Two different approaches to art society events in the UK and USA

This post is about a contrast between national art societies:

• in two different countries (the UK and USA - but this is probably applicable to others too) 
• of different sizes - with an impact on the ease and expense of getting around 
• with different approaches to getting together as members
• and different associated costs to those members

It happens to be about botanical art. However, this post really could have easily been about ANY media or subject based art society.  

Hopefully it's also a prompt for national art societies in the UK to start "thinking outside the box" in terms of what's possible - and maybe what artists want of an art society?

I'm not quite sure how this happened - but this year the Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists in Westminster is taking place at the exact same time as the Annual Conference of the American Society of Botanical Artists in San Francisco!

For me the arrangements of annual exhibition and the conference events exemplify the difference between the annual exhibitions of UK art societies and associated events and the conference approach of the USA Art Societies.

The latter is driven somewhat by the fact that actually getting people together from different states involves a lot of travelling and people staying over - and hence EXPENSE!

Hence to justify the time, effort and expense, there needs to be an extensive programme of events and workshops by first rate instructors and professional representatives - which means some of these events are not cheap!

However one of the interesting aspects of this strong educational emphasis behind such conferences is that they also start to attract people from other countries around the world as well as those from around the USA!

Interestingly, this week, there are also going to be quite a few Brits delivering sessions at the ASBA Conference!  So the international flavour of that Conference very much extends to tutors as well as participants!

To be honest, I've met more than a few artists at the Private Views and visits to national art society over the last decade (OK - I've met LOTS!) who have wished that Art Societies in the UK would make much more of an effort to develop an annual conference in addition to an annual exhibition.

One of the reasons why people think this would be a good idea is that such an event can be held anywhere in the country and gets away from the London-centric tenor of annual exhibitions by national art societies.  That then has the potential to increase participation by people who live outside the London and Home Counties

Who knows, if such conferences got off the ground they might then attract both registered participants and tutors from outside the UK!  Just as happens in the USA!

Anyway - enough of the theory and back to what's happening this week

What's the biggest question facing artists today?

The Guardian ran an article on Thursday called What's the biggest question facing artists today? The article makes for interesting reading - as do the comments

I liked Tacita Dean's intelligent comment and Maria Balshaw also nailed it. However the best one for me came from Touria El Glaoui - and apparently I discerned a key theme of the comments without realising it and before I read them.

It’s a question of security in your career: how to be true to yourself while surviving in a commercial market. 

To which one commenter responded - and got the most "likes"

If you can't earn enough to live on, it's not a career, it's a hobby. Most of us don't expect taxpayers to fund their hobbies, so why should artists?

For those who'd like to make a serious comment - out of the limelight - you can respond via the Guardian's survey form - Calling all artists: what are the biggest issues that concern you?

An analysis of the comments

Leaving aside the comments from "the names" in the article, below you can find my analysis of the comments on the article FROM ARTISTS

Auguste Rodin, Le Penseur,
plaster on wood platform
Musée d'art moderne
et contemporain de Strasbourg

Some points as to how I tackled my summary as a preamble:

• I've left out most of the grumpiness and whining about why somebody has not made it and have focused on the people who actually attempted to answer the question. 
• I've also left out the posturing and pseuds' corner stuff
• Some people were totally incapable of answering this particular question - by providing a question - so I had to paraphrase quite a few. Those people may not agree with how I paraphrased.
• The comments also provide an insight into the inability of some artists to actually focus on a topic and their total self-obsession with themselves. The ability of some to wax on about the small scale/parochial or global/political - and especially themselves - beggars belief.

I clicked on this article hoping to read something about their ideas. Most talked about how to get paid.

I think as a result of reading through all the comments, my question might be "When are artists going to get their act together?

Or the same point from another perspective - another person put it like this

The biggest 'problem' facing those who (generally) self-define at 'artists' is relevance to the rest of humanity. Not 'what's in it for me?', but 'what's in it for everyone else?'.

 What's the biggest question facing artists today?

I've tried to categorise the comments - literal and paraphrased - in order to try and highlight what are the major concerns of artists.

Without a doubt the main concerns that occupies many artists are

• how to get paid for their art so they can go on being an artist
• how to produce art that is authentic and persuade people that what they are doing is good - and should be supported.
• how to break into the circle of elite artists/galleries/funders

What appeared to concern some of those who are maybe not artists is.....

• why should artists assume the world owes them a living?

The oldies are the goodies

• "What is art?" is a perennial (but didn't get asked a lot)
• As is "What the hell is that meant to be?"
• The biggest question for any artist - after the obvious ones of how do I pay the rent and feed myself etc. - is " Am I being true to myself?"
• How to have enough money if (your) art is not immediately popular?
• How to be true to yourself and produce authentic art at the same time as being able to eat and have a roof over your head?
• How can we use our work to help create a new economy for the common good?'
• Will my art last?
• The biggest question facing artists today is the same as it ever was - what is my work worth, and will the buyers who snapped it up yesterday still do so tomorrow.

Being an Artist

• How much more would this world be enriched if those that are starving have enough to eat, and to produce art for everyone to enjoy?
• How do you reconcile the statement "everyone is an artist" and the purported push from the left for democracy, inclusivity and diversity, with the special social (and funding) designation for 'artist' and 'art'? How do reconcile the lack of any real parameters around art (aesthetics, content, skill) and your assertion that artists are 'special' and think in a different way? What would you be measuring this 'difference' against, given that the doors to 'anything goes' have been open for fifty years? 
• Why are only the rich making art, filling art institutions, becoming musicians, acting?
• For most artists, it's 'How on earth you scrape together any kind of living?'
• What is wrong with supporting your art with the work that real people must do?
• How to keep getting away with it?

Art Patrons / Collectors

• If everybody can quite readily declare themselves an artist (which they can and do), who are the patrons? 
• Why does it seem the audience for art is getting smaller?

Art Education

• Why is art education is being neglected by universities?

Art Funding

• Why does funding for the arts flow to the chosen few?
• Why not ask the 99% of artists that are shut out of the "art market", shut out from funding, shut out from galleries, both private and public?

Marketing Art

• When are artists other than the exalted and chosen few that dominate the market going to get access to the limelight?
• Why have we lost faith in the current art gallery system?
• How not to be robbed by the art world? (the answer to that is, keep them guessing).
• Why has "craving attention at all costs" replaced appreciation of aesthetic beauty?
• When you're "on the outside looking in" what's the best way to get your art seen?
• "Which dumb brainteaser am I going to sell as art this year to people who wouldn't know real art if it bit them on the ass but have impressive collections of modern money?"

The best comment? Well this one in my opinion is worth a reread.

All the anguish seems to be about squaring the circle between 'authenticity' and commercial necessity as an artist. But you don't need to be an Artist to do art. You can be a plumber, a pediatrician, a park ranger, and do art. Plenty of people always have and still do. But they are 'amateur' - one of the most corrupted words in the lexicon - and do not count. 

and this is also the reality for some people

Show me an artist who isn't concerned about getting paid, and I'll show you a hobbyist with a private pension.

_______________________________________________________

For those artists wanting to get their act together and sell some art so they can keep on making art can I refer you to my website Art Business Info for Artists. It certainly does NOT have all the answers (for one thing I'm still building it!) - however I've now been told by a number of both professional and aspiring artists that it does provide some very useful insights into the process of moving from creating art to creating an art career.

Review: 72nd Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Marine Artists

The Private View of the 72nd Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Marine Artists was very well attended and sales prior to the exhibition opening to the public appeared to be brisk.

Private View of 72nd Annual Exhibition the Royal Society of Marine Artists

The exhibition is in all three galleries of the Mall Galleries until 5pm on Saturday 14th October 2017. (For those unable to attend read my previous post Case Study (RSMA): How to promote an annual exhibition and art for sale online to see how you can see and buy work online).

There are a number of prizewinners - listed below.

There are very nearly 400 artworks in the exhibition with very many of them being very strong paintings executed in an expert fashion. This is an exhibition with strength in depth and anybody who gets selected via the open should be very pleased with their achievement.

This exhibition has a major emphasis on paintings with an overall lean towards the blue/grey/green colour palette! By way of contrast, there is very little sculpture, drawings and fine art prints. The framing tends towards the traditional rather than contemporary. There's a tad too much gilt on show for my liking which I personally don't think suits paintings of boats!

Dramatic skies in marine landscapes

Feature end wall of the Main Gallery had some splendid paintings

Some of the smaller paintings and watercolours

View of the exhibition in the Threadneedle Space.

It's well hung with a good mix of members and artwork selected from the open entry across the exhibition as a whole. I liked the way work by members was mixed up around the galleries with generally no more than three paintings exhibited in one place. This diversity helps keep the exhibition exciting to view as one moves around the Main Gallery, North Galleries and Threadneedle Space.

Lots of boats and some marine creatures

What struck me this time was that it's very instructive to go and see an exhibition which has a fairly tight focus as to eligible subject matter and then see all the different ways that artists explore the topic using different styles and different art media.

Rather more unusual art media I spotted this year include:

• Textile collage and embroidery by Jacque Wakely who 'paints with a sewing machine'
• Hand-cut paper over acrylics by Diane Young
• mixed media linocut by John Scott Martin PPRBSA FRSA

Surf's up by Diane Young
Hand-cut paper over acrylics

The RSMA had a tendency to be a very blokish society with relatively few female members. However it now has a female President and I noted that women were well represented in both the open artworks and prizes awarded (see below).  

Below are three such women exhibiting at this year's exhibition.

Video of Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2017

When I reviewed the exhibition in my post 10 Best Paintings in the Sunday Times Watercolour Exhibition I said I'd be posting my video of the exhibition at the weekend. However I was rather more ill than I'd realised.....

Still from the video

Hence I'm a bit remiss, not to mention late, in posting this video of the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2017.

It's a walk around the exhibition while it was on display at the Mall Galleries in September. Not the smoothest of videos but I was suffering from a rather bad case of laryngitis, was walking with my stick and wasn't too bright for the next few days.

I find I need to be feeling a bit brighter to process a video and publish it - hence the delay.

For those wondering about the media used by artists selected for the competition, you can find below the "watercolour" media used for the paintings in the competition.  Less than half the paintings are traditional watercolour paint only.

Watercolour	41	48%
Acrylic	10	12%
Watercolour and gouache	9	11%
Watercolour and ink	4	5%
Gouache	4	5%
Watercolour and pencil	2	2%
Ink	2	2%
Gouache and watercolour	2	2%
Acrylic and watercolour	2	2%
Acrylic and pigment	2	2%
Watercolour, Japanese ink and gilding/metal powders	1	1%
Watercolour ink and gesso	1	1%
Watercolour collage	1	1%
Watercolour and water based mediums	1	1%
Watercolour and inktense pencils	1	1%
Watercolour and acrylic	1	1%
Gouache, collage and pencil	1	1%

Sargent: The Watercolours - a review

You have one week left to visit the Sargent: The Watercolours exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in South London.

This is the first major UK exhibition of watercolours by the Anglo-American artist, John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), since 1918.

I've been going to go to this exhibition all summer and for one reason and another didn't go until last Friday.

I now wish I'd gone earlier as I greatly enjoyed it - and would have paid a second visit.

Instead I made made a lot of notes about it! This post:

• tells you how the exhibition is organised 
• shares images of some of the watercolour paintings in the exhibitions
• plus videos highlighting each section
• summarises my notes of aspects of his watercolour practice that I noticed

At the end if references various other blog posts about Sargent on this blog.  I refer to John Singer Sargent as JSS below as I've been doing this for years!

I'd recommend this exhibition to those who select work for exhibitions of "watercolours" as a reminder of what watercolour is supposed to look like when handled by an expert artist. (see recent posts about What does "watercolour" mean to you? and 10 Best Paintings in the Sunday Times Watercolour Exhibition) plus my very long blog post about the topic of What is watercolour? back in 2009)

Sargent: The Watercolours

The exhibition displays works from 30 lenders - including a number of works in private collections that I've never ever seen before in exhibitions or in books.  Lenders include:

• UK: Tate, The British Museum, The Fitzwilliam, The Imperial War Museum and The Ashmolean, alongside works rarely seen from numerous private collections. 
• Europe: Museu de Montserrat, Abadia de Montserrat, Barcelona; the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon and the Petit Palais, Musee de Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris.

John Singer Sargent, Loggia, View at the Generalife, c. 1912, 
watercolour on paper, over preliminary pencil, 39.4 x 53.2 cm, 
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums Collections. 
Purchased in 1927, half the auction price met by Sir James Murray 

The exhibition is divided into sections which are:

• Fragments and close-ups 
• Cities - 
• Landscapes
• Figures

Online booking for viewing the exhibition means a number of timed slots for visiting the exhibition have already sold out. However there are a limited number of walk-up tickets will be available each day - but you do need to arrive early to avoid disappointment.

Catalogue cover

You can park in Gallery Road where there are no parking restrictions.

The catalogue

For those unable to get to see the exhibition you can see ALL the paintings (but just a few of the photographs) in the exhibition in the catalogue Sargent: The Watercolours.  There are lots available still in the Gallery shop but for some reason it's not listed in their online shop.

[This is the links for readers living in the USA - Sargent: The Watercolours]

Summary of my notes

Most of the watercolours are from a period after 1900 when JSS tended to take a couple of trips a year to Europe - typically the Alps and southern Europe and always Venice every year - for plein air painting and sketching with family and friends.

Sargent painting a watercolour in the Simplon Pass, c. 1910-11,
Unknown photographer 
Sargent Archive, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 

Fragments and close-ups 

• He obviously like architecture - but prefers to sketch sections of it. My first note says "pillars and pedestals" - because there's a lot of them!