Art Blogs
There's rather more of my posts in this "who's made a mark this week" and that's because of the hiatus caused by my domestic emergencies and the fact that we've missed two Sunday posts. So this one is making up for it........
I'll start with the fact that it still gives me great pleasure to reiterate the fact that
Making A Mark achieves #2 in Top Ten Blogs of 2010!
NEW art blogs
- A Postcard from my Walk is a new group blog. I'm very happy to say that during my short respite from blogging I helped give birth to a new group blog. This one is a spin off from Sketchercise which I founded in 2009 and this is my post on this blog Introducing 'A Postcard from my Walk'.
- A Postcard from my Walk aims to provide "the real thing" and not just the digital version to those of us who have been involved in a group which focuses on sketching and exercising.
- Postcards will be posted in the last week of every month - and will appear on the blog when received by the person they were posted to.
- I've got a major challenge which is that I rarely sketch as small as 7" x 5" and I think I'm going to get group dispensation to deliver bigger postcards! My very first effort certainly left me with a new found respect for those who produce small works of art! Next week there will be a post about sketching small on Travels with a Sketchbook
By way of contrast, I've been fascinated by Gillian Holding's blog #adailyselfreflection - partly because it involves the production of an artwork daily - a daily digital self-portrait - but also because it involves the use of digital software which is beginning to interest me as I load my iPad with art apps! This is a link to her gallery of artwork produced this month. This is her other blog Life and Art
The dishwasher - by Gillian Holding
#adailyselfreflection began when I realised there was a great forum in cyberspace for showing digitally generated work, and I loved the idea that artwork with no tangible existence could be viewed in the exact form in which it had been created.
- New artinfo blogger Karen Archey comments on the naurte of art blogging in Addicted to Hits: On Art Blogging. However I think she forgets that not everybody who has an art blog does it for commercial reasons and not all content on art blogs is always driven by the need to make a buck or get a speaking engagement.
About the Artist
This is a new section devoted to posts about the artist in conceptual or practical terms.
Emerging is a coded term that is supposed to alert collectors and the public that the artist is all set to earn some serious cash.
- I also liked Robert Genn's (The Painter's Keys) The Feminine Mystique - particularly the list of characteristics and attributes at the end which he observes in highly optimistic, ambitious women who value education and are willing to put in time and treasure (when they have it) to achieve their goals.
Coloured Pencils and Pastels
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Awake by Sally Strand
Pastel on paper 13" x 17" |
Drawing and Sketching
- One of the people I have followed regularly since I started blogging five years ago is Laura Frankstone (Laurelines). Recently Kate/Cathy Johnson published her interview with Laura which forms part of her new book - Interview #5--meet Laura Frankstone of Laurelines! It's an interesting reflection on one artist's journey in terms of their development as an artist, about keeping a sketchbook and journal and how that has carried over into blogging. There are interviews with 28 artists in the book and this is just one of them. You can follow the rest of what Cathy has to share on her blog Artists Journal Workshop
- Here's my sketches from my visit to the National Portrait Gallery and National Gallery this month
- The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour have a page on their website - RSW Member Sketchbook which features the sketchbooks of different members. It's a nice idea and one which it would be nice to see on other art society websites
- Shirley Levine (Paper and Threads) has Another Project which she needs help with. I'm loving the paintings she's done so far.
Nature Drawing and Botanical
- Irene Brady writes the type of blog post which I really enjoy reading but which, sadly, I don't see enough on the Internet. It's the journal of a real traveller going places I've never been before and recording lots of details about the place. Irene Brady (Nature Drawing with Irene Brady) has been writing about her nature journalling trips to Costa Rica and the Amazon. I like the mix of photos of flroa and faunaand extracts from her nature journals.
- How to Draw a Tree is a blog by Martin Stankewitz - particularly useful for those who want to get to grips with drawing trees.
Painting landscapes
Paintings of Bali by Julian Merrow Smith
January 12th - Snow by Loriann Signori
9x6 pastel and watercolor on Uart
Painting - Challenges
Art Business and Art Marketing
Art Economy and Art Collectors
- Clicking on a Masterpiece The Wall Street Journal discusses whether collectors are now ready to buy million-dollar artworks online.
Art Competitions and Art Society exhibitions
Art Exhibitions
- Major Art Exhibitions in London in 2011 has proved to be a very popular post.
- It was quite amazing after I'd finished listing everything out to realise my stunning good fortune to have all this art on my doorstep!
- If you know somebody who is visiting London who likes art you can email this post to them - use the link at the bottom of the post
- This will be a major exhibition in London next year to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee - The Queen: Art and Image. In the meantime it's touring the UK and will be visiting Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff.
- Anish Kapoor: Turning the World Upside Down in Kensington Gardens a Royal Parks video - which has Anish Kapoor explaining his sculptures and how they fit into the park and also how they are animated by the skyscape.
- Reviews of the Norman Rockwell's America at the Dulwich Picture Gallery include:
- Norman Rockwell's America – review - Norman Rockwell idealised America and America idolised him in return – but this stunning survey reveals a deep knowledge of art at the heart of his work, writes Laura Cumming
- while Peter Preston reflects on what has changed since the cheerful escapism of Rockwell's day in a comment piece in the Observer today The norms of Norman Rockwell
Art Galleries and Museums
There are two new Directors of Art Museums in London. Artinfo covered both appointments in articles:
Art History
Art Supplies
- I've been focusing on my end of year polls relating to pastels and pencils this month. Here are the posts about soft and hard pastels
- I added a section about PanPastels into my information site Pastels - Resources for Artists this week and discovered that this brand of pastels also has a blog! Enter Paint Draw Blend Exploring the World of PanPastel Colors for Painting, Drawing & Mixed Media Art.
- Stapleton Kearns on the topic of Cleaning brushes
Art Education
Workshop and Class
Art Apps
- Mitchell Albala has got a new app related to his book about landscape painting.
Landscape Painting — There’s an App for That! However I found it left me down a dead end when I got into one of the sections and I couldn't get out.
Book Reviews
Two book reviews by
Martin Stankewitz (
How to draw a tree) - about books which tell you how to draw trees
Colour
Copyright
- The Google Public Policy Blog recently addressed issues to do with Making Copyright Work Better Online. I'll comment on this in a future post but here's the guts of the changes being made. The four key items which Google has undertaken to do to reduce piracy and copyright infringement are as follows:
- act on reliable copyright takedown requests within 24 hours.
- prevent terms that are closely associated with piracy from appearing in Autocomplete.
- improve the AdSense anti-piracy review
- experiment to make authorised preview content more readily accessible in search results.
- In Google search and search engine spam, (on The Official Google Blog) Matt Cutts has announced that new developments are getting even better at detecting spammy content. Those of us who have problems with content being stolen from blogs should feel a bit happier that things are moving in the right direction.
Opinion Poll
- The results of the January Making A Mark Poll were published yesterday in Are you a left handed artist? (Poll Results). I'm not sure whether the very nigh number of people voting was because of lots of new visitors to this blog in January, the accessibility of the questions and answers or what. However 31% of 262 people said they were left handed artists.
- There's a slightly different version of the poll on new "resources for artists" site - Are Left Handed People more likely to be Artists?
- After the poll and the research, I've come to the conclusion that rather a lot of artists are said to be left-handed with very little evidence to support this.
Websites, webware and blogging
and finally......
Do you ever have one of those phases where everything goes wrong - one after the other?
After being
Out to Lunch, no sooner had I researched, located and had a new microwave and cooker delivered for those that broke down within half an hour of one another (!!!) - but my car failed to start. It's now gone to the garage to be tested with the old microwave sat in the back! I just dread the times when the same thing happens as I'm getting ready for an exhibition.........
What's been your worst ever experience in terms of sequential mini-disasters?
As artists on the Internet, we're probably more aware than most of the perils and practicalities of posting artwork to exhibitions and customers, at home and overseas.
