14th Annual Exhibition of the Society of Feline Artists at the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery

After a slightly frenetic week of finishing work, cutting mats, getting glazing redone, assembling and taping I finally managed to frame four furry felines and presented them for submission to the 13th Annual Exhibition of the Society of Feline Artists at the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery in central London (1st - 20th September 2008)

The good news is that yesterday all four were accepted - and I even got compliments on my framing! I'll be posting images of mine on this blog between now and the Champagne Private View on 2nd September.

Gayle Mason and I met up for the annual submission day and Gayle was also successful in having her work accepted for the exhibition.

Extract from the invitation to the SOFA Champagne Reception
Gayle's 'Aristocat' (mixed media) is the large red cat in the bottom row.

She gets her work done way ahead of me and also had one of her images accepted as one of the cats in the 2008 brochure.

The gallery will be exhibiting over 300 oils, acrylics, watercolours, pastels, works in coloured pencil and etchings - with a price range from £80 to £3,000 with the majority of working being under £750

Artists who will be exhibiting include:

• Astrid Ruddick - who specialises in Oriental cats - see Feline Dancing
  
• Alice Woudhuysen - who specialises in painting colourful and humorous narratives in a naieve style - see The Cattery
  
• Marian Foster - who I always think of as 'the siamese lady' - see "A trip to the photographer"
  
• Jacqueline Gaylard - whose paintings demonstrate technical prowess and are always extremely popular - see Purring Softly
  
• Anne Aggett - who is a founder member of SOFA and a coloured pencil artist. She's exhibiting Highly Collectable and Desired
• I liked Jackie Coote's In repose - I think it's the head slightly on one side which is so recognisable

This is the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery's virtual website exhibition of some of the work submitted for SOFA's 2008 exhibition - these pictures are of the ones who submitted digital images for the PV invitation.

Gayle and I will be back on Tuesday 5th September for the Champagne Private View opened by celebrity vet David Grant. Now we've just got to get those invites in the mail!

Links:

• Society of Feline Artists
• Llewellyn Alexander Gallery
• Gayle Mason - Gayle Mason Fine Art website and 'Fur in the Paint' (blog)

Lines and Colors and a rather nice surprise

I've just broken off from prep work for an exhibition to find an email containing some totally unexpected and very nice news. Charley Parker (Lines and Colors) has rather surprised me by writing a very complementary piece about me on his admirable blog - see Katherine Tyrrell.

I'm a huge fan of 'Lines and Colors' and am always really interested to read about the various artists that he writes about. We share a number of artistic interests and it's always great to find that he's posted about yet another new artist that appeals to me - especially when I know that every post will come with a bunch of helpful links to sources of images and information on the net. I'm sometimes able to suggest an extra site as a reference source or a 'must see' exhibition.

A lot of people comment that they don't know how I manage to find the time to do what I do. I have a confession. I'm always in awe of the way that Charley can produce a class article day after day - all of which are well researched, thoughtful, insightful and well written! It just so happens that today I'm the subject!

I particularly liked this comment - picture me with a big beaming smile at this point!

I like the range of colors she finds in surfaces that are ostensibly white, whether in the walls of buildings or simple still life subjects like eggs in a bowl or fruit on a white surface.

You can find the images he used in the Houses and Gardens gallery on my website.

Now I return to matting and framing for an exhibition...........

Duane Keiser's last $100 oddment

Broken Bird Egg by Duane Keiser
A Painting A Day 1st august 2008

This is it - the last oddment by Duane Leiser priced at $100 - and I got it!

What's an oddment?

Oddment means "a remnant or part of something, typically leftover from a larger piece." I originally made these very small paintings on pieces of board leftover from my larger paintings. They are typically about 3"x2" and are $100.
What's an oddment

Duane has been painting very small paintings for a set price of $100 for some time - and they have become one of the ways people can continue to get a piece of work by Duane at an affordable price. His postcard sized paintings although always started at $100 sell for much more than this in 7 day auctions on e-bay.

The trick with Duane's oddments is to be the first one to see one. The way it works is that the first person to email Duane offering to buy it gets it - no need to negotiate eBay or to wait for the auction to finish before you find out whether or not you got it.

I have to confess I had an odd thought when writing about Keiser Collectors and Duane and his eggs last week - which was that it would be nice to see him doing more bird's eggs. So he then - out of the blue - painted a broken bird's egg shell in my favourite colour - how could I not bid? Duane told me afterwards that this would be the last one at this price so I'm now feeling very lucky indeed!

What's very interesting and apparent from the new Keiser Collectors site is that oddments work very well when collected in sets. I always really liked his egg paintings so I'm particularly pleased to have got an egg shell one. Collecting small sweeties - as attractive as they are - would have been too much for me!

I've taken the opportunity this morning to add a new module - Still Life and 'A Painting A Day' - into my information site Still Life - Resources for Artists. At the moment I've added in just three artists but I'll be adding more in soon.

Do leave a comment and let me know which is your favourite.

Links:

• Still Life - Resources for Artists
• Still Life and 'A Painting A Day'
  
• A Painting A Day
• Making A Mark - Keiser Collectors - a new website community for collectors of work by Duane Keiser

Which is your favourite make of artist grade coloured pencil?

Faber Castell Polychromos is your favourite brand of artist grade coloured pencil - by a whisker. That's the current result according to my poll which asks "Which is your favourite make of artist grade coloured pencil?"

This is an update on the progress of one of the polls on Coloured Pencils - Resources for Artists - my coloured pencils information site - as at the end of July 2008.

What follows is an overview and commentary on the results to date.

Results chart as at end of July 2008
POLL: Which is your favourite make of artist grade coloured pencil?

177 people have responded so far. Now I may be wrong but I think that's larger than any other poll of this kind that I've seen elsewhere. (Do let me know if you know of another with a bigger response rate).

Essentially, the poll is demonstrating that the market for coloured pencils is an oligopoly and some might call it a duopoly. In this poll, it's clear that two firms and two brands alone account for very nearly 60% of the market - in terms of brand preference. Three firms account for over 78% while 87% of those who have voted so far identified their favourite brands as coming from just four firms.

Overall people appear to be split more or less evenly between oil-based and wax-based coloured pencils.

Faber Castell Polychromos are currently very slightly ahead of Sanford Prismacolor in terms of which pencil is the favourite brand. To date, these two brands have attracted 29.9% and 28.8% of the votes respectively. Personally I don't find this result surprising at all although I think it might surprise those who think all coloured pencil artists use Prismacolor (a wax based pencil). Polychromos is an oil-based pencil and is the pencil of choice for a very large number of coloured pencil artists - not least because it avoids the problems with wax bloom, sharpens extremely well and has none of the problems with breakages which has dogged the Prismacolor brand.

Derwent Coloursoft is doing extremely well for such a new product and is currently coming third with 11.3% of the vote. This is the brand which Derwent positioned to replace the very popular Karisma pencil. This was the European equivalent of Prismacolor but was discontinued in 2004 as the marketplace changed due to the switch to digital illustration. Derwent have certainly achieved the degree of softness which a lot of coloured pencil artists like.

Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor is in 4th place with 9%. This is also an oil based pencil like the Polychromos and the two work well together. It's a brand which always finds a home in my pencil tubs and it also does pretty well on the lightfastness tests.

Derwent Artists - this is a long established brand which I have grown to like a lot. It's in 5th place with 8.5% of the votes and one might have expected it to be higher.

Caran d'Ache Pablo comes next (7.3%) - I've not yet seen a lot of evidence of the new Luminance lightfast range in art shops and I'd expect this percentage to rise as this new brand gets off the ground - although current pricing suggests this might take some time.

Talens Van Gogh pencils have attracted few votes. I'm surprised by this as these are excellent pencils with the bonus of also being lighfast. (Talens and Derwent were the two manufacturers who developed lightfast pencils first). I rather suspect this placement might be due to the availability of this brand in open stock - it's not easy to find. In my view it's very likely that better distribution would help to boost market share.

Both Bruynzeel Design Fullcolour and Derwent Signature have attracted very few votes. It's very difficult to find any information about the former on the web and Derwent have announced that the latter brand is being discontinued.

This poll continues indefinitely and if you're interested in coloured pencil brands and have a distinct preference and have not yet voted then then I suggest you pay a visit to the poll and vote!

I've included links (at the end) to posts on this blog about the different brands of artist grade coloured pencils. At which point I realised that I've never done a post about Polychromos - which needs to be remedied.

Finally - a question. Is anybody interested in me doing a poll of the watercolour coloured pencils? If so, can you please suggest brands which should be included via the comments function.

Links:

• Coloured Pencils - Resources for Artists
• Making A Mark - Derwent Coloursoft Pencils
• Making A Mark - Derwent Coloursoft Update (May 2006) - includes a link to the Derwent colour charts for all 72 colours
• Making A Mark - Royal Talens Van Gogh Coloured Pencils
• Making A Mark - Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor Pencils (March 2007) - includes my colour chart
• Making A Mark - Ashness Bridge - my drawing for the new Derwent Catalogue
• Making A Mark - Prismacolor - new colours for 2006 but no change in the breakages (August 2006) - includes my colour chart
• Making A Mark - Prismacolour Premier Lightfast Colored Pencils (October 2006) - lists the 48 new colours by name and number
• Making A Mark - How lightfast are your artist grade coloured pencils?

3rd August 2008 - Who's made a mark this week?

Painting La Tour by Rob Ibjema

Today I've got much droning from high speed planes going on outside my window as the Red Bull Air Race gets underway along the River Thames in London.

A slightly quieter event, except of course when the crowds were cheering, was the recent Tour de France. Rob Ijbema, of Llandrindod Wells (Painting Wales Diary) has captured images from the race in a brand new blog called Painting La Tour

Fancy doing the 2008 Tour de France?
with nothing but a paint brush...
and telly ITV4, computer broadband history and NOS radio Tour de France....
Following the ups and downs of this magnificent and colorful spectacle round the whole of France.
Taking in the Alps and Pyrenees,the highs and lows, the whole way lined with millions of crazy spectators. Three weeks of nothing but pain and torture, why am I doing this to myself?

Have you ever created a blog for a specific event or a specific trip? My Travels with My sketchbook blog grew out of my two big trips to the USA and wanting to have one place where I could record them.

If you've done a big trip this summer why not create a blog for it?

Congraulations to.......

• all the people who won awards on Friday night at the Colored Pencil Society of America's awards banquet. I've got a blog post about this and the 16th Annual International Exhibition on either Monday or Tuesday.
  

Congrats also to the various people who are celebrating blog birthdays and awards.

• Karen Winters (The Creative Journey) Flint Canyon Trail, Autumn - Five Years of Blogging
• Amy Ross (Nature Morph) has been blogging for a year - see her post random bits. Her work is fascinating and you can see more if on her website. You can also find it in galleries in Los Angeles, Boston, Washington and New York City.
• Janie Pirie, a coloured pencil artist who won a silver gilt medal for her 8 coloured pencil works showing soft fruits at the RHS Show in June. Thanks to Bob and the UKCPS blog for the information - see More CP Success. I one hundred per cent endorse Art Societies using Blogs to to publicise the success of their members!)
  
• Julie Oakley who got a Commended at her local art society show in St Albans.
  

Art blogs

• Duane Keiser (A Painting A Day) has provided a welcome focus on art for art collectors with his new initiative - Keiser Collectors - a new website community for collectors of work by Duane Keiser. I was also hugely chuffed to find out that my blog has been added to Duane's very short blogroll (a small shriek left my mouth though!)
• As a result of Duane's new venture I discovered a new (to me) blog called Skating at the Edge of Infinity written by one of Duane's collectors - who has also written a really wonderful post about A Way to Collect Art, Inexpensively. Do read around on this blog because there are lots of great posts including ones about what it's like studying with Robert Liberace. It struck me that I see very few blog posts about collecting - and I'm now on the look out for some. Please use the comments on this blog for any suggestions you may have.
  
• Maggie Stiefvater (Greywaren Art and Word on Words) has developed the art of butt-kicking, which is much appreciated by many artists and bloggers. I wrote about it this week in Six secrets of success - more butt-kicking advice from Maggie Stiefvater.
• Melody Madden (Melody Madden Mixed Media Art) - who works in thread - has done a lovely post - both text and images - about her visit with Tracy Helgeson (Works by Tracy Helgeson) - see Part Two ...A Visit with Tracy Helgeson ...........
• Mattias Adolfson (Mattias Inks) produces a blog which has very, very words - but lots of exceptional drawings. It's quiet and makes me smile.
  
• for all those who followed Julie Oakley's One mile from home she's found a BBC video of the area near her home where she used to walk and which is to become a new national forest
• I came across wonderful sketches by Cathy Gatland (A sketch in time) Walking the Talk again
• Another person sketching people is Adebanje Alade (Adebanji Alade: my art, my passion for sketching) in this post about sketches done last month "Sketches on the tube, train, train station and bus in July XV"
• I posted on Monday about my visit to sketch The Long Border at Great Dixter. You can read more about this in Travels with a sketchbook - Great Dixter, East Sussex - and you can find out more about Great Dixter at the end of this post.
  

Art business and marketing

• Dan at Empty Easel needs feedback on how his new writers are doing. I sent him some feedback this week and if anybody else would like to do likewise, Dan suggests that you send any comments to him at EmptyEasel@gmail.com (or via his contact page).
• What's the MAIN way you sell your art? So far 23 people have voted in the poll in the side column. Selling offline is way out in front........... If you've not yet voted, you might like to take a look at the options and select the one which best describes how you sell your work.
• Linda Blondheim (Linda Blondheim Art Notes) has a post Listing prices, what to charge? about putting prices on artwork websites and setting prices for your art - plus a cautionary note about how galleries can make your sales dry up if they get the pricing wrong.
  
• If you can't afford to collect Julian Merrow Smith's Postcards from Provence you might like to take a peek at some boxed notecards created from some of postcards which are now being published by Teneues the German/US publisher. There are two sets Flowers from Provence and Still Life from Provence. Apparently they're available in retail outlets and direct from TeNeues.com in the US/Canada or Uk/Ireland.

Art Demos

• Andrea Pratt (Drawing outside the lines) in Vancouver has done a step by step drawing demo post of how she does one of her mixed media drawings.
  

Art Exhibitions and galleries

• Bankside Gallery has a new exhibition which opened on Friday - Summer in the Sity. This is a joint exhibition by the Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers and will run until the end of the month.

Art materials and supplies

• Thanks to Casey Klahn for alerting me to the Daniel Smith Art Supplies Blog.
  

websites and blogging

• A number of people with Blogger blogs had problems last week with their blogs and were unable to post because their blogs had been designated spam blogs. Edward B. Gordon (Edward B Gordon) in Berlin, Germany and Tracy Helgeson (Works by Tracy Helgeson) in New York State and Linda Blondheim (Linda Blondheim Art Notes) were three of the people caught by what has turned out to be a major !!!$%^&*!!! by Blogger. Such a timewaster!!! Here's the explanation , such as it is, on the Blogger Status site

Some blogs have been mistakenly marked as spam. Affected users are not able to post to their blog and received an email indicating Blogger classified their blog as spam. We are actively working to correct the issue.

Update: We have restored all blogs that were mistakenly marked as spam due to Friday's bug. If you are still unable to post to your blog, you can request a review by clicking Request Unlock Review on your Dashboard.
Blogger status

• I'm loving the Blogger widget which lets you say what is the title of the most recent post on a blog - I'm opening up blogs in my blogroll a lot more often as a result!
  
• Niff (Feathers of Hope) reports back from a visit to Moutain View (home of Google in California) and has some very interesting details about Feeding the Googleplex! ;)
• Blogflux has set up a groups facility - and has one category for design which I fully expect will be taken over by the shopping blogs within a matter of milliseconds. No sign of a category for art and illustration as yet.

and finally......

As many readers know I love flowers and gardens and visit as many gardens as I can manage throughout the year. Posts about my visits now appear on my Travels with a Sketchbook blog.

For those who like gardening you might be interested to know that I've started to develop a series of information sites about the various gardens I've visited and last week I published the first two. You can read more about this development in The gardens of England.

Naturally, I started with two of my favourite gardens - Sissinghurst and Great Dixter.

• Sissinghurst Castle Garden - a great garden in Kent
  
• Great Dixter - a great garden in East Sussex.

It's interesting that both gardens were created by two people - Vita Sackville West and Christopher Lloyd - who wrote about gardens on a regular basis and who both produced exceptional planting schemes for colour. They truly knew how to 'paint' a garden.

I know I have a lot of gardeners amongst the people who read this blog - so I hope this provides an interesting diversion - and maybe a virtual visit - for your Sunday. Enjoy!