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

Virtual exhibition of "Still Alive - contemporary still life painting " - at the Mall Galleries all week.
Crops of artwork by members of the Federation of British Artists

I’m really looking forward to seeing three exhibitions tomorrow at the Mall Galleries. Two art competitions have their exhibitions on display there this week

• the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition (see more details below) 
• the Derwent Art Prize

Plus the “Still Alive - Contemporary Still Life Painting” by members of the national art societies which form the Federation of British Artists is also on.  You can see some of the artwork in the virtual exhibition on the Mall Galleries Shows website.

So that’s three different exhibitions at the Mall Galleries for one week only!

I shall be back there on Wednesday to find out the winner of the Derwent Art Prize.

Before I go on - who knew I would go on for so long when I started?  I wrote my 2,500th blog post yesterday so I chose a subject which might be a bit geeky but is one I'm fascinated by.  Did you see it?  (It's listed below).  I reckon the 3,000th post might be around the end of next year.

Artists and Art Blogs

Coloured Pencils and Pastels

• I like what I saw when the Paint. Draw. Blend Panpastels blog highlighted the artwork of Australian artist Alex Louisa’s as seen on her Instagram page. This is her Alex Louisa blog in which she is very complimentary about Pan Pastels - see The New Thing
• The Pastel Society of America has a new Facebook Page - http://www.facebook.com/pastelsocietyofamerica
• This is the blog of a pastel artist I admire  Sheila Evans 

Drawing and Sketching

• Are you making plans for The Big Draw in October? It's the biggest drawing festival in the world.  I'll be posting more about this - in the meantime here is their Facebook Page
• I don't know about you - but I've waited a long time to see Andrea Joseph draw using crosshatching - Andrea Joseph - crosshatching is a short timelapse film of artist and illustrator, Andrea Joseph adding cross-hatching detail to a pencilcase illustration.  It's got a hynoptic soundtrack!
• A couple of blogs which are showing people teaching points about how to sketch
• Adebanji Alade is writing a blog about sketching called Inspired to Sketch with Adebanji Alade - here's a post about the weight of the line in a sketch
• Liz Steel is now delivering workshops about location sketching and sketching architecture in Australia - and is writing about the points on her blogs Liz and Borromini and Sketching Architecture
• I’m trying to remember where I came across Don Colley’s road trip - but I forget. Anyway, this is a splendid and regularly updated website which documents - in sketches using different media - the second illustrated road trip across America of Don Colley. This road trip will cover several cities where Don Colley will be holding drawing and illustration demos for Faber Castell. His main website - where the same images have narratives - is Buttnekkiddoodles - Drawing from Life in Chicago and Beyond. Worth reviewing to see the value he gets of drawing on a mid-toned paper.

A self-proclaimed old school, Don prefers not carry any electronics including cell phones, computers or cameras on his self. Instead, his life and memories are shown through his sketches- each detailed piece reflecting more than camera lens can reveal.

• For everybody who wants to explore the different ways people can draw - Drawing with Stuff! The Big Draw Online With AccessArt
• This is my sketch of the Rose Garden at Sissinghurst - from the other end, Sissinghurst Castle Garden in August

Sissinghurst Rose Garden - an afternoon in August
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook, 8" x 10"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Painting

Carne Griffiths

• Charley Parker (Lines and Colors) has taken up residence as the painting expert on the the painting part on Answers.com
• James Gurney (Gurney Journey) posted about Your DIY Watercolor Pochades
• A review of practical art trivia with a difference - Palettes and colour charts with a difference

Portraiture

• The People's Portrait - jointly organised by the BBC and National Portrait Gallery - Voting has started (and closed) to decide which of the 12 possible candidates should have their portrait painted. Once chosen, the winner will sit for a portrait to be commission by the BBC and the NPG and displayed as part of the National Portrait Gallery’s Collection. Here's profiles of the candidates - and the winner will be announced on The One Show on Monday evening.
• Final Stage of Tessa Portrait: Form Painting illustrates how one artist - Anna Wikitsch gets through to the final stages of a portrait.  This is her blog.

Still Life 

• Here's an essay about contemporary still life art commissioned for this week's Mall Galleries exhibition

Wildlife Art

• Did you know there was a Facebook Group for Seabird Drawing? These are people who draw at the cliff face and the water's edge!

Who painted this?

I’ve been trying to find more difficult paintings - but people keep finding them!

• Who Painted This? #44
• Who Painted This? #43
• See if you can work out Who Painted This? #42
• View the answers to Who painted this? #41.  

Art Books

• I’ve split up my botanical art books website in two - one for instruction in botanical art and the other for the work of botanical artists - this post The Best Books about Botanical Art and Artists provides more details

Art Business & Marketing

Licensing

• A post on the Etsy blog about How to strike a successful licensing deal

Print on Demand

• Which "Print on Demand" site for art prints do you like the best? Here's the results of the poll running on my website for the last year - Print on demand: top choices are Zazzle and Fine Art America - reviews my online poll to find out which is the favourite print of demand site for artists. Two sites top the poll.
• It's interesting to take a look at the best selling prints based on the art handled by Bridgeman - who work in partnership with museums and collections to market their works. Mostly because this doesn't look much like a lot of the art produced today. What does that tell us?
  

Art Competitions

From time to time - write a one-off post about art competitions. This is one of them - To all organisers of art competitions and open exhibitions. It covers how to get an art competition or open exhibition publicised on the Internet

• Sunday Times Watercolour Competition
• Exhibition opens Monday 16th September at the Mall Galleries
• This post covers the people who have won prizes in the this year - David Forster wins Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2013
• 83 paintings by 79 artists were selected from an entry of about 800 paintings - see Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2013 - Selected Artists
• Jerwood Drawing Prize: The most prestigious drawing prize in the UK is the Jerwood Drawing Prize - valued at £8,000.  The exhibition is now at the Jerwood Space
• Svetlana Fialova wins Jerwood Drawing Prize 2013 - is my post about the winner and the others who won awards
• Find out by the artists - and their artwork - and its dimensions and media used in this post about the Jerwood Drawing Prize 2013 - Selected Artists
• Derwent Art Prize - for drawing
• the prizewinner will be announced on Wednesday.
• Here's a very interesting interview with Yvonne Crossley - one of the judges of the Derwent Art Prize who has an excellent track record when it comes to Drawing!
• Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2013 - I find many photographers choice of subject and design and composition of their portrait to be more interesting than the choices made by a lot of painters. I find it’s always an educational experience. See my post Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2013 - Shortlist announced. The exhibition will be at the National Portrait Gallery in November. 

Art Education

Tips and techniques

• Lisa Call (Lisa Call - Textile Paintings)provides a tip about how to be a better artists - read Reaching Remarkable: How to Use Your 10,000 Hours
• A tip from Carol Marine (Carol Marine’s Painting a Day (almost)) about "Getting the Most out of a Workshop" was included in Studio/Art Tips by Kelley Sanford - see Guest Contributor - Carol Marine Art Tip
• I’d actually find the archive of Kelley’s blog a lot more useful if the title of the blog post said more than “Art Tip #number”. I don’t actually have the time go through a list clicking each link to see what it says. I want to be able to scan read and click only those I’m interested in. A tip for those providing tips - you’ll get a lot of traffic for useful tips - but ONLY if you make the topic very explicit in the title.

Art Exhibitions

See Major Art Exhibitions in London September - November 2013. This lists all the exhibitions in London in the next three months.

Major Art Galleries and Museums - London

• I’m going to the Press preview of Australia - the new exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts on Tuesday. The exhibition, organised in collaboration with the National Gallery of Australia opens to the public on 21 September and continues until 8 December 2013. I think this is going to be a very popular exhibition - and that’s not just because of all the Aussies who live in London!
• Do try and get to see Rory McEwen and the Colours of Reality at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art in Kew Gardens before it finishes on the 22nd.

Major UK Art Galleries and Museums

• The BP Portrait Award 2013 is now off on its travels - however it takes a bit of time to take down, transport and set up again. You can see it at the following museums and art galleries in the next few months:
• Aberdeen Art Gallery (from 2 November 2013 until 1 February 2014) and
• Wolverhampton Art Gallery (from 3 March until 14 June 2014.)

Art Societies and Art Groups

September marks the start of exhibition season for a lot of art societies and art groups.

• I enjoyed my Annual Visit to Florum - Florum 10th Anniversary Exhibition - review. My post comments on a few things which other art groups could learn in terms of where to hold exhibitions which generate sales.
• Two Botanical Art Exhibitions previewed my visit to Florum and also recounted my visit to the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society Exhibition. There will be another chance to see some of the artwork at the second Autumn RHS Show in October.
• This is a post about the Private View of the Annual Exhibition of the Society of Feline Artists which also provides access to a slideshow of photos about the exhibition. Well done to SOFA for yet again making their exhibition a virtual experience for all feline art fans.
• The Executive of the United Kingdom Coloured Pencil Society is, I think, having a review of its arrangements for its annual exhibition. Possibly prompted, at least in part, by my rather critical review of what I could see of it.
• Review - UKCPS 12th Annual Open International Exhibition 2013
• The Hang - UKCPS 12th Annual Open International Exhibition 2013

Art Bloggers

While I may bin emails from art galleries I do take a look at the emails I receive from artist bloggers or people who have been previously featured on this blog. See the side column for more details about How to highlight your exhibition - for artist bloggers ONLY

• Johnny Morant (Johnny Morant) has a a solo show coming up at The Rountree Tryon Gallery from the 1st to the 11th of October 2013.  Johnny tells me that The title of the show is Going Places and the focus is exactly that -a slightly chaotic visual documentary of the places I have visited and the subjects that have inspired me.  Some of his paintings have already been bought by major financial institutng dress sketching with an umbrella while sat down in the harbour while the tide was out!

Art Materials and Supplies

• Yesterday I posted an UPDATE! Standard Specification for Artists Pastels. This highlights the challenges of producing a specification for a quality assured pastel and how the relevant technical body proposes to address this. Rather technical and absolutely fascinating if you’re a bit of a geek like me. 
• I got to be geeky about lightfastness as I began to realise how much colour has been lost from paintings by past masters. For example - did you know that the correct title of this painting of roses by Van Gogh is “Still Life: Vase with Pink Roses” - although the pink has almost completely disappeared.

Still Life: Vase with Pink Roses
Vincent van Gogh [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

• Check out David Jackson brushes - via his Facebook Page. He's a 4th generation brush maker with 43 years experience and I hear good things about his brushes
• A website which provides an excellent discussion of the relative merits of Directors Chairs for use while painting outside 

Techies - websites and blogging

• I went back to drafting this blog post in Google Drive - and am amazed at how helpful the automatic suggestions are for the various links I include. It saves so much time!!! I could just do with a teeny weeny bit more info about the whole URL please.

and finally..................

How many of you used crayons as a child? I came across this on the Munsell website and was entranced - Collecting a Rainbow: A Glimpse Into the World of Crayon Collecting and Crayon History with Ed Welter