Monday, March 03, 2014

Recommended read - The things we think but do not say

This is a recommended read.  

The Things We Think and Do Not Say, or Why the Art World is in Trouble by Stephen Zevitas Huffington Post) is a very long and complex argument for why major problems exist at present in the art market/world.  In my view, it's making a lot of very sound comments about the art market/economy as distinct from the art world.

It's about time we started applying some of the proper rules of commodity valuation to the type of overhyped art which attracts silly prices.

It's about time we made publicly funded art galleries and museums accountable for the deals done with art dealers so that major art galleries and museums can put on exhibitions which increase the net worth of particular art collectors.

What would happen if the shoe were on the other foot and the collectors had to bid to get shown by prestigious museums and art galleries - so as to enhance the value of their asset?

I, for one, value my integrity and shall continue to be an independent voice. I shall go on identifying the artists I like and saying what I think about exhibitions I see.

Discuss - after you have read the article!


Posted by Making A Mark on Monday, March 03, 2014 2 comments
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Sunday, March 02, 2014

2nd March - Who's made a mark in 2014?

The book has taken over - and I'm not going to be doing a lot of blogging in March other than the odd review and some quickies.

Here then is a round up of the year so far on my blog and my Facebook Page (for those who don't subscribe) - and then I'm going to go very quiet........

Making A Mark - in January and February 2014

Plus Making A Mark (the blog) also earned itself a "Major Timesink Warning" from Charley Parker over at Lines and Colors.

Making A Mark on Facebook - in January and February 2014

These are all the posts on Facebook which were not highlighting my blog posts. I've ordered them according to type of topic

Art as therapy


An interesting Guardian article - Alain de Botton's guide to art as therapy Can visual art offer solace, hope and reassurance as music can? Alain de Botton chooses the works that make him feel less alone

Artists

World’s richest artist admits he uses his children’s ideas for his own art, saying young can produce “much better” work than adults due to lack of fear
We shouldn't tar Hockney with the brush of 'greatness'. His work is more clever and passionate than these deadening labels allow
  • This is a trailer video Oil Sketches DVD by Peter Brown by  of Pete "the street" Brown - whose work can be seen in rather a lot of the Annual Exhibitions of national art societies at the Mall Galleries in London. You can also read about him in the Feb.2014 edition ofArtists And Illustrators Magazine. 
  • I really rate the work of Liz Charsley-Jory. I highlighted her work twice in my reviews of the 2010 and the 2012 Annual Exhibitions by the Pastel Society. You can see more of her work on http://www.lizcharsley-jory.com/ and at an exhibition in London - Wandering off the trail. The latter is an assembly of drawings done while she was the Canadian Artist in residence at the Dulwich Picture Gallery.

Art Books

  • Guess what's in my selection of the 20 top new books about drawing in 2013? The selection was revised as the year went on and you can see what made it in 20 NEW Books about Drawing in 2013
  • Thomas Thorspecken - author and illustrator of Analog Artist Digital World is also the author of a new book Urban Sketching - a complete guide - was published last month and a copy has been sent to me for review.  The focus of the book is one the nuts and bolts of drawing and sketching as applied to sketching urban scenes. It's an intensely colourful book which is chock-full of useful information. It also showcases sketches by a variety of international urban sketchers.  It's particularly fascinating for me given I'm writing a similar type of book but with a wider remit as to subject matter.   Once I've finished my book (by the end of this month) I'm going to review it back to back with James Hobbs' Sketch Your World as they are both books about the same topic although they look very different.

Art for Children

Art Business and Marketing 


Art Collectors and Art Economy

The international art market is having its time in the sun: auction records keep tumbling, living artists have become superstars, and their punchy paintings and shiny sculptures have become the billionaire’s playthings of choice.

Art Competitions


Art Exhibitions

  • "The Weather Series" of six lithographs by David Hockney - part of the Hockney, printmaker exhibition now on at Dulwich Picture Gallery until 11 May 2014. It's a wonderful exhibition which comes highly recommended by me — at Dulwich Picture Gallery

Art Galleries and Museums

Watercolour Hub on the V&A website
  • The Ruskin Collection - an e-museum, housed by the Museum of Sheffield, about John Ruskin’s many interests. Early renaissance art, gothic architecture, Albrecht Dürer and JMW Turner’s engravings, mosaic decoration, Japanese cloisonné enameling, illustrations of birds, flowers, insects and landscapes etc. 

Art History


Botanical Art


Drawing and Sketching

  • A new place to sketch at the RA on my travelsketchbook blog. The black sofas in the Friends Room at the Royal Academy are no more - however there is a new place to drink a cup of tea and sketch which doesn't involve the very hard seating in the room where the beloved black sofas used to be.

After Bellini (monotype)
© Ilaria Rosselli dely Turco

Printmaking


Women and Art

I have a feeling Jonathan Jones got a "Be more challenging and controversial" comment in his annual performance review.  Here's three recent articles on his Jonathan Jones On Art blog in the Guardian which I featured on Facebook.
  • I do like women artists who don't want to be the same as everybody else! That said Jonathan Jones does repeat some male-oriented perspectives in this piece The 10 most subversive women artists in history - which doesn't make them true! 
From the 17th-century painter who repeatedly depicted a woman beheading a man to the last great surrealist, Louise Bourgeois, here are 10 artists who took on the patriarchy and won
"The dust has settled on Young British Art. Some became rich. Some were forgotten. One or two proved to be real artists. And some became end-of-the-pier entertainers."

Jonathan Jones: Jenny Saville? A heroic mediocrity. Tracey Emin? Outshone by your average newspaper cartoonist. And art critics, like their literary counterparts, should be encouraged to say so

Art Materials and Resources for Artists

The third section of our four part series looks at what gives your paper its delightful colour, be that brilliant white or a slightly more muted shade.
  • Are you as fussy about fine art paper as I am? One of the things I enjoy about visiting independent art shops which specialise in fine art paper or travelling abroad is coming into contact with a lot of paper which isn't stocked by the larger suppliers. Enquire within....... Fine Art Paper & Vellum for Artists
Fine art paper and sketchbook resources for visual artists who draw, paint and/or print and calligraphers.

Techie Stuff

Google is rolling out changes to Gmail and Google+ that gives anyone using Gmail the ability to send you an email without knowing your email address. 

and finally....

I love this - and want to see more! Paintings of London by past Masters - including some of my favourite Canalettos - superimposed onto Google Street View

Famous 18th and 19th-century paintings of London are superimposed on to Google Street View screenshots for a fascinating collision


Posted by Making A Mark on Sunday, March 02, 2014 0 comments
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Wednesday, February 26, 2014

"The Great War in Portraits" - a review

This morning I became a big fan of the Irish portrait painter and war artist William Orpen.  His work dominates "The Great War in Portraits" - the new exhibition which opens at the National Portrait Gallery tomorrow - with free admission. Below you will find a review of the exhibition - with more about Orpen tomorrow.

The aim of the exhibition is to commemorate the centenary of the start of the First World War and to show something of the human experience of war through the medium of portraiture. It features

  • 80 paintings, photographs, sculpture and drawings drawn from different perspectives and angles. It's benefited from some major loans - including significant ones from the Imperial War Museum. 
  • It also includes propaganda film about life at the frontline during the Battle of the Somme - from both British and German sources 
The exhibition runs until 15 June 2014. There is also a major programme of events for the public which explore the art, social and military histories of the First World War.

The NPG is also planning more events as part of the commemoration which will take place over the next four years.
Gallery view of the The Great War in Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery
The Curator of the exhibition is Paul Moorehouse, the Curator of 20th Century Portraits. He told me that all the portraits in the exhibition has been drawn or painted within the 1914-18 timeframe.

He started his presentation by blowing on a British Officer's Trench Whistle from the Battle of the Somme in 1916.  He went on to detail some of the staggering statistics associated with the war - such as the fact that

  • 70 million people were mobilised during the First World War. 
  • At the end of it, 9 million of them were dead.

READ MORE......>>
Posted by Making A Mark on Wednesday, February 26, 2014 2 comments
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Don't date your signature on your artwork!

I got this comment on my website How to sign a painting, drawing or fine art print
If you are not expecting to ever be a great artist don't date the front of your work because normal people who buy paintings just to make their room look nice prefer things that are fresh to the market.

From the shop keepers point of view knowing the date can stop you accepting works for sale that have been shopped from gallery to gallery and not sold. People who look at art can sometimes remember something the've seen in the shop up the road.
Eight signatures by Rembrandt
between 1626 and 1633
This file is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 
3.0 Unported license.

What's your current practice - do you date your artwork or not?



On my website you can vote in and see the results of a different POLL: Do you date your artwork?
Do you include a date on your artwork?
  • Yes - on the artwork and somewhere where it's obvious 
  • Yes - on the artwork but somewhere not obvious
  • Yes - on the reverse of the drawing or painting / base of the sculpture 
  • No - I rarely date my artwork 
  • No - I never date my artwork 
Plus read more advice about Pros and Cons of Dating Artwork plus TIPS

Posted by Making A Mark on Wednesday, February 26, 2014 11 comments
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Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Tips for repelling plagiarist bloggers

After 9+ years of repelling plagiarist bloggers and websites I now get straight to the point.  It's the only way to get the message across.

Below you can read the comment I've just written on a review by a very stupid blogger.  I recognised my photograph straight away. No credit, no nothing.

I'm afraid these days I don't just get annoyed with these very lazy people........ I get even.

If there is no action on the part of the blogger within a very tight time limit, I then report the blog to Google and their website host ISP for copyright infringement.

Quite often these days I don't even bother telling them what I'm going to do - I just do it. It saves time and having to deal with ignorant people who invariably whine. (I'm writing as somebody who has had to deal with very many plagiarists and I've learned about the character of those who infringe.)

If it's a blog that a number of people have reported for copyright infringement the result seems to be that it gets deindexed. Otherwise they seem to deindex the post. Depending on who the host is I've known blogs disappear completely. This most often seems to happen when you find the ISP and they pull the plug on the website. A lot of ISPs seems to take a dim view of plagiarists these days - ever since Google got strict about duplicate content. :)
Photograph of Spencer Murphy by Katherine Tyrrell
This is my photograph of Spencer Murphy
taken at the press preview and appearing in
Spencer Murphy wins
Taylor Wessing Photographic Prize 2013
"REMOVE MY PHOTOGRAPH of Spencer Murphy from your review immediately. If you want to review exhibitions, I suggest you get an invite to the press review, take a camera and take your own photos!

 My blog clearly indicates all images are copyright protected.
This is the short version
“© Katherine Tyrrell 2005-13 Unauthorised use or duplication of ANY material on this blog without written permission is prohibited. Please respect copyright of all artists featured here. SEE NOTE AT BOTTOM”
I’m very practised in reporting plagiarists to Google. Should this photograph not be removed in the next 48 hours, I shall be reporting this blog to Google as a copyright infringement.

 Be aware I’m doing you a kindness leaving this note. I’m so fed up with people who steal images that I normally go direct to Google and your blog host. Google is very keen to have reports of people who DUPLICATE CONTENT in their search engine.

 Just to be clear – you stole this image from my blog post
http://makingamark.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/spencer-murphy-wins-taylor-wessing-photographic-portrait-prize-2013.html

 I may not leave it as long as 48 hours before reporting you to Google…

A TIP - "Save Page as"!


Once your comment is on the blog (e.g. with the 'comment awaiting moderation' note), save the blog post to file in its entirety

To do this you Go to "File" and then "Save Page As". This creates a complete offline copy of the page as seen on the website.  

It's very useful for those who dispute what was on the website/blog.

MORE TIPS! Information for Artists about Copyright and Tackling Plagiarists


I have three websites which might help those who need to learn more about copyright, copyright infringement, how to find out if their artwork has been copied on to another website and how to tackle those who plagiarise


Posted by Making A Mark on Tuesday, February 25, 2014 13 comments
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