Who's made a mark in art? October 2014

This post is a round-up of my posts since my last "Who's made a mark in art?" post a month ago - plus links to interesting news about the art world that I've spotted during October.

Below is Ben Johnson's painting which won the £10,000 Visitors Choice Award - chosen by visitors to Threadneedle Prize Exhibition. (see below for more details)

Threadneedle Prize 2014 - Winner of £10,000 Visitors Choice Award
Room of the Revolutionary by Ben Johnson

I've got family commitments at present which means my posting is a bit ad hoc at best at the moment until the situation has stabilised. Anybody with 'an elderly p' will have their own interpretation of what that means!

Artists

Artists on Film

Mr Turner opened! Then Jonathan Jones commented in A brush with Mr Turner: why can’t films about painters get the painting right? My own view is that one could also ask why can't the critics get the analysis of the painting right! I'm more forgiving of those creating a film than I am of those making a documentary. At least Timothy Spall took lessons in how to paint for two years! I'm much more critical of critics who comprehensively demonstrate they haven't got a clue about how drawing or sketching or painting actually works.

Artists on Television

It's the time of year when the British television channels begin to 'get cultural' and we've begun to have some significant programmes about art and artists.

• The major event has been Grayson Perry - Who Are You? - on TV and at the NPG. Another wonderful and insightful series of television programmes on Channel 4 and various works of art about identity in the modern world. The series finished this week - but the exhibition continues at the National Portrait Gallery (details in Exhibitions below). This is an article about it by Isobel Morrish on the RA Blog Grayson Perry RA’s portraits of Britain 
• BBC2 had two programmes which relate to the new exhibition of late portraits (see exhibitions below) by Rembrandt van Rijn at the National Gallery
• If you missed Simon Schama's film about Rembrandt's portraits painted in his later years you can catch up on iPlayer - Schama on Rembrandt: Masterpieces of the Late Years is still available for the next 8 days.
• The Culture Show's contribution is Rankin shoots Rembrandt - as the photographer John Rankin Waddell (aka 'Rankin') addresses the challenge of interpreting Rembrandt's portraits of old age, adapting the Dutch master's techniques for his camera.  Also available for the next 8 days.
• Andrew Graham Dixon has been delivering a short series on The Art of the Gothic.
• The Art of Gothic: Britain's Midnight Hour 1. Liberty Diversity Depravity (8 days)
• The Art of Gothic: Britain's Midnight Hour - 2. The City and the Soul (20 days) 
• The Art of Gothic: Britain's Midnight Hour 3. Blood for Sale: Gothic Goes Global (28 days)

Art on Video

• More videos by the creator of 500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art - Philip Scott Johnson is the chap who made the famous video where portraits of female sitters over 500 years morph from one to the other. However this is not the only videos about art that he has made. (He now seems to have turned his attention to architecture)

Artists in Books

• 33 Artists in 3 Acts by Sarah Thornton – review is about Sarah Thornton's new book. The author of the very excellent "Seven Days in the Art World" has turned her attention - and stories - to an analysis of different artists on different continents - with a view to identifying what makes them the same and what makes them different and what makes an artist. She has two (questions). “What is an artist?” And then a killer followup: “What kind of artist are you?”

Art Business & Marketing

• RECOMMENDED READ! Thanks to Shevaun Doherty for highlighting Molly Crabapple's 15 rules for creative success in the Internet age
• An important US Tax Court Ruling for all US artists - This is about a particularly important tax ruling in the USA. It affects in particular all artists who are also teachers. Most particularly it affects all those who earn more from their teaching than they do from their art.  It relates to "The Hobby-Loss Rule".
• For all those sending their art to purchasers via the Post Office - they've got a new "larger" size for small parcels New Small Parcel Size | Post Office
• Do artists ever retire? came about because I had a BIG birthday earlier this month. 

"Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red" at the Tower of London

- photographed from The Shard on my birthday.

Art Education

Art Education

• Learn about Why some Art students almost never get high grades. Your approach to learning very often influences outcomes and the benefits that can be achieved. That's why learning how to learn is as important as what you learn. Read this article if you want to know some of the reasons why people underachieve at art - and some of the strategies for tackling faulty reasoning.

Drawing

• The Big Draw month is October - and this post introduced the range of events across the UK and further afield. This is The Big Draw Gallery - showing images of drawings from various events. I found I couldn't get on with their new way of presenting information about events. I think they need to have a rethink for next year.
• Graphite... a Perfect Medium Despite the Chaos! is a great blog post by SBA member Dianne Sutherland Artist SBA full of useful tips about drawing with graphite pencils. 
• You can see an event from The Big Draw at the end....

Coloured pencils

• Nicole Caulfield shares an ebook about portraits in coloured pencils - this is an amazing FREE gift for those who love portraits and coloured pencils!
• Well known wildlife artist Alan Woollett who works in coloured pencils has got a book deal to with a well known art book publisher. It will be about his art and art techniques

Painting

• Carol Marine's new book Daily Painting: Paint Small and Often To Become a More Creative, Productive, and Successful Artist is now in circulation for reviewers (I've got my copy!). I've already recommended it on my Facebook Page having only skim read it. The section on the Top Six Mistakes that Students Make was one of the things - amongst much really useful stuff - which caught my eye. I'm not in the least bit surprised to that her book is already ranked at #1 in the Painting Section of Amazon Books!

Art Competitions

Botanical Art

• Two posts about photographers and the botanical artists who won Gold Medals at the RHS Autumn Show
• HIGHLY RECOMMENDED Three RHS Gold Medals for Botanical Art and a video interview - includes a fantastic video interview with Denise Ramsay which really demonstrates the sort of work which goes into winning a Gold Medal!  In fact, DeniseRamsayArtist not only won an RHS Gold Medal for her series of watercolour paintings of "Papaver Orientale" - she also sold the complete series to Dr Shirley Sherwood! 
• Reflections on the RHS Botanical Art Show Autumn 2014 - more lessons for those thinking of applying to exhibit in future. All artists displaying work have to be juried into the exhibition.
• A brand new RHS Show for Botanical Art has the information about dates for the RHS's Main Botanical Art Show in 2015 - note the dates have changed

Figurative Art

These are my posts relating to Threadneedle Prize:

• Threadneedle Prize 2014 - The Shortlist
• Tina Jenkins wins Threadneedle Prize 2014
• Interview with Winner of Threadneedle Prize 2014
• Review: Threadneedle Prize Exhibition 2014

The photorealist artist Ben Johnson won the £10,000 Visitors Choice Award that was voted for by people visiting the exhibition. Apparently only six votes separated first and third place after thousands of visitors had voted.

Friends of the author can play "spot the blogger" on the picture below. I was tweeting on my new iPhone when it was taken.

The Threadneedle Prize Awards Dinner
- spot the author (sat inbetween the winner's husband and one of the Judges!)
- spot the painting which won the Visitors Choice Award (behind the speaker) 

Portraiture 

• There's A new £15,000 prize for portrait painting - which is open to international artists and is being run in conjunction with the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Artists. The first prize will be awarded at the 2015 Annual Exhibition of the RSPP

Art Exhibitions

Major Museums and Art Galleries in London

I'm way behind with my quarterly update on major exhibitions in London due to personal commitments relating to health. In the meantime here are the major new exhibitions which have opened in London - or are about to open

• National Gallery 
• (Sainsbury Wing Basement) - Rembrandt - The Late Works (until 18 January) 
• opening this week - Peder Balke and Norwegian landscapes at the National Gallery
• National Portrait Gallery: These are the recent exhibitions and displays which have opened - and I still need to write up two of the reviews:
• Anarchy & Beauty: William Morris and His Legacy, 1860 – 1960 in the Wolfson Gallery until 11 January 2015 
• The Real Tudors: Kings and Queens Rediscovered until 1 March 2015 in Room 1, 2 and 3
• Snowdon: A Life in View until 21 June 2015 in Rooms 37 and 37a. (Admission Free). See my review Snowdon and the world of arts
• Grayson Perry - Who Are You? until 15 March 2015  in the Gallery’s nineteenth and twentieth century rooms on Floor 1. (Admission Free). I'm looking forward to finding all the portraits.
• Dulwich Picture Gallery - From the Forest to the Sea, Emily Carr in British Columbia opened to the public on Saturday 1st November 2014. This is my review - Painting Canada 2 - Emily Carr at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. It includes a video interview I did with Ian Dejardin, Sackler Director of the Dulwich Picture Gallery and co-Curator of the new exhibition of sketches and paintings by famous Canadian artist Emily Carr.

Art Societies 

These are my reviews of the annual exhibitions of the major national art societies.

• Review: Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers Annual Exhibition 2014. If you're intrigued as I am by artists who produce incredibly small works of art in oil, watercolour, acrylic, wood, bronze, silver etc you're likely to be very interested in my review of the 2014 Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers at the Mall Galleries in London. There's a lot of images of prizewinning paintings in my review plus I also discovered why Miniature Art is like the 'Tai Chi' of Painting!  Finishes next Sunday.  There are demonstrations by RMS members in the gallery every day except the last. 
• Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Marine Artists - Review (Part 1) - I'm always impressed with the standard of painting and sculpture at this annual exhibition - and this one is no different. It looked really good. 
• Video: 2014 Exhibition of the Society of Wildlife Artists - You can see more of the work displayed here. I had hoped to post more about this exhibition last week but commitments up north prevented this. However I will be reviewing it this week although it closes today as I know my reviews are read by people who hope to submit work in 2015.  You can also see a copy of the exhibition catalogue on Issuu - which means you can see the prices being charged for the artwork on display!   Below are some some very impressive bronze sculptures of small birds with long tails on a wire by Adam Binder

Fourteen Long Tailed Tits (£18,500) © Adam Binder 

at the Annual Exhibition of the Society of Wildlife Artists at the Mall Galleries

• Well done to the Society of Botanical Artists on yet another successful international exhibition OUTSIDE the UK. I wonder why more art societies don't take the opportunity to put on exhibitions in other countries? Here are some blog posts about it:
• Shevaun Doherty - SBA Palmengarten Exhibition, Frankfurt
• plus you can follow the full story on Gaynor Dickson's blog gaynorssflora

Art Galleries

• Lewis McNaught, the Director of the Mall Galleries is now on Twitter. You can follow him on @Lewis_McNaught.  Those having record sales at their exhibitions look like they're going to be highlighted in future. 

Hard graft and great work rewarded with record sales @swlanaturaleye @mallgalleries. Well done Harriet and team. pic.twitter.com/G3QHMD03Dy
— Lewis McNaught (@Lewis_McNaught) October 31, 2014

Techies - websites, webware and techie stuff for artists

• I was reminded earlier today that I wrote this blog post - Artists on Facebook - The Scope and The Rules - about two years ago - for all those Artists who are confused about the difference between a Facebook Account and a Facebook Page and how to comply with the rules and make the most of the scope they offer. Plus a bit about Facebook Groups - and how these are used by artists. It probably needs updating - but it's still better than nothing for those who are confused by Facebook!
• A new gmail phishing scam is about a new gmail phishing scam which targeted me - or at least it's new to me!

and finally......

First the next Urban Sketchers London Sketchcrawl will be at Trinity Buoy Wharf on 16th November

...and this is what happened when The Big Draw visited The One Show at the BBC