Friday, October 05, 2012

Verre Églomisé - an introduction

Verre Églomisé by Yanny Petters
I found out about Verre Églomisé yesterday. I'd never heard of it before and I'm guessing most of you won't have either.  It's not produced in the same way as stained glass.

This very helpful YouTube video - Verre Églomisé by Yanny Petters (high quality) - which has been created by Yanny Petters an Irish botanical artist who is a member of The Watercolour Society of Ireland who  lives in County Wicklow, Ireland.  She explains:
  • the process of producing artwork as Verre Églomisé - in a very clear step by step process
  • the history and background to the art of Verre Églomisé
  • how Verre Églomisé is used today - and in past


This is the glass painting page on Yany's website.  If you click the artwork you can see a larger version.

This is the news page containing the video on Yanny's website

Note: Thanks to Lotus McElfish and Shevaun Docherty for highlighting this on Facebook's Botanical Artists Group
Posted by Making A Mark on Friday, October 05, 2012 4 comments
Categories , , , , , , , ,

Thursday, October 04, 2012

American Society of Botanical Artists - 15th Annual Exhibition

Continuing the botanical art theme, I'm very pleased to see that the American Society of Botanical Artists have got the artwork in their Annual Exhibition online this year.

The Annual Exhibition 

Exhibition Catalogue for ASBA 15th Annual Exhibition
Brassica oleracea Ornamental Kale
Watercolor on Vellum
© Karen Kluglein
The 15th Annual Exhibition is being held at The Horticultural Society of New York at 148 W. 37th Street, 13th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

It opened in mid September and you can see a slideshow of photos from the reception and awards ceremony on Flickr

It continues until 21st November - with gallery hours Monday - Friday, 10am to 6pm - which has got to be disappointing for those who work and don't live in New York.  The exhibition is free.

However for those who can't get to New York you can also see the artwork in this exhibition online.

An exhibition catalogue is available via the ASBA website and ArtPlantae Books  - priced at $20.

I've got the publication from the traveling exhibition Losing Paradise which came to Kew Gardens - and the reproduction and publication qualities are very good.

The Awards

This year the awards have been made as follows
  • The Horticultural Society of New York Best in Show: Silphium laciniatum Compass Plant, Watercolor on Paper by Heeyoung Kim.  I met this very accomplished artist from Illinois in the Lindley Hall in London earlier this year after she had won an RHS Gold Medal for her work. (see my blog post 7 Gold Medal Winners at RHS Botanical Art 2012 in which you can read my interview with her which details how she approaches her work.)
  • ASBA Eleanor Wunderlich Award for Excellence: Hydrangea paniculata Panicled Hydrangea, Oil on Paper by Ingrid Finnan
The judges were impressed by her ability to render white flowers on white paper in the unforgiving medium of oil paint.
  • Brooklyn Botanic Garden Award for a Print or Drawing: Carica papaya Hand-colored Aquatint Etching by Monika E. deVries Gohlke This etching was also used as the image for the exhibitions's card
  • Talas Award: Sierra Dawn Lily by John Pastoriza-Pinol
  • New York Central Art Supply Award: Tasmanian Blue Gum by Leah Kaizer
  • Ursus Books and Prints Award: Northern Red Oak and Gray Birch by Carrie Megan
  • Honorable Mentions: 
The Art

I guess the big difference about this exhibition, when compared to one I'm more used to (Society of Botanical Artists and the RHS), is that virtually all artists appear to be only displaying one work of art.  I'm not sure if this is "an American thing" as I've noticed this happen in other American exhibitions.  I have to say that I much prefer to see a suite of works.  That for me illustrates much more clearly the relative skills levels of different artists and also provides the scope for an artist to really shine.

The 'strictly botanical' artwork included in the exhibition came from 192 works submitted by botanical artists from the US, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, and the UK.  The jurors Patricia Jonas, Kathie Miranda, and Derek Norman selected just 43 works for the exhibition.
Works on natural vellum are becoming more prevalent, with 10 artists choosing it as their material
That means that around one quarter of the artwork selected for this exhibition was painted on vellum which is a statistic which I find quite amazing!  I guess it's maybe prompted from having some of the premier exponents of painting on vellum living in North America - such as Jean Emmons whose work is fabulous and who has two works in the show. I was fortunate to meet Jean at the 2011 RHS Botanical Art Show - see my interview with her in RHS Botanical Art Show & Five Gold Medal Winners.

Selected Artists

The selected artists are listed below.  Names in bold indicate a link to their own website; links not in bold link to the interview with the artist on the ASBA website.  Those without any link have no discernible presence online.  Where I can spot where the artist comes from I've listed this too

Do please let me know if I've got any of this wrong or there's a better website which you'd rather be linked to - my contact details are in the side column.
Workshops

Associated with the exhibition are a number of workshops.  The remaining workshops are as listed below.  I'm being very geeky here and am also including links to the pdf files of the materials lists where these are available - I know they will interest a lot of the botanical artists who read this blog!
Posted by Making A Mark on Thursday, October 04, 2012 1 comments
Categories , , , , , , , , , ,

Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Botanical Painting Diploma Course - 2013 Scholarship

The English Gardening School in Chelsea is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2013 by offering a scholarship opportunity worth £4,950.

The EGS is inviting applications by 31st October to identify a person who is both committed to becoming a botanical artist and who can take up a complimentary place on their renowned Botanical Painting Diploma Course.  The scholarship covers the fee payable for the one year part-time course.

Painting botanical art in watercolour at the English Gardening School

What's on offer?

The focus of English Gardening School in Chelsea is the provision of a range of professional and amateur courses which are all about the more serious aspects of gardening. Those courses which are more advanced - such as the Diploma Course - are the sort of courses that people might do if they want to make their career in this field.

The Diploma Course is offered as a part time one-year course. The structure of the course is designed to enable the scholarship winner to develop the necessary observational and drawing skills which enable the accurate illustration of plant material in watercolours - within a historical and scientific context.

 The Diploma Course comprises:
  • Learning about the principles of botanical painting.  Teaching includes
    • a series of highly structured exercises relating to drawing techniques, basic and advanced watercolour painting techniques, composition and aesthetics, botany and the study of a plant family
    • visits to galleries and museums - including the Library, Herbarium and Shirley Sherwood Gallery at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and RHS Lindley Library and Picture Library.
  • The Diploma is taught by leading botanists and botanical painters, including:
    • Helen Allen BA (Hons) PGCert Ed, Dip EGS, FLS – Course Director One Year Botanical Painting
    • Mariella Baldwin Dip EGS, MA
    • Sarah Gould Dip LA (Glos), Dip UD
    • Angeline de Meester BA (Hons), Dip EGS, FLS, SBA
    • Lucy T. Smith BVA (Hons), MCA
  • The one year part-time course starts in January and has three 10 week terms - with a week-long half term.  Classes are held every Monday from 10.30am to 3.15pm during term-time. 
Tuition in botanical watercolour painting at the English Gardening School

How to enter

Who can enter? The criteria is both broad and narrow.
  • Entrants do not need to have previous experience of botanical painting.
  • However the EGS will expect that whoever starts the course will understand what's involved and will be able to complete the Diploma Course.  Hence you can expect the selectors to be looking for a high level of commitment. 
Closing date for entry:  All submissions must be received by 31st October 2012

What's required:  Each entry MUST state:
  1. In 100 words or less - tell us about the botanical artists who most inspire you and why. 
  2. In one sentence - describe a botanical subject you would really enjoy painting. 
  3. In 100 words or less -  What would winning this scholarship mean to you?
How to enter:  Post your submission to Mary Ellen Taylor, The English Gardening School, Chelsea Wharf, 15 Lots Road, London SW10 0 QJ

More information on The English Gardening School
  • Address: 2-3 Chelsea Wharf, 15 Lots Road, London SW10 0QJ
  • email: infoATenglishgardeningschoolDOTcoDOTuk 
  • Telephone: 0207 352 4347 
  • Website: www.englishgardeningschool.co.uk.
Posted by Making A Mark on Wednesday, October 03, 2012 0 comments
Categories , , , , , , , , , ,

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

Timescale approaches in figurative paintings

I visited Hampton Court Palace today and saw many paintings from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.  This prompted me to think about why artists today don't reflect more on the scope for different ways of formatting timescale within figurative paintings.

A notion about figurative art and distortion
In many respects figurative art can be seen to act as the opposite to abstract art, which distorts figures and objects so that they are not strictly representational.......With the human form employed by an artist as a sign of personal/social and ideological belief, figurative art acts as a key vehicle of expression and reliable source of historical documentation.
Art Education - Figurative Art
The above quotation assumes that all figurative art is faithful and representational and does not distort the real - whether that's figures, animals, and other natural or man-made objects.

I don't think that's always been true and reference paintings in the sixteenth century below to explain why.

Timescale in figurative paintings from Hampton Court Palace

Here's a couple of examples from the paintings in the Palace which I saw which confound that notion of figurative art.  Both clearly distort figures in both time and space.

They served to remind me that this is nothing unusual for paintings produced at this time - and yet we don't often see this approach to figurative art today - and I wonder why not.

Henry VIII and the Field of the Cloth of Gold

Henry VIII and the Field of the Cloth of Gold (c. 1545) by unknown artist
Oil on canvas, 168.9 x 347.3 cm
Royal Collection
This painting - presumably commissioned for King Henry VIII - records a very important meeting between King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of France on what has come to be known as the Field of the Cloth of Gold.  The meeting took place between 7th - 24th June 1520.

In the painting, King Henry is show both entering in the bottom left hand corner

King Henry VIII in procession - within "Henry VIII and the Field of the Cloth of Gold"
Plus the meeting between the two Kings - is also recorded at the top of the painting - which means he's in two places at the same time!

King Henry VII and King Francis meeting at the Filed of the Cloth of Gold
at the top middle of the existing painting
It's not unusual for paintings at this time to compress a story or narrative over time into one painting.

The Family of Henry VIII

Here's another format for a painting which we rarely - if ever - see today.  It demonstrates the inclusion of people in family portraits from different time periods.

The Family of Henry VIII (c.1545) by unknown artist
oil on canvas, 144.5 x 355.9 cm
Royal Collection
When this large painting was painted, King Henry VIII was actually married to his last wife Catherine Parr.  However she doesn't appear in the painting.

The Queen in the painting - to the left of Henry VIII - is his favourite wife Jane Seymour, despite the fact she had died at Hampton Court Palace of postnatal complications two weeks after the birth of her son Edward who is shown in the painting to the right of the King.
This important dynastic portrait of Henry VIII and his family shows the king seated in the centre beneath a canopy of state flanked by his third wife, Jane Seymour and Prince Edward, later Edward VI. On the left is Princess Mary, later Mary I, the king’s daughter by his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and on the right Princess Elizabeth, later Elizabeth I, his daughter by his second wife, Anne Boleyn.Royal Collection - The Family of Henry VIII
It also struck me that we don't often see a panoramic format used in portraiture.

Incidentally, the chap through the archway on the right is Will Somers, the King's Jester or Fool, who was allowed to be very familiar with the King without the customary deference of the time.

Maybe this particular configuration happened because this is a painting of the King's concept of who his real family is?

Timescale distortion in figurative art today

I have a question - if you'd like to respond please use the comments function below.

Why do I we see so few large contemporary paintings that both record contemporary life AND indicate distortion in timescales (e.g. by showing the same protagonist at different points in the painting)?
Posted by Making A Mark on Tuesday, October 02, 2012 3 comments
Categories , , , , , , , ,

Monday, October 01, 2012

ING Discerning Eye 2012 - Selected Artists

These are the artists whose small works have been selected for the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition 2012.  The 21st exhihibition runs from 15th - 25th November 2012 at the Mall Galleries.  Admission is free.
The selectors are solely responsible for their own selection; selection is not by committee.
ING Discerning Eye 2011 - The end of the Private View
However it's important to note that this exhibition comprises two different sets of artists:
  • those invited by the selector to exhibit work (typically they exhibit a small group of works)
  • those whose work was selected from the open entry to the art competition element of this exhibition
My personal view is that there should be two lists of (1) invited artists and (2) those selected from the open submission. It's not entirely clear whether this is ALL the artists selected/invited or just those selected.

I've split the list by the number of works and alphabetically. Plus, as last year, I've again included links to their websites
  • the link in an artist's name is to his or her website
  • links to a commercial gallery page or the website of an art society are noted separately
A key feature of the Discerning Eye exhibition is that all works must be small in scale (no more than 20" in their greatest dimension) and they must also be for sale.
Eligible work had to be handmade and small (ie no bigger than 20" on the longest dimension).  Drawings, paintings, sculptures and photographs were all admissable.  This was my post about the Call for Entries: ING Discerning Eye 2012

ING Discerning Eye Exhibition 2012 - Selected Artists (and some art!)

In contrast to last year, this year there are no artists with five or six works.

Where artists have identified the work selected for this exhibition on their website (as in I can't miss it!) then I link to those works as well below.

If any of the links are incorrect or you have a better one please do not hesitate to contact me (see side column for how).

Four works
Three works
Two works
READ MORE......>>
Posted by Making A Mark on Monday, October 01, 2012 0 comments
Categories , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)