a mark this week" in part on the public Facebook posts it also enables me to give access to extra info to all those not on Facebook.

Plus I'll carry on with posts which attract my attention from wherever!

One more thing - as the good summer weather has arrived my man and I will be getting about and about more - which means lightweight posting so long as the good weather lasts. (I probably shouldn't have said that - there will be an inevitable crack of thunder any minute.....)

Artists & Art Blogs

Artists Psychology 

• Last year I had a poll to try and identify whether artists were introverts or extroverts.  This resulted in this poll about the results - Artists are Introverts! Discuss....  Last week I came across an infographic which struck me as being particularly relevant to those people who are energised by and happy with working on their own in a studio.  Or rather it's relevant to the families of those who want to be alone - in their studio.  See my post How to live with Introverts and the original Infographic Guide to about How to live with Introverts
• Art Personality Disorder is a psychological disorder discovered by Julie Podstolski (Julie Podstolski). It highlights the good sense of training our partners in what to say!

Botanical Art and Artists

• The Hunt Institute contacted me to tell me that the "14th International Exhibition of Botanical Art & Illustration" will run from 27 September to 19 December 2013. 
• The exhibition will include 41 artworks by 41 artists from 10 countries.  
• Following on from earlier post - 14th International Exhibition of Botanical Art & Illustration - Intent to submit I'm going to do a more detailed post about this next week - with links to the websites of the selected artists where I can find them.  If you're one of them do please let me have an image of the work which has been selected.
• I love it when people paint wild flowers like this - and I love Rosie Sanders work too! See Last week in Cornwall on her blog

Coloured Pencils and Pastels

• This is the website displaying all the entries for the CPSA Silent Auction 2013. I often wonder why more art societies don't do this as a money spinner for their society.  In this instance bids can only be made at the convention rather than online.
• These are the Selected Artists - UKCPS 12th Open International Exhibition 2013

Drawing and Sketching

This last week it's been the 4th International Urban Sketching Symposium in Barcelona.  Here's a sample of some of the blog posts and images it has created

• Making New Sketcher-Friends by Lynne the Pencil at An Illustrator's Life For Me!
• 4th International Urban Sketchers Conference, Day 3: Final Day at Urban Sketchers
• bcn2013usk - day 2 (lapin) and July 12th, 2013: Day 2, Usk Barcelona (Suhita) at Urban Sketchers

Plus the 1st Annual West Coast Urban Sketchers' Sketchcrawl - San Francisco Bay Area ran the weekend of July 12 - 14, in the San Francisco Bay Area for those unable to get to the Barcelona Symposium.  It has a blog (click above link) and its very own map of places to go to sketch

Painting and Painters

• Richard Schmid Artist and Author is the link to Richard Schmid's new Facebook Page published in advance of the new revised edition of ALLA PRIMA II--Everything I Know About Painting. It publishes in September 2013 and will be 100 pages longer than last time.  Hopefully this time somebody will suggest a good BIG print run!
• Another Richard - Richard Salter, an army artist features in the current edition of Artists & Illustrators - see Richard Salter the army artist. Now which of you paint with an easel like this and a very big bit of kit hanging over your shoulder?  You can view his Kabul paintings at the Mall Galleries this week - see below
• Haidee-Jo Summers (Haidee-Jo Summers artist - ma vie en couleurs ) has been painting non-stop while on a plein air trip to Cornwall - see her step by steps in

• Going to the beach
• Portscatho harbour in evening light
• Mini Mousehole exhibition! plus other blogs posts.

Three days work by Haidee-Jo Summers - a mini exhibition in Mousehole

• I was very impressed with a diagram I came across this annotated sketch on Rick Delanty's website - and he's agreed I can use it on my blog - The Art of the Landscape where it is now the first in what I hope will be a series of pics of people's plein air kits.  See Rick Delanty's plein air kit for the invite to show us all your kit!

Rick Delanty - Plein air kit: annotated drawing

Vision

• I learned something when I got my prescriptions for my new glasses post cataract surgery and wrote about it here Better vision - occupational lenses for artists.  One of those "It's obvious really when you think about it" ideas!

Who painted this? 

• This week's challenge Who painted this? #35 and the answer to...
• Who painted this? #34 Congrats to Alyson Champ who spotted Winslow Homer very fast.

Art Business & Marketing

Art Galleries

• Alyson Stanfield (Art Biz Coach) ran two posts last week - making arguments for and against the use of galleries
• Why galleries on her blog Artbizblog
• and Why Artists Should Avoid Gallery Representation posted on The Abundant Artist art blog
• Submitting to National Nonprofit Galleries by E. Brady Robinson is intended for emerging artists who wish to build a national exhibition trajectory.

Art Fairs

• Having moved from New Hampshire to Washington State, Nicole Caulfield (Nicole Caulfield Fine Art) is starting out again with weekend art fairs in Portland and trying new ways of displaying her art.  Worth following as Nicole always seems to me to be spotting new ways of doing things.  Here's her first Saturday market!
• Do any of you do art fairs on a regular basis - and would you like to share your stand?  Let me know - leave a comment.

Copyright

• Photographer Mark Meyer has contributed an interesting blog post discussing transformative use within the context of the Richard Prince legal case and the fact that transformative use is actually specifically identified in law as a right retained by the copyright holder.  See Copyright: How did transformative use become fair use?

Marketing

• Professional Artist has an article about the Five Essential Cs for a Successful Art Career

Art Economy & Collectors

• The Art Newspaper tells us Why some pictures go for more than others

Art Exhibitions

Art Exhibitions in London

• My visit to the Dulwich Picture Gallery came in the middle of a rash of exhibition openings which my eyes were not ecstatic about. Hence the delayed review - Review: Nash, Nevinson, Spencer, Gertler, Carrington, Bomberg: A Crisis of Brilliance. I think you'll get more out of this exhibition if you read the book first
• This is my Review: Laura Knight Portraits, the NEW exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London - opens 11 July until 13 October 2013. I really enjoyed my visit to the new exhibition of portraits by Dame Laura Knight (1877 - 1970). She was the first woman artist to become a Dame and the first to be granted a retrospective exhibition by the RA. Well worth visiting if only for the extremely impressive room of portraits relating to the Second World War.  
• Jonathan Jones 

• reviews Tate Britain's Painting Now exhibition and asks how can painting ever belong to 'now'?
• reviews the Mexico: A Revolution in Art 1910-1940 at the Royal Academy of Arts and suggests that Royal Academy's Mexican revolution misses the bigger picture
• also asks What makes art a target for attack?  This previews a Tate Britain exhibition Art Under Attack: Histories of British Iconoclasm which is to tell the story of physical attacks on British art.  Starts 2 October until 5 January 2014

Art Society Exhibitions

• 'Out of Line' The 79th Annual Exhibition of The Armed Forces Art Society is on display at the Mall Galleries between 15th - 20th July 2013
• They're followed by the Aviation Paintings of the Year - the 43rd Annual Exhibition of the Guild of Aviation Artists who are also exhibiting at the Mall Galleries between 23rd and 28th July.  This seems to be another specialist interest area with a very devoted following.  Note their approach to the Buyer's preview.

Art Exhibitions in the UK

• You can find The Lyons Teashops Lithographs: Art in a Time of Austerity runs from 13 July to 22 October at the Towner gallery, Eastbourne, West Sussex.  Get a taster with:
• this slideshow on the Guardian The Lyons teashops lithographs: do you take fine art with your tea? - in pictures
• this review Bawden and battenberg: the Lyons teashop lithographs

Between 1946 and 1955 the company commissioned three series of prints, some 40 in all, from most of the leading British artists of the day.

• August 2013 marks the hundredth anniversary of Duchamp’s stay in Herne Bay. This website celebrates the centenary. It sounds so incongruous you have to take a look. 

Art Exhibitions in the USA

• Charley Parker at lines and colors has a couple of posts about exhibitions worth viewing:
• More on Sargent watercolors at the Brooklyn Museum includes closeups of the watercolour paintings by Sargent and views of paints he used.

As I had hoped, I was able to get to the show in Brooklyn, and… wow. Just wow. I’ve insisted for years that Sargent should receive greater credit as a painter — credit he is finally receiving, along with increased recognition and popularity — but my already high assessment of his skills was raised even further by this show.

• This is a preview of Hopper Drawing by  The exhibition is at the at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. You can also explore his studies for paintings on the exhibition website

Art Education

Artists & Art Tutors

• International Artist has a couple of articles by prominent art bloggers in the June/July edition
• Sadie Valeri (Sadie J. Valeri) has a six-page spread, Self-Portrait in Progress Part two which incoudes a step-by-step painting demo of her Indirect Method. See International Artist Magazine Feature and DVD Update
• the James Gurney Masterclass PART 3 tackles Atmospheric Effects - Reverse Atmospheric Perspective.  James' blog is Gurney Journey and he commented in brief on this topic back in 2007 - see Reverse Atmospheric Perspective

Art Books

• So depressing! I've just had a list of new titles for review from a major art publisher and 80% are about drawing manga and zentangle! Pish!! Whatever happened to Fine Art? If you like proper art books why not try my website Making A Mark Book Lists which provides one bookmark to recommended art books lists for both artists and art lovers. 
• For all those thinking of writing a book and going down the Creative Commons route this is a very helpful "how to" - HOWTO Negotiate a Creative Commons License: Ten Steps

Workshops and Events

• There's lots of interesting talks, courses and workshops on the Royal Watercolour Society's Events Page - I'm just wondering what the Clore Room one involves which isn't available for free. The Royal Watercolour Society is based at Bankside Gallery (48 Hopton Street, London SE1 9JH), located on the south bank of the River Thames next to Tate Modern. 

Art Videos

• Congrats to James Gurney who now has 4,000+ subscribers to his video channel.

Art History

• Henri Matisse shares his thoughts on everything from drawing to depression in an extensive interview which is to be published for the first time since he angrily blocked its publication more than 70 years ago.  See Revealed: interview that Henri Matisse banned by Dalya Alberge at Art and design: Art | guardian.co.uk

Art Materials & supplies

• I understand that Utrecht Art Supplies have become part of Dick Blick Art Supplies.  Nobody is using the takeover or merger words but it's more apparent from the Utrecht website than the press release on the Dick Blick website that  Dick Blick is the senior partner in this new arrangement. The idea seems to be that 
• Utrecht paints, gessoes and canvases will start to appear in Dick Blick Stores
• the items which Dick Blick stocks on a regular basis will start appearing in Utrecht stores
• there will be some store closures and gradually all the stores will become Dick Blick Stores as the product offerings change
• plus the online websites will be merged gradually
• Roz Stendahl Roz Wound Up has 
• taken a look at the Bienfang Watercolor Brush (which she's been using sketching for the past several months). See Lightfastness Test: Bienfang Watercolor Brush Pens
• commented on the Moleskine with black pages

Art Videos

• All my videos are on the Making A Mark Videos Channel on YouTube but I've not done a video for them
• unlike James Gurney who has got a very neat - model even - video of what his channel is all about I think he may have practised that speech a few times though! ;)

Opinion Poll

• Here's the link to this month's Making A Mark Opinion POLL: Which is the best platform for art videos?  
• Last month's poll resulted in this post about How to list art exhibitions on a CV or website

Techies

• For all those who still haven't done anything about their Google Reader data

All Google Reader subscription data (eg. lists of people that you follow, items you have starred, notes you have created, etc.) will be systematically deleted from Google servers. You can download a copy of your Google Reader data via Google Takeout until 12PM PST July 15, 2013.

• Google has also terminated the RSS feed for Google Alerts - they now want everybody to subscribe through email.  As if no other feedreaders exist! 

and finally......

I'm becoming a huge fan of Grayson Perry - however even I was surprised by this article in The Guardian as he reveals yet another aspect to his artistic influence - see The great Grayson Perry frock competition
(Note: For those not "in the know" Grayson Perry - or rather his alter ego, Claire - likes wearing frocks)