Who's made a mark on art #262

I've been trying to think of a way of continuing with "who's made a mark" without it being weekly. Frankly I'm enjoying having my Sundays back as the posts used to take all day to do!

So here's a new model, I counted up all the ones which had gone before and that makes this one #262.

Plus it'll pick up on stuff which I've already posted online but in various places so you probably haven't seen it all, if any!

A brand new website

I'm not posting as much at the moment as I'm currently totally engrossed in building a mobile-compatible website for all my botanical art sites which are being merged into one. In fact it's difficult to tear myself away!

Keep an eye out for http://www.botanicalartandartists.com - it's coming soon!  After that I'm building some more sites on big topics and have already snaffled the domain names for them!

My new website in "build' mode

I have to say I'm extremely impressed with Weebly which is proving very easy to use as I zoom around the site adding in bits here, there and everywhere. It's also super easy to move stuff between ages which is a huge boon!

I'll be doing a review of it when I've finished.

Art Basics

Drawing

• Linea is the journal of the Art Students League of New York - worth a read plus they also have a Facebook Page
• Take a look at this campaign video by The Big Draw with Andrew Marr and others about Why is Drawing Important?

Art Books

• Meet me, see my sketchbooks and get your copy of Sketching 365 signed at a "Meet the Author/book-signing" event at the Mall Galleries on 5th March. I asked fellow urban sketcher and artist/author James Hobbs to join me with his book Sketch Your World - and the Mall Galleries is going to do a deal for anybody buying both books on the day! It's a great day for all those who like to draw to visit the Mall Galleries as our signing as John Tookey is in the gallery giving a demonstration and the Pastel Society's Art Event Evening which starts at 6pm. 

Art Business & Marketing 

• I know I can't possibly afford to buy everything I see and like (and that's partly because I look at a lot of art). However it seems a bit mean to just pass by when I could say that I like it a lot. I Love Your Art But It's Not For Me is a post by Alyson Stanfield (ArtBizblog) explores the phenomenon of the person who likes your art but never buys it.

Art and the economy

• Art can not only connect with communities, it can also reshape and rebuild them. This Guardian article looks at Six creative ways artists can improve communities

Copyright and Plagiarism

• The Luc Tuymans plagiarism case is important. Plagiarise at your peril - the Luc Tuymans case is a recommended read - especially for all those who copy photographs. This post provides a detailed commentary on the Luc Tuymans plagiarism case; the associated reporting; the concept of parody and the EU copyright directive.
• Plagiarism on Facebook is about people who claim other people's artwork as their own - and highlights a case study of an example on Facebook. There was such a lot of interest in this post about plagiarism that I've added in links - at the end - to a more extensive range of my posts in recent years about plagiarism and copyright infringements - and, more importantly, how to stop it!

Art Competitions

• This - Lynn Painter-Stainer Prize 2015: Selected Artists & Events - is a list of the artists selected for the Lynn Painter-Stainer Prize Exhibition in 2015 - plus details of how you can see the works online and attend a talk and workshops held during the exhibition. I'm going to the talk tomorrow afternoon at the Mall Galleries and the PV in the evening where I will be saying 'Hello' to Jane Gardiner from Glasgow and missing Ilaria Rosselli del Turco who won't be there. despite being selected (she's posting pics of orange trees in Spain on Facebook!)
• RHS Botanical Art Show 2015 - Selected Artists is an overview of the artists selected for the RHS Botanical Art Show in 2015 - being held at the RHS Lindley Hall in Westminster at the end of this month.
• Drawn is a biennial open submission drawing exhibition run by the Royal West of England Academy. The deadline for entries is 5pm on 5th March
• What's your top tip for entering art competitions or open exhibitions of art societies? (I've got a feature article "8 Tips for Entering Art Competitions" in Ann Kullberg's Colored Pencil Magazine for February 2015) and in Top tips for art competitions - a precis

Art Education

• Really? Not one student at Glasgow School of Art can draw? That's the somewhat heretical assertion made by Scottish artist John Byrne in an article entitled Life, Love and Art which you can read in the digital edition of Highland Life - along with another assertion that the Glasgow School of Art is no longer an art school but rather it's a fun factory! It made for a lot of comments on Facebook! (Thanks to his daughter Celie Byrne for the link to the original article which was not attributed in newspapers which ran this story)
• I've done classes at the Royal Drawing School (when it was the Prince's Drawing School). The Public Courses are worth a look if you live in London - especially if you're already an art student!

Art Exhibitions

• If you love painting and portraiture then you will love the new exhibition of portraits of friends and artists by John Singer Sargent at the National Portrait Gallery - on until 25 May 2015 - find out what I think are 10 great reasons to see 'Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends' at the NPG
• Too late now but Ralph Steadman (famous for collaborating with Hunter S thompson) has been drawing the characters from 'Breaking Bad' - and you can see them in Shoreditch in a free exhibition on show 13-15 February - but you can still see them online - here's a slideshow on the Telegraph website and this is his Facebook Page

Coming soon

• Opens today - the Exhibition for the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize at the Mall Galleries - finishes on 21st February 2015.
• The RWS Contemporary Watercolour Competition 2015 (6 - 18 March 2015) at the Bankside Gallery
• You can read/view the online catalogue of the 2015 Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of British Artists (the RBA). The exhibition opens at the Mall Galleries on 11 March. Listed at the front are the talks and events which will take place in the Galleries during the course of the exhibition.

Art Galleries and Museums

• Ever wondered what the rules are for drawing and sketching in art galleries and museums?
  How to draw and sketch in an art gallery or museum #1 This is the first in a series of posts and besides a set of general "rules", this post focuses on those art galleries and museums I know best - in London
• Tate's BP funding figures revealed - less than expected explores the debate around whether or not art galleries and museums should receive funding from BP - and just how small the Tate funding really is. This includes links to other journals if you want to read the other perspectives too.

Art Genre

Botanical Art

• It's great when botanical artists don't just pick up yet another apple but rather go after "The Fruits of Doum" - on Botanical Sketches and Other Stories
• Art and the Hedgerow is a new art blog by botanical artist and natural history art tutor Sarah Morrish and it's for a big new project

Portraiture

• Understanding British Portraits is a website and an active network with free membership for professionals working with British portraits including curators, museum learning professionals, researchers, academics and conservators. I guess they might have room for a few artists who paint portraits!
• I've been loving the chat online between artists getting their submissions together for the BP Portrait Award - after they submitted their digital images.  Just a few more tweaks then...?

Art Materials

Art Shops

• I believe if you don't use the art shops you really like then you lose them. I finally got a good shot of the outside of L. Cornelissen & Son - and it appears from Facebook that I am far from being the only fan!  Here's what to look for if you're ever tempted to visit - it's just up the road from the British Museum.  The second photo was me trying to see if I could get all the pigment jars in on the panoramic photo on my iPhone!

The shopfront of L. Cornelissen & son at 105 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3RY

a panorama of pigments at Cornelissen & Son

and this is what it looks like on the inside!

• I didn't know the Sennelier Shop opposite the Louvre had a Facebook Page - but I do now and have just liked it! This is the address https://www.facebook.com/CouleursDuQuaiVoltaireMagasinSennelier

Brushes

Roberson Pocket Travel Brush

• I popped into Cornelissen's after the recent sketchcrawl at the British Museum and took a long hard look at the Roberson Travel Brushes while at that well known art shop that we all love! They handle nicely and are well balanced and the big ones are just yummy! However I'm not convinced that I wouldn't put the sable hairs back in the barrel while still damp - which is a strict "no no" - and then forget to get them out again when I got home to dry off properly! I'd love to hear how people make sure their travel brushes are dry before they put them away. Is there a special trick to getting super dry brushes real fast?  I gather some brands put holes in the end in which the brush hairs are stored which seems like a good idea - but doe sit work?

Graphite

• Do you want to paint with graphite? This is a detailed review of the new Liquid Pencil from Derivan by Jackson's at Blog

Art Societies

• For those wanting to become a member of the Royal Watercolour Society this is the Election Page on the website which has all the downloads plus this is the Election of RWS Associate Members Application Pack 2015. Membership is not limited to the UK but does exclude those who are already members of the RI. Also check out the annual membership fees - which sometimes come as something of a surprise to aspiring members

Colour

• I loved Shevaun Docherty's Confessions of a colourholic!

Websites and Techie issues

Late last month, Google started issuing notices to webmasters if their sites were not mobile friendly. This is on top of the mobile-friendly label they’ve been displaying on mobile search results for sites that are mobile friendly.

• Is your website and/or blog mobile-friendly? (says the woman who has been building a mobile friendly website for the last two days!). Seriously this is a question which might well affect your traffic in the future. It rather looks like Google is working up to changing the algorithm to favour those sites which are.  This post from Search engine Land looks at the implications of not being mobile friendly and how to check out whether your site is or not
• I'm building a website at the moment and one of the mantras I try to keep at the front of my brain. The same is true of the titles of blog posts or emails.  Read The Fold Manifesto: Why the Page Fold Still Matters

"What is visible on the page without requiring any action is what encourages us to scroll"

• Is it better to be long or short?  Learn about Social Media: How Long is Optimal?

and finally....

I've been sketched by a BP portrait Award winner! I recently discovered Susanne du Toit's sketch of me done during the November sketchcrawl.

Sketch by Susanne du Toit