"Figurative Art Now" opens online - and transport responsibility has changed!!

The online exhibition of "Figurative Art Now" has opened online on the Mall Galleries website.

Before I review the exhibition, I want to comment again on the issue of who picks up the transport cost for sales - because there has been a significant change.

You may remember that:

• I didn't publicise the Call for Entries - which was for a very specific reason. The grossly unfair and not well publicised condition that the artist paid for the transport to the buyer no matter where they lived in the world! Which just filled me with horror given all the issues to do with export and customs for artists who may never have shpped an artwork before
  
• I then put up a post Figurative Art Now: how fair are the T&C to artists? just before the deadline for entries highlighting this - and a lot of people who had already entered rushed back to the dashboard for entries and changed their prices to cover postage and packing as per the terms and conditions!

I also made my views known to a few key people.

I'm guessing this is maybe what has helped trigger a change of heart over who pays for the transport of the art to the buyer.

I'm VERY pleased for all the artists to say that 

• if you click on an image of an artwork, you are taken to the unique page for that artwork
• and the page now states very clearly - under Fulfilment Info
  

This work will be sent directly from the artist in the UK. The purchaser is responsible for the cost of transport; please see our Art Sales Collection and Delivery page for more information.

Mall Galleries will support and facilitate transportation quotes and provide artwork locations where required.

Note the column on the right which makes clear that
the buyer is responsible for transport

 

This is reiterated on the Art Sales Collection and Delivery Page on the website.

What's still not clear is who is responsible for packing - and I think this needs to be made EXPLICIT.

My view would be that 

• if the work is small then that's something the artist can easily arrange. 
• However, for larger works packaging is a VERY critical part of the safe transport of an item and it's more usual for those transporting to also arrange packing - as they know best (or should do!) what's required for safe transport.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see on that one.

I'd appreciate feedback on how it all works.

At least it's now much more consistent with the arrangements for the ad hoc purchase of artwork from artists via the 'Buy Art' section of the site - which had ALWAYS made it clear that the buyer picks up or pays for transport.

What is it with statues / sculptures of women?

I knew I didn't like the statue of Princess Diana - as in there was something not right about the face. However, I was unprepared for the scathing criticism which has emerged from all quarters - from here in London to the other side of the world in Australia!

I'm left wondering why it is that statues / sculptures of women cause such intense reaction?

 

I'm thinking in particular of the recent debacle over the artwork by Maggi Hambling relating to Mary Wollstonecraft - and the very many critical comments that attracted.

I started trying to remember a sculpture of a woman what I liked - and decided that for the most part, I'm right behind Henry Moore whose sculptures are abstracted shapes and yet very popular!

This post has two sections:

• what is a sculpture and what is a statue 
• criticism - critical and otherwise of the Diana Sculpture.

 

What is a sculpture as opposed to a statue

The Tate defines "Sculpture" as 

Three-dimensional art made by one of four basic processes: carving, modelling, casting, construction

and does not define "Statue" 

Sculpture | Britannica

Britannica defines "Sculpture" as

Saturday Sketch Club at the Royal Academy of Arts

The Royal Academy of Arts has been running a FREE ONLINE Saturday Sketch Club for a while. I'm not sure how many people know about this (I didn't!) because there's not a lot of visits to their videos.

Below are the LINKS to the YouTube videos of various sessions. Most last an hour or thereabouts.

(NOTE: the links do NOT work on the RA website - you need to go to the links listed below)

 
Saturday Sketch Club: still life (10 May 2021) - still life drawing with Mark Hampson, Head of Fine Art Processes at the Royal Academy Schools.

Saturday Sketch Club: collage (26th May 2021) - Grab any paper you have lying around (newspapers, magazines, leaflets or receipts), a pair of scissors and something sticky (an old glue stick or some tape will do).

Saturday Sketch Club: anatomy drawing (1 June 2021) - Artist Adele Wagstaff leads a session on the anatomy of the human form; from the deep landmarks of the skeletal system, to the musculature which is evident on the surface of the body. Observe the structure and movement of the body as you practice drawing the model in a series of short and long poses.

Saturday Sketch Club: botanical drawing (7 June 2021) a session on botanical drawing with Laxmi Hussain. Laxmi will introduce you to techniques involved in mark making, to discover drawing as an everyday activity. Laxmi explores minimalism in her work through continuous line and will demonstrate how to approach and use these techniques.

( I'm going to jump in here and say if you want to know more about drawing plants do take a look at the Scientific Botanical Illustration on my Botanical Art and Artists website - which also discusses What is Botanical Art?) 

Saturday Sketch Club: drawing as exploration (14 June 2021) - Discover repetition and transformation in this workshop with Elinor Stanley, exploring the power of your drawing through multiple versions. Inspired by Picasso’s cut-outs, this session investigates how simple shapes can be crystallised into expressions and motifs for future

Saturday Sketch Club: experimenting with the figure (21 June 2021) - oin artist Jake Garfield for this fun and informal life drawing session. Working directly from a clothed model, you will break drawing down to its essential ingredients. Expect to explore formal qualities including “line”, “mark-making” and “tone” through a series of short activities, before combining these different aspects over an extended pose. This practical drawing session is perfect for beginners and experienced artists alike.

Saturday Sketch Club: drawing into the abstract (28 June 2021) - Emyr Williams for a workshop which will explore and challenge our perceptions of ‘realistic’ drawing and abstract art. Emyr will introduce us to new ways of seeing, building confidence in our drawing. 

This is the Link to ALL THE VIDEOS

Lockdown Art #1: 1000 Cranes by Liz Hanan at the Oxmarket Gallery in Chichester

I'm inviting people to highlight where we can currently see art with some sort of explicit link to lockdowns in current exhibitions - anywhere in the world.

If I like what I see, it will be featured on this blog with a link to the exhibition it's in and the relevant artist.

I'm doing this because I'm a big fan of art which records social history - and if this pandemic is not social history, I don't know what is! It's changed such a lot of our day-to-day lives and ongoing economies and how we will live and work in the future - forever!

 

[PS For those expecting to see the post about pricing and sales at the NEAC Exhibition, this will now be on Sunday - when I can update my Excel Spreadsheet with the sales since Tuesday.]

 

Lockdown Art #1: 1000 Cranes by Liz Hanan

 

My first example of lockdown art was sent to me by Sue England, who many of you may recall was one of the finalists in the Sky Arts Landscape Painter of the Year 2019 (at Battersea Power Station)

I saw you were asking about art created during lockdown. 

You may be interested in an installation piece of 1000 cranes, hanging in a one and a half metre globe, made from 7000 re purposed vaccination syringe wrappers. Liz Hanan a vaccinating nurse and also a professional artist created it.

1000 Cranes by Liz Hanan

The narrative on her website explains that:

• the 1000 cranes are created out of spent vaccination packages
• the ancient Japanese tradition of 千羽鶴, senbazuru (literally “1000 cranes”) involves the folding of 1000 cranes which are then hung by strings
• In doing this, your wish will come true
• They are also a a symbol of hope, health and longevity in difficult times.
• The vaccination programme across the world has brought hope to so many people
• her notion for the work was created in collaboration with the vaccination teams in the Chichester area.
• the teams collected the syringe packets after use, Liz joined them together and then they are folded and created cranes
• 1000 Cranes were created out of around 7000 vaccination packets
  
• the collaborative process was an important part of creating the piece - reflecting the collaboration of the vaccination programme
• they are now hung together to form a sphere - measuring 1.5 metres in diameter.
  

You can see a video of it on this link

It's certainly one of the most impressive pieces of lockdown art I've seen to date!

Exhibition: Artel

Title: Cranes

Location: Oxmarket Gallery St Andrew’s Court, off East Street, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 1YH

Dates: Until 11th July 2021

Hours: 10am - 4.30pm

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artelgroup

Instagram: @chigroupartel

 

(Note: It's part of The Festival of Chichester)

 

Review: Annual Exhibition of the New English Art Club 2021

I visited the Annual Exhibition 2021 of the New English Art Club at the Mall Galleries on Tuesday - and it was as if everything were normal again. Apart from the face masks, the galleries were full of the "double jabbed" all keen to see this year's artwork

What was odd was that there was rather less of "this pandemic year" than one might expect. Did artists not think it was relevant - or were they bored of it.

However, there was some excellent artwork recording life as lived over the last 15 months. I particularly liked the large painting produced by Sarah Godsill who is an artist who relates to the need to record historical memories. I couldn't agree more! I do however think her pricing is VERY ambitious - and I'll comment more on pricing later...

Spring Lockdown by Sarah Godsill (OPEN ENTRY)
whose work centres around figures
Interconnected (right) is by David Cobley

The reality for me is we never ever think war art is unusual - so why, given there was a LOT of very focused art producing during the Pandemic, is there so very  little in this exhibition? (Given the submissions for the previous exhibition had largely been submitted prior to the pandemic). It just seemed rather odd to me....

Was it filtered out by the selectors - or did they just not receive enough good submissions? Will we ever know? (I'd love to know which it was if anybody would like to tell me!)

The Annual Exhibition 2021

You can see my photos of the exhibition on my Making A Mark Facebook Page - which is accessible by everyone in these three albums

1. NEAC Annual Exhibition 2021 - East Gallery
2. NEAC Annual Exhibition 2021 - West Gallery   
3. NEAC Annual Exhibition 2021 - North Gallery

Incidentally, I mostly try to exclude people from my photos - they're in no way representative of the number of people in the galleries!

Thank you to all those who say they like looking at the exhibition they cn't get to in this way. You'll also find my blog post Three Virtual Views of the New English Art Club Annual Exhibition 2021 helpful if you want to find out more about the art and who painted - and whether it is still available!

The Annual Exhibition continues until 5pm on Saturday 3rd July.

A number of my photos are annotated with details of the painter - particularly if it was work I liked, even more so if the artist had been selected from the Open Entry.

Artists whose work I liked

Below I'm noting the artwork I liked by artists selected through the OPEN ENTRY - with links in their names to their websites. 

 

NEAC is, after all, a good place to spot up and coming artists with new takes on how to create good art.