Making A Mark - the 20 most popular blog posts in 2019

I've split the 20 most popular blog posts in 2019 between

• those written in 2019
• those written between 2006 and 2018 - which demonstrates just how much traffic some old posts can generate!

All posts are ranked according to the number of page views they generated - which are all in the thousands.  Some of those which have been around for some years get a lot more than those written in 2019 - I guess because they're referenced by various websites.

These posts are - unrelated to art competitions on television. To see these read yesterday's blog post The Most Popular Art Programmes on Television in 2019

Points to note:

• Art Competitions and Open Exhibitions fall in and out of favour
• Blog posts with global appeal with always get a bigger audience than those of interest just to a UK audience
• "How To" posts about matters relating to art are always welcomed - and constantly referenced!

In 2019

I play a little game with myself and try to guess what might be in the top 10 It's surprising what I'd already forgotten - such as the death of Charles Reid or the fire at Notre Dame.....

1. Call for Entries: Portrait Artist of the Year 2020 

Although this is television related it's about the entry to this art competition and hence I'm treating it as any other Call for Entries post. What's so very interesting is that it beat the RA's Summer Exhibition post - and the Call for Entries for the BP Portrait Award 2019 - which says rather a lot!

2. RA Summer Exhibition 2019: Call for 12,000 entries 

+ RA Summer Exhibition 2019 UPDATE + prediction re emphasis of selected work - one post in two parts. Plus it's worth also noting OFFICIAL: No 12,000 cap on entries to RA Summer Exhibition + dates change which is an an update on - and clarification of my original Call for Entries for the Summer Exhibition

3. Owner of Artist Network, Wet Canvas & North Light Books files for Bankruptcy 

I guess a global audience for this one helped a lot. This was major news for artists around the world who used one or more of their activities. I helped a couple of artists who had to file in Court in order to try and get their unpaid royalties for books they'd written for North Light. Plus I ended up names in one of the Court documents which was recording all the authors of books published by North Light!
This is the follow up post F&W Media Bankruptcy Protection UPDATE re SALES of Artist Network, Wet Canvas & North Light Books

4. Selected Artists and statistics - BP Portrait Award 2019

This post is about the artists behind the 44 portraits selected for the BP Portrait Award 2019 Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery

5. About Charlotte Johnson Wahl - artist and mother of Boris

Although a television programme, I'm including it here because it's more like a story about an artist. It's a retrospective of a retrospective exhibition by the woman who is mother of the man who is now Prime Minister - and who has continued to paint every day despite mental health issues and Parkinson's Disease. I watched it again recently and found it very rewarding to watch.

6. 40th BP Portrait Award (2019) Shortlist

This is my Making A Mark analysis of this year's shortlisted portraits - and the artists who created them.

The portraits shortlisted for the BP Portrait Award 2019

7. RIP Charles Reid (1937 - 2019)

I'm sure all of us who were fans of him all have our own memories of "our connections" with Charles Reid - even if we never ever met him. This post was about mine.....

8. Call for Entries: Society of Women Artists Annual Exhibition 2019 

Well done to the Society of Women Artists to be the first 'ordinary' national art society call for entries to be in this TOP 10 list. Women on top!

9. 10 Best Paintings in the Sunday Times Watercolour Exhibition 2019 

The 10 paintings in the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2019 which impressed me. By which I mean

• They caught my eye on my first turn around the gallery - from a distance of some 6 feet+.
• Then kept it on my second go round - when I'm looking more closely at the paintings. 
• Then survived the cull as I went around for the third time to work out my 10 best paintings!

10. The Destruction of Notre Dame - only the stone will remain

Many, many people in Paris and around the world watched as huge flames burst through what was the roof of Notre Dame and then watched it collapse. Both sides of the Seine were also lined with thousands of people watching the fire.

The Destruction of Notre Dame

In addition two of my Blog Pages remain perennially popular. These are:

• Major UK Art Competitions
• UK Art Societies: Open Exhibitions

PAST: posts from previous years (2006-2018)

Posts from previous years - unrelated to art on television - have proved to be perennially popular and some have almost taken on a life of their own!

Note that five of the ten are "how to" posts. If you write a good "how to" post about perennial topics it can be of value and generate traffic for very many years.

Vincent Van Gogh - The Drawings - which I wrote about in 2007

1. £35,000 BP Portrait Award 2019 - How to enter and how to improve your chances of being selected (2018)

my somewhat encyclopedic annual guide to the BP Portrait Award. It's interesting that the one I've already written for the 2020 exhibition did not make the top ten 2019 posts in 2019. I very much got the impression that people were not impressed by a number of aspects relevant to the competition.

2. Favourite quotes about drawing and sketching (2013)

I keep meaning to get round to doing an update of this post!

3. How to hang a large or heavy picture - using heavy duty hanging hardware (2015) 

....because you don't want to get this wrong - which is why this post beats the next one on traffic!  Includes pics of kit you need and helpful videos!

4. How to hang a picture - using D Rings (2015) 

This is particularly relevant for smaller paintings and drawings

5. How to sign an art print (2011) 

it's a detail - but it matters - and for some reason there's not many "how to" articles!

6. How to do a reverse image search (2011) 

You can find the updated version here - How to do a reverse image search in the Copyright section of my Art Business Info for Artists website

7. Creating a signature on your art (2009) 

One of the perennial issues which comes up time and time again concerns the best way to sign your art.

8. Van Gogh: Drawing media and techniques (2007) 

a perennially popular post, which I assume means that some art teachers teach Van Gogh's approach to drawing!  It's also a post I like going back and rereading and reviewing from time to time.

9. How to make labels for an art exhibition (2012)

I originally wrote this as a reminder to myself so I didn't have to reinvent the process every time I needed to make labels!


10. Artists and Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) (2016) 

This post looks at what is RSI, why artists gets it; how to make it worse and how to make life more tolerable if you get it - and hopefully recover from it.

My new wrist splint - the last one was very well used!
On the whole I need this less now as I'm much better at protecting myself