About Karin Jurick (d. 2021)

I'm so very, very sad to be writing this.

I woke up this morning thinking about death (my father died 23 years ago today).... and then the first post I read on Facebook this morning was by James Hollingworth telling me that Karin Jurick passed away recently - much too soon at the age of 59. 

 

Karin Jurick on Daily Paintworks

 

[UPDATE} This tweet came later

Friends and family regret to announce the death of
Karin Jurick. 02/09/1961 - 06/16/2021 pic.twitter.com/oZIjbaGqVl

— Karin J (@KarinJurick) June 25, 2021

This was James's heartfelt announcement on Facebook.

In the early 2000's my wife Karen and I were just beginning our art careers auctioning our paintings on eBay. Part of that experience was searching eBay for other artists. It was a productive exercise that turned us on to a wealth of new talent. One day I came across the painting below and asked (practically begged) Karen to split the cost of it if we were to have the winning bid. We won the auction and when we contacted the artist discovered she lived just across town. She said she was a huge fan of our work and would love to deliver the painting herself. A week or so later Karin Jurick showed up at our door and twenty years later was still one of our closest and dearest friends. Tragically, a few days ago she suddenly passed away.

Karin was a remarkable woman to say the least. She was tough but had a huge heart. She was funny, smart witty and a true genius at painting. Karin was a virtuoso with a paint brush. Karen and I would watch her paint on occasion and we would just sit there with our mouths open in awe. Karin was also one of Karen's most trusted advisors. If Karen had a question, about practically anything, Karin would always give her her honest opinion on that subject. Karin had a way of cutting through the BS, so you knew when she spoke it was the laser focused truth.

Karen and I shared numerous shows with her and took quite a few trips to the beach with her and Brett her partner of thirty years. Karen and I would frequently meet on their side of town for lunch at their (and our) favorite Mexican restaurant. I can't tell you how much I looked forward to those visits, or describe the size of the hole her passing has left in my heart. I love you Karin. James Hollingsworth

Karin has been one of the constants in my blogging life for very many years. 

We corresponded on a number of occasions. Often with me telling her she'd won yet another award in The Making A Mark Awards!

Click the pic to see it BIGGER
and read my nomination properly
- in which I try to explain what made Karin special for me

I treasured notes like this one - which I received after telling her she'd won yet again in the Person Category! She was a very kind person and always so very appreciative of those who supported her as I did - so very many times over the years.

What follows is a resume of Karin's life online - lest we forget all those wonderful paintings. Interspersed by videos of her paintings and a podcast in which you can hear her voice....

About Karin Jurick

This is Karin talking about her life and how she became a painter - followed by a summary of different aspects of her artistic life.

Watching people just like the Kardashians - in the past - in paintings!

I've just come across this Rijks Tube Video Why Vermeer would have loved The Kardashians in their Is This Art? series

It's very instructive and definitely worth a watch. 

crop of "The Love Letter" (De liefdesbrief) c. 1667–1670 by Johannes Vermeer
Oil on canvas, 44 x 38.5.cm. (17 3/8 x 15 1/8 in.)
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

I've skipped the 2 minutes of endless pics of the Kardashians and set the video below to start when the 'host' highlights out how portraits in the past where exactly like watching the "lives of the rich and famous" - and how they dressed and what they owned and what they did.



The proposition is that in addition

• daily life paintings show real life - and interiors - which can vary from the chaotic and risque to the calm and serene.
• there are techniques used in Dutch paintings in the past which are still in use today - so that we feel as if....
• we are invited in 
• and/or are spying on people
• we love watching other people because it helps us understand who we really are

So how come if the Kardashians and other 'reality shows' are so popular we see so few contemporary paintings which are reflecting on daily life?

Photographers frequently show daily life - but artists don't for some reason.

I wonder why!  Could it be the need to develop skills in painting more than one person? Possibly?

Welcome to Is This Art? Where we take a closer look at pop culture and try to answer the age old question: Is this art?

Generating Art - Making A Mark Art Blog Award Nominations 2012

The aim of the Making A Mark Art Blog Awards is to identify:

• excellence in blogging about art and artists; and 
• the art blogs which set high standards and are the most influential.

I started these awards in 2006 so that the efforts of artists and others who are blogging about art could be valued and recognised.

YOU can nominate which art blogs YOU think are excellent and which art blogs influence YOU. For the last three years I've asked all the readers of Making A Mark and the wider community of art bloggers to nominate the art blogs that they think are the best - in different categories

I've been keeping a note of the art blogs which have "made a mark" on me during the course of 2012 but I also really want to hear from all of you as to the blogs have had an impact on you.

This post and the next three posts on Making A Mark invite nominations relating to the categories which you can see at the top of the right hand column.

First how to nominate - and then the three awards in the category of Generating Art.

Nominate an art blog for a Making A Mark Award

It's very simple! Basically all you need to do is leave a comment on the relevant post.

• WHICH AWARD: 
• Identify the title of the Making A Mark Award that you want your nominee to be considered for
• Leave a comment on the post on this blog which invite nominations for that award - BEFORE 29th December 2012
• WHICH BLOG:  Identify
• the name of the blog, its URL (eg "The Art Blog" http://theartblog.blogspot.com) and
• the name of the blogger
• (Note:  art bloggers are not eligible for any award that they have won in the last three years)
• WHY:  Say WHY you think this blog should be considered for a Making A Mark Award.

Artists who have won an award in the last three years are not eligible to be nominated for the same award.

I'll collate all your nominations and comments in relation to each award and consider alongside those blogs which I have in mind as being worthy of consideration.  I'll then share the shortlist with you when the results are announced.

The Making A Mark Awards will be announced on the 29th and 30th December. Note:  All nominees and nominators are linked to both from this blog and my main website page where all the past awards and nominees are listed

So over to you - who do you think merits being nominated for the three awards below? Answers as a comment on this post please.

GENERATING ART

Today I'm looking at nominations for three awards relating to generating art

• The Painting A Day Stickability Shield
• The Best Art Blog Project Virtual Challenge Cup
• The Best Art Society Blog Prize

Leave a comment on this post (see above) nominating the art blog you think should get one of these awards in 2012.

Poll Results - Size Matters!

June 2012 Making A Mark Poll: What's the main reason for the size of your artwork?

This month I asked you what was the primary reason for the size of your artwork and 125 people responded to the Making A Mark Poll for June.

In POLL: How do you decide the size of your artwork? I highlighted a number of reasons for making choices about different sizes of artwork.  These focused on:

• Art Practice
• Art Collectors
• Art Exhibitions

In reviewing the results of this month's poll, I'll use the same headings to highlight what the data tells me and the key points made in the comments received on the post announcing the poll.

You may have a different view.  Please do not hesitate to comment telling me what that is.

Poll Results

125 people responded to the poll during June - and the poll results will be typical of the people who responded.  These are the results in tabular form - and are the same as the ones represented by a pie chart at the top of this post.

What's the main reason for the size of your artwork?

whatever subject demands & hang the cost	36%
standard sizes: minimise framing costs	21%
latest purchase of paper/support	12%
standard sizes: for exhibitions (swop frames)	10%
small size for enthusiastic collectors	7%
small size for impulse purchases	5%
small size for ease of postage	5%
something else	5%
big for competitions/ to get noticed	0%
big for collectors with space & money	0%

Size is important!  Artists do think about the size of their artwork and for the most part appear to have developed a perspective on what size suits them best.

In summary, of the 125 artists who responded, there is a clear split between an 'art is all' aesthetic perspective and those who want their art to make financial sense as well as being aesthetically pleasing.

• Just over a third are persuaded that the aesthetic of their design and composition is the overriding factor in determining the size of their art.
• Just under a third are mindful of pragmatic and financial considerations with respect to framing for exhibitions and sales.
• One fifth paint small for three main reasons - all of which primarily relate to sales and despatch to customers and/or exhibitions
• 5% of artists have other reasons for painting the size they do

Read my analysis and commentary to find out more about determines the size of artwork.

8th January 2012 - Who's made a mark this week

I'm starting the first "who's made a mark this week" of 2012 with a summary of your posts about reviews of 2011 and plans for 2012.  The main reason I do this is because I find it absolutely fascinating how people approach these popular tasks.  Take a look and you may find yourself revising what you do at the end of this year!

Some of you combine posts (the "Janus post") and look backwards and forwards - and in that case I've included them in the first section below.

A bust of the two faces of Janus
- the Roman god associated with new beginnings and transitions
Location: Vatican Museum

The Janus Post - looking backwards and forwards

• Liz Steel (Liz and Borrowmini) has a sketchbook based post Looking back on 2011 and thinking about 2012
• I also did a "Janus" post - The Old Year (2011) and The New Year (2012) & 11 Principles (see right).  You can download the statement of principles from Flickr.

Reviews of 2011

Then we had the more straightforward reviews from (listed alphabetically):

• Jana Bouc (Jana Bouc) What I learned about art and life in 2011 - I really enjoyed this post - it wanted me to sit down over a hot drink with Jana and ask her for more.......
• Jan Blencowe (The Poetic Landscape) produced The Best Art Quips and Quotes of 2011.  What a great way to sum up the year.
• The Brooklyn Street Art blog produced Happy New Year which is an overview of the best images and the best posts for every month of 2011
• Lisa Call (Lisa Call - Textile Paintings) reflected on the word she used for 2011 Confidence in 2011 – A Review of my Word of the Year and then posted her 100 Accomplishments for 2011
• Jeanette Jobson (Illustrated Life)  2011 Review  Jeanette must be doing something right as she reports that 2011 has been one of my best years financially for art, despite a recession, with most work coming through online sales and commissions.
• Casey Klahn (The Colorist) has gone for the simple/difficult version - he's posted his six top pastel paintings from 2011- see 2011 - The Blog and Art Year in Review and then listed his six top posts and his six top events.  It's a very neat approach - I like it!
• Gayle Mason recapped her year in Review of 2011 in terms of what she achieved (eg Gayle was asked to sit on the Selection Committee of the Society of Feline Artists) and what she was less happy with.
• Ilaria Rosselli del Turco (Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco - News) had a Yearly Recap who was selected for the exhibition of a major art competition in the UK and was featured in The Artist magazine
• Anna Wilson Patterson did a post of all her Paintings 2011 - there's a lot to be said for this approach.  It's a bit like going to a solo exhibition.

New Year Resolutions

I spotted rather fewer plans for 2012

• Marion Boddy-Evans, the About.com Painting Guide, has ten New Year's Resolutions for artists
• Rose Welty believes in keeping it fluid with some general aims in mind What will I do in 2012?
• Gillian Holding (Gillian Holding) has come up with a new project for 2012 - the daily fail #thedailyfail - she explains it in this post #dailyfail #1
• Carol Lee Beckx (Art Matters) finds new beginnings really energising What's in store for 2012

For those who haven't yet made their plans try reading How to Have the Best Year of Your Life (without Setting a Single Goal)

So much for my intention to write shorter posts - this one in draft had weeks of material in it - half of which I've had to move forward to next week!

Here's the rest.......

Artists and Art Blogs

Generating Art - Making A Mark Art Blog Award Nominations 2011

Since 2006, the aim of the Making A Mark Art Blog Awards has been to identify:

• excellence in blogging about art and artists; and 
• the art blogs which set high standards and are the most influential.

This is the third year that all the readers of Making A Mark and the wider community of art bloggers have been invited to nominate which art blogs YOU think are excellent and which art blogs influence YOU.

I've been keeping a list of art blogs which have had "made a mark" during the course of the year but I'd love to hear which blogs have had an impact on you.

Instructions on how to nominate for these - and other Making A Mark Awards - are set out at the end of this post.  Basically all you need to do is leave a comment on the relevant post.

GENERATING ART

I'm going to ask for nominations for the remaining awards in four separate blog posts to try and keep it simple.

Today I'm looking at nominations for three awards relating to generating art

• The Painting A Day Stickability Shield
• The Best Art Blog Project Virtual Challenge Cup
• NEW IN 2011 - The Best Art Society Blog Prize

Leave a comment on this post nominating the art blog you think should get one of these awards in 2011 (further details at the end)

The NEW Daily Paintworks website

The Daily Paintworks website

The Daily Paintworks website has had a radical overhaul and is now pursuing a completely different business model. 

This post reviews what has changed and the features and benefits on offer to those wanting to sell their art online.  Future updates will be posted to my Making A Mark Reviews blog.

How daily painting has changed in the last five years

The daily painting model has been around for a while now.  Last week I did a recap of how approaches to selling work developed and became refined over the course of the last five years or so since I started following people doing daily paintings - see A Timeline of Daily Painting Practices and Marketing.

It's very clear that there are an awful lot of artists who still get enormous value from painting every day or most days - and who still want to sell their paintings.

However over time, it's become clear that most dedicated artists, while painting most days, are not attempting to produce a new painting each day. 

This is because:

• most are now more rigorous about taking a "time out" in order to stay fresh 
• and/or have other commitments eg teaching workshops; raising children
• and/or are just more realistic about what is a sustainable practice on a long term basis.  
• and/or artists realise that they need to stay focused on the process rather than fixating on the generation of the product.  

However there continue to be very many artists producing small works for selling online who are producing artwork in a regular way to a consistent standard.

However most of those artists are still in need of an effective method of raising the profile of their work.  The biggest challenge is still getting the customer to view the artwork - which is where sites which help out in this respect come in.  It's also one of the reasons why Daily Paintworks has changed its approach.

The role of Daily Paintworks

The Daily Paintworks site started in December 2005 (see Daily painters, paintings and paintworks - and where you can see them 05 Dec 2007).  It was started by Carol Marine (Carol Marine's Painting A Day) with assistance from her husband David who is a "daily programmer" and who set up the website.

Daily Paintworks started as a small exclusive group of painters who wanted to have a co-operative approach to marketing their artwork.  The idea was that they should have a website which provided an online gallery.  This would then enable them to pool funds so that they could fund some advertising.  It was a great idea and I gather proved to be very effective for a number of the artists.

The group started as eight artists and then increased to twelve artists - with membership changing over time.  Each member needed to provide a not insignificant subscription which generated the funds for advertising and other expenses.

The DPW website then remained unchanged for three years.

Last summer, in Carol and David's view both the site and traffic was beginning to stagnate and needed to be re-energised.   The group of artists were very much focused on painting.  Much less effort had gone into thinking through how to improve the marketing side and this needed to be addressed.

After careful consideration, Carol and David's conclusion was that they needed to:

• improve the marketing
• increase the number of artists
• introduce auction functionality to the site
• put an emphasis on the site being enjoyable for members and customers
• achieve a sustainable business model for the benefit of all participants.

What has changed

A Timeline of Daily Painting Practices and Marketing

Time to take stock.

What follows is a record of the blog posts I've written on this blog in the last five years about the daily painting phenomena and how it has developed - both in terms of painting practice and marketing practices. 

I started compiling it because I'm drafting a blog post about the Daily Paintworks website and its brand new approach to marketing art online.

It seemed like a good idea to start by getting a fix on what has happened when in the timeline of developments in the marketing of daily paintings.  It soon became apparent that this topic deserves a post all to itself rather a footnote!

Hence my post about the changes to the Daily Paintworks website will now follow tomorrow [Update - this will now be next week following the announcement this eveing of the death of Lucian Freud.]

Why a timeline?

• For those who are new to the notion of selling your art online, the posts provide an insight into the history of what has gone before.
• For those of you who have been involved, it provides a record of how much practice has developed and moved on - and started to come back again......

I've split the posts into two halves. .

Practice, experience and style

New Hampshire Pears
coloured pencils on colourfix
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I received an email comment from John Kinney about my post about plagiarism last week.  I suggested that it might work better as a blog post.

It reflects on the notion and value of daily practice - a point highlighted  in a number of comments on recent posts.

Here's what John thinks

As someone familiar with daily painting, although not a painter and certainly not an expert on the subject, I’d like to draw attention to a few comments already made, and share the questions these have inspired in me, and, I hope, in others...

Make your own art!

Let's talk about why and how every painter can be an 'original'.   This post includes some tips for those that are struggling with this.  You are also most welcome to share your own thoughts on what has helped you to develop your own creativity and originality.

Following on from yesterday's post about plagiarism, somebody sent me a note which reminded me that Stapeleton Kearns recently wrote (ranted?) on a related topic.

Within the context of the bigger picture about creating original art, Stapleton has a post last Sunday called Some thoughts on art and money which I very much endorse.  It contains this paragraph

"Art has no reason to exist other than that it be excellent. If you are imitating another artists style, get your own! I open the art magazines and see page after page of amateur rip-offs of Scott Christensen and Richard Schmid. That's not good enough, everyone who sees those ads knows they are seeing a Richard Schmid ripoff. People are not easily fooled."

In general I don't follow daily painters as much now as I used to - simply because I grew very tired of looking at too many artists who were copying other artists.  All that really achieved at the end of the day was to highlight more clearly those artists who were different.  By that I mean those who made sure they were clearly individuals who were not following the crowd and instead were trying to find their own individual way of creating art.

Artists who are original shine like beacons in the midst of the "same old same old".

What I have noticed is that those artists who seem to be the most successful at creating their own artistic identities (which is that thing you have to be able to talk about when the gallery asks you "what do you paint?") all too often also have the happy knack of having their own individual and unique take on the world around them.

In other words, their choice of WHAT they paint and how they look at it is as much part of their ID as HOW they paint.

Essentially that means that the way a daily painter responds to the challenge of coming up with an answer to the question of 'what to paint' each day is as much part of that artist's development as the way they paint.

Your choices about what to paint reveal who you are, what you like, where you live and how you see the world. 

Plagiarism or 'passing off' - it's got to stop

Two years ago I was originally going to call this post "Duane Derivatives".  At the time I decided to let the matter pass - but time passes and the 'passing off' which has been going on for a long time continues.

Hence this post today - which is all about the issues arising from plagiarism and copying the artwork of other people - including:

• what is plagiarism
• what is derivative work
• when artists copying other artists is OK
• how to avoid accusations of plagiarism

NOTE:  Please note this post has been revised since it was first published for two main reasons.  First, it's very apparent that some people are skim reading and then asserting elsewhere that this post says things which are simply not true.  In fact it was written very carefully to avoid such statements being made.  

I'm also concerned that people focus on the principles rather than an individual artist identified.  While I believe the artist and I would agree mistakes were made and remedies were implemented, the example appears to be distracting people from the vast majority of the content of this post.  

I've implemented a revision which has removed all but one of the images and some of the text and added some text of a more general nature.  The first 50 or so comments on this post were made when the images and the original content was still in place.

The Making A Mark Awards 2010 (Part 3 - Generating Art)

Welcome to the second day of The Making A Mark Awards 2010 for blogging art on the Internet.  Today in Part 3, it's my pleasure to award prizes as follows:

Generating Art

• The Best Art Blog Project Virtual Challenge Cup
• The Painting a Day Stickability Shield

I'll start with one of the awards which a lot of bloggers have an involvement with.  Nominations were invited in this thread Making A Mark Nominations: Generating Art

The Best Art Blog Project Virtual Challenge Cup

Art can be quite a lonely activity and it's noticeable that people often like to have some sort of involvement in groups and projects related to art! This award is for:

• EITHER a major and reputable new project which adds value and involves a large number of bloggers
• OR a project which has grown over the course of the year in question or otherwise had some significant impact during the course of the year

Nominations for this award were:

The Virtual Paintout by Bill Guffey nominated by Charlene Brown  Seconded by Leslie Hawes
My nomination for the Best Art Blog Project Virtual Challenge Cup is The Virtual Paintout by Bill Guffey.  Using Google Streetview as a source of inspiration for paintings provides just the right degree of unity around a shared theme, and diversity of subject – and lends itself to an incredible variety of interpretations. It’s hard to say which is more fun, finding your perfect location by navigating around the selected area on Google, or looking at all the great stuff other people have found!

The "Creative Every Day Challenge" and the associated challenge, "Art Every Day Month" hosted by Leah Piken Kolidas Nominated by Peggy Stermer-Cox 
To explain, the challenge runs all year long with a Monday check-in. Then, in November, check in is daily. Optional themes are given each month for exploring, or not.  What I think is special about this art blog is the vast array of artists who participate: fine art, fine craft, writers, dancers, photographers, etc. Leah started the challenge in 2008. I also like the wide range of experience in the participants.

The Creative Every Day Challenge is an older and bigger site and obviously attracts a lot of participants.  It's also very laudable to be promoting creativity amongst art bloggers.  However in terms of accessibility I found it a bit difficult to navigate and I did notice you didn;t need to be an art blogger to participate - and these awards are about art blogging.

By way of contrast, the joy of Bill Guffey's Virtual Paintout site is that it has a very simple concept which is the same every month - painting scenes from specific locations using Google Streetview.  The only thing which ever changes is the place and the map.  The participants get to choose the location they want to paint and then provide the link to the map and the image of what they've produced to Bill for posting to the blog. 

Two paintings of County Clare, Ireland from the December thread

Bill has succeeded in attracting a large number of participants every month - and the benefit is that you can see all the pictures on the blog and that makes it very easy for non-participants to understand the project and see its results. I also like the way that it shows people that they can find places to go and paint plein air using Google Street View and consequently its impact is not just limited to this blog!

Finally to top it off, Bill managed to get himself on TV when Prince Edward Island in Canada discovered they were the chosen location of the month!  I like both the accessibility and the impact of this art blog project and so.....

The 2010 winner of
The Best Art Blog Project Virtual Challenge Cup is
Bill Guffey for The Virtual Paintout

The Painting a Day Stickability Shield

The Painting a Day Stickability Shield is awarded to daily painters who maintain a consistently high output of consistently good quality paintings over the course of the year and set a good example to others

This isn't just a prize for people who can produce good paintings.  This award applauds "stickability" which is a quality which not all blogging painters necessarily possess.  The first two artists to win it, Duane Keiser and Julian Merrow Smith both posted a new work every day for well over a year - all of which sold extremely well. Those that have followed have also produced a very large total of paintings every year.

That's the sort of standard I'm looking for in terms of a daily painter who can follow in their footsteps.


Some of the artists nominated simply did not qualify on the basis that they simply are not producing enough work. Hnece they have not been included in the list of nominees below.

I've allowed the nominatins to stand where artists are producing on average in excess of 15 paintings a month although obviously I'm looking for more than this.

Nominations for this award include the following.

• Lisa Daria (Lisa Daria) Nominated by Kimberly Santini who said I'd like to nominate Lisa Daria for the Moose Award and the Stickability one - she is a daily painter who tackles a variety of subjects, always accompanied by her studio assistant, Brie, a big fluff ball who gets into all sorts of troubles.
• Kimberly Santini (Painting A Dog a Day) I'd like to nominate myself for the stickability award - and there's some great company here! 2010 saw the creation of daily painting #1000, a wine issued with one of my daily paintings as it's label, an invitational solo exhibition comprised of my dailies, and my induction to the esteemed Daily Painters Group, among other accomplishments. 
• Nithya Swaminathan (A Splash of Color) nominated by herself.  I have created over 300 pieces this year.  I took up a project titled "300 to 30" where I planned to complete 300 pieces before my 30th birthday, which was earlier this year. Not only did I go on to complete about 305, but stayed with the momentum to paint much much more than I did in all previous years put together. I have not literally produced a new painting everyday though, because I was on vacation for a month, and there have been other times too when I missed painting.
• Leslie Hawes, "Leslie's Drawing A Day" Nominated by herself.  I hope I inspire artists to make art with a 'daily' intention

Like I said - one if the key criteria I'm looking for is "stickability" - and on that basis there's just one artist that really qualifies to walk off with this award.

Courage #541 by Lisa Daria

I'm very grateful to Kimberley Santini for drawing my attention to Lisa Daria.  I've had a lovely time looking through her blog at her wonderful paintings this afternoon and was very nearly distracted and started to buy a painting!  Always a good sign of a very promising painter!  Her blog has gone straight into my list of blogs that I follow.

Significantly, Lisa Daria is the only nominee to have produced a painting every day this year.

She has good reason - as stated below

After one year of painting every day (including Christmas) I've no intention of stopping. For me, daily painting is a daily appreciation for living via the canvas. I'm a young adult cancer survivor so I have a persistence to make sure every day matters. Daily painting has become a reminder every day can bring with it reason. My optimism and perception have become part of the process of creating each day without reservation or excuse. The finished painting represents a consistently positive and stabilizing presence of my view of my immediate surroundings.
Lisa Daria

No more words are necessary - this is a lady whose 'stickability' we can all admire.

The 2010 Winner of
The Painting a Day Stickability Shield
is Lisa Daria

Links:  Yesterday we had two posts:

Part 1 covered: Getting Out of the Studio

• The Painting Plein Air Plus Prize
• The Travels with a Sketchbook Trophy
• The Going Greener Gong

Part 2 covered: Learning about Art and the Art Business

• The FAQs and Answers Really Useful Medal
• The Make Me Think Gong
• The Best Book by an Art Blogger Blue Ribbon

The Making A Mark Awards - website details all previous winners and nominations

Making A Mark Nominations: Generating Art

The aim of the Making A Mark Awards has always been about trying to identify 

• excellence in blogging art and 
• the art blogs which were the most influential.

When I started, I identified those art blogs which had most influenced me.  Last year I opened up the process to all the readers of Making A Mark and the wider community of art bloggers - and which art blogs are excellent and which art blogs influence YOU.

The voting is still limited to the artwork awards and I already have some blogs in mind for the remaining awards (I've learned to keep a list!) however I can say quite categorically that art blogs won last year because of nominations which came from YOU.

What you need to do - it's very simple!

• WHICH AWARD: 
• Identify the title of the Making A Mark Award that you want your nominee to be considered for
• Leave a comment on the post on this blog inviting nominations for that award - BEFORE 24th December
• WHICH BLOG:  Identify
• the name of the blog, its URL (eg "The Art Blog" http://theartblog.blogspot.com) and
• the name of the blogger
• WHY:  Say WHY you think this blog should be considered for a Making A Mark Award.

That's it!  Simple!

I'll collate all your nominations and comments in relation to each award and consider alongside those blogs which I have in mind as being worthy of consideration. 

The Making A Mark Awards will be announced on the 29th and 30th December.

See my Making A Mark website for a list of previous award winners and an outline of the reasons why they won
All nominees and nominators are linked to both from this blog and my main website page where all the past awards and nominees are listed

Nominations sought for Generating Art

I'm going to ask for nominations for the remaining awards in four separate blog posts to try and keep it simple.

Today I'm looking at nominations for two awards whose winners have a set a high standard to date.

"What they call talent is nothing but the capacity for doing continuous work in the right way." Winslow Homer

The Painting a Day Stickability Shield 

The Painting a Day Stickability Shield is for daily painters who maintain a consistently high output of onsistently good quality paintings over the course of the year and set a good example to others.

Above is what I look like after painting for 15 or so straight hours. I wanted to keep an alla prima feeling to this picture of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich—a sense that it was a giant oil sketch. This required me to use a slow-drying medium to keep the paint wet and to work until my arm fell off and I couldn’t see straight.
The result was PB&J No. 6 (oil). (see The Artist's Magazine: Earning His Daily Bread on Articles and Interviews Duane Keiser Press

Previous winners - and the reasons why - have been:

2006	shared by: Duane Keiser (A Painting A Day) Julian Merrow Smith (Postcard from Provence) They posted a new painting a day on their blogs for well over a year and, although they're not now posting a new painting absolutely every day, they're still managing a lot more than most 'painting a day' blogs.
2007	Carol Marine (Carol Marine's Painting a Day) The person who, in my eyes, has been consistent, has posted most often during the year and who has also continued the tradition, started by Duane, of also sharing her talent and her approach with a wider public through the workshops she has been teaching this year.
2008	Edward Gordon (Edward B. Gordon) who started doing daily paintings back in November 2006. Edward has created a painting a day virtuallly every day in 2008 and did the same in 2007. He completed 700 daily paintings back in October. His blog is popular and it indicates that he sells most of the paintings he produces.
2009	Loriann Signori (Loriann Signori's painting-a-day) - This award is for stickability - Loriann's complete dedication to getting out and about whatever the weather and wherever she is. She created 344 posts in 2009

Do you know somebody who measures up to previous winners and/or otherwise brings something unique or noteworthy to getting paintings painted on a very regular basis

The Best Art Blog Project Virtual Challenge Cup 

The Best Art Blog Project Virtual Challenge Cup: Art can be quite a lonely activity and it's noticeable that people often like to have some sort of involvement in groups and projects related to art! This award is for

• EITHER a major and reputable new project which adds value and involves a large number of bloggers
• OR or a project which has grown over the course of the year in question or otherwise had some significant impact during the course of the year

Previous winners have been:

2006	shared by: the Crackskull Bob Self-Portrait Marathon - a new blogging project which generated 390 entries overall from those participating and a stunning level of creativity the Daily Painters Blog - a blog, website and mailing list providing contemporary original art for sale by painting a day artists and habitual painters.
2007	the International Sketchcrawl drawing marathons - a project which I have participated in which is global and involves lots of people, a lot of whom are bloggers.
2008	Different Strokes from Different Folks - a well thought out project which also involves Karin Jurick in providing tutorials and guidance to participants how to improve their art.  Primarily this has been about encouraging people to see that using photos as references need not involve copying - that making choices, using your imagination and interpreting a photo are skills which are also important.
2009	Urban Sketchers - has developed and become a landmark art blog during the last 12 months.

So over to you - who do you think merits being nominated for these two awards? Answers as a comment on this post please.

Links: The Making A Mark Awards 2010 for blogging about art

• NOMINATE ART BLOGS & ARTISTS for the Best Artwork 2010
• The Best Portrait/Figures 2010
• The Best Place/Landscape 2010
• The Best Still Life 2010
• NEW!!! The Best Nature 2010
• NOMINATE ART BLOGS: Generating Art
• The Painting a Day Stickability Shield
• The Best Art Blog Project Virtual Challenge Cup
• NOMINATE ART BLOGS: Getting out of the Studio
• The Painting Plein Air Plus Prize
• The Travels with a Sketchbook Trophy
• The Going Greener Gong
• NOMINATE ART BLOGS: Learning about art and the art business
• The FAQs and Answers Really Useful Medal
• The Make Me Think Gong
• The Best Book by an Art Blogger Blue Ribbon
• NOMINATE ART BLOGS: on The Home Front
• “The Moose” Award for the best animal in an illustrated blog
• The “Tales from the Frontline” Mention in Despatches / The “Amusing Musings” Trophy
• The Most Gorgeous Mouthwatering (MGM) Studio of the Year

2nd May 2010 - Who's made a mark this week?

Paintings by Shirley Trevena RI
at the 198th Exhibition of the RI of Painters in Watercolour
copyright of all paintings - the artists

I felt like I was getting a tonic when I went to see the 198th Exhibition of the Royal Institure of Painters in Watercolour this week. I saw a very wide range of styles of representation and figurative painting - with people painting the way they like painting rather than trying to be other people.

Shirley Trevena RI - much loved as an artist/author/tutor by watercolour artists the world over - had four paintings included in her own unique style - see above.

Bright colours bounced off the walls at me and made me feel good. In fact Spring was very definitely present in that exhibition. It made me wonder how many artists think about the season they're exhibiting in when showing work. On the right you can see 4 more paintings - this time by Tony Hunt RI - the Vice Chair of the RI

Paintings by Tony Hunt RI

I took a lot of photos - and you'll find more images from the exhibition in this post - because they deserve to be seen!

However the point I'd like to underline is this.

Exhibitions which are hung well to provide a constructive contrast between painting styles and which have paintings which make people feel good create a very positive atmosphere. There are few thoughts of 'same old same old' or of artists playing it safe in a recession.

Doing what you do best and painting what you enjoy painting creates a very positive vibe .....and it also helps sales!

Painting by Terry MicKivragan RI (Membership Secretary)

Art Blogs

Area Based Art Blogs

I asked recently about whether people were starting blogs for artists living a particular area.

This is the blog of the South African Society of Artists. I love the weather forecast widget at the top of the blog for all the outdoor artists! It is also very usefully using the Blogger pages option to list exhibitions, workshops, art teachers, artists models and interesting articles. This is an example of a format which could usefully be copied by other societies. I was very touched to see that they had Making A Mark listed as one of three useful sites! :)

Daily Painters: What I hadn't realised was that the Daily Painters have been developing blogs for dimension of their blogging. Makes sense - it gives scope for local exhibitions around a theme. My one comment is that some of blogs below have an incredibly busy format and this really stops the eye from focusing on the artwork. Less is more when it comes to marketing. How many galleries cram their gallery walls with adverts while inbetween the artwork?

Daily Painting is not producing a single painting every day...it is simply that painting is part of your life everyday, whether you are sketching, supply shopping, painting, doing photos... it all makes up being an artist and painting daily.

• Daily Painters Of Alabama
• Daily Painters Of Colorado
• Daily Painters of Georgia
• Daily Painters of Florida
• Daily Painters Of Hawaii
  
• Daily Painters of Illinois
• Daily Painters of North Carolina
• Oklahoma Daily Painters
  
• Daily Painters of Texas
• Daily Painters Of Utah
• Daily Painters of Washington
• plus the Daily Painters website has a listing of its painters by location

Drawing and sketching

• Susan Abbott has been sketching in Spain - see A Painter's Year
• I love the banner on Milly's Drawings from Nature
• french toast girl has changed her URL due to Blogger stopping support for FTP publishing and is now http://blog.frenchtoastgirl.com/

Landscape art

• On The Art of the Landscape, my post The Czech Republic - Virtual Paintout in May provides a link to Bill's Virtual Paintout blog post for May but recalls also how I nearly froze while painting plein air on the banks of the river in Prague!
• Landscape painting in pastels has two more chapters Chapter 11 - Trees and Chapter 12 - Foliage

Painters and Painting

• Sadie Valeri (Sadie J Valeri) has won First Place Award for Still Life at the Art Renewal Center Salon
• Jean Haines's blog is Watercolours With Life. Jean regularly writes for the Society For All Artists (SAA) Paint Magazine.
• A new group blog exclusively for Palette Knife painters has been started by Georgia artist Judy Mackey. The url of the blog is http://paletteknifepainters.blogspot.com.

Wildlife and Animal Art

• Kim Ratigan alerted me to the endeavours of Linda Shantz, has once again undertaken her personal challenge of "Thirty Horses, Thirty Days" You can view it on Thirty Horses, Thirty Days

Women painting women

• Women Painting Women was created last year byAlia El-Bermani, Diane Feissel and Sadie J. Valeri. This blog explores how contemporary women figurative artists are approaching women as subjects and it includes some very fine painting. Posts are infrequent but it's worth keeping an eye on because of the quality of the painting and figurative art.
  
• Women Painting "Mother and Child" - it's not had a lot of posts which is a pity as its a classic subject popularised by Mary Cassatt

Art Business and Marketing

• Approaching Art Galleries: Selling Yourself — Art Biz Blog http://bit.ly/beGPZ3 - do the research and don't annoy the gallery!
• Two useful articles By Ligaya Figueras from the new edition of Art Calendar:
  
• Create a Marketing and Communications Budget for Your Art Business
  
• Analyze Your Business Finances and Create a Better Budget
  

Art and the Economy / Art Collectors

• The Scotsman reported this week that paintings by Artist Jack Vettriano Fails to Seduce Buyers. The notion being suggested is that the Jack Vettriano's controversial work might now plummet in value after the auction snub it got last week. Earlier last month, he gave an interview to the Daily Mail about The secrets of my success: Jack Vettriano. Maybe the moral of the story is that you should never be complacent about your success - or talk too much about it? These are the images from his latest exhibition - Days of Wine and Roses
• The New York Times Artsbeat Blog reports on a Dispute in Los Angeles Over Arts Financing. As money continues to be tight for arts funding I think I can predict there will be more about more news items relating to arts funding. Personally when money is tight I don't have a problem with it being allocated towards those organisations which benefit the most people. It will mean niche interests get squeezed.

Art Competitions

• BP Portrait Award 2010 - Shortlist announced on Wednesday. I've got access to the high resolution press images and I have to tell you that Michael Gaskell's is even more impressive close up - but it will be small - and the emotional impact of Daphne Todd's portrait of her mother on her deathbed is intensified.
  

Art Society Exhibitions

• The Royal Insitute of Painters in Watercolours had a splendid and colourful exhibition at the Mall Galleries - see Exhibition: RI Painters in Watercolour and the images in this post
• Opening tomorrow is an exhibition of recent work by ten invited members of The Pastel Society UK at Gallery LeFort in Bath. Exhibiting artists include Victor Ambrus, Sarah Bee, Peter Brown, Jeannette Hayes, Felicity House, Moira Huntly, Michael Norman, Norma Stephenson, John Tookey and Peter Vince. The exhibition runs until 29th may. It's a real pity that the Gallery website doesn't update its exhibitions page more regularly - and I have no link to offer you for this exhibition.
• CPSA 18th Annual Exhibition: selected artists and work - some new names, some familiar names and some missing names

Art Exhibitions, Fairs and Shows

• On Monday I published the Top 10 Art Exhibitions in the UK in 2009 - which contains quite a few surprises!
• An exhibition of Dutch Landscapes opened at The Queen’s Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh on Friday. The exhibition of dutch landscape paintings runs until 9th January 2011 and then transfers to the Queen's Gallery. You can preview some of the highlights on the exhibition microsite. I think this is going to spark a spot of writing about Dutch landscapes on The Art of the Landscape.

This exhibition brings together 42 remarkable works, including paintings by Jacob van Ruisdael, Aelbert Cuyp, Nicolaes Berchem and Meyndert Hobbema.

• Degrees Unedited is the open space for visual and applied arts students in the run up to and presentation of final year shows. You can also catch them on Twitter http://twitter.com/degreesunedited and Facebook
• I agree with the sentiments of Hugh Pearman in Shanghai Expo 2010 - a hairy-fairy thrill - and I'm a big fan of the gardens at Kew!

Designer Thomas Heatherwick's British pavillion is a 'Seed Cathedral'. It's a fabulous spectacle, but at what cost?

Art Education / workshops / Tips and techniques

Art Education

• Illustrator, author and tutor Irene Brady (Nature Drawing) has published her new workbook Nature & Travel Sketch Journaling. You can read all about it in Nature & Travel Sketch Journaling IS READY!
• She also has a second workbook about the Drawing Eagles, Hawks & Owls Workbook which you can read about in New Workbook ~ Drawing Eagles, Hawks & Owls!

Workshops

I know that life has not been so easy for some artists who are tutors and that they've had workshops which have been slow to fill and others which have had to be cancelled. However other artists are doing roaring business (see below) - and it might be worth studying ALL their sites to work out why. The upcoming Karin Jurick (A Painting Today) workshop in New York City is full but you can sign up for future workshops as follows

• November 1-5, 2010 - held at the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. More info can be found here.
• May 23-27, 2011 - held at the National Academy of Design in New York City. More info can be found here.

All Carol Marine's workshops between now and the end of 2010 are full with a wait list. So if you're thinking of trying a workshop with Carol you need to start thinking about making a booking now - and eyeing up dates in 2011! They're all listed on the right hand side of her blog Carol Marine

Tips and Techniques

• For those unable to make it to a workshop, Karin Jurick has also made over her weekends to questions and answers - so we have a Q & A Friday on A Painting Today - which followed Q & A Weekend and Q & A Friday

Art Studios

A rather specialist topic but one which is particularly relevant to oil painters Ventilating Your Studio By Louise Buyo for Art Calendar. There are 5 tips for improving art quality in the studio and suggestions for further reading.

Art Supplies

• Neil Hollingsworth (Paintings in Oil ) highlighted who's starring on some new art supplies Paul Coventry-Brown
• John Smith has written a long and very interesting article about The Rise and Fall of Artists and their Materials on his blog Thoughts from my studio. It doesn't seem to have URLs for specific blog posts

Opinion Poll

• The results for April's Making A Mark opinion poll have been posted in What types of art book do you like best? (MAM Poll Results) - the results appear to completely contradict the pattern of change to the production of art instruction books
• Plus the new opinion poll for May Have you bought a painting DVD? is now in the side columm (scroll down - just below the Bloggers who follow this blog faces)

Websites, webware and blogging

Blogging

• Nithya Swaminathan (A splash of color) has written a blog post which provides a step by step guideline to add the facebook like button to a blogger blog - Adding the Facebook “like” button to a Blogger blog

and finally........

In the final week of the election campaign I thought I'd have a political end note.

The legendary political cartoonist for The Guardian Steve Bell (Steve Bell in Wikipedia) was filmed this week sketching "Mandy" ie Peter Mandelson as he deals with Gordon Brown's 'bigot' gaffe and addresses business bosses at the Royal Albert Hall for the Guardian in Steve Bell's election: 'He has very demonic eyebrows, everything about Mandy is sinister'. Watch it - and note the coloured pencils!

However - did you know that

Bell is fond of parodying famous paintings. Examples include his parody of Goya's The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (in an editorial cartoon about the UK Independence Party); William Hogarth's The Gate of Calais about the ban on UK meat exports following outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease and bovine BSE; and - before the 2005 General Election when it briefly seemed as if the Liberal Democrats might seriously threaten Labour - J. M. W. Turner's The Fighting Temeraire, in which a chirpy Charles Kennedy as tug-boat towed a grotesque and dilapidated Tony Blair to be broken up

You can see more of his cartoons archive in BellToons