More botanical art - and some sketches

I've got more links to botanical websites to go in the right hand column. I've always felt drawn to botanical art but have never been quite sure that I've got the patience for the very detailed work and control required for drawing and painting flowers within the context of botanical art.

I'm also on a really big flower "binge" at the moment - maybe it's all that colour that I need after what has been a very long and grey winter. Anyway, I'm running out of large vases! We had a warmer day with blue skies at the weekend and yesterday I noticed that suddenly everything is beginning to burst into bloom!

Anyway - back to the botanical art sites. These are listed below followed by comments on each:

• The American Society of Botanical Artists
• The Botanical Society of Australia
• Botanical Artists
• Botanical Artistry
• Ann Swan
  

Both of the national societies are very similar to the UK one - providing membership information, galleries of art by members, information about exhibitions and workshops and links to relevant organisations. Both societies also produce newsletters - but you can download the one from the american site - it's excellent and informative and I should think all those interested in botanical art will definitely want to take a look at it.

A new initiative within the botanical art world (at least one I've not seen before!) seems to be the development of websites by groups which provide a place to display art by more than one artist outside a botanical society framework and, at the same time, provide links to organisations of relevance to botanical artists.

All of the above websites provide an insight into the nature of botanical art and display art by a number of very gifted people. The reason for singling Ann Swan out - besides the fact she's a UK artist - is that Ann works in coloured pencil producing contemporary botanical art. Her sites demonstrates what can be accomplished with coloured pencil - and the oil paint depth of colour that can be achieved if you have the patience and the talent. Ann's site also usefully reproduces two articles which provide an insight to how she works.

I've provided links to each of the above in the flower section of the right hand column - it's about half way down - keep scrolling!

Finally - do please take a look at the gallery of flower drawings produced by Laura (of Lauralines) in 2005 which you can see on her blog. This is not botanical art per se - being more sketchy drawings and paintings produced in a much looser way but they are lovely and colourful and equally impressive.

Technorati tags: art , botanical art , coloured pencils , colored pencils , drawing , drawing flowers , flower paintings , painting

The Artist's Year Book 2006

The Artist's Yearbook 2006 is edited by Ossian Ward and published by Thames and Hudson (and I've put a link to it in the business section in the right hand column - near the bottom!). It relates entirely to the UK art world and includes advice, information and contact details about:

• commercial galleries and dealers
• public museums and galleries
• art material suppliers and services
• framers and printers
• studios and exhibition spaces for hire
• art education and courses
• art fairs and festivals
• art prizes, open competitions and residencies
• arts boards, councils and funding opportunities
• societies and other arts organisations
• art magazines and PR contacts

Information is usefully disaggregated into regions and the internet making any searches in the larger sections a little bit easier. Over 2,500 organisations are listed. What I do when I come across books like this is pick them up in the book shop and then look for very specific things which I know about to see if they're included! While I found some omissions I also came across many more things that I never ever knew about. Overall, a very useful book to own.

This book shouldn't be confused with the Writers and Artists Yearbook published by A&C Black which is much more focused on resources for writers and is pretty lightweight in terms of resources for fine artists. My 2005 edition has listings which are useful for:

Illustrators

• art agents and commercial art studios
• card and stationery publishers which accept illustrations

Photographers

• picture agencies and publishers
• card and stationary publishers which accept photos
  

The information it contains about websites for artists is very summarised compared to the offered by the Thames and Hudson book

I'm happy for people to provide a brief summary of any other similar digests of information relating to other countries as a comment on this post - your views on how useful you have found them would also be very helpful.

Technorati tags: art, art business, art marketing

A Creative Leap

Penelope Dullaghan is an illustrator who runs Illustration Friday and has an interesting website (and web journal). She has recently written about how she became an illustrator.

If anyone is interested in making the leap to being self-employed I recommend a read of her presentation which she has now made available on the web.

Click here to read it.

Technorati tags: artist weblog , art blogs , artist websites, illustration

I made the front cover of FMP!

I had a big surprise this morning - but I think this is due to the little grey cells being in hibernation due to the weather! I opened up my April copy of Ann Kullberg's on-line magazine for coloured pencil artists "From My Perspective" - to find my Mixed Parrot Tulips piece on the front cover! Ann had asked me a little while ago whether she could use it but I'd totally forgotten! Nice to see it there though!

Ann's magazine is an absolute gold mine of information about all things relevant to coloured pencil artists. It's a subscription only arrangement - hence why I can't show you the cover - but in my opinion it's $25 p.a. well spent. Each magazine covers:

• Step by Step Lessons - covering a wide variety of topics - this month it's about the sorts of decisions which need to be made before starting a portrait
• Critiques: Ann provides a free critique to all subscribers to FMP, and features one in the online magazine each month. Her critiques relating to portraiture - which is her particular area of expertise are especially valuable
• Q and A: questions posed by members get answered by Ann each month. This is particularly useful when you've got a question and none of the reference books seem to provide the answer
• Tips of every description (this month's examples are in brackets) - from saving time to supplies to art techniques (e.g. analysing colour) to technology tips including working with Photoshop (e.g. use of the lasso tool) to business issues (e.g. the production and marketing of giclee prints of CP artwork)
• Profiles of individual subscribers - it's always interesting to see how other people started out and what they did to achieve where they are today - and particularly interesting if the individual concerned is now a professional success! It's also nice to be able to peek at piccies of people's studios - I just love looking at other people's studios!

In addition there are a couple of on-line exhibitions each year for members and member discounts on tools purchased from Ann. I know an awful lot of people think her portrait skin tones kit is "the business".

For anybody interested in finding out more about the magazine, these are the links to:

• Ann's website - "Ann Kullberg- For All things Coloured Pencil"
• the FMP magazine page
• the free sample issue

[Updated 4.4.06 to include a small image of 'Mixed Parrot Tulips' as requested]

Technorati tags:art , coloured pencils , colored pencils , drawing , drawing people , painting , pencil , pencils , portrait

Painting Personality Quiz

Something to have a bit of fun with.............

Some friends and I have been trying the Painting Personality Quiz (provided by About.com). There's just 10 simple questions and then it tells you what sort of painting would suit you best on the basis of your answers.

I found it surprisingly accurate for me - telling me I should be using pastels and acrylics. I've been a pastel painter for the last 12 years or so and I've just bought my first set of acrylics!

Tell me if you try it and get any interesting results - or maybe you fooled it? ;)