LAOTY on YouTube - complete programmes and critiques!

I was very surprised to find that one of the comments on my post yesterday about Review: Episode 3 of Landscape Artist of the Year Series 10 (2025) was from a long time friend of mine who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area who had watched that episode on YouTube!

Now I know episodes from various television programmes were sometimes recorded and uploaded to YouTube by those wanting to get visits - but it's not allowed. Copyright etc etc.

Nevertheless, I took a look - and there it was.

So this is by way of telling you what I found. I'm not linking to any and they may disappear very soon when Sky Arts catches up with them.

But these are the ones which are out there

LAOTY on YouTube

Series 10 (2025)

• Episodes 1 through 3 of Landscape Artist of the Year Series 10

Series 9 (2024)

Somebody with the initials TW is making a playlist

• Episodes 5 through 10 of Landscape Artist of the Year Series 9 (4 are hidden - presumably 1-4)

PS I've just read the "The Times" review of the Final of this Series on Apple News - and all I can say is I don't know how broadsheets survive!

Series 8 (2023)

TW strikes again!

• Episodes 5 through 10 of Landscape Artist of the Year Series 8 (4 are hidden - presumably 1-4)

Series 7 (2022)

also by TW

• Landscape Artist Of The Year S07E08 Winners Film

Series 6 (2021)

• Ophelia Redpath’s Winning Vision | Landscape Artist of the Year - this is the heat episode which Ophelia won.

Other than that there's an awful lot of 30 second trailers.

More critiques!!

Plus somebody called Jo McKenzie who is an art tutor living in the USA makes 10-15 minute videos critiquing the submissions and paintings produced by pod artists - which are interesting. 

I think Jo is walking the right side of the copyright line as she, like me, is reviewing the paintings (whereas I'm reviewing the programme) and as some (most?) of us know, criticism and reviews are a "fair use" exemption to copyright laws - see my Art Business Info for Artists website and the page about https://www.artbusinessinfo.com/copyright-and-fair-use-for-artists.html

Copyright Infringement
and "Fair Use"

​Basics for Art and Artists 

100 Famous Painters and Their Studios

The other day I came across this video of Famous Painters of the 19th and 20th Centuries in their studios (or at least most of them are!) and really enjoyed viewing it.

I can't say I know every single one of the artists but I knew most of them - but I like art history, so maybe that makes a difference.

What was interesting is that I knew a lot of the names and the art without knowing what the artist looked like. 

I'd certainly seen very few images of their studios and how they like to work, so most of the content was new to me.

If you're a fan of art history do take a look - it's 12 minutes long and for many people it will be a video they bookmark to share with others.....

For the record, I've no idea who"LearnfromMasters" who created it is. he/she/it certainly take pains to hide their ID.

You can see more videos on their YouTube Channel

A List of Virtual Art Galleries & Museums #1 - in the UK

If you've been clicking your way through Google Trends (I aced it on the quizzes!) you'll have seen this.....

Virtual Museum was the top trending search in relation to virtual activity

"Virtual Museum" hurtled up the search query rankings to become a TOP TREND in 2020 for virtual activities

So I thought I'd make a list of Virtual Museums - for your delectation over the Covid / Christmas Break (take your pick - says woman sat in a 'Deep Purple' zone in Tier 4 London - who's going absolutely nowhere in the foreseeable future).

Here's some of the things I've learned through this process:

• some art galleries and museums are using the word "virtual" to rechristen their existing offering on the website. Doubtless after they realise that "virtual museum" was a search query which was hitting new heights during Covid. 
• I'm looking for either:
• pre-existing and genuine virtual tours (i.e. you get to decide where you go and what you look at)
• new initiatives aimed at making art galleries and museums more accessible via virtual tours.
• The process also told me which art galleries and museum 
• really think hard about "virtual" from the perspective of the viewer i.e. we want to decide where we go and what we do - just as we do when we visit for real
• have an online marketing team which does NOT look at trends in search queries - and 
• which have not used the downtime associated with museums being closed to get virtual tours started properly!

Initially I'm going to divide the listing into three posts covering museums and art galleries in different geographical area i.e. 

1. the United Kingdom
2. Europe
• France
• Italy
• Spain
3. the USA

However if you like these posts, I'll do more!  Plus these are posts I can come back to and add in more art galleries and museums with virtual tours - and I'll do an update post to tell you what's been added when I do.

Finally - this is very much a work in progress - broken off initially today because I need to make dinner - but I will return!

A List of Virtual Museums

This list of art galleries and museums is ordered on the basis of which museums I found had invested and produced the best results. 

• I'm starting today with London - but will add in more museums from elsewhere in the UK later - within a regional context
• Suggestions of Virtual Tours you know about elsewhere in the UK to me on my Facebook Page
  
  

LONDON

British Museum

The British Museum has some unusual ways of viewing its collection online.

A non-stop global 24 hour conversation about watercolour!

This is the 

First non-stop 24 hour livestream global watercolour conversation, connecting over 100 of the world's top watercolour artists

I've never ever seen anything like this before - but it looks as if it will be really interesting.

It's a live stream on YouTube and starts at 11am Saturday 6th June in New Zealand (23.30GMT tonight 5th June 2020) - so I guess the aim is to keep going all the way through Saturday and into Sunday!



It's being organised by Szczepan Urbanowicz abd is also listed as an event on Facebook

I've no idea who he is - but I do recognise some of the names so I assume he's got this organised!

This project creates a new global watercolour conversation. It brings together over 100 of the world's leading watercolour artists (in a world first) 24 hour continuous conversation and poses questions relating to the current global conditions of social distancing, self-isolation and the new realities of creativity and expression in our technological world.JOIN with our guests as we roll out this "conversation" over 24 TIME ZONES!...direct to a global audience!...and remember!!!
..........GO WITH THE FLOW!!!!

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

Which video platform gives you the best views for your art?

More and more artists are using videos to generate traffic for their website, blog, Facebook Page and their ART! 2017 is very much the year of the video...

Some of you may even have noticed I've been posting a few videos recently - with some significant impact on my Insight metrics on Facebook!

But which platform gives you the best video views?

I've been thinking maybe Facebook is the best medium - but I learned something today that's worth sharing.

Did you know that YouTube and Facebook count views differently? No? Nor did I!

Apparently their video metrics are VERY DIFFERENT:

• YouTube counts views after 30 seconds of viewings (ie it eliminates all the flybys)
• Facebook counts all the views after just 3 seconds.
• That's a difference of 27 seconds or a factor of 10!!!

Bottom line Facebook might look like it gives you the best views. However since it's counting views in a very way and views which are wholly discounted by YouTube you cannot easily draw a conclusion as to which is the best platform for video views.

I'm guessing the reason why the views are so short in Facebook is that Facebook encourages people to video live - and given most people are going to be out and about with (maybe) an uncertain connection such live videos are more likely to be short.

Me - I video while out and about, download when I get home, edit the clips together and top and tail them in iVideo, then upload to YouTube.

Then a few days later I upload the same video to Facebook - which is how I got comparative data on videos.

So there I was, looking at the numbers and being very impressed with my Facebook views - and thinking the place to put videos in future is Facebook - when actually if we were talking apples and apples (as opposed to pears) the figures might be very different.

Viewing videos on Facebook | Photo by William Iven on Unsplash

I found a very useful article about how videos views are counted on What Counts As a Video View on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat? The Buffer Guide to Video Metrics (dated March 29, 2017)

This provides

• an analysis of different kinds of videos
  Facebook video
  Facebook Live
  Instagram video
  Instagram Stories
  Instagram live video
  Snapchat Stories
  Twitter video
  Periscope
  YouTube
• an infographic which lines up the various metrics and compares
• what counts as a view
• when counting starts
• whether auto-play is involved
• whether there is an auto-loop (that thing which keeps playing videos even when you don't want it to!)

Bottom line it all boils down to money and metrics for advertising and metrics are the basis on which people get paid.

I RECOMMEND that you take a look. 

YouTube in contrast offers a TrueView advertising format whereby consumers have to watch at least five seconds of an ad and advertisers don’t pay a penny until they’ve watched at least 30 seconds. 
The Guardian | Facebook’s inflated video metrics signals a need to define what a 'view' is by Jerry Daykin

In terms of artists going forward there's another quote from the Guardian article which is worth taking to heart

The right approach to video measurement will always depend on specific business objectives – for instance do you need lots of people to hear a little from your brand, or would you rather fewer people really engage and understand a message?

So the question you need to ask yourself is WHY are you using videos - and are you using the best platform for your end objective?

Florum - The Slideshow

I promised more visuals of the Florum 2015 Exhibition which closes tomorrow at 5pm. Here's a slideshow of the exhibition as some incentive to get down there and take a closer look tomorrow!

This is a slideshow of the two parts of the exhibition. I think I've got it all with the exception of the jewellery which I forgot to photograph.  The slideshow works on the basis of walking around the exhibition in both rooms.

You can see who the participating artists are in my previous post Review: Florum 2015.

Florum Exhibition 2015 - the opening view

I was going to write a longer post but this slideshow has taken two days to make off and on (the first time I've tried making a big slideshow using Photoshop Elements 13) and two hours to upload to YouTube - so I'm a tad pooped!

The last day of the exhibition is tomorrow.

More videos by the creator of 500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art

Lady with an Ermine
Portrait of Cecilia Galleraniby Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art was uploaded to YouTube in April 2007.

You've probably seen it before.

However I'm guessing you're like me and think this is one of those wonderful compilations - which you never bore of taking one more look at.

Which possibly explains how come it has now achieved over 14 million views on YouTube.

However this post includes another couple of interesting things about this video and its compiler Philip Scott Johnson

How did you do with guessing the portraits?

This is the sort of video which prompts you to try and see how many portraits - or at least artists you can get while watching it.

So you may have seen the video - but have you seen the list of works complete with titles of portrait and names of artists?

If not I suggest you watch again (see below) - and then click this link to the listing produced by Boni of the Original Art used in 500 Years of Women in Western Art. According to her website Boni is an instructor at the Soldier Development Center on Fort Bragg.

Has Philip Scott Johnson produced any other videos?

I bet you wondered - I know I did!

So I went looking for more Philip Scott Johnson videos - and found some.  It also appears that he works in Reinsurance and lives in St Louis, Missouri.