Australia's Impressionists at the National Gallery - review

Yesterday morning I visited the Australian Impressionists exhibition at the National Gallery in London and I'd certainly recommend a visit to this small but stimulating exhibition. On the basis you can only really give 5 stars to a blockbuster of an exhibition, then I'd give this one 4 stars and would certainly recommend it as an exhibition every serious landscape painter should try and see. Certainly all those who paint plein air should make a pilgrimage!

At the end of this review are links to more reviews if you'd like a wider perspective and other views as to whether it's worth making the trip up to London to see it.

Golden Summer, Eaglemont, 1889 by Arthur Streeton
Oil on canvas, 81.3 × 152.6
© National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Interestingly not all of the painters are Australian by birth -- two were born in England - and not all of the Australian Impressionist paintings are of Australia - some are of France. Of which more below!

However if, like me, you are one of those people who like buying a catalogue for exhibitions you enjoy I wouldn't bother visiting for the next 2-3 weeks or so.  That's because the exhibition catalogue sold out under 9 weeks of it opening - and with another 9 weeks to go before it closes (on 26th March 2017)!  I gather that the catalogue is currently being reprinted but won't be back in stock until at least 20th February.

It's actually a very good catalogue so worth the wait. I trotted across to the art section in Waterstones in Trafalgar Square in the hope they might still have one and was rewarded with a copy! (Along with two more books but that's another story!)

I can only assume "somebody" vastly underestimated how many catalogues would be required for this exhibition!  Which is a great pity as the Gallery won't make back those lost sales over a month or more of visitors and no catalogues!  Not a very smart move from whoever is responsible for the merchandising of this exhibition.

I'd also love to show you how the paintings in this exhibition look so much better than the very same paintings that I saw at the Australia exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts back in 2013 (see my review 'Australia' Exhibition at the Royal Academy - review). I'd love to show the contrast but unfortunately I was not allowed to take any gallery view photographs!

(Quite why Galleries invite people hoping to stimulate a review - and then say you can't take photographs(!!!) I'm really not sure. It's also somewhat annoying as as I found out later that videos of the exhibition and the paintings are already on YouTube!).

Gallery 4: Australian Impressionism
'Australia' at the Royal Academy - 21 September 2013 to 8 December 2013

The RA exhibition was when I saw Arthur Streeton's paintings for the first time 'for real' although I'd known about him and his paintings for quite some time.

In my opinion the paintings look so much better at the National Gallery against very neutral stone coloured walls (rather than the Hex #666666 Grey colour at the RA).  The background in this exhibition is a very Australian outback colour - it's the colour of dust and stone - and hence the paintings somehow manage to look more real. The blue glows even more and the stone colour unites the spaces inbetween the paintings and you very much get that sense of endless landscape which is very prevalent in Australia - it just goes on and on forever. (I've driven through landscapes in Australia similar to these albeit north of Sydney rather than south). 

Anyway - on to my image-heavy review.  You can also see a list of reviews by other people at the end if you're unsure on whether to make the trip to the National Gallery.

The Exhibition

There aren't a lot of paintings in the show - just 41 in total. The exhibition is being held in the Sunley Room which is the exhibition gallery in the centre of the National Gallery usually used for the small/medium sized exhibitions.

I gather this exhibition was triggered by the loan of an Arthur Streeton painting of Blue Pacific - to the National Gallery - one of the first paintings exhibited at the Gallery outside the hitherto normal scope of Western European painters. I know I spotted this last year and was struck by how it positively glowed on the wall of the Impressionist Gallery (I recognised the penetratingly blue blue used by Streeton!)  It's supposed to be painted at Coogee - so I checked and today the area where the people are standing is quite clearly fenced off for their safety!

Blue Pacific, 1890 by Arthur Streeton
Oil on canvas 91.4 × 50.8 cm
Private collection © Courtesy of the owner

The idea behind this exhibition was to have more paintings by Australian Impressionists and I think probably to warm up the walls in winter by having some paintings of sunnier climes on the walls! The exhibition was put together in a very short space of time - in collaboration with Art Gallery of New South Wales.

It has three themes and four painters.  The four major Australian Impressionists (with my comments) in effect the equivalent of Canada's Group of Seven (see my review of Painting Canada: Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven - Review)

Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize 2017 - Call for Entries

Any artist can enter a self-portrait for the £10,000 Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize - and you don't have to be a portrait artist to enter!

The Call for Entries for the Fourth Biennial of this Prize has been published and the deadline for entries is 12 April 2017.

I've summarised the prize below. More details can be found on the website (see above links).

Features of the Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize

View of the 2015 Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize 2015 Exhibition at Piano Nobile

Eligible artists

You must MUST live and work in the UK or Ireland.

• an amateur or professional artist - but you don't have to be a portrait artist
• any age. There is no age restriction.

The exciting thing about the prize is that it is open to all kinds of artists, not just portraitists. In fact it brings together a wide range of diverse artists of all ages and experience, who briefly, inquisitively, turn their eye upon themselves. We often find the majority of entrants have never even painted a portrait before, let alone one of themselves. Subject and object become one and the same, seeing and being seen in a moment of revelation and self-reflection – it’s fascinating. In 2015 we saw a thousand entries and we are hopeful we can build on that in 2017Dr Robert Travers, Director of Piano Nobile

• you will be asked to share about yourself and your art

Eligible self-portrait

Works must be a self-portrait of the artist, but this may be alone or as part of a group, from life, from memory, from a photograph, figurative or abstract.

The work can be in any recognised medium and any size.

• Eligible media: drawing, painting, watercolour, print, collage, photo-collage, mixed media, and low-relief sculpture and construction.
• NOT Eligible: Pure photography, stand-alone sculpture, and moving image works 
• There are no restrictions on size - how very large works would be difficult to accommodate (i.e. use your common sense - go big and you start limiting your chances of being selected because you have to be better than several other artists who merit selection!)
• Multi-part works, i.e. works in the form of a diptych or triptych etc., are eligible and will be regarded as one work.
• there needs to be a label on the reverse stating your full name, the title of the piece and the date of the work as a minimum.
• Works entered must have been created post-2000.
• All works must be for sale and include the gallery’s 50% commission in the sale price.

Works may be signed, but do not need to be signed.

How to Enter

There is no cap on the number of entrants.

You can enter ONE ARTWORK ONLY.

Submissions will:

• be online via registration on the Ruth Borchard website
• open on 1st February 2017 
• close at midday on 12th April 2017
• For the initial stage you will be asked to upload
• a short biography to a maximum of 1,000 characters, and 
• a PDF of your CV maximum 2-pages.
• one photograph of your self-portrait in .jpeg, .png or .gif format (maximum file size: 5MB) - plus details of dimensions. Selection is based solely on the digital image.

If the photograph does not show the whole work then the work will not be considered for the Prize.

• images of two other recent works to support your application (to enable a fuller appreciation of your practice).  File format and file size as for the self-portrait.
• contact information, including your website if relevant.

The administration fee is £25 and will be payable at the end of the submission process. (Note this prize is run by a charitable institution).

Selection

selection for the exhibition will be based on the digital photograph, therefore it is in the interest of the artist to upload a good quality photograph.

120 artists will be selected for the exhibition. From these, a selection of works will be purchased for the Next Generation Collection. There is no upper limit for the number of works purchased – this is entirely dependent on the quality of works submitted.

The winner of the £10,000 Prize in 2015 was
Shanti Panchal
with his painting Artist and the Lost Studio. 

Judging will take place on Monday 8th May 2017. The finalists and winner will be selected by a prestigious panel of judges:

• Alistair Sooke - deputy art critic of The Daily Telegraph; one of Britain's leading arts journalists and broadcasters (with the BBC)
• Shanti Panchal - 2015 Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize winner 
• Charlotte Mullins - art critic, writer and broadcaster
• Richard Borchard (Ruth’s son), and 
• Marilyn Scott, Director of the Lightbox, Woking (the 2017 Museum Partner for the Prize).

During the judging, the panel will award the £10,000 cash first prize - and the Winner will be notified prior to the opening.

Artists will be notified on Wednesday 26th of April whether or not their work has been selected for the exhibition.

Entrants whose work is selected for the Piano Nobile Kings Place exhibition will be required to send or bring their work to Kings Place, Kings Cross, London, between 10am and 5pm on Friday 5th May or 11am and 4pm on Saturday 6th May 2017.

Prizewinners to date

The past prizewinners are:

• 2011 - Celia Paul
• 2013 - Thomas Newbolt - who has one of the most irritating websites I've ever come across
• 2015 - Shanti Panchal 

Both Thomas Newbolt and Shanti Panchal are represented by the Piano Nobile Gallery. Celia Paul is represented by the Victoria Miro Gallery.

Exhibition

All one-hundred and twenty works will be hung, and the exhibition will be free and open to the public.

The Ruth Borchard Prize 2017 exhibition will be held at Piano Nobile Kings Place from Friday 18th May to Friday 22nd September 2017 (You can see images of the 2015 exhibition on the website - it looks a splendid place for an exhibition). There will be a Private View opening event on Thursday 17th May.

You can also see the ‘Ruth Borchard Collection: Artists’ Self-Portraits’ in an exhibition at The Lightbox gallery and museum between from 25 March until 25 June 2017. This will present displaying one hundred self-portraits by significant modern British artists such as Michael Ayrton, Cecil Collins, Roger Hilton, Ithell Colquhoun and Carel Weight.

The Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Collection

Read more about the collections on the website

Facts about The Ruth Borchard Collection:

• the UK’s only public collection of self-portraits by British and Irish artists
• a life-long project of Ruth Borchard (1910-2000). Between 1958 and 1971, Borchard collected one hundred self-portraits by British, Irish and British-based artists.  She set a ceiling of 21 guineas for any one picture.
• 168 works currently in the collection which continues to grow.  
• It includes works by Michael Ayrton, Roger Hilton, Anne Redpath, Keith Vaughan, Jean Cooke and Patrick Procktor.

The biennial Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize was launched in 2011 and The Ruth Borchard Next Generation Collection were launched by her son in 2011 in partnership with Dr Robert Travers, Director of Piano Nobile.
You can see more about past exhibitions - and the works selected for exhibition - on the website

The Next Generation Collection currently consists of 68 self-portraits by contemporary British and Irish artists, including Maggi Hambling, Anthony Eyton, Celia Paul, Tony Bevan and Thomas Newbolt.  The exhibition also tours.

REFERENCE:

• This is the Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize Facebook Page
• This is Ilaria Rosselli del Turco's post about the 2013 Exhibition - Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Competition 2013

How to stop spam comments on specific Blogger posts

This is tip for how to stop frequent attempts by spammers to post a spam comment to specific blog posts on a Blogger blog.

• This is NOT how to stop spam comments from appearing. I can do that very easily through the use of moderation of all comments
• What this post addresses is the utter tedium of having to keep reviewing and moderating  spam comments!

I noticed that very many of these spam comments tended to arise on the same blog posts.

• I've published 3,220 to date but it's only a few which attract spam comments.
• The trigger seems to be if you use a particular keywords that people want to get links for AND that post has been popular AND it has had a lot of traffic.

The saddos who don't realise that all Blogger comments are automatically "no follow" (i.e. they cannot add weight to somebody else's website) all target these posts - which is why I ended up moderating endless spam comments each day.

(The 2005 blog post by Google below outlines their solution to the comment spam problem - which was subsequently implemented on Blogger)

If you're a blogger (or a blog reader), you're painfully familiar with people who try to raise their own websites' search engine rankings by submitting linked blog comments like "Visit my discount pharmaceuticals site." This is called comment spam, we don't like it either, and we've been testing a new tag that blocks it. From now on, when Google sees the attribute (rel="nofollow") on hyperlinks, those links won't get any credit when we rank websites in our search results. This isn't a negative vote for the site where the comment was posted; it's just a way to make sure that spammers get no benefit from abusing public areas like blog comments, trackbacks, and referrer lists.
Preventing comment spam (January 18, 2005) | Official Google Blog

I got so frustrated at one point with the endless stream that I needed to review that I just turned off ALL comments by anybody at all.

That was before I found out how to switch off comments for specific blog posts.

How to stop spam comments on specific Blogger posts

All you need to do is change on setting for individual blog posts.

This is my choices under the Options menu on the right side of a blog post window.   (That's the one at the bottom - underneath the bit where you insert the "search description"

Blogger options

In order to stop spammer comments on specific posts you need to change the option for Reader comments so it looks like this (see below).

In other words, you don't allow any more comments at all on that post - but you do allow your existing moderated comments to continue to appear.

I also include a comment before I make the change stating "COMMENTS ON THIS BLOG POST HAVE BEEN SWITCHED OFF DUE TO ABUSE BY SPAMMERS".

It's not obvious that the commenting function has been switched off for that post - until you click comments and try to post one.

That's when you get a message - New comments have been disabled for this post

What the spammer sees when they try to leave a comment

What happens now is if I get a spam comment, I look at the blog post and try and recall whether it's attracted other spam comments in the past. If it has then I go to the blog post and change the comment settings for that one specific post to "Don't allow". That way there will be no more spam comments generated by that post.

The new strategy seems to be working so far. Spam comments are much reduced.

The Great Pottery Throwdown - Series 2 starts tonight

Just a quickie - because it starts in less than 10 minutes - but the new series of The Great Pottery Throwdown starts tonight on BBC2 at 8pm.

As per usual you'll be able to view it on iPlayer after the broadcast. or you can do what I do which is miss the beginning, go to iPlayer, go to Channels, choose BBC2, go to what's on now and then opt to watch it from the beginning! :)

The judges Keith Brymer Jones and ceramic-artist Kate Malone remain the same - except there's now a third one Emma Bridgewater of lots of pottery on the High Street fame.

and here are the Series 2 2017 contestants....

The Series 2 Great Pottery Throwdown Contestants - with judges and presenters
Can you spot a winner?

Here's what the BBC have to say about their new series - which didn't even make it on to the front page of the BBC Arts section - so maybe crafts don't rate as arts on the BBC. Maybe they should have a chat with Turner Prizewinner and national institution Grayson Perry RA?

For the brand-new series of The Great Pottery Throw Down, hosted by Sara Cox, ten home potters return to Stoke-on-Trent and compete to become the new champion of British pottery.

The judges, master-potter Keith Brymer Jones and ceramic-artist Kate Malone scrutinise their work over three gruelling challenges. For their Main Make, the potters throw and decorate an identical sixteen-piece dinner set.

Testing their technical prowess in the Spot Test, the potters must sponge decorate a coherent design across a pair of jugs. Hardly easy at the best of times, they must also do it in front of a special guest judge, one of the UK's most popular ceramic designers - Emma Bridgewater.

Their final challenge is the Throw Down, where the judges examine the potters' skill at the wheel, and they must throw the tallest cone they can in just 15 minutes.

On the final day, kiln man Rich Miller will remove the potters' dinner sets from the flames. The heat is on as they all want to win Pot of The Week and get their ceramics into The Great Pottery Throw Down gallery. But whose dinnerware will be the first to be displayed and who will be leaving?

NOT selected by an art competition or open exhibition?

Have you had your artwork rejected by an art competition or an open exhibition?
Did you wonder why?
Did you vow never ever to enter another one - and then entered anyway after the Call for Entries was published?

This post is about

• common complaints artists make about not getting selected
• some of the reasons why artwork is rejected 
• why artists never get the feedback they want and sometimes need.
• why entry fees are reasonable.

You can also read more TIPS about entering art competitions on my pages about

• Major UK Art Competitions 2017-18 (at the beginning)
• UK Art Societies - Open Exhibitions 2017 (at the end)

SBA Stacks - prior to selection 2016

Mystified artists or conspiracy theorists?

Periodically I get letters from artists asking me about art competitions.  More than a few complain about the outcome of their latest effort to get selected. Often they want to know

• if art competitions are a fraud and/or 
• why their artwork wasn't selected.

The complaints often focus on a few issues - which are perceived as the real problems in their eyes:

• organisers don't pay any attention to the costs incurred by artists
• the entry fees are exorbitant
• the selectors are biased (for whatever reason)
• what gets selected is rubbish. 

The latest complaint/query is below - which I've waited a while to post and have anonymised in terms of the artist and the competition highlighted - but you'll get the sense of the issues. The sentiments expressed are not an uncommon theme. 

Hi Katherine
Firstly, thanks for your write-ups. Always very informative and appreciated by us artists.  

I was reading what you were saying about "an anonymous art competition" 2016 with great interest.It is amazing at how artists pay exorbitant fees to enter these competitions, even though we are mislead and cheated. Surely it is illegal to mislead and comes under the misdescription act. Who checks that competitions are run honestly? There is no organisation to regulate any of them. Has anybody ever challenged them regarding misleading information?

Over the years I have paid hundreds and hundreds of pounds on competitions and travel expenses and each time I swear I will never enter another one again. Yet, we have no choice but to pump entrance fees into the competition system in the hope that our work will get selected and noticed.

I cannot understand and am almost becoming a conspiracy theorist because of this: In your experience, do you know why an artist can have work preselected in every prestigious competition going, yet never once get finally selected at any of them. I have had work preselected for all the major competitions every time, but never get selected. "an anonymous art competition" of 2016 was no exception with the attached image preselected only to be rejected at the next stage of selection. [description of painting]

The reason there are no paintings of people in groups or within a context is that the judges somehow feel these paintings are not worth consideration. Classic example of this is my painting of [anonymous] being rejected on final selection. Even though a different painting style, similar work to the artist you were referring to, [the winner of the top prize]I would love to hear your views on points raised, however, I do understand you are busy if you cannot personally reply.

Thanks Katherine.

All the best

Here's another example of a negative view of art competitions - The problem with open art competitions WARNING! It contains extreme exaggeration laced with abusive name-calling!

Reasons why artwork is rejected

Here's a list of some of the more common reasons why artwork is rejected.