New Hampshire Pears

This is a piece which I did one evening just over two weeks ago in New Hampshire while staying with my friend and fellow Fine Line Artists member, Nicole Caulfield. It's now posted as an image in the Small Works Gallery on my website.

Once we had her two delightful daughters in bed, I wanted to see how Nicole worked as she gets a really super finish to her coloured pencil pieces. So we decided we should both draw a couple of pears in coloured pencils from life (my main way of working) on colourfix (her support of choice in the past) and watch what each other did while we did this.

It was absolutely fascinating. We both had a completely different approach to working on the colourfix - I do very light sweeping hatching strokes every which way (with some link to form and shape) and work the whole drawing all the time while Nicole has an oval polishing approach and works her way out gradually from one point on the pear. She gets a very even finish and very gradual and subtle transitions this way (which I like) whereas you can see all the marks in mine (which I also like!). We also compared which pencils we were using and both got to try some we'd never used before.

Then we talked about colour and I showed her how I approached optical mixing, what colours I could see and what pencils I would use next if I was doing her piece. She did the same for me.

It's really interesting exercise to really look at what somebody else is doing and to have to explain what you're doing to a fellow artist - it makes you look at processes and approaches in a way which you've maybe not done since you first learned how to use the medium in question. In some instances this evaluation process can also lead to thoughts about possible changes - as indeed it did for Nicole who happily pushed her colours with a bit of encouragement from me. You can see Nicole's pears which were the result on her blog here.

And although I know this is coloured pencil on burnt umber colourfix, I can't tell you how big it is as I gave it as a present to Nicole. She even made me sign it!

(PS The Fine Line Artists website link was fixed while I was away and is now in full working order here www.finelineartists.com ).

Links:

• Nicole Caulfield - website and blog
  
• Katherine Tyrrell - Small Works
• Art Spectrum Primer and Colourfix Supports
  

Technorati Tags: art , coloured pencils , colored pencils , drawing , pencil , pencils

How Lynn Barber suffered for The Turner Prize

I've stopped reading newspapers. I could try and pretend that it was something to do with trying to be more green but it was really because they kept getting bigger and bigger and it was always such a nuisance getting rid of them, given that my borough seems to be pretending I don't need the same arrangements as everyone else to recycle - but that's another story.........

Anyway, I now read all my news online which saves an enormous amount of both time and effort. My paper of choice is The Guardian and my headlines of choice come from the BBC. I duly read the article on Tuesday by the Arts Correspondent of the Guardian Tate unveils latest contenders for modern art's annual punch-up and got bored. Looking at the entrants on the BBC site's In pictures: Turner Prize exhibition wasn't much better. So I decided to skip making any reference to the Prize in this blog

That is, until I read, Marion Boddy Evans (the Guide for Painting.About.com) this morning and her reference to Lynn Barber's article in The Observer (sister newspaper to The Guardian) on being one of the Turner Prize judges - which I'd completely missed.

I've always loved Lynn Barber's journalism - she's definitely my kind of journalist - and this year, she's also one of the judges for this year's Turner Prize. I'm not quite sure of her qualifications for judging the Turner Prize and neither was she - but I cannot imagine that they didn't think she'd write about it!

The Turner Prize is organised by the Tate Gallery and is

"awarded to a British artist under fifty for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work in the twelve months preceding 9 May 2006. (The Turner Prize) is intended to promote public discussion of new developments in contemporary British art and is widely recognised as one of the most important and prestigious awards for the visual arts in Europe."

Lynn Barber's article, although long, is an extremely stimulating read. I guarantee your jaw will drop and you'll also splutter if not actually laugh out loud! Get a big mug of the hot drink of your choice and settle down for a good read about the judging process in the world of contemporary art "How I suffered for art's sake"

"Under Cover": an exhibition of sketchbooks at the Fogg Art Museum

"I should recommend . . . keeping . . . a small memorandum-book in the breast-pocket, with its well-cut sheathed pencil, ready for notes on passing opportunities: but never being without this."
John Ruskin, The Elements of Drawing, 1857

On my last day in New England I visited "Under Cover", the exhibition of artists' sketchbooks at the Fogg Art Museum in Boston next to Harvard Yard. This is an exhibition of some 70 sketchbooks and 45 drawings that were originally part of sketchbooks - this is a list of exhibits. A Website which opens up an number sketchbooks for viewing accompanies the exhibition and a number of related sketching events are listed here. The exhibition will close on Sunday 22nd October although the sketching events carry on longer.

The drawings and notes in these sketchbooks vary from nature and figure studies, to travel sketches, copies after old masters, expense accounts, and lists of pictures. Some sketchbooks are self-conscious and conceived as a whole, with every page signed, while others are more spontaneous and filled with a random assortment of hastily drawn sketches and doodles. [Press Release]
It has two parts

• Observation: this focuses on the documentation of the external world and includes many such travel and nature studies and sketches recording an artist's travels.
• Invention: this follows the artists' digressions and internal journeys as they develop compositional ideas

It seemed to me that, on the whole, more traditional artists and those from times past tended to use sketchbooks for observational work while more 'modern' artists used them for more abstract visual thoughts. I wondered whether using a sketchbook for observational records had gone 'out of fashion'.

For me, the finest sketch I saw was one done by Turner - a very fine and delicate sketch of the Rhine landscape done in watercolour and graphite. (Turner was an indefatigable traveller who filled very many sketchbooks - most of which can be seen online here via Tate Britain). It was noticeable that most of the travels sketches done by different artists were about postcard size - while some used larger landscape format sketchbooks.

There are some very fine sketches by George Grosz of mice - and this was one of the sketchbooks which was reproduced as a facsimile for the exhibition and in 'verso' and recto' form on the website here. The website provides an interesting insight into the place of this particular sketchbook (one of 200 which have survived) in Grosz's artistic career. The website also covers and comments on sketchbooks used by a number of other artists.

Given my frequent use of coloured pencils for sketching and recent trip which incuded deserts in the southwestern USA, I was also interested to see that Mel Pekarsky has been recording desert landscapes using coloured crayons - you can see more examples on his website and I think he spent rather more time on his drawings than I was able to! Henry Moore also used coloured crayons for his ideas for sculture - see the image used for the introduction to the exhibition.

Because many of the sketchbooks are fragile, not to mention valuable, most of the exhibits are behind glass. However as you enter the museum, there are some facsimile sketchbooks which you can flick through much as you could if one of your friends handed you their sketchbook for you to review. I have to tell you this is quite an unnerving experience given who some of the sketchbooks belonged to!

It's rare to be able to see an intact artists sketchbook outside the possession of the artist who created it. It felt like a privilege to be able to see the everyday records, initial thoughts (both visual and jottings) and 'inner workings' of a variety of artists - they're somehow much more intimate than the great set piece painting or sculpture. As the exhibition suggest, it's almost as if we've been able to read a diary or look over their shoulder while they're at their work.

Do you preserve your sketchbooks for posterity - or your children?

Do you record what you see or use them to work out what you want to produce?

Links:

• "Under Cover" an exhibition of Artists' Sketchbooks at the Fogg Art Museum
• Fogg Art Museum: "Under Cover"- Artists Sketchbooks
• List of exhibits

Technorati tags: art , artist , drawing , pen and ink , pencil , sketch, sketching

The Daily Painters Blog

It was only a matter of time.........and bravo to Micah Condon for taking on the task of blogging all the daily paintings from all the daily painting blogs registered with the new "Daily Painters Blog". This new blog has been up and running for the last month and now seems to gathering pace with its subscriptions from daily painters.

The way it works is like this:

• the artist registers the URL of their daily painting blog with Micah
  
• the artist can put a daily painting blog widget on their own blog - which provides a sequence of changing images and when clicked on then leads people to the daily painters blog
  
• we all get to see a daily gallery of the thumbnails of all the daily paintings posted on one day
  
• you can then click on the one you like and.....
• send an e-card of that painting
• go the artist's blogs for further details if you want to buy the painting

I'm just wondering how big this will get in the end but at the moment it certainly makes it easier for potential buyers and others interested in the work of daily painters.

I'm also guessing here but it occurs to me that this gallery approach for daily paintings (which looks so much better than the e-bay alternative) must also provide some incentive to painters to not let their standards slip and to produce good quality work day after day.

And as Micah commented on this blog

I think the best thing about daily painting blogs is the opportunity to see some wonderful work by artists I would have never otherwise seen. I rarely have a chance to visit a gallery, but even when I do, I realize that the gallery world is just a tiny slice of art life. With daily painting blogs, I can view lots of fresh art every day, by artists I can easily relate to.

Links:

• Why artists should blog Part 2: the success of Daily Painting Blogs
• Will you be a success if you blog your paintings daily?
• Blog of Painting a Day Blogs
  

Technorati tags: art , daily painter , daily painting , daily paintings , painting

The Big Draw 2006: 1-31st October 2006

Following its official launch on 23rd September, the formal start of the "Big Draw 2006" events in the UK is today and events will then run for the whole month of October.

I wrote about this major event which orchestrated by the Drawing Campaign in this post in May of this year. Events are organised according to regions within the UK. Some are more focused on children and families and some are for adults. Check the listings of more than 1,000 drawing events of different kinds that have been registered with the campaign. Click on a title to get full information (print-friendly) on a particular event.

The Big Draw also has events which are located on the internet or overseas. Examples of internet events include:

• The Open University's invitations to sketch a 'really useful robot' using their Robodoodle sketching tool
• the "In the Picture" project at www.childreninthepicture.org - which aims to promote the inclusion of disabled children in early years' picture books - will be offering downloadable drawing activities putting disabled children in the picture via portraiture. Submitted pictures may find their way into the children's gallery already set up and waiting to go!

In relation to overseas events, it now rather looks like a number of artists had ideas for how drawing linked events might take place in the USA - in association with major museums and established drawing organisations. However, of the ones listed on the Big Draw website as overseas events, I note that a number of events in the USA are noted as "tbc" (ie to be confirmed) and that the designated websites (eg the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; the Drawing Center in New York) are not actually highlighting any activities.

If you live in the UK, are you going to be participating in any of these events to promote drawing?

If you live overseas, do you think your country and your art institutions do enough to promote drawing?

Links:

• The Big Draw 2006
• The Big Draw 2006 National Launch - official website
  
• Drawing Power - the Campaign for Drawing
• Making a Mark: The Big Draw 2006 (24 May 2006)

Technorati tags: art , drawing