Lucy Willis painting and a reminder of Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2015 deadline

You have a week left to enter the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition. The deadline for online submissions for the 2015 competition is 5pm, Monday 15th June 2015.

For details of what you can enter and how to enter see:

• my earlier post The Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2015 - Call for Entries which walks you through the process and what type of work is eligible for the competition
• or the new Sunday Times Watercolour Competition "website".  This is not the best designed website for art competitions that I've seen. For example it lacks two categories on the top line for "How to enter" and "Information for artists"!  

You can eventually find the information you need if you look hard - but you'll probably find it quicker in my blog post - where I link precisely to each element of information that you need to know! :)

The new Sunday Times Watercolour website

A new blog for the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition

In a lot of ways, although the ST Watercolour Comp Twitter account (@WatercolourComp) describes the new site as a website

We have a new website! http://t.co/nHLOu6mPDq for details about the competition and tutorials on 'how to paint a winning watercolour'.

— ST Watercolour Comp (@WatercolourComp) June 6, 2015

it would actually be more accurate to call the new site a blog rather than a website.

It has some posts with videos which make for interesting viewing.

Here's one of them. Lucy Willis - one of my favourite contemporary  watercolour artists - demonstrates how she paints (with an extremely well used paintbox and palette) on three different watercolour papers made by St. Cuthberts Mill.

I suggest you click HD and expand to full screen - it works very well.

Now - how many of you paint your watercolours with a brush that big?


Playing with paper, with Lucy Willis from Parker Harris on Vimeo.
Using each of the St Cuthberts Mill watercolour papers in turn (Bockingford, Saunders Waterford and Millford), artist Lucy Willis explores how each reacts to different paint effects. Filmed at St Cuthberts Mill in Somerset.

Incidentally one of the posts also announces the tour venues (after the exhibition at the Mall Galleries) which are:

• Castle Fine Art in Birmingham from 10 – 18 October 2015 - which will be the very first time the exhibition has come to Birmingham 
• Guildford House Gallery in Guildford from 21 November 2015 – 2 January 2016 (for the 3rd year running). 

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PS. Last week took it out of me - hence the break from blogging while I do a bit of emotional rehab! There will be another post about the RA Summer Exhibition - either later today or tomorrow.

Three celebrity portraits at the RA Summer Exhibition 2015

These are three portraits in the 2015 Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts.

The "celebrity portraits" at the
RA Summer Exhibition 2015

When it opens on Monday 8th June, you will find very few portraits (as opposed to paintings of figures) amongst the 1,131 works in this year's Summer Exhibition.

In fact, I'm pretty certain I wouldn't need more than my fingers and toes to count them - and I might just need only my fingers.  (There's also very few dogs and cats!)

I'll be commenting on the paintings of figures and portraits of real and fictional people in a post I have yet to write at the weekend (see endnote) - because there are some serious observations to be made about artwork involving figures.

Celebrity Art

Within the context of a very low count for portraits, we have these three celebrity portraits.

You'll find these portraits in Gallery II on the right of the door that leads you into Gallery III which this year holds the small works which have been moved from the Small Weston Room into a much bigger space (hurrah!)

Last year they would have been included in that room.

This year they're included in the room of the newest Academician - which is essentially all about landscapes. I'll leave you to ponder on that one.

They are what I might call "celebrity art". From the top, they are:

• Simon - acrylic and oil (NFS) by Jean Samcula (I can't find any evidence of a website and I'm thinking this is probably by an amateur artist and I'd ask you to temper your comments accordingly)
• Damien Hirst - oil on board (£2,000) by Harry Hill (Yes - THAT Harry Hill)
• Grayson and Measles - watercolour (£400) by Una Stubbs - who this year was one of the hosts on The Big Painting Challenge

You may recall that famous TV actress and presenter Una Stubbs had two watercolours of "the boys" from Sherlock (i.e. Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman) in last year's Summer Exhibition

TV presenter and Comic Harry Hill is a self-confessed 'hobby artist'.  You can see some of his other works here. This article describes what inspires his work.

I'm assuming nobody needs any explanation as to who Simon, Damien and Grayson are?

What do you think?

I included these portraits in a Facebook post from within the Summer Exhibition yesterday - and they've subsequently been shared and commented on by quite a few people - hence this post.

This was one of them

I am not an expert and by no means being judgemental when I look at these portraits, but I bet there are some bloody good artists out there who got their work rejected for these? How does that work?

Some serious questions for YOU!

1. Is there a place for 'celebrity art' in the Summer Exhibition? For example, is it included just to 
• create a talking point and 
• play a role in marketing the exhibition i.e. get coverage within the wider media?
2. Is there a place for serious portraiture by serious portrait artists in the RA's Summer Exhibition?
3. Are there maybe too few portrait artists among the contemporary Royal Academicians?
4. Or is serious portraiture best left to the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, the BP Portrait Award (which also opens this month on 18th June) and the National Portrait Gallery?

Comments?

Exhibition Details

The RA's Summer Exhibition 2015 opens to the public on 8th June. The exhibition fills the Main Galleries at Burlington House.

• Admission tickets are £13.50 (without donation £12). 
• Concessions available. 
• Friends of the RA and under 16s go free.
• Location

Note: As you can imagine, after Monday, I'm not feeling like writing long blog posts right now. However I will be writing one reviewing the Summer Exhibition at the weekend after I've mulled over a few ideas about how to digest it. I might even write two!

RIP Cosmo 2000 - 2015

Cosmo's last catnap - back home 1.6.15

My much loved cat Cosmo died yesterday evening.

Many thanks to all the staff at my vets for their compassion and excellent support at the end.

He came home with me last night.  Last night and again this morning I drew him resting on a comfy cushion on the sofa - having his last catnap - before he went for his final trip to the vet prior to an individual cremation.  I've done this before and I highly recommend spending time with and drawing your pet after death - it really helps as part of the grieving process.

Cosmo was born in August 2000 and died just a few weeks short of his 15th birthday. He was an absolutely gorgeous big Somali boy cat with the oddly named 'usual' colour fur. He also has such a lovely nature that I wouldn't hesitate to have another Somali in future - although there could never be another Cosmo!

He's been a regular on this blog over the years. He featured in the fourth post on this blog Drawing and Flu and a series on catnapping starting in 2006.

Plus he was always up for a "filler image" for blog posts on more general themes (eg the sketch below which featured on Managing Business Risks as an Artist.)

The Catnapping Series: Sleeping on the job
pen and ink

and this post about How to make it easy for people to link to you - and how to sketch a cat!

30 second sketches of Cosmo in pencil

In 2008, I drew A Day in the Life of Cosmo. Looking back at it, his daily routine didn't change that much over the years - although there was a lot more "lolling" and "evening cuddles" and rather less athletic exercise, door climbing and "cowboys and indians". He's now on a permanent "big sleep".

A day in the life of Cosmo
12" x 16" pencil
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

He had a spell as a model for my drawings that were exhibited at the annual exhibitions of the Society of Feline Artists.

I spy a spider12" x 8", coloured pencils
exhibition in SOFA Annual Exhibition 2008 at the Llewellyn Alexander Galleries
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Latterly his claim to fame is he featured on a number of different pages in my book Sketching 365

A very quick pencil sketch of Cosmo (page 125)

plus sketching media became digital in addition to pencil and pen and ink.

Cosmo Catnapping #11 (on 11.01.11)
drawn using Sketchbook Pro and a mouse!

He's going to be much missed.

and finally......

I want to find him a really nice casket for his ashes.

I'd be really grateful to hear of any artist who works with wood or metal who I could commission to incorporate a line drawing into a suitable secure casket in wood or metal.

Best in Bloom 2015

The medal winners at the 3rd Annual Botanical & Floral Art in Bloom Exhibition at Bloom in Dublin are listed below.

You can also see a great write-up of the exhibition - and more photos - on Shevaun Doherty's blog post Bloom 2015

The links in the artist's names are to their websites or blogs. Some artists have won more than one medal in which case the link is in the name next to the highest ranking medal and not in the others.

Many thanks to Shevaun Doherty for permission to use her photographs.

Botanical Illustration

Best in Show (Botanical Art)
Iris by Siobhan O'Larkin

Best in Show

• Siobhan M Larkin - Iris

Shevaun Doherty and the dates which won a Gold Medal

Gold Medals

• Siobhan M Larkin - Iris
• Shevaun Doherty - Phoenix dactylifera var. khasab Date palm
• Nayana Sandur - Musa acuminata Banana

Silver Gilt Medals

• Holly Somerville - Papaver rhoeas Field poppy
• Jane Stark - Heliamphora hetero-doxa Sun pitcher

Silver Medals

• Shevaun Doherty - Aesculus hippocasta-num triptych
• Nayana Sandur - Malus cultivar Red Apple
• Holly Somerville - Hippeastrum cultivar Amaryllis
• Holly Somerville - Tulipa gesneriana Didier’s tulip
• Patricia Jorgenson - Romneya coulteri Californian tree poppy
• Siobhan M Larkin - Larix decidua (cones)
• Lynn Stringer - Chrysanthemum ‘Salmon Shoesmith

Bronze Medals

• Yanny Petters - Malus Apple
• June Wright - esculus hippocasta- num Horse-chestnut

Floral Art

Yanny Petters artwork which won Best in Show in the Floral Art Section

Best in Show

• Yanny Petters - Meadow Plantain speedwell

Gold Medals

• Yanny Petters - Meadow Plantain speedwell
• Nayana Sandur - Allium aflatunese
• Lynn Stringer - Primula vulgaris

Silver Gilt Medals

• Anne McLeod - Delphiniums
• Lynn Stringer - Narcissus ‘Cheerful- ness’ Narcissi

Silver Medals

• Nicola Lynch Morrin - Iris

Bronze Medals

• Sue van Coppenhagen - Hellebores

I referred in A new botanical art blog and two botanical art shows to the basics of what you need to know to submit work for next year's exhibition. I'll add in the URL and/or the contact person when I find out who this is.

History of BISCOT Exhibition and Medal Winners 2015

For those interested in:

• details of the BISCOT (Botanical Images Scotia) medal winners 2015
• how BISCOT came about and how it is run
• how to exhibit at BISCOT in the future

I wrote to Hazel Morris, the BISCOT Artist Co-ordinator to find out more about the history of the exhibition, how it fits into the structure of the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society (RCHS) and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh PLUS how people can submit work for exhibition.

You can find her explanation below which I've edited for this blog.  Any mistakes are all mine!

I've also summarised the rules and regulations and other information about how to enter at the end

BISCOT (Botanical Images Scotia) medal winners 2015

I don't have any images of the exhibition. I'll add them in here if I get any.

This year’s medal winners are as follows:

Hye Woo Shin in April 2014

Gold and Best Picture in Show

• Hye Woo Shin (S.Korea)

I've met Hye Woo Shin on a couple of occasions at RHS exhibitions. She's a delightful lady who produces absolutely stunning botanical art and amazing presentations. I'm not in the least bit surprised to hear she's won Best in Show.

In the absence of any images from the show I've included the last photograph I took of her a year ago in the Lindley Hall in London when she also won a Gold Medal and Best Exhibit in Show

Silver-Gilt Medal

• Margaret Farr (USA) – Silver-gilt
• Sarah Howard Sherlock (UK) – Silver - from Scotland

Silver Medal

• Alex Scott-Plummer (UK) – Silver

Bronze Medal

• Jeffrey Banks (UK) – Bronze - an ex-student of the RBGE Diploma in Botanical Illustration
• Morag Lorimer (UK) - Bronze a member of Edinburgh Society of Botanical Artists  and an ex-student of the RBGE Diploma in Botanical Illustration 
• Anne Rabbitts (UK) – Bronze

It's disappointing to find quite so many good botanical artists without a website.

About BISCOT

What is BISCOT?