Metropolitan Cats 1983 - at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This is a video "From the Vaults" of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It's all about the cats in its collection

From the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art comes views of 4,000 years of art dealing with cats.

Metropolitan Cats - The Video (1983)

From ancient Chinese sculpture to the modern Broadway stage, cats have long been a source of inspiration for artists. This unusual film juxtaposes famous depictions of cats from the Museum's collection with their contemporary counterparts. Curators and staff muse on our feline friends' legendary stubbornness and implacable curiosity, their endless capacity for mischief, and ultimately how they have held our attention for millennia. 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art celebrates its 150th anniversary this year - and of course right now it's closed. However its online activities are very much alive.

One of their activities is that they are releasing films made in the past about items in the collection - from its archive of over 1,500 films, both made and collected by the Museum, from the 1920s onward.

• each month  three to four films are released for the public to view 
• they include 
• rarely seen artist profiles and documentaries,
• process films about art-making techniques and 
• behind-the-scenes footage of the Museum.

Cats in the Collection

If you want to take a look at the 38,716 results for the search query "cats" take a look at this page (in the link) - and refine your search.

(NOTE: Some artists would have you think that painting cats or including a cat in a painting means you're not really a serious painter. There again these are usually people who don't have their artwork in a major international museum of art!)

Metropolitan Cats - the book 

There's also a book called Metropolitan Cats - with text by John P O'Neill. I've not seen it but it gets good reviews. 

Cover of the book "Metropolitan Cats" text by John O'Neill 
Publisher: Harry N Abrams Inc / Metropolitan Museum of Art (April 1, 1982)

Available on Amazon. com and Amazon UK

John O'Neill was the Publisher and Editor in Chief for the Metropolitan Museum of Art for some 31 years. Prior to his retirement in December 2009, he had overseen the publication of more than one thousand exhibition and collection catalogues, as well as the Museum's quarterly Bulletin and annual Journal. In his obituary, the Museum noted his "extraordinary commitment to quality raised the standards for museum publishing worldwide, and his passions for art, literature, and above all opera were inspirations to those around him"

The image on the cover is is Cat Watching a Spider (ca. 1888–92) by Oide Tōkō Japanese

How a ginger cat with attitude makes Fat Cat Art

I happened on Fat Cat Art again recently - and decided to try and understand a bit more about how a very "fat ginger cat with attitude" could contribute to derivations of some serious art.

James Abbott McNeill Whistler.
Arrangement in Grey, Black and Ginger No. 1 Whistler's Mother with the Cat
artworks by Svetlana Petrova & Zarathustra the Cat / FatCatArt.com

The fat ginge is called Zarathrusta and is owned by Svetlana Petrova - who lives in St. Petersburg. She always had cats - and involved them in her creative projects. However Zarathrusta is really her mother's cat and she inherited him after her mother died.

Zarathrusta loves to sit for adaptations of the paintings and artwork of the great artists past and present

We, Zarathustra the Cat, enjoy Ourselves as the first cat contemporary artist, working in fields of performance and appropriation art.

The website was launched in 2011 and since then he has been digitally integrated into rather a large number of famous paintings - in an amazing range of styles and period of art - and his artwork has gone viral around the world. 

Fat Cat French art at the end of XIX century
artworks by Svetlana Petrova & Zarathustra the Cat / FatCatArt.com

Twentieth century art and Zarathrusta the Cat
artworks by Svetlana Petrova & Zarathustra the Cat / FatCatArt.com

Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Falling Down in the Mind of Someone Sleeping
artworks by Svetlana Petrova & Zarathustra the Cat / FatCatArt.com

I'm a particular fan of some of the changed titles of the paintings.  There's some thought gone into these!

What's the technique?

• the artwork is selected
• high resolution images of the artwork are secured
• photographs are taken of Zarathrusta - posing. It sometimes takes many months for Svetlana or her photographer to get just the right photo - so I'm guessing there are multiple project pics on the go at any one time
• the cropped cat pic is inserted into the painting using Photoshop - and sometimes it's tweaked to fit with the style of the painting so that the two fit together well
• text is created to go with the picture - by his bilingual author/artist mother.

The net result of all this?

He's gone beyond an Internet Meme and there have now been exhibitions, videos, a book (published by Penguin Random House USA - see below)) and calendars (see the 2019 calendar here - and on the Facebook Page) 

In fact a small cottage industry in St. Petersburg runs off the stretches and contortions of Zarathrusta and the digital wizardry of Svetlana.

Fat Cat Art: Famous Masterpieces Improved by a Ginger Cat with Attitude 
(From Amazon UK | Amazon.com)

You can view them on Facebook on a regular basis - with videos of typical cat activity

I wish them well for the future. It's fun rather than serious but if anything gets people looking to see what the original painting looked like, that's OK by me

Why we draw cats

Did you know that the query "How to draw a cat" generates 40 MILLION results if you ask Google.

Interestingly if you query "why we draw cats" Google becomes deaf and pretends it hasn't heard and serve up more takes on "how to draw a cat".

I think the reason people draw cats is because we own cats - lots of them! There's about 7.5 million in the UK and where I live there's about 600 cats per square mile.

We also draw cats because when we've fed them they lie down and stay pretty still for rather a long time - and it's a lot easier drawing a cat which doesn't move!

....and because we love them.

One year ago today Cosmo died. (RIP Cosmo 2000-2015)
I can't believe it's a year. I still miss him every day. I still get tearful when I try to talk about him.

One year ago right about now we were taking him to the vet for the last time - and then brought him home again for some last drawings of his last sleep.

It seems this year as if rather a lot of people I know have also lost their cats.

I've watched as new kittens have arrived - but I simply haven't been able to replace him (and not just because Somali kittens are very difficult to find!) but simply because he is totally irreplaceable.

What I do know is that I wouldn't be without all the drawings I've got of him.

I look back through sketchbooks and suddenly there's yet another drawing of Cosmo - usually half finished because he decided to move while snoozing.

I've found it difficult drawing in the last year.

Maybe this explains why. I came across this comment by me in an earlier blog post

Did I not tell you all that Cosmo has to sit right next to me and watch while I draw? And if I show the slightest inclination to pause and reflect and not remain alert to his likely next move, he's climbing into my lap - right across the artwork.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Always draw the ones you love - because you never know when they're not going to leave you.

It applies to everybody - not just cats.....

RIP Polly 2000 - 2015

Time for a pause in blogging - for reflection on the life of Polly, my much loved Abyssinian cat.

"Pause"
Polly sunbathing in the doorway heard me behind her
and an ear twitched round - worked up from a 15 second sketch and my memory!
14" x 11" coloured pencil on black Stonehenge paper

She died this afternoon after becoming very sick with heart failure 10 days ago.

Losing Polly would be bad enough on its own but coming on top of the loss of Cosmo to cancer four months ago (see RIP Cosmo 2000 - 2015) - it's really knocked me for six.

Cosmo and Polly as kittens
Guess who was boss?

They came to me at three months old in 2000 and started out as cute and continued as cute!

Polly contributed cute kittens for drawing and took the matriarch role, while Cosmo did cuddles, played nursemaid to the kittens - and knew his place in the Polly pecking order.

Polly says "A girl can never have enough feeds"
Cosmo says "I want a feed too!"

Guess who's bottom looks big in this?

Polly in particular was a very pretty cat for fifteen years. Latterly people were amazed at how old she was. Here she is in 2013

Polly demonstrating the advantages of backlighting

She was however VERY difficult to draw - maybe because she was so petite, precise and neat! She was always much easier to do from behind than from head on!

Polly - Study#1
pen and sepia ink, 10" x 6.5"
Polly had a certain way of staring at you when she wanted her next meal

"Polly" in 2008
pen and ink and coloured pencils

I ended up drawing her kittens more than I drew her - until the last few days.

Meet the Kittens (her second litter)
This made it on to the front cover of the Annual Exhibition of the Society of Feline Artists
and into my book Sketching 365 (page 90)
Coloured Pencil on Paper, 11.5 x 7.5 ins 290 x 190 mm

Polly - true to form - looked cute and gorgeous right up to the end. This was her yesterday afternoon.

Polly on 6th October - she died 7th October 2015

Having sat with her and next to her for the last three days, watching over her as she went downhill very fast, I now need to take some time out. Blogging will be back next week.

RIP Cosmo 2000 - 2015

Cosmo's last catnap - back home 1.6.15

My much loved cat Cosmo died yesterday evening.

Many thanks to all the staff at my vets for their compassion and excellent support at the end.

He came home with me last night.  Last night and again this morning I drew him resting on a comfy cushion on the sofa - having his last catnap - before he went for his final trip to the vet prior to an individual cremation.  I've done this before and I highly recommend spending time with and drawing your pet after death - it really helps as part of the grieving process.

Cosmo was born in August 2000 and died just a few weeks short of his 15th birthday. He was an absolutely gorgeous big Somali boy cat with the oddly named 'usual' colour fur. He also has such a lovely nature that I wouldn't hesitate to have another Somali in future - although there could never be another Cosmo!

He's been a regular on this blog over the years. He featured in the fourth post on this blog Drawing and Flu and a series on catnapping starting in 2006.

Plus he was always up for a "filler image" for blog posts on more general themes (eg the sketch below which featured on Managing Business Risks as an Artist.)

The Catnapping Series: Sleeping on the job
pen and ink

and this post about How to make it easy for people to link to you - and how to sketch a cat!

30 second sketches of Cosmo in pencil

In 2008, I drew A Day in the Life of Cosmo. Looking back at it, his daily routine didn't change that much over the years - although there was a lot more "lolling" and "evening cuddles" and rather less athletic exercise, door climbing and "cowboys and indians". He's now on a permanent "big sleep".

A day in the life of Cosmo
12" x 16" pencil
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

He had a spell as a model for my drawings that were exhibited at the annual exhibitions of the Society of Feline Artists.

I spy a spider12" x 8", coloured pencils
exhibition in SOFA Annual Exhibition 2008 at the Llewellyn Alexander Galleries
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Latterly his claim to fame is he featured on a number of different pages in my book Sketching 365

A very quick pencil sketch of Cosmo (page 125)

plus sketching media became digital in addition to pencil and pen and ink.

Cosmo Catnapping #11 (on 11.01.11)
drawn using Sketchbook Pro and a mouse!

He's going to be much missed.

and finally......

I want to find him a really nice casket for his ashes.

I'd be really grateful to hear of any artist who works with wood or metal who I could commission to incorporate a line drawing into a suitable secure casket in wood or metal.

14 good years

The Kittie Sitter

I'm not really feeling like doing a proper blog post today.

I've just got back from the vets and, having feared the worst, I've had my worst fears confirmed.

My big boy cat Cosmo has a large mass in his stomach. He's losing weight very fast because he's eating very little. When I look at this drawing it makes me realise how much he's lost. He's becoming a little boy.

We're hopefully talking weeks rather than days but who knows. He's 14 and would be 15 this July but I rather doubt he's going to make that birthday. We're not going to go in for investigations or being heroic. Rather all the focus will be on giving him a good quality of life for whatever time he has left. I'm going to let him go on for as long as he's still the cat I know and love and he's still purring.

One nice thing is he's forever immortalised in my book. He's the cat who pops up on a regular basis throughout my book - and he's a really wonderful "still cat" model. He was also the best uncle ever and loved looking after Polly's kittens.

I am, of course, sat here typing all of this with Cosmo sat next to me on his fleece - and tears sliding down my face.

I'm just going to make the most of him while he still wants to sit next to me.

For fans of feline art

There are two exhibitions in London for fans of feline art next week.

• The Chris Beetles Gallery is having its Louis Wain and the Summer Cat Show 2013. This opened on Saturday and continues until 31 August.  It includes c.150 feline paintings, illustrations and ceramics. The paintings in this exhibition are very likely to be variations on watercolour - which is a specialism of this gallery.
• The Society of Feline Artists are having their Annual Exhibition 2013 at the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery. This opens on 22nd August and runs until 20th September 2013 (10am - 7.30pm Monday to Saturday).  

Both have a virtual exhibition of a lot of the drawings, prints and paintings on display - click the links to view.

Big Red by Gayle Mason
to be displayed in the Society of Feline Artists 16th Annual Exhibition

I'm kicking myself because my friend Gayle Mason (Fur in the Paint | Gayle Mason Fine Art on Facebook) gave me a copy of the catalogue for the SOFA show when we met up recently and I now can't find it.

Here however is her very handsome chap who's in the SOFA show.

I think the last time she showed a ginger he sold before the show even opened!

Feline art in London - two exhibitions

There are two exhibitions for lovers of feline art in London at the moment.  Links to the exhibitions in both gallery websites include the images of a number of the paintings, drawings and fine art prints on display.

The first is the Society of Feline Artists - Annual Exhibition 2012 at the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery, 124 -126 The Cut, Waterloo, London SE1 8LN UK ( across the Road from the Old Vic and Waterloo Station).

This is the annual exhibition which shows work by full and associate members of SOFA.  It opened on Thirsday, has its PV on Tuesday and continues until 14th September.  You can also see a lot of photos of the exhibition on Flickr - See the album on flickr and See them as a slide show.

My friend Gayle Mason (Fur in the Paint) has got two in the window - of which one is also on the front cover of the PV invite (below).  Gayle and I normally go to see the show together - but she's busy looking at wildlife in Yellowstone National park and Canada at the moment.  If you want to see the best you need to go early as people who buy paintings are allowed to take them away and they are then replaced with other paintings.

The second exhibition is Louis Wain and the Summer Cat Show at the Chris Beetles Gallery 8 & 10 Ryder Street, St James's, London SW1Y 6QB (facing the rear of Christies).

This opened on the 18th August and continues until 9th September.

This includes paintings by Lesley Fotherby (I like the multiple view studies), Geraldine Girvan (I love the watercolour paintings - I'd love to a mix of still life and cats), Susan Herbert (a very amusing take on both subjects and artists styles!) and Lesley Anne Ivory as well as work by the late great Louis Wain

You can see a video of art by Susan Herbert on YouTube



Both exhibitions are excellent shows for lovers of feline art - and two exhibitions makes a wonderful reason for a trip to London for those who are 'out of towners'!

Links:  You can see more links to feline art in my website Feline Art - Resources for Artists

Nominate for Making A Mark Awards #7

My invitations to nominate are now in the home straight - so it's maybe apt that I'm using the "The Home Front" as a way of summarising this last set of awards. Nominations close on 24th December and I'm hoping you have lots of bright ideas for nominations. I've certainly been very impressed with the ones you've come up with so far!

You are invited to nominate for the awards summarised below. Instructions on how to nominate for these and other awards are also set out below.

Want some context? You can see all the previous winners of the Making A Mark Awards here. This provides a summary of the reasons why each each winner won their prize and also gives you a link to the posts which include the full citations and highlight who else was considered for each of the awards to date.

Nominations sought for:

“The Moose” Award for the best animal in an illustrated blog

This award is for particularly noteworthy artwork about an animals or animals posted to an art or illustrated blog in 2009

"Guess Who"
ACEO 2.5" x 3.5" (coloured pencil on film)
Copyright and all rights reserved: Maggie Stiefvater

This award is named after the very first winner of the award (a cat!). All animals are eligible domesticated or wild. Although there's a bit of a lean towards domesticity - to date two cats and some birds have won the award - hence why this one comes under "The Home Front". Surely it's time for the dogs to get a look in?

Previous winners are

• 2006 - Maggie Stiefvater (Greywaren Art ) - Moose
• 2007 - Gayle Mason (Fur in the Paint) - “Out of Sight”
• 2008 - Tracy Hall (Watercolour Artist) for 'birds'
  
• 2009 - nominations please

The “Tales from the Frontline” Mention in Despatches / The “Amusing Musings” Trophy

Originally two awards but combined into one for the last two years.

• The Amusing Musings Trophy is for keeping me amused.
• The “Tales from the Frontline” Mention in Despatches - my favourite blog by somebody who lives with an artist.

Past winners are:

• 2006 - Ruth Phillips (Meanwhile, here in France) won very first “Tales from the Frontline” Mention in Despatches.
• 2006 - The very first Amusing Musings Trophy was shared by: Hugh McLeod (Gaping Void) and Maggie Stiefvater (Greywaren Art)
  
• 2007 - Dermott (I am Dog Hear Me Snore) won both - not a mean feat for a dog!
  
• 2008 - Tracy Helgeson (Works by Tracy Helgeson) who also succeeded in prompting the idea for the next award
  
• 2009 - nominations please

NEW!!! The Most Gorgeous Mouthwatering (MGM) Studio of the Year

There are no previous winners as this is a new award - but you have a chance to nominate the first winner of this award:

• 2009 - nominations please

I simply love looking at other people's studios and what you do with them. The nominations for this category don't have to be about a makeover - although I love it if it is with work in progress photos and posts which include insights into your deliberations about what to do and what goes where. It's not about size either. I've salivated over a fair few tiny studios where the sheer creativity about how you get everything to fit in in really makes me gasp.

Put simply - all you have to do is simply make me drool with envy!

So if you're really proud of what you've done this year with your studio why not nominate yourself and your studio?

This is the last invite to nominate for the Making A Mark Awards. You can find the details of how to nominate for all the other awards in the links below.

Links: The Making A Mark Awards 2010 for blogging about art - Making A Mark: End of Year Review

• Best artwork
• NEW!!! Nominate the Best Art (Place) on a Blog 2009
• NEW!!! Nominate the Best Art (Still Life) on a Blog 2009
• Nominate the Best Art (Portrait/Figures) on a Blog 2009
• Generating art
• Nominate - The Painting a Day Stickability Shield
• Nominate - The Best Art Blog Project Virtual Challenge Cup
• Getting out of the Studio
• Nominate - The Painting Plein Air Plus Prize
• Nominate The Travels with a Sketchbook Trophy
• Nominate - The Going Greener Gong
• Learning about art and the art business
• Nominate - The FAQs and Answers Really Useful Medal
  
• Nominate - The Make Me Think Gong
• NEW!!! Nominate The Best Book by an Art Blogger Blue Ribbon
• The Home Front
• Nominate - “The Moose” Award for the best animal in an illustrated blog
  
• Nominate - The “Tales from the Frontline” Mention in Despatches / The “Amusing Musings” Trophy
• NEW!!! Nominate The Most Gorgeous Mouthwatering (MGM) Studio of the Year
  

All About Cats

This is for the feline lovers amongst you!

I learned an awful lot about cats recently when putting together an update of my resource site All About Cats (which doesn't have an awful lot to do with art - but people who draw cats will like it!)

I also laughed myself silly while previewing the Simon's cat videos which are also included in this resource. Do take a peek if you own a cat - you won't regret it!

Cosmo
coloured pencils on Arche HP
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

One of them is so like my boy cat Cosmo (see right - you'd be right to think butter might not melt in that mouth but that's because he prefers roast chicken and nice fish if he can get it!) that I had tears running down my face from laughing before I got to the end. It spoke volumes about Cosmo when in over-excitable mode!

Every time I look at one of those Simon's cat videos it makes me think how art can be anything visual - it's not just landscapes and portraits and still life - and it can make us laugh too!

Exhibition Review: Society of Feline Artists 2009

Part of the Annual Exhibition of the Society of Feline Artists
photo copyright Katherine Tyrrell

On Tuesday, after leaving the Threadneedle Exhibition at the Mall Galleries, I travelled just one stop on the Northern Line down to Waterloo to attend the Champagne Private View of the Annual Exhibition of the Society of Feline Artists which was opened by David Grant, the celebrity vet and patron of the Society.

The annual exhibition is always held at the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery at 124-126 The Cut London SE1 8LN. It's situated right across the road from the Old Vic Theatre and is also just across the road from Waterloo Station. The exhibition continues until Friday 18th September - and the gallery is open until 7.30pm each evening Monday - Saturday.

You can also preview the exhibition online on the SOFA exhibition page on the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery website.

[Update - Denise Laurent (The Painted Cat - on the Easel) and official SOFA photographer has now posted her photos of the exhibition to Flickr and this is a slideshow of work in the SOFA annual exhibition]

Gayle Mason (Fur in the Paint) and I both attended - and found that our work was in the window - which is never an easy spot to get a photograph hence the curious tilt on this one - my three drawings in coloured pencil are on the right.

(top right) Meet the Kittens £275
Coloured Pencil on Paper, 11.5 x 7.5 ins 290 x 190 mm

(bottom left) Pick of the Litter £250
Coloured Pencil on Paper, 7.5 x 7.5 ins 190 x 190 mm

(bottom right) Kittens Rule OK! £275
Coloured Pencil on Paper, 11.5 x 7.5 ins 290 x 190 mm

Gayle had for the second year running sold one of her works - Moody Blue - prior to the opening of the exhibition.

We also discovered that an image of Moody Blue had been used to promote the exhibition in The Cat magazine when I spotted a copy of the relevant page of the magazine in the hands of somebody next to me! The Cat is the official magazine of the Cats Protection League - a very worthwhile body.

The exhibition is as always full of work of a very high standard and includes drawings, paintings and prints of cats of every type, style, shape and size!

I'm always amazed whenever I attend any of the specialised exhibitions about just how many different ways you can represent a cat (or wildlife or flowers etc). For all those people puzzled about style - in relation to this month's poll about style - can I suggest that it's very worthwhile attending exhibitions like this just to see how many different ways you can apply media to a support while portraying one type of subject matter!

Colourful and monochrome drawings paintings and prints of cats - in all styles
photo copyright Katherine Tyrrell

There's always an emphasis on representational art but within that while there is a strong cohort of artists - like Jacqueline Gaylard and Dominic O'Callaghan - who place an emphasis on extremely realistic paintings and drawings.

This year they've been joined by a new artist called Natalie Mascall who is producing really excellent work in pastel and was probably the fastest selling artist at the Preview. None of her work is available to be seen in the online exhibition and has in any case sold! However you can see a couple of examples on her website Geoffrey's cat and Home Comforts. Natalie's other big interest is wildlife and this year she won the "Endangered Species" category and was runner up in the "World Mammals" category of the BBC Wildlife Artist of the Year. It's always great to see a new talent emerging and I predict a great future for this artist.

If you enjoy feline art do go along and see the show - my kittens are in the window staring at the Old Vic and might be wondering about a future on the stage! ;)

Title please - plus time for a short break

It's no good - I've got to take a break and get my portfolio sorted for my application for fulll signature membership of the Society of Feline Artists - not to mention get everything finished, matted and in frames.

Then there's the question of a title....... (see the end)

Title - You tell me!
8" x 8", coloured pencils on Arches HP
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Plus I've got some personal stuff which needs sorting and that takes time and many emails.

So it's likely to be very quiet for the next week or so - with maybe the odd post.

My landscape project WILL be starting soon, but probably not until w/c 10th August. I want to do it justice and I'm too pushed for time right now.

Now - can you can help me?

I'm having trouble coming up with a title for this one - which is almost finished. It's yet another kitten, sat in the bottom of one of those woven banana leaf waste paper bins. I'm sure anybody who has ever had a kitten knows just how much kittens enjoy waste paper bins and this one was no exception!

So any suggestions for a title?

[Update: I chose "Pick of the Litter" as a title in the end. Mainly because it was one of those ones which made me wish I'd thought of it first which I always think is a sign of a good title! So very many thanks to madtora who suggested it in the first place. I'd come and comment on your blog but you don't seem to have one!

I'm pleased to say that "Pick of the Litter" is also going to be in the SOFA Annual exhibition. You can also see the final version on my website]

"Meet the kittens" on SOFA front cover

An awful lot of really excellent work is submitted to the Society of Feline Artists' (SOFA) exhibition each year. Both full and associate members are invited to submit work early for consideration for the brochure. The quality is so good that it's always regarded as a great honour to get your work selected by Jillian Llewellyn Lloyd, Director of the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery, as an image for the exhibition's colour brochure/private view invite.

Gayle Mason (Fur in the Paint) has had work in the brochure for the last two years (she's always very organised!), while I kept forgetting to get my work finished before April.

However, this year I decided to have a go and got three drawings of kittens submitted early - and in time for consideration for the brochure.

SOFA Exhibition 2009
Colour Brochure/Private View Invite

I already knew that two were definitely in the exhibition and that one of them was likely to be in the brochure but you can imagine my surprise when the catalogue arrived today to find that "Meet the Kittens" has actually made the front cover!

Gayle has also got a lovely drawing of a blue burmese "Moody Blue" on the inside of the brochure.

The other two works on the front cover are:

• Christmas Cat by Irina Garmashova (14" x 20, acrylic and coloured pencil on paper)
  
• Loved by Sarah Butt (9.5" x 10" acrylic on board)
  

I'll highlight some of the others featured in the brochure nearer the exhibition.

The exhibition

The SOFA Annual Exhibition takes place at the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery in London. The exhibition dates this year are 28th August through to 18th September, (10am - 7.30pm Monday to Saturday).

The exhibition features the work of both Full and Associate members of SOFA members. On show will be approximately 300 paintings of cats in oil, acrylic, watercolour, pastel and etchings - making it the largest exhibition of cat art in the country.

I'll post an update when the exhibition goes online - which usually happens before the exhibition opens at the gallery.

Private View

The Champagne Private View is held on Tuesday 1st September between 12pm and 3pm. The exhibition is officially opened by the Society's Patron David Grant MBE at 2.15pm. (He's that really nice vet from RSPCA Harmsworth who we all used to watch on the BBC programme Animal Hospital).

I'll be at the PV so this is a call-out to friends to let me know if you'd like an invite to see the work.

A different business model for an art society exhibition

The SOFA exhibition is somewhat unusual compared to many art society exhibitions and I thought it worthwhile highlighting the differences between the SOFA exhibition and most other art exhibitions.

Most art societies rent space/weeks in a commercial gallery. They then need to organise the selection, receipt of works, cataloguing and hanging - which depending on the arrangements with the gallery, very often falls to Executive members and helpers

SOFA has an agreement with Llewellyn Alexander that it will hold its exhibition in the gallery each year and it is a regular fixture in the gallery's schedule of exhibitions. It always has 'regular' exhibition status and thus has to 'pay its way' as it were. Hence the selection of works to be exhibited is done entirely by the Gallery.

The Executive have no involvement in selection, do not have to receive works or store works, do not organise the catalogue and do not need to hang works. There's also no submission fee for the artists because this is a strictly commercial exhibition albeit one held on behalf of an art society. The commission deducted from sales is payable to the gallery who also look after the previous buyers' mailing list.

I would add that it is also one of the most successful art society exhibitions I know. This is due in no small part to the expertise and efforts of the gallery's directors and staff.

I'm always pleased to get work into this exhibition - and this year I'm ecstatic that my work has made the front cover of a brochure which I've been getting and keeping for many years now!

Llewellyn Alexander Gallery: 124 - 126 The Cut, Waterloo, London SE1 8LN. Telephone: 020 7620 1322/4

Auditioning for SOFA

(left to right) Meet the Kittens, The Kittie Sitter, Kittens rule OK!
all coloured pencils on Arches HP
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

These are my three coloured pencil drawings which are currently auditioning for the catalogue for the Society of Feline Artists 13th Annual Exhibition at the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery (28th August to 18th September 2009). The Gallery likes to have all the images in by mid April. My submission scaped in just in time as I had to get both the new computer and then the new graphics package sorted out first!

This is a quickie post today as today I'm off to the Private View for the Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists at Westminster Hall - which this year includes two of my drawings! The show opens to the pblic on Friday.

I'll be doing a review tomorrow with photographs plus a count up of how many coloured pencil artists are included this year!

Managing Business Risks as an Artist

Do you know what is the biggest business risk you're exposed to?

Have you ever thought about how likely it is to happen? Or indeed what sort of impact it would have if it did?

Do you have any plans in place to address that risk? Or  any other major risks that you face?

This is the first in a short series of posts about how to manage risk better and make and market art in a challenging economic environment.

The Catnapping Series: Sleeping on the job
pen and ink
copyright Katherine Tyrrell - all rights reserved

Risk management

Risk management sounds very 'city analyst' but in fact it's just a simple and systematic approach to identifying, assessing and addressing the normal risks that you may face in the context you operate in.

EXAMPLE: The risk is that the studio burns down, destroying equipment, art supplies and all stock kept in the studio. If this happens the artist has nowhere to make art and has lost all stock for upcoming exhibitions which will impact on income. It’s not very likely to happen but catastrophic if it does.

The time required to deal with finding a replacement studio and replenishing supplies and equipment and dealing with an insurance claim is all time which cannot be used for generating or marketing artwork.

Actions to reduce risk – keep a fire extinguisher in the studio and practice safe habits in relation to any inflammable materials.

Actions to mitigate risk – have an insurance policy for the studio building, its contents and the impact on your business if it is destroyed or severely damaged
A Making A Mark Guide to the Art Economy: Managing Business Risks

If you manage your risks well you can:

• reduce the likelihood of very nasty surprises coming at you from out of left field
  
• limit the scope for business catastrophes and going out of business
  
• feel more confident about taking risks when developing your business - you know what they are and you know how to deal with them
  
• make more cost-effective decisions about future directions for making and marketing your art and, who knows, you might make more money too!
  

I've written a guide about Managing Business Risks which outlines an approach which can be used by artists to identify, assess and address business risks. Any artist who can read, think, make lists and count to 10 can employ the approach I've outlined.

It also contains a number of practical examples to illustrate different aspects of the approach - two of which you can read in this blog post.

• The guide is too long for a blog post and is avaialble for FREE (personal and educational use only) as a pdf file (224KB) and can be found on my Making A Mark website here.
• For more Making A Mark Guides see the Directory

EXAMPLE You are a fine artist who produces etchings. Your printing press is absolutely vital to your production. Risk of its failure is of critical importance to you and you rate the risk importance factor as a 10. However your printing press is very old and very simple in terms of moving parts. It’s never failed before and has a good record of performance. So you rate the likelihood of it failing as 2. Therefore the combined risk rating of your printing press failing is 20 which is not very high.

However, because the press is so critical to your work you decide to source an alternative printing press so you know what you would do should it ever fail. You make a reciprocal agreement with another fine art printer that you’ll help each other out if either of you should have problems with your press.
A Making A Mark Guide to the Art Economy: Managing Business Risks

This isn't something I've invented. The principles have been around for quite some time. There are a number of variations on a theme around and about but my outline is very similar to the standard business practice I've employed previously in relation to very large organisations. All I've really done is taken the basic principles and translated them into the context of an artist's business.

This guide is also included in my new information site see Art and the Economy - Resources for Artists.

I'm also including blog posts from both artists and people who write about the art business. If you have a blog post which is relevant please identify a link using the comments function.

Note: The Catnapping series is a series of sketches of cats asleep - which are always drawn from life. The website page explains the rationale behind the series. Latterly they've nearly always been of my Somali cat Cosmo who's very fond of a kip! You can find the catnapping drawings here and prints here - although I've got more drawings I need to convert to prints!

How to make it easy for people to link to you - and how to sketch a cat!

Two topics today about how to do things quickly:

1. How to make it easy for people to link to a blog post you've written - and send visitors to your blog
   
2. How to sketch a cat in 30 seconds

30 second sketches of Cosmo # 1,2 and 3
pencil in sketchpad
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Make it easy for bloggers to link to that ace blog post you wrote.

To my way of thinking, if somebody has gone to the trouble of writing a blogpost which is worth sharing, then it's nice to try and use the correct blog post title when referencing it.

Easier said than done!

I don't know if it's Firefox 3.0 or Blogger or what - but I've suddenly found it's become really difficult to do something which I usually do all the time.

The easy way to reference the correct blog post title with an embedded html link

When I want to link to a post on a blog I try to always credit the blogger correctly by using the correct blog post title.

I discovered a while back that it was easy peasy to get the correct title with an embedded link by blocking the blog post title and then right clicking my mouse and using the copy function. I then pasted this straight into my blog and got the desired result - the correct post title with its embedded html link.

The BIG bonus is that:

• there is no html to write,
• no spelling mistakes to make,
• it's all completed in 5 seconds.
• it reads right and functions correctly
• people are more likely to link to you because it's really easy to do!
• you get more visitors to your blog because people have linked to you!!!
  

So why am I writing this post? Well, it seems like a lot of people don't realise just how difficult it is to reference one of their blog posts correctly. If I can't do what I've described above then I have to type out the title, write the html, find the URL for that blog post (if that's actually possible) and then block and copy it. Which is very, very longwinded way of doing things by comparison.

With some blogs it's always been difficult because there was no link embedded in the blog post title - usually those who don't have a date against their post. The solution for this is to block and copy the post title in the archives. However I then come across the problem that there are some people who haven't got a blog archive which allows you do to do this.

So here are the basic settings in Blogger for making life easy for people who'd like to send visitors to read your ace blog post!

• Go to Settings and select Archives
  
• On the "Archive frequency" select monthly. You only get blog post titles in the archive if you archive on a monthly basis. If you archive weekly you render all your blog posts completely inaccessible to browsers.
  
• on "Enable post pages" select 'Yes' - this command gives your blog post title a unique URL. This means it acquires an identity as a web page and can feature as an individual URL site in Google etc. This is the really important one. As Blogger says

Post Pages give each of your posts their own unique web page, in addition to appearing on your blog's front page.

• Don't forget to SAVE YOUR SETTINGS!
• Go to Settings and select Formatting [UPDATE 6.45pm - I initially said "Publishing" by mistake - thanks to Julie for the query/prompt]
  
• Find Archive Index date format and select the month (eg July 2008) from the menu. I don't know that you have to do this - but all the blogs which have archives which 'work' have this format.
  
• Find Show title field and select Yes - this creates a title field in the window in which you draft your blog post. No title, no embedded html link!
• Don't forget to SAVE YOUR SETTINGS!

You can check whether the settings worked by blocking and copying the post title. If it renders correctly with an embedded link then you've created the right settings. :)

How to sketch a cat in 30 seconds

How do you sketch a cat in 30 seconds? The answer is sketch a cat for 30 seconds.

If how ever you'd like to know how to sketch for 30 seconds and end up with something that looks remotely like your cat - read on!

How to sketch a cat in 30 seconds so that it looks like a cat is simple if you do four things

1. Keep a sketchpad handy. I keep a sketchpad or a sketchbook next to my armchair and another next to my desk - dedicated to sketching cats, thumbnails and working drawings. When ever I see Cosmo, the perennial poser, sat on the table surveying the world at large though the window or sat somewhere I can clearly see his pose I have a go at sketching him.
2. Don't give up sketching because cats move. Lots of times one or the other of my cats moves just as I start. I have sketchpads FULL of half a head, a bit of paw etc. Which is why I started practising getting an outline down in 30 seconds.
3. Focus on looking at the whole cat. DO NOT DRAW DETAIL. DO NOT DRAW THE FACE. This is big picture/whole cat drawing. Just focus on really looking at what that cat looks like - as a whole. If you're focusing you're probably looking for at least 15 seconds and drawing for 15 seconds. Identify shapes which make the cat believable, mentally measure the size of shapes, notice changes in form. If having got your outline contour down in 30 seconds you can start to add values, volume and markings. The more you look the more you notice and the better your brain gets at remembering shapes as you draw. Also, don't be afraid about restating a line without erasing - it adds to the character of the drawing - just look at Cosmo's ears in the drawing above right!
   
4. Practice. For some skills the only way you make progress is to just practice - again and again and again. As with most things, you improve your skills the more you do it. As you get better, you'll be drawing without looking at the page. Seriously!
   

If you'd like to see more of my cat drawings (and my cats), you can see them in the catnapping gallery on my website - although these took a teeny weeny bit longer than 30 seconds! More like 2-3 minutes!!