The Elements of Drawing website

One of the most popular of my past posts relates to the website about The Elements of Drawing - John Ruskin's Teaching Collection at Oxford

I wrote about this is this post - the New website: John Ruskin and The Elements of Drawing in 2011. Since then:

• new resources seem to have been added to what was originally there
• sadly, it is now designated a legacy website - and the Through Ruskin's Eyes links to learning resources at Ashmolean Online are now broken

However, there's lots to see though and explore. 

I'm now of the view that every time you come across a good online educational website - which makes EDUCATIONAL resources available for free online - and available for downloading - you should immediately assume that it

• will become neglected when whoever invented it moves on 
• assume it won't be there forever and will be much lamented when it disappears 

Hence you should download every resource you can NOW!

Painting and paintings by John Singer Sargent

My second post from the archives is about John Singer Sargent and his approach to paintings.

Below are past blog posts which are well worth a read to look at the resources I accessed while writing about him in the last 15 years

 

An Artist in His Studio (1904 ) by John Singer Sargent 

Approach to Painting

• Advice on Painting from John Singer Sargent (2015) - about a digital ebook about how Sargent approached his paintings - which references “John Sargent” by the Hon. Evan Charteris - annotated by Thomas Jefferson Kitts
• John Singer Sargent and Drawing - and my drawing class (2007) - includes links to a number of sources commenting on Sargent's drawings

Exhibitions

Three ways to hang a picture

This is about three different ways to hang a picture - whether that's a painting, a drawing or a fine art print - and whether it's a small, medium or large artwork.

Hanging gear for hanging pictures
- photographed at Green & Stone

As I indicated in my last post during August I'm going to highlight previou posts which are useful and popular - or maybe less well known!

Today is about hanging artwork and the three posts I'm highlighting are:

• How to hang a picture - using D Rings focusing on two different approaches for different size and weight of picture
• How to hang a painting - using mirror plates which looks at:
• what a mirror plate is, 
• why use mirror plates and 
• how to attach them to a frame.
• How to hang a large or heavy picture - using heavy duty hanging hardware - which highlights the critical factors you need to know when hanging a heavy picture - which are:
• what weight the picture is
• what sort of hanging hardware is best for the job
• what sort of wall you are hanging it on.

I hope you find them useful.

You can also find more about How to hang a picture in the Framing section of my Art Business Info for Artists website

Getting fit and ready for surgery

A quick note just to say that during August, there won't be so many blog posts. What's currently way more important than blogging is resolving my severe ankle arthritis problem i.e. remove the pain and the scope to grind to a halt when walking!

So I need to:

1. Get fit for surgery on my ankle (see Ever so slightly distracted) - which I've been doing for weeks already - hence the dropping off of blog posts
2. Source / ordering / practising with all the aids I'll need - which is ratcheting up right now
3. Organise my home differently to make moving around a lot easier - lots of measuring coming up - plus moving furniture around and clutter out the door! Which must be done in August!

Which might sound a bit over the top if you don't know I'm facing 

• up to a minimum of six weeks and maybe three months or more on ONE LEG! 
• Absolutely 100% non weight-bearing on right ankle for 6 weeks minimum.
• Plus elevation ("Nose to toe") of operated ankle for weeks (and weeks) on end.  

Absolutely no cartilage left in my right ankle
This is what bone grinding on bone looks like!

I'm having either an ankle replacement or an ankle fusion (not decided yet) are both way, way more difficult and challenging than knee replacements or hip replacements.

If I have the ankle fusion I need to keep the ankle completely immobile while it grows bone to fuse the ankle so I have no movement - and no pain!

Unfortunately the left leg which has to move me around is also a leg which has had a major injury (I tore the meniscus in 2016) and that has taken ages to get anywhere back to normal so getting fit for surgery is a really, really serious matter for me.

That said I've lost 36kg so far (or 5.7 stone in "real money") in the last 13 months in order to try and make life easier.  There's a really huge incentive to lose weight when you realise you can't move a muscle when using crutches!

(Did I mention my severe osteoarthritis means I also need a shoulder replacement!!)

This is what the new slimline me looks like. I'm getting friends saying they hardly recognise me

Yayoi Kusama - her life and art

I watched a documentary film about Yayoi Kusama this last week which I found fascinating.  

She's exhibited internationally all over the world and her artwork has achieved both the highest turnover at auction in one year and the highest price paid for a female artist. 

Her current exhibition at Tate Modern is sold out until it finishes in October 2021 - but if you'd like to see more of her work and find out about her as an individual and as an artist It's a programme worth watching.

Yayoi Kusama

Kusama: Infinity

Kusama: Infinity (1 hour 20 minutes) is a documentary made by director Heather Lenz in 2017, published in 2018 and broadcast by Arena in 2019 - and repeated last Monday on BBC4. 

It's available for the next 24 days on BBC iPlayer. I'm going to be rewatching it before time is up!.

It provides an insight into the extraordinary life and world of this internationally renowned artist.

Kusama: Infinity - the Life and Art of Yayoi Kusama