The Old Year (2011) and The New Year (2012) & 11 Principles

How I want to live my life in 2012

I'm going to continue the tradition (started last year!) of having one post to review the past year and set down some ideas for the New Year.  This is it!

I like the fact I didn't have a set of clear plans and objectives for last year.  As a result I didn't feel any need to be in any way depressed about the fact I didn't meet my objectives.

Last year, the main reason why I didn't have any specific plans was because of the planned retirement of "himself".  I hadn't much of clue how that would affect my life, what I did and what I wanted to do next. Instead I had a set of principles - or mantras if you like - to guide me in what I did.

For 2012, I've added in three more and the principles are contained in the image above.  I'll start with the three new ones

I'm also not making any specific plans as the main objective is to get ready to make a move out of London.

#1:  Make space for people who matter

"Make space for people who matter" has been added in to my principles for 2012.  It was an aim for 2011 and I've been partially successful.

It's really great to finally have a partner who isn't working.  "He who must not be bored while I sketch" retired this summer and thinks it's great too and is thoroughly enjoying his retirement - as am I.  I've done all sorts of things in the second half of 2011 that I never would have anticipated being some of my highlights of the year.  All in all it's been a very positive experience and a change for the better - and I'd like more of the same please in 2012.

I'm also very lucky to have a bloke who is so accommodating about my sketching and buys me art books as presents!  I know a lot of my readers are a lot less lucky and so I also remind myself to be thankful.

For me the priority is that art activities and blogging has in future to be fitted in around "himself" and his wish for me to get off the computer more often.  We don't live in one another's pockets but if he wants to do something then I'm going to be flexible.

#2:  Be efficient and effective

This year I've decided to print out my new set of principles for 2012 and will put them on the wall in front of my desk in 2012 (right next to the lovely calendar of Gustav Klimt landscapes!) - to remind myself of what I need to focus on.

I need to recognise that health issues (I'm getting old!) have a practical impact on what I can do easily - both in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. After an extremely painful time, when I was more or less housebound I've finally got a diagnosis for why foot have been causing so many more problems than usual and now need to get on with doing what I need to do to help myself make life a bit easier than it has been in 2011.  I like walking and I'd like to continue walking and consequently I need to build in more walking again to my routine - this time wearing my new and very attractive(!) compression stockings.  Watch out for more "on the hoof" sketching.

One thing I also need to do is write blog posts in less time - so I'm up against a deadline for this one - I have to start cooking very soon!  (I failed - but it was 80% finished by the time I had to be in the kitchen).

#3:  Finish what I start - I continue to start far more than I finish.  I continue to want to do far more than I can fit in.  My head buzzes with ideas and if I have to get something done it has to be written down and put right under my nose to keep me focused!

In 2011 I tried to

• do less rather than more - with only partial success
• much lower level of involvement with the residents' association (which completely kyboshed 2010)
• fewer blog posts (only 288 on Making A Mark compared to 307 in 2010).  The aim is to write an average of five per week.
• but three new blogs! (A Postcard from My Walk, Four Go Painting in Provence and makingamark - a daily photo)
• get more focused on the longer term
• agreement to move secured (I think!)
• discussions about where we move to underway
• new places to live auditioned
• the clearout has begun - I'm very definite about the fact I will paying to move what I want to have with me in the next home!

In 2012 I aim to:

• continue to stop myself from taking on too much
• finish what I start - by starting less and finishing more.  This means no new blogs in 2012!

#4  Life is too short

Many people think of life being too short to do everything they want to do.  I know there's never going to be enough time to fit in everything I want to do.

I'm trying to be much more focused on the quality of what I do and how I do it.  Doing the right things in the way which suits me best within the timescale which works for me.

That means:

• I don't need to exhibit to feel good about my art - however it's nice to my work exhibited in good exhibitions.  I cut back to just the Society of Botanical Artists exhibition in 2011 and that worked really well.  I think that'll stay the same for 2012.
• I do want to paint in oils - however that means I do need a better/safer set-up to do that safely - which is where the move comes in buy studio with house attached? ;)
• I love my photography and started a photoblog - makingamark - a daily photo.  I've very much enjoyed doing it - it reaquainted me with all the thousands of photos I've taken.  However nobody ever visits and it took up more time than I would have liked (try finding photos to go with letters of the alphabet -  I've learned an awful lot of plant names and botany in just a few months!).  I think this one will be abandoned as a daily project as "life is too short" however it might continue on a less frequent basis. 

#5 - Be Original and the Best You can Be

Be yourself and do your best - isn't that what we all try to be?.  I got a bit pedantic about this in 2011 - however Make your own art! was one of the most popular blog posts in 2011

I was really, really pleased to find that I developed a new interest and a new way of doing things in 2011.  I'm a real foodie and loved good food in nice restaurants.  I think sketching meals in restaurants and food sketches in general might just become an increasing focus of my travels with my sketchbook - see below for four examples from my travels through France.  Let me emphasise these were all sketched as I sat in the restaurant, with my coloured pencil case on the table and to the puzzlement of waiters as I whipped out my pen to draw a dish as it was served at table.  The trick is to work how much space you have to leave for the courses you've ordered when you don't know what they look like!  The best bit is you get to eat with your eyes before you eat for real - and you never ever get indigestion!

A Menu in a Sketchbook (click the links in the title to read more)

Épernay and The Grillade Gourmande
pen and ink and coloured pencils, 16" x 11"

Lunch at La Maison Jaune, St Remy de Provence
pen and ink and coloured pencils, 16" x 11"

Dinner and sunset at Le Mas des Vignes, Bedoin
pen and ink and coloured pencils, 16" x 11"

Lunch Chez Guy in Gevrey-Chambertin
pen and ink and coloured pencils, 16" x 11" 

Maybe a book about sketching food and interiors of restaurants and cafes in 2012?

I've also enjoyed doing sketches of gardens in 2011 and will try to focus on doing more of these in 2012.

A Cheshire Garden in July
pen and ink and coloured pencils, 16" x 11"
all images copyright Katherine Tyrrell

#6 - Variety is the Spice of Life

I have never been able to do just one thing.  I must have variety otherwise I get very bored.  However while allowing myself that variety I must recognise that I also get distracted too easily and need to focus more on my time management and getting done what needs doing.

A reward system may need to be implemented in 2012 as an incentive!

#7 - The Journey is the reward

Two aspects to this one - making journeys for real and the journey of life.

In 2011 I drove from London to Provence - and back again.  Mostly on the autoroute.  It did make me think it would be really nice to do it again but on the back roads and at a more leisurely pace - with another driver next to me so I get to stare at the scenery more - and more time for lunch!  I also need to remember that I get tired while driving and pacing myself is generally rather a good idea.

In 2012 I'd like to take a trip with "himself" but we need to find a destination(s) and timing that works for the both of us.  I'll then produce another sketchbook and get on with filling it.

I think I also need to start a bucket list of the places I do want to try and get to before I seize up completely and/or the driving over 70 insurance hits my wallet.  Hence there's a list to start with "himself" to find out which are joint escapades and which are mine alone.

Most of all I try and remember that the end goal is only part of what it's all about - it's also about how much I enjoy the journey en route

#8 - Remember there are no shortcuts!

In 2011 I tried painting in oils - although they were alkyds because of the travelling.  I'm not going to turn into an oil painter overnight.  I need to work at it.  Which means I need to work out a way in which I can paint in oils more often.  Moving would be good......

Homes don't empty down to the stuff you want to take with you just like that - you have to work at it.

I'm working through first level screening at the moment and chucking the obvious.  I've not yet started on the art materials but think there's a good chance some of those might be heading for the bin or another home.  It's good to sit down and work out what really matters and what's just taking up space.

#9 - Good enough is good enough

I need to keep my perfectionism streak under control.  It takes up far too much time and stops me getting on with stuff.

In 2011, I did very little formal artwork for various reasons - one of which is that I have problems with my hand which prevents me from gripping for too long.  I need to work out what I can do easily which avoids aggravating my hand problem.

I also know that my first love will always be drawing and sketching and drawing from life is what I do best.  I draw fast which is why it's less of a problem with the hand.

I might just try seeing if other people like my sketches enough to buy them in 2012.

#10 - What goes around comes around

I always think of this as being about relationships with people (a variation on "do as you would be done by").  Actions have consequences.  If you make a mistake then it's a good idea to try and address it.  I hope I'll always do that.

It's also quite a neat way of dissipating aggravation when something or somebody has annoyed you.  I just need to get better at remembering that because focusing on the negative just creates such a drag.

I'm going to try and spend more time focusing on the good and rather less on the negative in 2012.

#11 - You get out what you put in

I want to enjoy my life - so my aim is to do what I enjoy doing, associate with people I like being with and generally avoid anything which causes me grief or aggravation.

A few numbers to finish with 

Making A Mark in 2011

• gained an extra 900 extra subscribers
• received over 300,000 visits from people who looked at over half a million page views
• achieved 1 million unique visits in total - and over 1.26 million by the end of the year
• maintained its rank as #3 art blog in the UK and sustained a ranking of round about #15 in the world

You can see all my posts really easily on my archived blog posts page at the top of this blog

Travels with a Sketchbook is now 2 short of 600 subscribers while The Art of the Landscape has over 400.

THANK YOU

I'd very much like to thank all those who visit during the year

with particular and especial thanks to 

all those who have write comments, have conversations and let me know what you like

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

I'll be listing other people's reviews of 2011 and plans for 2012 in "who's made a mark this week?" next Sunday 6th January. If you've got a blog post about either do let me know - no matter what the format or how long or short it is. It can be a twitter addressed to @makingamark2 if that's what works for you!

Four Go Painting in Provence

You are invited to visit a new blog - Four Go Painting in Provence.  

This is the natural extension to group blogging about art.  Four female group bloggers go on holiday to sketch and paint together - and then blog about it!

In June this blog is going to be very quiet.  That's because, in the main, I'm going to be blogging on Travels with my Sketchbook and Four Go Painting in Provence

As some of you will recall (see My Postcard from Provence) that's because I'm going to be spending three weeks drawing, sketching and painting in Provence - plus another six days getting there and back. So that's very nearly four weeks in France.

I'm in Provence for the whole three weeks - but I'm not alone.  

• Sarah Wimperis (The Red Shoes / Watermarks ) is flying in from Cornwall for two weeks from the middle of June
• Robyn Sinclair (Have Dogs, Will Travel / A Postcard from my Walk) is driving up from Italy for  two weeks at the beginning; and 
• Ronelle van Wyk (African Tapestry /  Watermarks / A Postcard from my Walk) is putting her renovation work at Coin Perdu on hold for a week to join us for the middle week

The aim of the blog is primarily for us to have a record of our holiday - and to have a place where we can post our daily paintings together - to see how four artists can see the same place through different eyes.

However it also struck us that a few people might like to come along for a virtual journey and enjoy the sights and the weather and maybe have a virtual smell of the cooking!  So if that's you - keep reading!

We're getting very excited about the prospect - and today Sarah kicked off our new blog with its first post - about getting down to the packing - see First Things First.

Where we will be based

We're not in coastal Provence.  We're further up in the Vaucluse in "proper" Provence - away from the tourists.

For those of you who don't know already, we've rented "a ramshackle farmhouse in the wilds of Provence" aka the home of popular Postcard from Provence painter Julian Merrow Smith while his wife Ruth Phillips (Meanwhile) plays cello at the Garsington Festival.   

The house is silent apart from the sound of skops owl, woodpecker, golden orioles nesting in the plane tree and the odd wild boar scuffle. 

We're based near Crillon le Brave and Bedoin two small Provençal hill villages at the foot of Mont Ventoux.

From there we'll be travelling around to various places.  You can find some of the places we might get to in Places we Painted - which at present only contains links to and notes about the places we might well visit

The Big Question

At the moment we're trying to come up with "a big question" for each of us which we can then use as individual themes for the artwork we produce while in Provence.  I'm not sure whether it will work - but it's a good place to start.

Mine is probably going to be about learning to paint in oils!  It seems appropriate.  The first time I visited Provence - some 20+ years ago was the first time I got back to my art after something like a 15 year break.  So Provence for me is a place of new starts.

A Postcard from Our Walks

Julian's Cabanon (print available)

Fellow members of our Postcard from my Walk group stand a very good chance of being a recipient of postcards from Provence after our visit.

We'll be out and about walking near the house in the magical light of early morning and early evening  - and seeing how many Postcard from Provence motifs we can spot - such as the Cabanon (see right)!

I keep getting carried away thinking about the colours

• there's the lavender for those of who are there late in June.
• the creamy white of the limestone 
• the green leaves and brown/black trunks of the vineyards
• the orange red of the ochre hills and lots of the roof tiles
• not forgetting the blue of the sky and lots of the paintwork!

Plus there's opportunities to sketch and paint water in a number of different contexts for the Watermarks bloggers.  My favourites are the old fountains in every medieval town and village - my favourite is in Gordes.  However there's river running through L'Isle la Sorgues which always makes me think it's a bit like a mini Venice.  Then there's the highly recommended river in the Vallée du Toulourenc.

So - if you'd like to join us can I suggest you start packing your virtual bags too and then inspect the top of the right hand column of Four Go Painting in Provence so you can "get your ticket" for a virtual painting holiday by:

• either bookmarking the URL of the blog http://paintingprovence.blogspot.com in a feedreader
• or signing up for an email every day (we can but hope!) 

We'll be very happy to take you in our virtual suitcases - but don't forget your sketchbooks!

PS  I had "an Enid Blyton moment" coming up with the title (women of a certain age will know what I'm talking about!) - I guess that means there might be "jolly japes" as well.......

Links:

• MAKING A MARK: Fancy painting in Provence in May?
• MAKING A MARK: My Postcard from Provence

After Bonnard

In February I had a great day out visiting lots of exhibitions plus the preview of the Impressionist Sale at Christies on 9-10th February 2011.

At Christies I had the opportunity to see an amazing amount of art by leading artists including a very fine painting by Pierre Bonnard (1867 - 1947).

Postcard from my Walk - now resides with Liz Steel in Sydney Australia!

I decided to see if there was a ban on sketching in Christies so sat down, got my sketchbook out, started to sketch - and waited to be told "You can't do that here!" 

However nobody did.

So it appears as if, although this might be unusual, it is something you can do.  However do bear in mind that I was working with dry media.  I doubt if they would be quite so kind if I'd been working with paint or anything messy!

6th February 2011 - Who's made a mark this week?

100 Faces BUST-ED by Karin Jurick

Congratulations to Karin Jurick (A Painting Today) who has completed her 100 Faces project - see 100 Faces #100.  She has also created a new book (see 100 Faces Video, Book & Mentionables for more details - and the cover above) and uploaded a new movie about the project to YouTube.

Art Blogs

I've just noticed that my widget in the side bar says that the Blogrank Index for Art Blogs has now got Making A Mark ranked as the 17th most popular art blog in the world!  Whoohoo!  Charley Parker's Lines and Colors is in 8th place.

Botanical art

• Linda Warner Constantino (Wet Watercolours) is a College Professor of Illustration - and a student on the Society of Botanical Artist's Distance Learning Diploma Course.

I am busy painting for a Distance Learning Class in Botanical Painting through the Society of Botanical Arts in England. It is the most challenging thing I have ever done.

Drawing and sketching

• The illustrated journal as lifeline by Laura Frankstone (Laurelines) reflects on the practice of keeping a jounral about art and life in one place
• Liz Steel (Liz and Borrowmini) had A Big Sketching Day in Sydney last Saturday
• Adebanji Alade (Adbanji Alade, My art, my passion for sketching) shows us his toolkit for sketching on the bus and train
• The postcards in A Postcard from My Walk are now arriving at their destinations and are being posted to the blog by their recipients - today's is Hoar Frost - Misty Morning greetings by Vivien Blackburn.

Hoar Frost - Misty morning by Vivien Blackburn acrylic on paper

• Jeanette Jobson (Illustrated Life) has created a page on her blog for daily drawings.  Neat idea!
• I was recently Sketching the Dodo at the Natural History Museum.  Have you ever tried drawing stuffed animals?  The nicest comment I'vce had about my dodo is that he looks alive! ;)

The Dodo at the Natural History Museum
pen and sepia ink in Moleskine Sketchbook, 8" x 10"
all images copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Coloured Pencils and Pastels

• Barbara Newton (Barbara Newton Art Journal ) tried a new approach which you can see in my bright idea and 35 thumbnails.  Check out the pastel paintings which follow to see the impact.

Illustration

• Squint News is the blog for the students, alumni, faculity and friends of the MFA in Illlustration at Hartford Art School 
• Creative Quarterly is the blog by Creative Quarterly: the Journal of Art and Design

Landscape

• A couple of posts from The Art of the Landscape
• Sherrie York draws and prints the landscape underfoot highlights a video of Sherrie York (Brush and Baren) talking about her stunning relief prints of the landscape.  Thanks to Alyson Stanfield for drawing my attention to this video and Sherrie's current exhibition.
• The Faraway Nearby: Georgia O'Keeffe and the New Mexico Landscape is the title of a a video piece created by composer and multimedia artist Nell Shaw Cohen. It features a chamber music score and footage of the New Mexico landscapes where painter O'Keeffe found inspiration.  I found it mesmerising and can now well understand why Georgia O'Keeffe painted this landscape.
• The Virtual Paintout is in Romania this month

Painters and Painting

• memory and Richard McKinley - Loriann Signori (Loriann Signori's Painting-A-Day) on the topic of memory painting.  For the reason why Loriann is doing memory painting rather than painting plein air see bravery and memory
• Getting into art festivals is a big deal.  This post Sedona Plein Air Festival - And the Grand Canyon Painting is about two festivals and Michael Chesley Johnson (Plein Air Painter's Blog).  Note especially that well known winter phenomenon - the artist painting in the studio complete with woolly hat.
• Carol Marine got 85 entries to her new challenge project last week's Daily Paintworks Challenge.  So far she's got 23 entries for this week's challenge - The Ten Minute Challenge.  I'll be writing more about this next week.

Each challenge consists of an image - either a photo or a painting - and a description or instructions. In most cases, participating is as simple as submitting your version of the image.

Anyone can participate by submitting an entry to anychallenge - there are no deadlines! You can even submit more than once to a challenge. Any 2D media is welcome and don't be afraid to interpret.

Art Business and Marketing

• Sue Favinger Smith (Ancient Artist) 
• sets out the problem in Create Portfolio Images Like a Pro - and 
• provides the solution in  How to Create Portfolio Images Using Photoshop.  
• Alyson Stanfield (artbizblog) says Embrace a Space and Get Your Art Out There.  This is the post which highlighted Sherrie York (see landscape above).
• Gayle Mason (Fur in the Paint) is trying out a new idea - a "print of the week" which is offered for a discounted price for a defined period. She explains it further in this post Print of the Week - Long Haired White Cat

Art and the Economy / Art Collectors

• Do you visit the preview exhibitions for major art auctions by the big auction houses?  I’ve been recommended to go and see the preview for the upcoming sale of Impressionist and Surrealist works at Christies. These are links to slideshows (including audio podcasts) and e-catalogues 
• the slideshow and e-catalogue for the Impressionist/Modern Evening Sale
• the slideshow and e-catalogue for the Impressionist/Modern day sale
• the slideshow and e-catalogue for Impressionist/Modern Works on paper
• the slideshow and e-catalogue for the Art of the Surreal Evening Sale

Art Competitions and Art Societies

• Love flowers and botanical art?  I posted a reminder about the February 14th deadline and Entry conditions for Society of Botanical Artists' Exhibition 2011

Art Exhibitions and art fairs

• The Shirley Sherwood Gallery's presence on the Kew Gardens website has improved no end.  Thanks to Jessica Rosemary Shepherd (Inky Leaves) for letting me know about the improvements.  Jess helps manage the art exhibitions at Kew.  New exhibitions this month will include ones where, for the first time, botanical artwork will be available for sale!
• It also has some new exhibitions which opened yesterday.  This is the page for the new exhibitions which in summary are:
• The Secret Garden - an exhibition by Leicestershire Society of Botanical Illustrators
• The Botanical Brush - This exhibition features the work of nine artists who have botanical paintings held in the archive of Hampton Court Palace Florilegium.
• From Eye to Hand - The paintings in this exhibition include a timeline of works that have been selected from the Kew Art Collection which contains over 200,000 items. 
• Hidden Treasure - Dr. Sherwood will also be exhibiting works from her contemporary collection of botanical art illustrating what occurs under the soil.
• The Island of Sark is to become the focus for a new project by the The Artists for Nature Foundation.  In May it will play host to a group of wildlife artists and Art for Sark from 4th to 16th May 2011.  This is the list of artists confirmed to date.  I wonder if they will do a blog of the project?

The aim is to promote the unique natural habitat of Sark through the work of renowned international wildlife artists from a range of disciplines.

New Exhibitions

• Pure Gold - 50 years of the Federation of British artists at the Mall Galleries.  I'm really looking forward to the preview on Tuesday.  The exhibition runs from 9th - 19th February.  It will include previously unseen works by artists such as John Singer Sargent, Walter Sickert and William Orpen, on loan from major public and private collections, including the Tate.
• The Guardian has a review of the upcoming exhibition of watercolours at the Tate Watercolour at Tate Britain - Review

Historically, watercolour has been perceived as the medium of the dabbling amateur. Children, ladies and gentlemen of leisure have all been drawn to its cheapness, speed and apparent ease. Its subjects, too, have tended to be minor in size and scope: a domestic scene here, a botanical drawing there, stretching at most to a charming landscape. When professional artists use watercolour, so the grand narrative goes, it is to make preliminary sketches, try-outs, what-ifs that are supplementary to the real business of art, which involves painting in oils.

Tate Britain's forthcoming exhibition, entitled simply Watercolour, aims to unsettle these easy assumptions.

Art Galleries and Museums

• The event of the week was the unheralded launch of Google's Art Project - streetview for galleries.  I've so far worked out that it's not possible to get the full functionality on my iPad, but seem to have worked out a bit more than some of the journalists writing about it!  How are you finding it?  The general consensus seems to be that it's very welcome but could suck up time in a major way.  The Work of Art in the Age of Google (New York Times) provides an interesting comment on the copyright issues for museums of contemporary art.

Google Art Project:  The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli (extract showing the hair)

• Yorkshire is becoming a national centre for sculpture!  Read more about a new museum in Hepworth Wakefield boosts Yorkshire's sculpture collection

The Hepworth Wakefield will open to the public on 21 May and become the largest purpose-built gallery to open in the UK since Tate St Ives nearly 20 years ago. 

Together with the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, the new gallery helps make Yorkshire a world centre for sculpture.

• The work of Normal Rockwell can now be accessed via the Norman Rockwell Museum Digital Collections.
• Yale Centre of British Art owns a collection of John Constable's cloud paintings - which are the topic of an article Head in the Clouds on Slate

Art History

• A Lowry football match painting is expected to sell at auction for between £3.5m and £4.5m in May
• I'm at one with Charley Parker (Lines and Colors) - he's done a great post Trove of Sorolla Images to demonstrate his reasoning behind the following

Similar to my opinion of John Singer Sargent, I think that the place of Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida in the canon of great painters in art history is vastly understated.

Art Education / workshops / Tips and techniques

• Martin Stankewitz (Draw a Tree) provides a mini tutorial for a gouache sketch - while painting ice on a pond
• To be or not to be frugal is an interesting perspective and tip from Katherine van Schoonhoven (Art and Music)

Art Studios  

• Here's an old post (but a good one) providing a tour of Barbara Newton's Studio - studio tour.  I want those Flat files for paper storage with framed painting storage below!

Art Supplies

• I've been asking& Which dark soft pastels are the best?
• Mitchell Albala recommends Gamvar: An Easy-to-Use Varnishing Solution for Oil Painters
• OK - who wants a tabletop easel as used by Karin Jurick?  Lots of you obviously as it's currently sold out!

Book reviews

• On Tuesday I posted Making A Mark's Top 10 Fine Art Books in January 2011.  
• I've also updated  Makingamark's Top 10 Fine Art Books and 
• created a new site for all the new books The Best NEW Art Books
• For those wanting to learn how to draw trees, another book review How to draw trees by Frank M.Rines a book review from Martin Stankewitz's blog Draw a Tree.  

Colour

• I'm kicking myself for not having done this blog post already!  There again I have but back when I was doing my Color Project.  Charley Parker reminds us of the fantastic Wikipedia Color Resources which exist
• For those not around when I was "doing colour" here are thelinks to my two main resource websites created as a result of the colour project which contain references to all the resources I found at the time (and since)
• Colour - Resources for Artists
• Colour science, systems and models - Resources for Artists

Creativity

• Excellent and recommended post by James Gurney (Gurney Journey) on Activating Your Imagination.  This includes a number of practical suggestions for enhancing your ability to be creative and to draw without a photo reference.

Opinion Polls

• Next the February Making A Mark POLL: Which service do you trust when you post or ship artwork?  Lots of excellent tips and comments coming in - keep them coming as I'll summarise them when I post the results.  I'll also be trying to find the answers to queries which are being posed.
• There's also a new opinion poll to find out which brand of dark pastels people prefer. Please vote in the NEW OPINION POLL Which is your favourite brand of dark soft pastels? in  Pastels - Resources for Artists

Websites, webware and blogging

• I've introduced a "jump break" into all my recent blog posts - except for "who's made a mark this week.  This means you now get a prompt to "read more" and means you scan more quickly - but won't see all the content on offer.  It's an experiment - tell me what you think. 

and finally........

If you're wondering why this is a tad late, it's because it was inadvertently wiped when two thirds finished!  I'm afraid I have to take an expletive break when that happens!

Have I told you how I HATE Google's new block text command which goes far further than you intend far too easily?  The automatic save always instantly kicks in just after you've deleted too much text by accident so it's impossible to retrieve!

POLL: Which service do you trust when you post or ship artwork?

As artists on the Internet, we're probably more aware than most of the perils and practicalities of posting artwork to exhibitions and customers, at home and overseas.

But who do we trust when we post our art?

Which are the firms we prefer to use when posting or shipping art and which are the ones we like to avoid - and why?  

The February Making A Mark Poll is going to try and find out which postal services or courier firms we feel able to use and/or recommend.  The comments on this post will hopefully provide some insight into different people's experiences of posting art.

Introducing 'A Postcard from my Walk'

I'm happy to announce that I'm participating in a new sketching project - which involves mailing sketches around the world - called A Postcard from my Walk.

Postcard from my Walk Logo by Cathy Gatland

You can read all about it on the new blog - which was published today - and which you can find at http://walk-postcard.blogspot.com/.

The project has grown out of the Sketchercise group which I founded.

Sketchercise is a group of people who enjoy sketching from life (no photos!), have already developed the sketching habit AND have found ways of getting out and about and exercising with a sketchbook.

The idea of this new project is that once a month we will mail a sketch done on one of our walks to one of the group of Sketchercise members who are participating in the project.  That way we get to see the real sketch rather than just the image on the Internet!

Fellow participants are:

• Albrecht Rissler - Germany
• Alison Staite - England
• Bridget Hunter - Scotland
• Cathy Gatland - South Africa
• Charlene Brown - Canada
• Desiree Dianne Habicht - USA
• Felicity Grace - Switzerland
• Liz Steel - Australia
• Martin Stankewitz - Germany
• Pat Reese - USA
• Robyn Sinclair - Italy
• Ronell van Wyk - France
• Vivien Blackburn - England

The first postcards get mailed out next week and should start appearing on the blog in February when they arrive at their destination.

I hope you enjoy following along - links to how to subscribe to this new blog can be found in the side column.

I'd personally like to thank

• Ronell van Wyk who has been the guiding light and driving force around this new project - she's very organised! ;) - and 
• Cathy Gatland who contributed our new logo which you can see above

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PS  Re Out to Lunch,  I got a new microwave on Monday, ordered a new cooker this morning and it's arriving on Friday.  Just got to go and turn the kitchen upside down now to work out where all the bits which I used to keep in or on the cooker are now going to go!  Plus lots more stuff to do around the home so I'll be back next week.