Wayne Thiebaud: American Still Life - a landmark exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery

An exhibition of artwork by Wayne Thiebaud (1920-2021) is coming to the Courtauld Gallery this October. 

I've just booked my ticket to the Wayne Thiebaud - American Still Life Exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery - opening 10th October to 18th January 2025. 

I'm a big fan of Wayne Thiebaud - not least because I used to love drawing food, foodstuff  and meals. I never quite graduated to cakes but I do love looking at the display in the windows of great cake shops! 

This is the blog post I wrote when he died in 2021 - An appreciation of Wayne Thiebaud (1920 - 2021). I'll be writing more about him nearer the time of thre exhibition.

Wayne Thiebaud - American Still Life Exhibition

In summary he is one of the greatest and most original American artists of the 20th century. He is famous for being focused in particular on post-war modern American subjects - typically as still life objects. 

Cakes by Wayne Thiebaud (1920-1021)

This exhibition at The Courtauld Gallery will be the first ever museum show of his work in the UK. It will present Thiebaud’s remarkable, vibrant and lushly painted still-lifes of quintessentially post-war American subjects, from diner food and deli counters to gumball dispensers and pinball machines. These are the paintings with which Thiebaud made his name in the USA in the early 1960s.

The exhibition will feature rarely lent works from major museum collections in the USA as well as the Wayne Thiebaud Foundation.

These are my two books about Wayne Thiebaud - which I periodically salivate over.

For me he's an artist who is a luscious realist of the everyday - until you get up close and realise his artwork is also abstracted from reality and the artist relishes the media he used. More Wayne Thibaud: "This for you is my world to look at" (Making A Mark September 2019)

Thiebaud - delicious metropolis, the desserts and urban scenes of Wayne Thiebaud

Wayne Thiebaud 100 
the book produced to celebrate the 100th birthday of
"one of America's most loved and respected artists"

A second exhibition Wayne Thiebaud: Delights, will focus on the artists's eponymous 1965 portfolio of prints to appreciate Thiebaud as a draughtsman and printmaker.

In 1964, Wayne Thiebaud created a portfolio of 17 prints, entitled Delights, in which he returned to the favoured still-life motifs found in his paintings and which made his name in the early 1960s: ice cream cones, rows of cakes, gumball machines and many of the other objects of everyday American life. However, these subjects look very different rendered in print, on a small scale and in black and white. As Thiebaud told his publisher, ‘When you change something, you change everything.’ Thiebaud was keen to experiment with different techniques and media, and Delights was his first foray into printmaking, a technique he returned to throughout his long career.

Previous blog posts

• An appreciation of Wayne Thiebaud (1920 - 2021)
• More Wayne Thibaud: "This for you is my world to look at"
• Wayne Thiebaud working on etchings (video)

VIDEO demonstrations by members of the American Watercolor Society

For those making lists of "things to watch" over the Seasonal Break, I have a list of videos for watercolour artists - and those interested in how watercolour paintings are created.

I've just discovered that the American Watercolor Society has some "free to air" hour long videos of AWS members giving a demonstration and talk on the AWS Watercolor Evenings which are "a highlight of each International Exhibition".  They're held in the room at the Salmagundi Club in New York where they hold their International Exhibition each year. (Note: The Salmagundi Club was created in 1871 and is one of the oldest arts organisations in the USA)

AWS Demonstrations on YouTube: Lots of useful tips

You can find links to all the demonstrations on the website under Demos. Whether or not you like the American style of watercolour, these are people who have been painting for a long time and have lots of useful tips!

Do also bear in mind these are paintings produced in an hour while delivering a talk!

I've included links to the artists' websites in their names - so you can go and take a look at more considered and finished paintings

• 2024:  “Painting Beyond Technique” with Antonio Masi, AWS, DF. 
• View here.
• you can find a summary of the talk in the newsletter
• Antonio Masi is a multi award winning artist who is the current President of the AWS and became President in 2017.
• 2023: “Reflections on Urban Landscapes” with John Salminen, AWS, DF. 
• View here.
• This one has had over 200k views so far
• He is a much exhibited artist who has many awards.
• 2022 “Watercolor from Within” with Barbara Nechis, AWS. 
• View here. It's had 89k views to date
• Past Faculty Member of the Pratt Institute who has taught all over the US.
• 2021 “Creating Drama” with Tim Saternow, AWS. 
• View here

He paints large architectural landscape watercolors with a thick use of watercolor paint, playing with the tension between the illusions of depth, carefully drawn linear perspective, and an obvious play on the surface of the paper through watermarks, paint runs, blooms and spatters. (From Tim's website)

• 2019 “Finding Beauty in Places Often Overlooked” with James Maria, AWS. 
• View here.
• He likes to paint all the various different textures in left behind half forgotten places.
• 2018 Evening I “In a Fog – Capturing the Elusive Feeling of Misty Weather” with Joel Popadics, AWS. 
• View here. (30 minutes video)
• Joel has received numerous national awards - and loves painting fog!
• 2018 Evening II “Loosen Up! – Breaking Away from Seeing and Painting Too Many Details” with Andy Evansen, AWS. 
• View here. (30 minutes video)
• Interesting to see who has inspired him....

Choosing a ‘style’ was not difficult, as Andy was always inspired by the watercolor paintings of British artists Trevor Chamberlain, David Curtis, Ed Seago and Edward Wesson, among others.

AWS International Exhibitions

Every year, the AWS holds a juried exhibition of watercolors from artists throughout the world and some UK watercolourists have done well there. Notably Angus McEwan.

View submission information on the upcoming 2025 Exhibition here.

Although please note the deadline has passed because....

The artists selected for the 158th International Exhibition in 2025 have been recently announced and you can find the list of names of those selected here

Diebenkorn's "Notes to myself on beginning a painting"

The year 2022 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Richard Diebenkorn (1922–1993).

Diebenkorn was a distinguished American painter, draftsman, and printmaker

Still from the video Richard Diebenkorn on Beginning a Painting

"Notes to myself on beginning a painting" by Richard Diebenkorn

Richard Diebenkorn was an introspective man who remained skeptical of his success as an artist throughout his life. Over the years he spent countless hours sitting in a favorite chair in his studio, contemplating and looking. Perhaps it was there that he wrote thoughts that came to mind on nearby pieces of paper, some torn from other uses. The Diebenkorn Foundation

These notes were found on paper in his studio after his death.They're listed BELOW.
You can also see a digitised version of the handwritten notes in the link above.

1. Attempt what is not certain. Certainty may or may not come later. It may then be a valuable delusion.
2. The pretty, initial position which falls short of completeness is not to be valued – except as a stimulus for further moves.
3. DO search.
4. Use and respond to the initial fresh qualities but consider them absolutely expendable.
5. Don’t “discover” a subject – of any kind.
6. Somehow don’t be bored but if you must, use it in action. Use its destructive potential.
7. Mistakes can’t be erased but they move you from your present position.
8. Keep thinking about Pollyanna.
9. Tolerate chaos.
10. Be careful only in a perverse way.

I first came across them on the RA website in relation to their exhibition of his work in 2015.

They're not the conventional dictums which appear again and again in many instruction books about painting. Some are impenetrable to people who are not Americans or not of a certain age

For example "Keep thinking about Pollyanna" only becomes clear when you understand that Pollyanna is a character in a 1913 novel by Eleanor H. Porter AND that she is an orphan with an unjustifiably optimistic attitude.

To me they're indicative of the characteristics of right brain thinking and an aversion to the factual, structured, linear, systematic approach associated with left brain thinking.

In fact they're the complete antithesis of "step by step" instruction. It's about an attitude of mind which seeks to be open to possibilities rather than learning systems for creating a painting.

This is a video of Diebenkorn speaking about beginning a painting.

Painting and paintings by John Singer Sargent

My second post from the archives is about John Singer Sargent and his approach to paintings.

Below are past blog posts which are well worth a read to look at the resources I accessed while writing about him in the last 15 years

 

An Artist in His Studio (1904 ) by John Singer Sargent 

Approach to Painting

• Advice on Painting from John Singer Sargent (2015) - about a digital ebook about how Sargent approached his paintings - which references “John Sargent” by the Hon. Evan Charteris - annotated by Thomas Jefferson Kitts
• John Singer Sargent and Drawing - and my drawing class (2007) - includes links to a number of sources commenting on Sargent's drawings

Exhibitions

Wild Turkey and John James Audubon

Turkeys are very much associated with Thanksgiving in America - and this image is offered with my good wishes to all my American friends on this their national day of giving thanks

Did you know that the very first bird in John James Audubon's very large Birds of America is a Wild Turkey?

Wild Turkey - Great American Cock, Male
hand coloured engraving
Plate 1 of Birds of America by John James Audubon

John James Audubon (1785-1851) was an American ornithologist and naturalist but he earned his reputation as an artist and the enormous paintings - reproduced via engravings.

''No one before him in America had looked at the woods and wildlife so closely, or recorded in such exhaustive detail what they had seen.''

His paintings/prints have an incredible sense of life. Audubon travelled widely to find all the birds in the book. Unlike other painters he did not work from preserved specimens. Instead he first shot the bird and then wired it up in a natural position to draw it for his watercolour painting.  However the sense of life in the bird suggests he must have keenly observed the birds first and made more sketches of their habits.

About Birds of America

Birds of America comprises 435 hand-coloured, life-size prints (click the link to see them all).  It is the largest and most beautiful illustrated bird book ever. 

• Originally intended to contain 400 plates, the work finally extended to an engraved title page and 435 aquatint plates, issued in 87 parts between 1827 and 1838.
• Each of the birds is portrayed life size
• Each plate measured around 39 by 26 inches (99 by 66 cm) - or just over three feet by just over two feet.
• these were sold on the basis of subscriptions - for five plates at a time of one large bird, one medium sized bird and 3 smaller birds
• Five volumes of accompanying text to these plates were published in Edinburgh and issued separately under the title ‘Ornithological Biography’ between 1831 and 1839.

The ‘double elephant folio’, as the edition became known, took its name from the double elephant paper on which it was printed, the largest size available (approx. 100cm x 67cm). To make the prints, Audubon’s original watercolour images were traced in reverse onto sheets of copper, and the lines etched into the metal using acid (the intaglio process). An aquatint was added to give a graded tonal effect. This was achieved by melting a fine resin dust onto the copper plate and exposing it again to the acid; the longer the immersion in the acid, the darker the tone. The images were then printed in black ink; watercolour was applied by hand to the finished prints by a team of colourists. Audubon's Birds of America | British Library

The original file of this Plate 1 engraving of the Wild turkey can be found in Wikimedia Commons - but be careful before you open the largest size as it's 99MB file!

The first 10 images of birds - including the Turkey - are from engraved plates created by William Home Lizars (1788-1859) an engraver based in Edinburgh. However after doing the first 10 plates - his colourists went on strike and Audubon had to engage another engraver. 

Robert Havell Jr. (25 November 1793 – 11 November 1878) of Reading became the principal engraver of the remainder of Audubon's Birds of America. His family of engravers were renowned as being among the foremost practitioners of aquatint. Havell subsequently moved to America and continued to practice as an engraver and aquatinter. When he died in 1878, he was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Tarrytown.

Last year, the National Audubon Society made John James Audubon’s seminal Birds of America available to the public in a downloadable digital library (signing up for their email list is a prerequisite).

About John James Audubon 

John James Audubon (1785 – 1851) was actually born Jean-Jacques Laforest Audubon in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) in the Caribbean. He was the illegitimate son of a French merchant and a French chambermaid, Jeanne Rabin who died when he was 6 months old.

• age 6 he was shipped to France to join his father
• his childhood was spent in France with his stepmother. Here he developed his talent for drawing and his love of the natural world
• he was sent to America when he was 28 years old to manage his father’s plantation, Mill Grove, in Philadelphia - but he much preferred studying and drawing birds to farming.
• Both the Wikipedia article and and an interesting article in the New York Times (Central Park's Winged Tenants, By Audubon By Wendy Moonan 2003) indicate how often he failed at various endeavours before he decided upon making his passion for drawing and painting birds into his 'great idea' and a 'a very big project'.
  

His plan was to to publish a book of life-size reproductions of all the birds of the ‘United States and its territories’.  The project - and the book The Birds of America thereafter absorbed Audubon’s attention for much of his life and its publication took nearly 12 years to complete.

The opposition of the scientific community in America to his work explains why he had to go to the UK to find engravers for his book.

American Impressionism and Portraiture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

On my recent visit to New York, I visited The Metropolitan Museum of Art twice.

The first area I headed to (after the roof!) on the first day was the section devoted to American Impressionism. (The American Wing - North West corner of the Met - 2nd floor the 700s rooms).

Leaving the Met at the end of the day - on 15th October 2019 

The view of Lower Manhattan and the southern part of Central Park
from the terrace on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Tuesday 15th October

It's a real revelation to see some of the paintings you've admired for so long in art books be revealed to you in their normal "home".  Seeing some of the exhibitions I found is not quite the same as seeing them in the Met!

On the whole I think I'd recommend a chronological approach to the Impressionist Galleries unless you are short of time - in which case head straight to the Impressionists and make sure you see some of Hudson School too.

I've uploaded some of my photos into American Impressionism and late 19th Century Portraiture at the Met - a public album on my Making A Mark Facebook Page

Rooms I recommend 

Gallery 771: Portraiture in the Grand Manner, 1880–1900

After the Civil War, the United States experienced profound changes, including rapid economic expansion and population growth, and emerged as a world power. Great wealth and a desire for conspicuous display characterized the period, which has been called the Gilded Age. American artists studied abroad, especially in Paris and Munich, and then competed with their European contemporaries for portrait commissions from American patrons. Both the patrons and painters were also aware of the mode of portraiture prevalent in Great Britain, which was at the apex of its imperial influence and prestige. John Singer Sargent, the quintessential American cosmopolite, was born in Italy, studied and worked in Paris, and operated thereafter with equal success in London, Boston, and New York. This gallery is a testament to the ability of Sargent and his contemporaries to capture on canvas the personalities of their intriguing acquaintances as well as their paying patrons.

Room 770: American Impressionism and Realism, 1880–1920

Having met Claude Monet in Paris, probably in 1876, the expatriate John Singer Sargent was inspired to experiment with Impressionism. Throughout his successful career as a portraitist headquartered in London (as evidenced in 771), Sargent would always refresh his studio work by painting out of doors in both oils and watercolors. By 1887 several other American artists had been attracted to Giverny, on the Seine about fifty miles northwest of Paris, initially by its charm and then by the presence of Monet, who had settled in the village in May 1883 (Sargent also called on Monet there in the 1880s). Theodore Robinson became the leader of the American Giverny group, first visiting in 1885 and spending months there annually from 1887 until 1892. Back in the United States, Robinson and Childe Hassam shared their enthusiasm for French Impressionism with their American colleagues, including John H. Twachtman and J. Alden Weir, who became converts to the style.

Gallery 769: American Impressionism and Realism, 1880–1920

During the 1880s, after studying in Paris, American artists returned home and began to experiment with French Impressionism. Among the most celebrated of these artists were William Merritt Chase, who painted Impressionist scenes of New York’s public parks and of the seaside at Shinnecock, Long Island, and Childe Hassam, who became the leading Impressionist chronicler of New York and New England.Rejecting the prevailing trends of academism and Impressionism, a modern, rugged realism emerged in the early twentieth century in the work of such artists as Rockwell Kent and George Bellows. Their canvases portray the emergence of the modern city, technology, and engineering prowess while also celebrating the vitality of nature in the American landscape.

Gallery 768: Images of Women, 1880–1910

Around 1900, refined women were favored subjects of many American artists. The works in this gallery reflect the contemporary notion that a woman's proper sphere was within a harmonious interior, absorbed in cultivated pastimes, or in a sheltered outdoor setting, engaged in leisure activities. These works also suggest the wide range of styles that artists enlisted to depict their genteel subjects. Women artists were especially successful in describing women's activities at first hand. Among them were the painter, pastellist, and printmaker Mary Cassatt, who settled in Paris in 1874, responded to the influence of the French Impressionists, and became the only American to participate in their exhibitions; and the sculptor Bessie Potter Vonnoh, who worked principally in New York and produced statuettes of women in conventional roles.

Artists whose work is included

The links in their names are to their entry on the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History on the Met website in terms of both a bio and artwork

Mary Cassatt (1844 - 1926) 

- the American Artist and Impressionist painter and printmaker who was a friend of the French Impressionists

portrait paintings by Mary Cassatt (left and right)

• all artwork by Mary Cassatt in the Met
• Lydia Crocheting in the Garden at Marly1880
• Young Mother Sewing 1900
• see also About Mary Cassatt - American Artist - a website I created about her 

Childe Hassam (1859-1935) 

- a pioneer of American Impressionism. Did you know that, after John Singer Sargent and Mary Cassatt, there are more paintings, drawings and prints by Childe Hassam in the Metropolitan Museum of Art than any other American Impressionist painter?

Crop of Childe Hassam's painting of Celia Thaxter's garden on the Isles of Shoals in Maine.

This painting is one of the finest of a series of works that Hassam made during summers in the 1890s on Appledore Island, one of the Isles of Shoals, which lie ten miles east of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. This series portrays the sumptuous wildflower garden cultivated by his friend, poet Celia Thaxter, a garden that provided a marvelous contrast to the rugged terrain of the island itself. In this painting, vibrant red poppies entangled in lush green foliage introduce a view of bleached Babb's Rock. The painting shows Hassam at the height of his creativity as an American Impressionist.

• all works by Child Hassam at the Met
• Celia Thaxter's Garden, Isles of Shoals, Maine 1890
• The Water Garden 1909
• Surf, Isles of Shoals 1913
• Avenue of the Allies, Great Britain, 1918

SEE ALSO the website I created ages ago About Childe Hassam - American Impressionist Painter

John Singer Sargent (1856–1925)

- the noted American painter, draftsman, portraitist, muralist and watercolorist.

Portraits of society women by John Singer Sargent

• Lady with the Rose (Charlotte Louise Burckhardt)1882
• Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau)1883–84
• Mrs. Hugh Hammersley1892
• The Wyndham Sisters: Lady Elcho, Mrs. Adeane, and Mrs. Tennant 1899
• Bringing Down Marble from the Quarries to Carrara 1911

Paintings by John Singer Sargent

William Merritt Chase (1849–1916)

Paintings by William Merrit Chase

Maurice Prendergast (1858-1924)

• Central Park ca. 1914–15

Central Park by Maurice Prendergast

I'm finishing with Central Park because a combination of lack of time and needing to pace myself so I could stay on my feet meant that Central Park is something I have looked at - but not yet visited.

However I was very impressed with New York and I plan to go back.....

Wayne Thiebaud working on etchings (video)

Below is a rather good short video about Wayne Thiebaud working on etchings.  The video was made by the Crown Point Press, based in Hawthorne Street in San Francisco. (They have some impressive clients!)

Worth a watch.

This is the link to the exhibition referenced in the video



I've found more good stuff about Thiebaud online but if I stop to process and organise it nothing will get posted!

Alan Woollett named Master Artist for 'Birds in Art' 2019

Alan Woollett

British coloured pencil artist Alan Woollett will be the 2019 Master Artist at the 44th annual “Birds in Art” exhibition at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in USA in the Autumn.  The annual exhibition is one of the premier international exhibitions of bird artwork - and attracts entrants from around the world.

Alan's name will be joining this list of Master Wildlife Artists previously honoured in this way.

Features of his artwork include:

• he's passionate about conveying the beauty of birds and the complexities and simplicity of these amazing creatures. 
• his artwork conveys the joys of observing, drawing, and appreciating nature.
• his compositions are always unusual. I find he has a way of revealing new ways of looking at birds or enabling you to notice something you've not noticed before
• his bird are often given a context which means they don't jump out at you but cleave to their camouflage
• he draws in graphite and/or coloured pencil - and has transitioned from graphite to coloured pencil over time

In terms of "Birds in Art"

Birds in Art is an international juried exhibition organized annually by the Woodson Art Museum.

• Alan demonstrated persistence and submitted artwork for the annual exhibition five times before he was successful in 2011 with a graphite work and attended the exhibition.

“When I initially scanned the galleries, I knew I’d have to step it up even more, if I hoped to return.”

• Woollett’s first colored-pencil work to be exhibited in “Birds in Art,” “Northern Mockingbird,” was acquired by the Woodson Art Museum in 2013, which he described as “a great feeling and an honor.” 

Northern Mockingbird by Alan Woollett

• Selected for inclusion in “Birds in Art” seven times, he travelled from England to Wausau, Wisconsin (inbetween Minnepolis and Lake Michigan) to attend the exhibition opening again in 2012 and 2015. 

“Seeing my work in the ‘Birds in Art’ exhibition alongside that of so many great artists never ceases to make me smile. It is really such an honor.”

The 2019 “Birds in Art” exhibition, on view September 7 through December 1, will feature

• a selection of Woollett’s artwork 
• more than 100 original paintings, sculptures, and graphics created within the last three years by artists from throughout the world. 
• The exhibition’s full-color catalogue, featuring an essay about the 2019 Master Artist, will be available for purchase in September at the Woodson Art Museum.

Submissions for the exhibition can still be made. The Online submission and postmark deadline  for entries is April 22, 2019. This is the prospectus for the exhibition.

About Alan Woollett

• Born in 1964 in Chatham, Kent, England, he now lives and works in Maidstone, Kent, England, with his wife, two children, and two springer spaniels.
• He became interested in birds while birdwatching in his back garden as a young boy. 
• His childhood drawing pursuits and an “I-Spy Birds” book given to him by his mother ingrained an interest that was to lie dormant until many years later. 
• He studied graphic design at the Kent Institute of Art and Design, now called the University for the Creative Arts. His two years as a student there “reignited my passion for art, drawing, and the natural world,” 
• In 1993 he received an OND, Ordinary National Diploma, in graphic design and illustration. 
• Since graduation he has concentrated on bird and wildlife art. 
• He further developed his skills drawing with graphite “whilst seriously harboring a desire to paint birds in watercolor,” he said. 
• A local naturalist and illustrator taught him how to use a paintbrush, and he focused on honing his painting skills during the next few years as a stay-at-home parent of his two children.
• Gradually, he transitioned to working in colored pencil, after initially using them to add fine details to his paintings and then using them more extensively to complete his drawings. 

“I had always felt much more comfortable with a pencil in hand than a paintbrush"

• In 2000, Alan won the prestigious, ‘Bird Artist of the Year’ award for the year 2000, which is awarded by Birdwatch Magazine, for his pencil drawing of a heron. 
• In 2016, he won the Earth’s Beautiful Creatures Award, 2016 at the “Wildlife Artist of the Year,” exhibition run by the David Shephard Foundation (see Wildlife Artist of the Year 2016 - The Awards).
• In 2017, his book “Bird Art,” was published by Search Press Limited. (See my blog post Review: Bird Art by Alan Woollett). 
• You can also read An interview with Alan Woollett on the Jackson's Art Blog, which followed publication of his book. 
• Alan - whose work also features in my book Sketching 365 - creates his art in his studio at the bottom of his garden at his home in Kent. 

Alan Woollett working in his studio in Maidstone

“I’m still taking in the fact that my work is deemed worthy of being exhibited alongside that of such esteemed and talented artists. It’s such a huge honor and one that has me still pinching myself most mornings when I sit to draw in my humble little studio.” 

Alan Woollett’s artwork has been featured in exhibitions throughout England, including 

• “National Exhibition of Wildlife Art” at the Gordale Garden Centre, Burton, South Wirral; 
• seasonal exhibitions at Francis Iles Galleries in Rochester, Kent; 
• Annual Exhibitions of the “United Kingdom Colored Pencil Society” at Menier Gallery in London. 

His awards include 

• Earth’s Beautiful Creatures Award, 2016, “Wildlife Artist of the Year,” from Mall Galleries in London (see the top photo) and 
• Bird Artist of the Year, 2000, by “Birdwatch Magazine.”

Alan does not have a website but does have a Facebook Page where you can see his artwork and contact him if interested in making a purchase. You can also follow him on Twitter @awoollett

He is also represented by the Francis Iles Gallery in Rochester in Kent - who take his artwork to Art Fairs in the UK.

Drawings by Alan Woollett at the Works on paper Fair in 2017

Last days of Thomas Cole at the National Gallery

Yesterday I went to see the exhibition of paintings by Thomas Cole at the National Gallery. It's impressive and I learned a lot.

The exhibition Thomas Cole: Eden to Empire is in the Ground Floor Galleries - which many people seem to miss when visiting the National Gallery. Certainly they one of those places which you need to know are there and how to reach them (from the staircase or lift in the centre of Level 2 or from the cafe at the ground floor level). It finishes on 7th October.

View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm
- The Oxbow (1836) by Thomas Cole
Oil on canvas, 130.8 × 193 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Source: Wikipedia)

Key things I took away from the exhibition are

• The exhibition is significant - it includes 58 paintings, including a number on loan from various North American public and private collections
• Thomas Cole was born in Bolton, Lancashire but emigrated to the USA age 17
• Thomas Cole is regarded as "the father of landscape painting" in the USA - but was largely self-taught as a painter - although he seemed to emerge as a very sophisticated painter as if my magic!
• He was influenced by both Joseph Mallord William Turner and John Constable and Claude Lorrain - whose work he travelled to see. Their paintings precede the exhibition of Cole's work - and you can see why when further into the exhibition. 

At the age of 28, Thomas Cole and his American patron, Luman Reed - a successful businessman and one of the earliest collectors of European and American art in the US - agreed it was time for him to take a study trip to Europe, beginning with London. Just a decade after leaving England to pursue a better life, he would return as a professional artist seeking to refine his technique and broaden his horizons though the great collections, and by associating with the most celebrated artists working at the time. At the National Gallery, which he visited, Cole was particularly enraptured with the work of Claude, especially Seaport with the Embarkation with Saint Ursula, which is included in this exhibition.
Not long after arriving in London, the young artist saw 'Hadleigh Castle, The Mouth of the Thames - Morning after a Stormy Night' (1829, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven) by Constable, with whom he developed a friendship and exchanged letters and sketches. An admirer of Turner, Cole visited his studio, but was somewhat confounded by the image the artist presented of himself. A bit rough around the edges and artistically experimental, Turner did not resemble the image Cole had of an artist of international repute. 

• Cole transposed the romanticism and the drama of Turner into views of the Catskill Mountains where he had made his home - with notes of strict realism concerning how the landscape is being changed forever.

In the five years following his return to New York late in 1832, Cole painted his greatest works in response to his time abroad.  Working from drawings and oil studies, he completed his epic painting cycle 'The Course of Empire' and 'The Oxbow' almost simultaneously in this period - both of which may be seen as the culmination of what he took away from his experiences in London, Florence, and Rome. 'The Course of Empire' depicts the rise and fall of an imaginary civilisation in an ancient style, but was intended to highlight the dangers of politics and commerce. It could not have been made but for those months in Italy. 'The Oxbow' was a challenge to the American public to consider its place in the natural world, and to keep in check the seemingly inevitable drive toward destruction.

• He became known as the founding father of the Hudson River School, a group of American artists who sought to depict the untainted majesty of the American landscape.
• His series paintings were constructed to tell a story of what happened when the landscape is abandoned to march of progress. It reminded me a lot of what happened in the USA during the time prior to the banking crisis associated with sub-prime loans 10 years ago.

The following four paintings all belong to the paintings collection of the New York Historical Society.

FAKE Facebook Group called "American Watercolor Society"

The FAKE American Watercolor Society Facebook Group's "About" Page

If you are a watercolourist you need to know that the "American Watercolor Society" GROUP on Facebook is FAKE.

The "About Page" of the FAKE FACEBOOK GROUP looks like the image at the top of the Page.

The REAL American Watercolour Society on Facebook only has a PAGE - this is the URL https://www.facebook.com/AmericanWatercolor/ - and they do NOT have a Group.

How do I know it's Fake?

Post about the FAKE Facebook Group on the REAL American Watercolor Society PAGE

Two things

1. The real American Watercolor Society has called it out with a post on its Facebook Page - but is having trouble working out how to stop it using their name
2. The Admin for the group is somebody called Mehmet Serakibi who is Turkish and lives in Saudi Arabia

and another thing....

Artists have been added into this group without their knowledge or consent - and that includes some of those whose faces appear on the image above.

The Facebook Problem

The problem is that:

• Facebook insists that all accounts (for individuals) MUST be in real names
• Facebook states that it wants to get rid of any Fake News on Facebook
• However it has has not created a way for Members to report Groups using Fake Names - as in the name is real but the person creating the Group is just not entitled to use it - and has very obviously used it with the intention of fooling people.
• It has not created a way like Twitter has to validate and verify the use of a proper registered name.

I reported the group to Facebook. Let's see if it acts on my report. 

This was my report - and I used the Feedback facility to report this.

"You do not have a facility for reporting a Group as a scam.For example this group https://www.facebook.com/groups/266961748074/ called "American Watercolour Society" is misrepresenting itself as an official bona fide society. 
The REAL American Watercolour Society have a Page https://www.facebook.com/AmericanWatercolor/ and are trying to report this group to you for misrepresentation. 
You state accounts MUST have real names so people know you are. 
You say you want us to report Fake News. 
How come you don't allow people to report Fake Groups using the name of a real organisation of the same name?"

If you are concerned about this type of mispresentation of the identity of legitimate art societies can I suggest you:

• check you have not been fooled/scammed by this group
• maybe also complain about the fakery

Ship of Fools by Kehinde Wiley on show at Queens House in Greenwich

Ship of Fools (2017) 
© Kehinde Wiley
2724mm x 2225mm oil on canvas
Courtesy of Kehinde Wiley and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London

The first work by the American artist Kehinde Wiley  to be acquired by a public collection in the UK went on show today at the Queen’s House in Greenwich, London.

The painting 'Ship of Fools' (2017) has been acquired by the Royal Museums Greenwich (RMG) with the help of the Art Fund

Ship of Fools is a large oil painting that depicts a group of four migrants in a rickety boat with a tree trunk growing where the mast would be. Like many of the artist’s other works, Ship of Fools responds to an old master painting: in this case, Hieronymus Bosch’s panel of the same name in the collection of the Louvre.

Ship of Fools makes visible not only the problems that confront contemporary migrants, but also the invisible legacies that informed maritime history and indeed the genre of marine painting.

In the  painting, Wiley’s contemporary subjects are displaced, nameless sea-faring migrants in search of a better life who represent the perilous journey millions make today in an age of increasingly closed borders.

Wiley draws direct inspiration from Hieronymus Bosch’s own mysterious and influential scene of the same title which was created in the late 15th or early 16th century and which critiques the misbehaviour of then-contemporary clergy. Whilst Bosch’s painting depicts gluttony and desire and follows the traditional allegory of the ‘Ship of Fools’ - a ship struggling to keep its course due to a dysfunctional crew - Wiley instead gives his subjects a more heroic demeanour, suggesting that ‘foolishness’ comes from their willingness to risk everything in the search for a better life in the context of a world that typically ignores their desperation. Viewers of the painting are thus placed in the uncomfortable position of examining their own feelings and actions about migration and the migration crisis today.

Kehinde Wiley (b.1977) was recently in the news for his official portrait of President Barack Obama (see The response to the Obama Portraits) .  He was also listed in 2018’s TIME Magazine ‘100 most influential people’ list and hence can properly be regarded as one of the most significant contemporary American artists.

He's best known for majestic large scale paintings that feature people of African heritage. His works explore themes of race, identity and power that challenge the absence of people of colour from traditional art histories.

The painting was created for Wiley’s recent exhibition, In Search of the Miraculous, at the Stephen Friedman Gallery in London

'Ship of Fools' is a traditional theme which a number of painters have reflected by prior to Wiley.  

• The ship of fools is an allegory, originating from Book VI of Plato's Republic, about a ship with a dysfunctional crew
• The concept makes up the framework of the 15th-century book Ship of Fools (1494) by Sebastian Brant, 
• This as the inspiration for Hieronymus Bosch's painting, Ship of Fools: a ship—an entire fleet at first—sets off from Basel, bound for the Paradise of Fools.
• The tree in Wiley's painting reflects  the version painted by Hieronymus Bosch as part of a triptych. The Ship of Fools was painted on one of the wings of the altarpiece, and is about two thirds of its original length - and is now in the Louvre.

Ship of Fools by Hieronymus Bosch
58 cm × 33 cm (22.8 in × 13.0 in)

The contemporary allegory of Wiley’s Ship of Fools helps to bridge the gap between the old master paintings in the Museum’s collection and current political and social issues.

This acquisition will enable the Museum to explore its important holdings related to slavery, migration, and colonialism, and help shed new light on the Museum’s world renowned collection of marine paintings.

Exhibition information for visitors:

• Venue: Queen’s House, Greenwich
• Dates: From 1pm, 26 April 2018
• Opening times: every day, 10.00 – 17.00
• Visitor enquiries: 020 8858 4422
• Admission: Free
• Website: www.rmg.co.uk/Kehinde-Wiley

What kind of art do people like to buy online?

Is the type of art that people buy online the same as the sort of art that people like to create?

This post is going to look at:

• the similarities and differences between the type of art that British and American people buy online
• how this compares to the type of art that people like to paint.

It's important to realise at the outset that that neither the subjects that people search for or the subjects people like to paint are necessarily a sound indicator of the art that people like to buy.  For example, different subject categories of an online art gallery may have been different "view" and "buy" behaviours.

That's why it's interesting to get a perspective from a website (Artfinder) that is prepared to share data on what sort of art people actually buy.  The data in the charts below was collected by Artfinder and is based on sales figures from 1 January 2015 – 31 December 2015.

What type of art do people buy?

Based on sales data in 1 January - 31 December 2015 (Source: Artfinder)

Last week I was sent some charts and conclusions drawn by Art Finder - an art website that acts as an online gallery for people wanting to sell their original art on the Internet.

What do they like - and dislike? 

People in the UK and USA are very similar in relation to:

4 May 2014 - Who's made a mark?

Society of Botanical Artists Exhibition Invitation

I'm back "on the book" this month - we're now at the editing / design / layout stage and refinement re images.  For those involved I may be getting back to you!

As before this post is a recap of:

• recent posts on this blog
• things I've seen and highlighted on my Facebook Page. Many thanks to all those who have 'liked' my Facebook Page in the last two weeks. It took me nearly 6 years to get to 2,000 likes and under two weeks to collect another 200! :)
• other items I've seen and bookmarked to include in this post - and there's a heavy emphasis on art exhibitions this week.

Art blogs

Artists

Say 'Hello' to Andy Wood - the brand NEW President of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour. Andy was previously the Secretary of the RI. He's one of a very few painters in watercolour to have broken into and become acclaimed within the Chinese watercolour painting community.  Last year Andy was one of the judges of the Shenzhen International Watercolor Biennial in 2013 (Facebook Page)

For those wondering whether a change in President means any change to the scope and style of paintings favoured by the RI, my guess is Andy would say that's up to the selection panel.  However, below I've included my photo of some of his paintings - as exhibited in the recent annual exhibition of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour.

Watercolour Paintings by Andy Wood PRI

Joanna Trollope, Author (left)
presenting Suzanne du Toit (right)
with the BP Portrait Prize 2013

Suzanne du Toit, winner of the BP Portrait Award 2013, has written an article for the BBC on her Top 10 tips for being an artist.

It proved very popular when I posted it on Facebook so if you missed it there why not take a look?

Botanical Art

• Following the RHS Botanical Art Show in the Lindley Hall, this my very popular annual post - Interviews with six RHS Botanical Art Gold Medal Winners (2014)
• I want to celebrate those who have overcome a lack of confidence enough to put their work forward for scrutiny and judgement.  Particularly those who then get a distinction in their Diploma - but let Jarnie Godwin (Sketchbook Squirrel) tell you about 'Enjoy What you Do
• If you ever fancy a change, these are the workshops in botanical art at the New York Botanical Gardens. 

Collage Art

• Anticipating that artists who have visited the Matisse exhibition will be stimulated to wield their scissors, tThe May Share Your Art project on The Guardian focuses on Collage Art. You can see the work being shared on A cut above: share your collages now - and I have to say they are absolutely fascinating.  Check out An Election Entertainment after Hogarth by Emma Richardson

Drawing and sketching 

• Shevaun Doherty (Botanical Sketches) wrote about sketching natural history subjects in Museums Sketching 
• I once went to a lecture by Gerald Scarfe at the end of which he drew in pen and ink - it's quite scary! This week he gave an interview to The Guardian 

In general, Gerald draws on thick cartridge paper which is approximately 83cm x 60cm (34 x 24 inches), although some drawings are smaller. He mainly works in pen and black ink, adding water colour later. - See more at: http://www.geraldscarfe.com/originals/#sthash.0jA8VzIr.dpuf

Landscapes

• I recently came across the landscape paintings of Mary Bentz Gilkerson who is a Professor of Art at Columbia University. This is her website and this is her blog - and you can find her workshops here
• Wanderarti takes urban sketching to the next level - I think. It's a website which focuses on the art that people are making about places but has not limited it to just sketching.  It includes an interview with Laura Frankstone. (Laurelines)

Miniatures

• Congratulations to David Lawton (Facebook) has been told he's qualified for membership of the Hilliard Society based on the quality of his work alone. David now needs to get himself a website (hint!)

Portraiture

• A selfie state of mind: How the British perfected the art of the self-portrait - is an article in the Independent which traces the involvement of British artists in the development of the self-portrait. Linked of course to the publication of a book! (‘The Self-Portrait: a Cultural History’ by James Hall, is published by Thames & Hudson)

Street Art 

• Jonathan Jones got sniffy with Street Art and Banksy recently. New Banksy? Whatever. Graffiti is just a tame in-joke for Guardian readers

All good fun. Sadly it has nothing to do with art. Banksy is a cultural phenomenon but not an artistic one.

Art Business & Marketing 

Review: An American in London: Whistler and the Thames

An American in London: Whistler and the Thames (16 October 2013 - 12 January 2014) opens today at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in South London.  The exhibition is also being shown at a later date in two prestigious American Art Galleries, namely:

• The Addison Gallery of American Art (1 February - 13 April 2014)
• The Freer Gallery in Washington (Part of the Smithsonian) (May 2014?)

I went to see it last week and I highly recommend it to all lovers of drawing, etchings, lithographs and drawings and paintings of the Thames.

As we were reminded on the curators' tour, as an etcher, James McNeill Whistler has always been thought of as the successor to Rembrandt (I looked this up and came across The Great Painter-Etchers - available to download and a good read!).  He's certainly incredibly impressive and this exhibition is a masterclass in providing resource material to study his preparation and approach to picture making.

The other aspect I love about Whistler is the way he used the masters of ukiyo-e - in particular Hokusai and Hiroshige - to influence his paintings - particularly their composition.  This is most dramatically demonstrated in Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge (Tate Britain) which has been used as the motif for the exhibition - and can be seen in the photograph below.

The introduction to the exhibition by its two Glasgow University based curators Professor Margaret F. MacDonald, who is a world authority on Whistler, and Dr Patricia de Montfort was both very informative and less heavy-going than some I've been to.   Their new blog linked to the exhibition is called James McNeill Whistler and his Art.  They've also written the catalogue which links to the exhibition.

Glasgow University has a major resource base related to Whistler:

• The Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow has the Whistler Online Catalogue of images of his work
• The James McNeill Whistler Archive  at Glasgow University also comprises the largest single repository of archival material, correspondence and papers on the artist in the world.

Curators of the exhibition - Dr Patricia Montfort and Professor Margaret F McDonald
Standing in front of Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge

The curators have been working on the exhibition for some 9 years with a bit of a blip for the economic crash. They're also the authors of the accompanying catalogue which is very readable and does the reader the courtesy of both following the themes of the exhibition and providing a catalogue for all the images! (Regular readers will recall I've been less enthusiastic of some catalogues of late).  Readers visiting the exhibition in London may be a bit puzzled by some of the images - however the exhibition changes slightly when it goes to the USA.  There are images which can only travel within the UK and images which cannot leave the Freer.

Key points about the exhibition 

• it reflects a body of work by an artist who lived next to or near the Thames and drew and painted it repeatedly over a period of over 40 years (1859-1902)
• it shows Londoners what the Thames and its river traffic looked like in the latter half of the 19th century - and as it underwent the changes associated with eg the construction of the Embankment and the replacement and rebuilding of bridges
• the exhibition enables study of how Whistler developed his approach to art, in terms of subject matter, composition and technique.  
• It includes a considerable amount of information about the Thames Set, Nocturnes, various methods of printmaking and the development of artwork associated with Battersea Bridge
• the works by Whistler in the exhibition are a mix of etchings, paintings - in both oil and watercolour, drawings in charcoal and pastel. 
• the artwork is supplemented by photographs of the Thames during the era showing images of the locations, bridges, types of boats and watermen he was portraying and maps of the area covered by Whistler in drawing and painting the Thames.  

For me the only thing it lacked an annotated map locating image to location.  However the narratives for each image certainly made up for this in terms of identifying precisely what the image is of and where it was located.

So on to a bit more detail about the exhibition....