The Pastel Society - Annual Exhibition 2006

On Wednesday, after the Drawing Lecture at the National Gallery, I walked the short distance to the Mall and went to see the 107th Annual Exhibition of the Pastel Society (UK) at the Mall Galleries. The exhibition is on from 1 - 12 March with an art event evening next Tuesday 7th March - which I shall probably try and get to.

I've been exhibited by the Pastel Society in the past - which was a huge thrill but I haven't submitted any work in some time. Unfortunately I missed the exhibition last year and had thought about submitting work for this year's exhibition but decided not to until I'd had a chance to see what was getting into the exhibition and whether styles were changing.

Getting your work juried into a competitive exhibition can be such a 'hit and miss' affair. There are a number of sources of good advice about what to avoid doing - but what makes one piece get exhibited and another not does seem rather like the luck of the draw at times. Which of course is down to the fact that those making the decision usually change each year.

Anyway, I was there to look at the paintings and do my research! When I go to see a juried exhibition I have a number of objectives - some of which relate to any future submissions and some of which are rather more market-oriented ie what's selling! Usual objectives are to:

• identify how subjects and styles are changing (if at all)
• see what is selling within the context of the prevailing economy (I usually go at the beginning and end of the exhibition if I'm really interested in this) - and also what is NOT selling. I'm looking here mainly at style, subject and size as well as at price.
• try and identify what it is about a painting which merits the prize it has been awarded.

I always go armed with a pen and annotate the catalogue. Various cryptic remarks get made - mainly to remind me of what the painting looked like so I could remember it after I left the exhibition (see below for my comments on juried exhibitions and the use of the Internet)

I need to go back again as I didn't finish looking round by the time the gallery closed - but initial impressions are:

• usual emphasis on the representational and observed subjects rather than symbolic or conceptual; but many more abstract, or semi-abstract, paintings than I remember seeing at past exhibitions.
• more of an emphasis on the impressionistic rather than the realistic - very little 'photo-realistic'
• lots of landscapes and few (I think) florals
• not a lot of conventional portraits (not unusual)
• very few drawings
• very little use of coloured pencil - which is a permitted medium
• an awful lot more use of solvent? Some of the more 'painterly' paintings seem to have brush marks which aren't about a gesso underpainting on the support - are people trying to make pastels look like oils because pastels do not sell as easily as oils?
• some interesting framing solutions - more being framed as if oils (ie no mat)
• very few sold after the Private View and first day - which I would guess is prime time to make sales. A reflection on the artwork or the marketing?

Some small whinges:

• I do wish that the catalogue included dimensions and media used - instead of just title and price. I spent a lot of time staring at some of the paintings this year trying to work out what surface had been used and how the painting had been produced.
• It's incredibly irritating having a catalogue ordered by the artists name - in alphabetical order while the exhibition is hung in a completely different order. When there are 390 paintings that makes for an awful lot of flicking backwards and forwards!
• I wish more societies (including the Pastel Society) created a website for their exhibition with links to the artists websites or galleries. By and large such exhibitions seem to be still treated pretty much like conventional gallery exhibitions and don't seem very attuned to the Internet as a way of communicating and marketing artists' work.

An honourable exception to the last comment is the exhibition held by the New English Art Club (NEAC) which demonstrates a much more business-like approach. Despite the exhibition closing in mid-December, it can still be viewed on-line and sales can still be made through the NEAC website. It also means that you can go back and view a piece without having to return to the gallery and the actual physical exhibition.

art , drawing , exhibition , landscape painting , painting , paintings , pastel society, pastels

Crassness and Cruelty

This was the latest lecture (on 1st March) by Deanna Petherbridge .in the Drawing towards Enquiry, Enquiry towards Drawing lecture series at the National Gallery.

Another fascinating lecture with lots of interesting slides - a slice of art history without it being an art history lecture. Her juxtaposition of slides by historical and modern artists was fascinating.

Here are some odd comments and conclusions from the event which gave me pause for thought

• a caricature may be more like a person than a normal drawing
• very sophisticated artists are quite capable of employing deliberate distortions in a child-like fashion - caricaturing with a "fun" pencil and "a rough charged infantilising line"
• infantilism and coarseness are often put together and are often interchangeable
• caricatures can flout all the normal "rules" of drawing, composition etc
• artists often focus their drawing activities (caricature) on the edgy relationship between artist and dealer and artist and connoisseur - it's been a key theme of many artists over time and is investigated again and again
• historically there has been a view that the painter who has done caricature has "let the side down"

art , caricature , drawing

Coloured Pencils: Using Zest-It solvent

My great friend and fellow artist Kathy Ellis has produced a step by step lesson on how to use solvent - specifically Zest-it - with coloured pencils. It's just been published in the new March edition of Ann Kullberg's e-zine "From My Perspective" which can be accessed on subscription via Ann's website - see below.

Solvent basically makes getting good coloured pencil coverage on paper much quicker and easier than the endless layering technique which a lot of people do with coloured pencils. Why spend hours and hours doing 20 layers to get a nice solid colour when you can do a few and then use solvent to spread the wax or oil based pencils around the page in much the same way as watercolour. Or so the reasoning goes.

On the subject of layering - I'm just not that methodical and I've personally never worked out how many layers I do as I don't work in a section by section way. I work all over at the same time and pick up and put down pencils as I go............

Anyway, knowing about the impact of solvent and knowing how to do this are, of course, two completely different things. Kathy has been using Zest-It as a solvent for some time now but this is the first time I've seen exactly what she does - with pictures for all the different stages. The great advantage of Zest-It is that it is a natural citrus based solvent which is completely non-toxic. And the smell of oranges is great too! I have my bottle of Zest-It at the ready - and I'm ready to go!

A link to Ann's Kullberg's website which provides the access to her e-zine is now located in the coloured pencil resources section of side column. Besides the e-zine it also provides great advice and other resources for those interested in drawing and painting using coloured pencil. It also includes galleries of work done by artists using coloured pencils.

The Zest-it site also provides a link to the article which Ann Swan did for the UKCPS - in which she also explains how she uses Zest-It for her very precise and beautiful botanical drawings. I've also added a link into Ann Swan's website in the artists section of the side column.

You can see Kathy's work at www.katherinellis.com - she does absolutely amazing dog portrait paintings as well as simply stunning still life paintings with coloured pencil. One to watch in more than ways than one - especially if you live in New England!

art , botanical drawings , coloured pencils , colored pencils

Thumbs down for Technorati Favourites

I'm not at all impressed with Technorati Favourites. Reason - I'm experiencing major problems with the way the function is recognising the latest update from a blog when the blog URL is added to the favourites list. And of course if it doesn't recognise a blog has updated then I can't read the update!

Examples include:

• Postcard from Provence (which updates every day/Movable Type base) - is listed as having last updated 3 days ago
• Craftmonkeys (Typepad) - doesn't register as ever having posted (and I've tried every variation I can think of with no luck at all)
• Fur in the Paint (Blogger) - listed as having last updated 11 days ago - wrong!

In the end I tested my blog (Blogger) - updated 3 hours previously - and this is listed as having last updated 3 days ago as well! At which point I decide to write this post!

There's no apparent rhyme nor reason to it. Laurelines (Typepad based) and A Painting a Day (Blogger based) are both reading accurately within Technorati favourites.

So I'm going to stick with nice/reliable/easy to use/easy to access "Bloglines" to read all the latest posts in the blogs that I follow - and tag this post appropriately with Technorati tags to see if anybody over at Technorati is monitoring the feedback!

Bloglines , Technorati , Technorati Faves ,

Wally Torta's self-portrait

Wally has done a great self-portrait in pen and ink and posted it in his latest entry in his journal - which I highlighted a few posts back. It deserves a much wider audience than the huge numbers who go to look at his journal each day.

See his post "End of the Line" and take a look at the last drawing. There's a fairly gushy comment from me underneath - but it is a really great self-portrait!

And self-portraits are the hardest thing and the easiest to do. Easy because you always have a ready model to hand - and hard because you have to:

• find a mirror that's big enough
• make sure mirror won't fall over if being used where you normally draw
• look at this person with the sort of gaze which you have been avoiding for the last few years since the pounds started to pile on and the wrinkles put in an appearance
• avoid the fixed glare look of somebody who is looking very hard at something the cat just dragged in
• spend hours deciding whether or not you're going to smile or not
• faff about while you decide what's the best media for your self-portrait (posterity you understand! ;) )
• kick yourself for not having had your hair cut when you meant to - as you now realise just how much it needs a cut
• make a mental note to start going to bed earlier because those bags under your eyes are simply NOT going to be in the next self portrait
• decide it would be better to wait until summer when your skin is looking at little less pasty
• ..........and more of the same..........

All in all a very nerve-wracking experience - at the same time as probably being one the best drawing and painting exercises you can do. And wimps don't do self-portraits - you need nerve!

Well done Wally!

(Edit: Whoops - forgot the Technorati tags again!)

art , drawing , drawing people , pen and ink , self-portrait