Postal Services to the USA cancelled across the world! What does this mean for artists?

At midnight on Sunday, I spotted a post on social media which indicated there was going to be a major issue for ALL ARTISTS - anywhere in the world - who sell artwork to buyers in the USA.

MOST POSTAL SERVICES AROUND THE WORLD 

HAVE CANCELLED DELIVERY TO THE USA

+ 

ART SALES TO THE USA ARE GOING TO CRASH

I spent most of yesterday and this morning working on a new page for my website - called Shipping Art to the USA i.e. https://www.artbusinessinfo.com/shipping-art-to-usa.html 

Today, being a bank holiday is not the best day to announce it's now public - however the proverbial will be hitting the fan today and tomorrow.....

My new web page for all those caught out by the change in tariffs / border control
and the comprehensive suspension of postal services
Link is https://www.artbusinessinfo.com/shipping-art-to-usa.html

I know a lot of artists - across the world - who regularly sell art to Americans are very worried about what this means for their business.

My new website includes sections about

• three key drivers around the problem for artists
• what has been happening in the last month
• what it means in practical terms for artists
• what it means in different continents and countries around the world.
• plus lots and lots of references

The irony in the title is that the AIRLINES are the current driver leading to the comprehensive suspension of aircraft for carrying post to the USA.

"No longer shipping" courtesy of Astral Synergy Productions

Bottom line, yet again, the change in policy at motormouth speed is way in advance of the systems developments required to deliver what the USA wants which is

• cancellation of the exemption from tariffs for all post and parcels with a value of between $800 and $100 
• all post/parcels for imports MUST arrive in the USA marked up "Delivery Duty Paid" (this is Trump's notion of how to get the other countries to pay him money)
• On top of this there's an argument going between lawyers as to whether Trump can cancel the almost universal exemption of certain classes of art from any form of tariff duty payable.

The airlines have seen the writing on the wall and they are NOT HAPPY! (I'm assuming they worked out the reality, i.e. masses of small packages not going anywhere fast and stuck on planes because space has run out in normal storage areas before packages are processed). 

So they pulled the plug! Well done the airlines is what I think!

So given the complete carcrash of a mess which is currently exploding around the world, I thought I better get on with my new page!!!

So what I've published is my "best effort to date" BUT it is neither comprehensive nor do I guarantee everything on it is correct. However I've included a lot of references to people writing about this issue in other places and will continue to review and update in the coming days.

This is the short section providing headlines about implications for artists

Implications for Artists
- as producers and exporters of art to buyers in the USA

I'll be writing more about this - but right now I'd like to have lunch and get out in the sunshine and "have some time off"!

Call for Entries: 6th Triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2022

A call for entries for the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2022 was published a little while ago. This is the 6th time this triennial competition and exhibition has been run.

In brief:

• This is a very prestigious portrait competition - which happens every three years
• The intention of the competition is that it should reflect American Portraiture today.
• Consequently entries are limited to one only from adult portrait painters living and working in the United States and associated territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands).
• the timeline is somewhat drawn out
• the deadline for entries is January 29, 2021

Note: The Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition is made possible by the Virginia Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Endowment, established by Virginia Outwin Boochever and continued by her children.

Call for Entries

In limiting entries to Americans, it also seeks to provide a pointer as to intent.

What I very much like about this competition is its aim of engaging contemporary portraiture with the social and political landscape of the United States - and making it relevant to current times. Which should make for an interesting batch of entries given recent events and upcoming changes. contemporary 

Artists are invited to submit portraits in any media for consideration in the sixth triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. As with past editions, the competition seeks to broaden the definition of portraiture and highlight the genre’s relevance in society and contemporary art.

There are two important points to note. The last competition changed the rules - presumably to open up scope for contemporary portraiture which provides social commentary with a historical perspective

Artworks may originate from direct encounters between the artist and the sitter or draw upon existing imagery or archival research in response to history.

Next a clear intent as to the scope of the competition - and hence the entries

Artists are encouraged to think about portraiture's potential to engage with the social and political landscape of our time.

Prizes

The awards on offer total $42,000 (£31,250) and are as follows:

• First Prize: $25,000 and a commission to portray a remarkable living American for the National Portrait Gallery’s collection. (Here are the last four commissions - one of which has become very famous i.e. Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama by Amy Sherald)
• Second Prize: $7,500
• Third Prize: $5,000. 
• People's Choice Award: $500
• Commendations: Up to four additional artists will be commended for their work and will receive $1,000 each. 

Jurors

The Jurors are as follows

The Jurors of Outwin 2022

Who can submit a portrait?

Don't even think about entering this competition unless you are an artist who is 

• at least 18 years old (by the time of entry) 
• lives and works in one of: the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

What can you submit?

The constraints on entries are as follows:

Beyond hazardous for some artists

Can we all spare a thought for the wellbeing of all those artists who are currently affected either by

• either the terrible wildfires 
• or the absolutely horrendous air quality 
• in Oregon, Washington State and California, USA. 

The maroon areas are where the air quality is currently either Hazardous (300-500) 
or a new category of "Beyond Hazardous" - with readings above 500 on the index scale
(see Eugene and Portland below)

The most polluted cities in the world (13 September 2020)

This is a shout out to people I know are who all live in areas that are badly affected.  

I've got a number of friends and people I've known online for many years who live in the areas which are affected - and sometimes putting a name to people affected helps raise the profile of the severity of the current situation.

Beyond Hazardous

Oregon is particularly badly affected 

• over one million acres have burned in the last week 
• at least five towns had been "substantially destroyed" 
• half a million people live in evacuation zones at a time when their air is extremely toxic.

Below are three artists who live in areas which have been producing air quality measurements which are beyond the Index for measuring air quality i.e. "BEYOND HAZARDOUS" areas i.e. 500 is the top end of Hazardous 

Carol Marine (Carol Marine Daily Paintings) lives in Eugene Oregon with her husband David - who created the Daily Paintworks website and their son.  [UPDATE: Despite the fact her blog still saying she lives in Eugene, it's been pointed out that her Facebook Account now says she lives in Missoula, Montana - and I gather this happened relatively recently]

• The awful irony is that Carol and her husband, David and son all moved to Oregon after being completely burned out in Texas in a matter of minutes 
• (and as a result now feature on my Insurance for Artists page on my Art Business Info for Artists website - among the examples of artists who have lost everything to natural hazards - and how you can start again if you are insured.) 
• Eugene Oregon is suffering absolutely horrendous air quality as a result of the Holiday Farm Fire just to the east of Eugene.

Eugene, Oregon is "Beyond Hazardous" i.e. beyond the scale measured by the Air Quality Index
Source: AirNow

The EPA’s Air Quality Index (AQI) measures five types of air pollution on a scale of one to 500. “Healthy” air gets a rating between 0 and 50. Things start getting dangerous in the mid-100s, especially for sensitive groups like those with a heart or lung condition. And an AQI reading of 301 or greater is considered “hazardous,” causing the EPA to declare “emergency conditions” for those who are exposed for 24 hours or more.

On Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, the area around Eugene, Oregon, clocked AQI values well into the 700 range on the real-time air-quality monitoring site PurpleAir, greatly exceeding the scale’s maximum value of 500.

Oregon’s air quality is so far beyond ‘hazardous’ that no one knows what it means for health | Grist

(By way of contrast I live in East London where the air quality currently measures less than 20 on the air quality map).

Janene Walkky lives in Portland, Oregon and  Nicole Caulfield lives just over the river from Portland in Camas, Washington - where Janene is a garden designer and botanical artist and Nicole teaches art to schoolkids and sells her art via a regular stall at the weekend market in Portland. 

• On Friday Portland, Oregon was categorised as the #1 most polluted city in the world - because of the smoke from the fires. (see Oregon’s air quality is so far beyond ‘hazardous’ that no one knows what it means for health | Grist)
• Two days later, these are the readings in Portland - which still include readings which are "beyond hazardous" and it is still the worst city in the world for air quality.

For those doubting climate change - and the impact it can have

Nine of the world's 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2005, and the UN warned this week that the five years from 2016 until this year will very likely be the hottest such period yet recorded. 
Oregon wildfires: Half a million people flee dozens of infernos

 

VERY Unhealthy in Washington State

More than 600,000 acres have burned in Washington State.

Botanical artists Jean Emmons (Vashon island) and Deborah Montgomerie (Whidbey Island) both live further north on islands near Seattle in Washington State - which is some distance from the fires and yet their area is currently rated as distinctly unhealthy - although ratings are only about a third of some of the areas in Oregon.

Air quality in Washington State from Seattle Times

An extremely smoky Northern California

Artists Jana Bouc and Ed Terpening both live in the San Francisco area where conditions got very much worse on Friday and the air quality ratings became much worse - see San Francisco Bay Area choked by toxic smoke-filled air. Two days later it's currently rated as unhealthy.

I'm hoping everybody is staying indoors - with all air gaps taped up - and that they're double and triple masking if going outdoors.

I know there's a lot more - and I'm thinking of you all.........

You can track air quality for specific areas via 

• the New York Times Air Quality Map
• Purple Air and IQAir - which both provide real-time monitoring for the whole world (see chart of the current worst polluted cities in the world)

PS Please don't go out if you can avoid it without reading this article first re the after effects of exposure to toxic air Australian wildfires will claim victims even after they’re out - Harvard scientist suggests long-term exposure to smoke-filled air could lead to premature deaths.

Black Lives Matter: what art museums did next

This is a record of what you can see on the websites of major art galleries and museums in the USA today - in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd

• starting with the Minnesota Museum of American Art and 
• finishing with the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

They tell an important story. Don't skip the last image.

Minnesota Museum of American Art

The statement on the home page of the website

BLACK LIVES MATTER.Demands for justice in the face of George Floyd’s murder are reverberating from the Twin Cities across the world. Museums are not neutral and must actively participate in the dismantling of deeply rooted, systemic racism and racial violence in America. The M stands in solidarity with the Black community and allies showing up in the streets of Minneapolis and St. Paul—to protest, clean up, and support the tired, angry, and grieving. The many visionary Black and BIPOC artists in the mix are testifying to the power of art to confront white supremacy, to speak truth to power, to honor and resist forgetting, and to heal. We’re listening and reflecting on how the M can center and help sustain this anti-racist work.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

READ Standing in Solidarity, Committing to the Work Ahead (June 1, 2020)
by Daniel H. Weiss, President and CEO; and Max Hollein, Director

We know that art can be a powerful tool for commenting on contemporary issues, and that museums can play an important role in facilitating important, yet uncomfortable discussions. As the national conversation around racial injustice has heightened in recent days, we have been using our social media channels to highlight works from our collection that invite reflection on our nation's complicated past and present.

National Gallery of Art, Washington

READ Director's Message - PERSPECTIVES
by Kaywin Feldman, Director, National Gallery of Art June 01, 2020

We must remain hopeful, generous, just, and kind now. Our past does not have to be our destiny. We must let the power of art, which is the power of all that we share as human beings, be a power that prevails through this difficult time.

Museum of Fine Art, Boston

READ Director’s Message
BY Matthew Teitelbaum and Ann and Graham Gund Director

It is past time to recognize that the usual commitments to change are not enough, and that we have an obligation to make a difference. Only demonstrable actions will evidence a commitment. We acknowledge that the MFA, like many art and cultural organizations across America, has work to do to become the institution to which we aspire. This is the time for us to determine: “How will the MFA take the lead on bridging and healing the divides that exist among us?”

Art Institute Chicago

READ Our Commitment to Racial Justice and Equity 
BY —James RondeauPresident and Eloise W. Martin Director

.....this cannot simply be a time for words. Museums are contested sites; we are not neutral. We have the ability to play a constructive role in civic discourse. This is a time for self-reflection, a time for us to thoughtfully understand the best ways to advance racial justice. We recognize both the specific limitations of our authority as well as the boundless potential of an art museum to give shape and structure to new narratives. Grief will transform into action.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art

READ Black Lives Matter

We stand with our community in rejecting racism, in mourning, and in demanding justice for the deaths of countless African Americans who continue to be targeted by systematic violence. We recognize that museums cannot claim neutrality in addressing the horrific issues that have plagued our society for centuries.

Minneapolis Institute of Art 

READ: Nothing

It's as if nothing happened in the city where George Floyd died.
Check out https://new.artsmia.org/

Hugo Crosthwaite wins 2019 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition with an animation.

The Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2019 - held on a triennial basis at the National Portrait Gallery (part of the Smithsonian) in Washington DC - announced both prizewinners and selected artists last week.

One frame from the first prizewinner's three minute stop-motion drawing animation
reflecting on the challenges of migration

The intention of the competition is that it should reflect American Portraiture today.

Every three years, artists living and working in the United States are invited by the museum to submit one of their recent portraits to a panel of experts. The selected artworks reflect the compelling and diverse approaches contemporary artists are using to tell the American story through portraiture.

I wrote about the Call for Entries: 2019 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition back in June 2018.

Forty-six portraits were selected by a blind jury on merit from this open call, which generated more than 2,600 entries (Percentage rate of those selected: 1.76% )

The Outwin 2019 presents work in a variety of media by artists from 14 states across the U.S., Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.

What I'm most impressed with - as I am with the Archibald Prize for Portraiture in Australia - is the standard of portraiture. Every time I see the artwork in one or the other of these two competitions I think a rethink of the BP Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery in London. (of which more anon!)

You can see artwork in the exhibition on the website

Prizewinners

The winning artworks reflect the compelling and diverse approaches contemporary artists are using to tell the American story through portraiture.

First Place: Hugo Crosthwaite

The prize is

• $25,000 cash prize and 
• a commission to create a portrait of a remarkable living American for the National Portrait Gallery’s permanent collection

Hugo Crosthwaite, San Diego, California
A Portrait of Berenice Sarmiento Chávez
Stop-motion drawing animation (3:12 min.), 2018

"A Portrait of Berenice Sarmiento Chávez" (2018) is part of a series based on artist Hugo Crosthwaite’s interviews with people who are living in or are passing through Tijuana. The resultant improvised drawings represent the collective memories and oral histories from that part of the Mexico-U.S. border. Set to the soundtrack of a dissonant guitar and a raspy voice singing in Spanish, this animated video reveals the dreams and experiences of a young woman who seeks to take part in the American Dream. Black ink, gray wash, and white paint—applied by the invisible hand of the artist— take turns to expose Berenice Sarmiento Chávez’s humble background and the threat of violence in her home country that pushed her to immigrate to the United States. The film suggests that the immigration journey is seeded with constant danger.

Crosthwaite is the first Latinx artist to receive this prestigious award since the national competition was founded in 2006. (Note: Latinx is a gender-neutral neologism, sometimes used instead of Latino or Latina to refer to people of Latin American cultural or racial identity in the United States.)

Second Place ($7,500): Sam Comen

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!

Why the Smithsonian now owns paintings by Bob Ross - but few others do!

Trust me - you'll enjoy this! 

It's a happy little video about what happened to all those Bob Ross paintings that he painted - before, during and after "The Joy of Painting".

Published by the New York Times on 12 Jul 2019, it's already had more than 6 million views.

Did you know you can't buy a Bob Ross Painting?

That's because it has never occurred to Bob Ross Inc. to sell them.  The company which looks after his artistic estate is based  P.O. Box 946, Sterling, VA 20167 - but the building is closed to visitors and the paintings are all boxed up inside.

Bob used to paint three paintings for the famous The Joy of Painting television show

• one before the show - as a reference
• one during the show - in 26 minutes flat. Sometimes he introduced last minute improvisations. 
• one after the show - for use in the "how to" instruction books

According to an analysis by the website FiveThirtyEight, Mr. Ross painted in 381 of the 403 episodes of the show (the rest featured a guest). If three versions were made of each of those paintings, at least 1,143 originals would exist. Bob Ross Inc. estimates that it has 1,165 paintings stored on site. New York Times

However his paintings never seem to come on the market.

This article perhaps best reflects why people love Bob Ross and want to buy his paintings - I Spent Two Months Trying to Buy a Bob Ross Painting Because Nothing Makes Sense Anymore

The New York Times set out to solve the big mystery of why you cannot buy a Bob Ross and wanted find out how many paintings there were - see Where Are All the Bob Ross Paintings? We Found Them.

The consensus now is that there are 1,143 paintings associated with the show which were painted by Bob Ross.  It's surmised that there may also be paintings in existence which he painted as an instructor outside the TV show and in demonstrations - but that number is unknown. There are also the paintings he made before he started on TV.

The Smithsonian offered to take some of his paintings - and as a result, in 2019,  Bob Ross Inc. donated an array of artwork and artifacts to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and the paintings and other objects officially became part of the museum’s permanent collection on March 22. You can see the paintings that were donated in the New York Times article.

Two exhibitions of paintings by Bob Ross

This year Bob Ross has paintings in two exhibitions in the USA.  Quite how the paintings were extracted from Bob Ross Inc. is a story which still needs to be told....

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

Curator's introduction | Thomas Cole: Eden to Empire

If you've not yet visited the Thomas Cole: Eden to Empire exhibition at the National Gallery in London (or maybe you missed Thomas Cole's Journey - Atlantic Crossings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art earlier in the year) you may well be interested in this 'official' video on YouTube of a lecture by the curator, Tim Barringer.

The video lasts for nearly an hour during which you get a history of Cole's development as a painter and see very many of his paintings. In terms of the lecture, Barringer makes Cole come to life in terms of his life experiences and places he visited - and in particularly how his vision and practice was influenced by seeing Turner's paintings - and meeting Turner.

I think it's very helpful and will enable those who watch it to get more out of the exhibition.

Barringer is the Paul Mellon Professor in the History of Art, Chair History of Art at Yale University and specialises among other things in British Art, 1700 to present and American and British Landscape Painting, 1750-1900.

Paintings and Drawings by Thomas Cole

Thomas Cole (1801-1848) was the son of an unsuccessful textile manufacturer in Bolton, Lancashire. The family emigrated to the USA in 1818 at the height of the industrial revolution. Cole eventually became a landscape painter who in time became nationally revered

You can see his paintings and drawings online as follows:

• List of paintings by Thomas Cole | Wikipedia
• Thomas Cole on Wikimedia Commons
• Google Art Project works by Thomas Cole‎
• Paintings by Thomas Cole‎ 
• Drawings by Thomas Cole‎

 Exhibition: Thomas Cole: Eden to Empire

This exhibition is a rare chance to see Cole’s epic works – mostly travelling from America – including his masterpiece the ‘Oxbow’, and his awe-inspiring portrayals of Eden showing the force of nature.

Cole’s paintings are shown alongside the sublime masterpieces by Turner and Constable that inspired him.

Venue: Ground Floor Galleries, National Gallery, London
Dates: 11 June 2018 - 07 October 2018
Website: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/thomas-cole-eden-to-empire
Tickets:

• members go free
• Standard admission: £10 Mon – Fri | £12 Sat – Sun  
• Book online and save £2 £8 Mon – Fri | £10 Sat - Sun

Reviews of the Exhibition

• Thomas Cole: Eden to Empire, National Gallery, review: We long to see more of this great American landscape painting in full flight | The Independent
• Thomas Cole: Eden to Empire review, National Gallery: civilised paintings of swashbuckling scenes | The Telegraph
• Exhibition review: Thomas Cole: Eden to Empire at the National Gallery, WC2 | The Times
• In Focus: Thomas Cole’s work on the days before man’s self-destruction, as relevant today as it was 180 years ago | Country Life

The Getty Museum under threat from Skirball Wild Fire

The Getty Centre is currently very close to the latest fire in California (the Skirball Fire) which shut down nine miles of I-405 - one of the busiest freeways in the USA during morning rush hour.

This post demonstrates people's concerns and the museum's current response.

Due to continuing smoke from fires in the region, the Getty Center and Getty Villa will remain closed to visitors tomorrow, Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017. pic.twitter.com/rAxpPYx0GT

— J. Paul Getty Museum (@GettyMuseum) December 5, 2017

The Getty is in a very restrained way communicating what is happening via its Twitter account above and website below. The announcement in red states

The Getty Center and the Getty Villa will be closed to the public Tuesday, December 5, and Wednesday, December 6, to protect the collections from smoke from fires in the region.

Getty Website

and on Facebook where they state



The latest from Twitter....

We are safe right now. We continue to monitor the situation and will issue updates as we have them. https://t.co/mDX3RTdOs3

— J. Paul Getty Museum (@GettyMuseum) December 6, 2017

The current fire dubbed the Skirball Fire, was reported at 4:52 a.m. Wednesday.  The hillside which is engulfed in flame is just the other side of the freeway from the Museum and the obvious concern is that the fire might jump the freeway given the strength of the Santa Ana winds.

The Getty Centre is not in the mandatory evacuation area - it's in the yellow (be ready to go) zone to the left of the freeway

#SkirballFire - Red zone is mandatory evacuation area. Yellow zone is “ready, set, go” area - not mandatory evac, but be ready to go when notified. 50 acres burned. 0% containment. pic.twitter.com/0zarzNYiaA

— Jeff Gorell (@JeffGorell) December 6, 2017

President's Committee on Arts and Humanities resigns in disgust!

Yet another council of eminent people - the President's Committee on Arts and Humanities - is walking away in disgust at the "equivocation" of the President of the USA. Only one did not resign - it's chaired by Melania Trump.

Speaking Truth to Power READ THE LETTER HERE (link is via Politico)
Below are the reports of the resignations of members of the President’s arts and humanities committee. I'll add more in as I find them.

I'd like to say I tried very hard to get the most culturally appropriate screen for the Committee's website - but it was accidental!

website of the Presidents Committee on the Arts and Humanities

Television

• CBC - President's arts advisers resign over Trump's Charlottesville response

Newspapers

• The Washington Post - Members of White House presidential arts commission resigning to protest Trump’s comments
• The Art Newspaper - President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities members resign en masse in protest - the link isn't working and one paragraph only at the moment - I think there may be a glitch
• The Boston Globe - Trump's cultural committee resigns en masse
• Daily Mail - 'Your values are not American': All but one of Trump's Arts and ...

Journals and Magazines

• Forbes - Presidential Arts And Humanities Committee Disbands Over Trump's ...

Online Journals & Blogs

• Politico - President’s arts and humanities committee resigns over Trump’s Charlottesville response
• Boing Boing - There's a hidden message in this mass letter of resignation from President Trump's Committee on Arts and Humanities - who spotted a hidden message!!
• Slate's Culture Blog - The Presidential Arts and Humanities Committee Just Resigned over Trump's Response to Charlottesville

American Masters at the Salmagundi

You can see paintings by all the artists in the American Masters Exhibition at the Salmagundi Club on the exhibition website.

Very oddly, there is only one photograph of the exhibition on the related Facebook Page (which is still dominated by the 2015 exhibition; the feature image on the website is of the 2015 exhibition, the URK of the artists' page indicates 2015 and there is no video.

I think some updating online needs to happen sooner rather than later! Maybe somebody could some photographs and/or upload them to the website and Facebook Page? I did find some images of what the exhibition looks like on the Facebook Page of Tim Newton - and the exhibition and gallery look amazing!

Most paintings are very traditional in terms of subject matter and painting style compared to the UK. That said there's some very fine examples of painting on display.

The majority of paintings are in oil. It's a great pity there are no watercolour paintings as some of the most impressive American painters I know work in watercolour. There's one artist who works exclusively in graphite and one who does woodcuts so it's obviously not exclusively an oil painting exhibition.

Obviously I can't visit the exhibition, so I've done the next best thing and have included links to the websites of artists whose work I liked - you'll find them embedded in their name.

The selected artists are:

• Douglas Allen
• Kathy Anderson - I like some but not all of her floral paintings. Some are a tad overbright which seems to be an American convention.
• Del-Bouree Bach, 
• Garin Baker
• Cindy Baron - I like the atmospheric effects in the landscapes she paints
• D. Elienne Basa - good to see somebody challenging the conventional format for landscape paintings
• Zufar Bikbov, 
• Christopher Blossom, 
• Eric Bowman
• Roger Dale Brown, 
• Kelly Carmody
• Scott Christenson - I'm a fan of big vistas
• Nicholas Coleman
• Carole Cooke
• Nancy Seamons Crookston
• Stephen C. Datz
• William R. Davis
• Don Demers
• David Dornan
• Kathleen Dunphy - I've seen a number of her paintings over the years and she seems to be good at capturing the way in which colour palettes need to vary with the light. She also has a useful blog. Incidentally this is one of the best designed and easuy to navigate websites.
• Ron Elstad
• Mary Erickson
• Andy Evansen
• West Fraser
• George Gallo
• Max Ginsburg
• James Gurney - I guess many of us are familiar with James work and books. This is the site on which he posts his original art.  That's a very impressive landscape (below)

James Gurney and his wife at the exhibition. His two paintings are on the left.

• George Hallmark
• Quang Ho - an impressive impressionist painter. It's great to see somebody whose work is not overly refined.
• Charlie Hunter - you can see more of his paintings on Flickr
• Joel Carson Jones - somebody who is a fan of Trompe l'oeil paintings
• Michelle Jung
• Thomas Kegler
• Tim Kelley
• Michael Klein - one of the very few who has a contemporary website in terms of design and responsiveness. Visually impressive paintings (although his images take a while to load).
• Joshua LaRock
• David A. Leffel
• Joseph Larusso
• Leon Loughridge -an artist who produces woodblock prints. You can see how his work is produced on his website
• Antonio Masi
• William Matthews
• Sherrie McGraw, 
• Joseph McGurl, 
• Terry Miller - drawings in graphite. This is his blog
• James Morgan
• Ned Mueller
• C.W. Mundy - his website declares him to be an American Impressionist (but is a bit slow) 
• Billyo O'Donnell
• Joseph Paquet - interestingly he has an ongoing project to record the buildings and landscape of industrial and roadside America that he grew up with - which is recorded in a website titled Rust/Roadsides. I suspect this will become more and more important over time.
• Robert Pillsbury
• Sergio Roffo
• Jason Sacran
• Patrick Saunders
• Claudia Seymour
• Burton Silverman
• Matt Smith
• Kate Starling
• John Stobart
• Nancy Tankersley - one of the few with a more impressionist treatment of her subjects
• John C. Traynor
• Thomas Valenti
• Curt Walters
• Jeff Weaver
• Charles Yoder

Click the image to find out more about the artist and to see other paintings by them in the exhibition.

Another thing that is very odd is that very few of the painters have included their website address with their details. However some have so it's obviously allowed. 

Exhibition details

This is the 8th exhibition of the American Masters.

Venue: The 1853 brownstone mansion. of the Salmagundi Club, 47 Fifth Avenue. New York City

Dates: September 29 through October 21st 2016

The event will help celebrate the recent $1.5 million renovation and restoration of the Club’s Upper Gallery space in their landmarked 19th of Greenwich Village. This fine art exhibition and sale will feature works by nationally recognized artists not often exhibited in New York City.

Paintings are not sold as in a normal exhibition. There is a Gala evening when a ballot will be used to determine who gets the opportunity to buy a painting. You can find details about the Sale Event on 14th October

Van Gogh's Bedrooms in Chicago

Van Gogh's Bedrooms is a very unusual exhibition opens in the Regenstein Hall of The Art Institute of Chicago today. It closes 10th May 2016. While most of us won't be able to see it in person, there are quite a few resources online which allow us to appreciate some of the effort which has gone into this exhibition.

At the end of this post I've also listed my very extensive list of posts on this blog about Van Gogh and his drawings, paintings, flowers, gardens and other exhibitions and videos! I hope they are of interest to artists and art lovers alike - I know I enjoyed my own research!

Van Gogh's Bedrooms

This site provides you with a preview of the exhibition

• this page tells you about the three different versions of the bedroom in the Yellow House in Amsterdam, Paris and Chicago. (I never even realised there were were three paintings!) - and also looks at each of the different elements in turn.
• this is a museum blog post about the exhibition
• This is a video by Gloria Groom who is the Curator of the exhibition

• This is a really interesting video about the science involved in the collaboration between the three museums to determine the differences between the three paintings - looking at paint and painting techniques and the inner structure of the three paintings. Really fascinating stuff!

• PLUS Van Gogh's bedroom in Arles has been recreated and is available to book via AirBnB - see all 7 photos of the room

As part of a promotional campaign, The Art Institute of Chicago commissioned a recreation of the famous room, which rents for just $10 a night in Chicago's River North neighborhood.

The odd thing is that I think the recreation of the room may have backfired. There are masses of news inches devoted to the AirBnB bedroom and not so much to the exhibition!

More about Van Gogh and his art

Those interested in Van Gogh will find more reading in my posts about Van Gogh on this blog.

Van Gogh and Drawing

"I sometimes think there is nothing so delightful as drawing." Vincent van Gogh ( 1853 - 1890)

• Van Gogh: Drawing media and techniques (2007) - This post focuses on Van Gogh's drawing materials and how they influenced his style.
• Van Gogh: More About Drawing (2007) - Links to websites which provide a very useful perspective on Van Gogh's approach to drawing
• Van Gogh: Drawing Landscapes (2007) - More about Van Gogh and Drawing - this post focuses on his landscape drawings.
• Van Gogh: Drawing Figures, Portraits and Self-Portraits (2007) - At one stage in his career, Van Gogh hoped to be a portrait painter in Paris.

Van Gogh's Paintings

• Van Gogh: The Complete Paintings (Taschen) - This comprehensive study of Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) represents a rarity in art history: a detailed monograph on his life and art combined with a complete catalogue of his 871 paintings.

Flowers and gardens by Van Gogh

• Flowers in Art - and Van Gogh #1 (2007) - Copying the paintings of other artists in order to learn new skills is an age old tradition and one in which Van Gogh himself followed
• Flowers in Art: Van Gogh #2 - Sunflowers and the value of repetition (2007) - Van Gogh painted a series of sunflowers. Initially four in Arles - two of which he hung in Gauguin's bedroom in the Yellow House in Arles and then subsequently another three which were copies.
• Hokusai, Van Gogh and the iris paintings - Van Gogh's iris paintings were produced while he was resident in an asylum in Saint-Rémy, France.
• Gardens in Art: Drawings and Paintings by Van Gogh (2007) - I've very much enjoyed doing the research for images, information and links about the drawings and paintings Van Gogh made of gardens

Other Exhibitions 

• The Real Van Gogh at the Royal Academy
• The Real Van Gogh - Portraits (2010) - This post highlights what I learned about Van Gogh's portrait painting from the exhibition - and the context of Van Gogh's letters.
• The Real Van Gogh - Orchards and Blossom (2010) - Van Gogh was very interested in Japanese art. Blossom time meant the countryside around about Arles became for him the western equivalent
• Van Gogh and the Yellow House in Arles Feb 11, 2010 - One of the joys of visiting the Van Gogh exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London is being able to see the painting of the yellow house
• The economic impact of Van Gogh's Drawings (2007) - It's estimated that the exhibition "Vincent Van Gogh: the Drawings" generated $251 million in spending by regional, national, and foreign tourists to New York
• Van Gogh and John Updike - a review -  a wonderful essay/review by John Updike of the 2005 exhibition of Van Gogh Drawings at the Met. in New York

Other videos

• Vincent Van Gogh's Notebooks Dec 10, 2014
• Video: Vincent van Gogh at the Musée d'Orsay (2009) - Almost any of Van Gogh's  paintings are worth looking at very closely

Miscellaneous posts about Van Gogh

Below is a list of my blog posts about Vincent Van Gogh excluding those listed above

• Introduction to the Van Gogh Project - about a project to study Van Gogh
• Van Gogh, colour and a colour study - Van Gogh's letters contain some 324 references to colours. The Van Gogh Musuem also has some interesting narrative about use of colour
• The Visual Translation of Japan in Late 19th-Century Paris - about the impact of Japanese prints on artists in late 19th century
• A map of Van Gogh's London - Did you know that Van Gogh lived in London for a while?

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: