"The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains" at the V&A Museum in 2017

I predict one of the most popular exhibitions of 2017 will be The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains at the V&A Museum - particularly as it marks a collaboration by the remaining members of the band (see the official Pink Floyd website)

The exhibition will celebrate Pink Floyd’s place in history as the cultural landscape changed throughout the 1960s and beyond. 

Today the Victoria and Albert Museum announced that tickets went on sale at 10am today for this major retrospective despite the fact that the exhibition does not open until May next year! Dates for the exhibition are 13th May - 1 October 2017 (13 weeks).
I think they're anticipating a lot of visitors - and an awful lot of bookings!

The cover of Ummagumma
©Pink Floyd Music Ltd

To mark 50 years since the band released their first single Arnold Layne, and over 200 million record sales later, The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains will be an immersive, multi-sensory and theatrical journey through Pink Floyd’s extraordinary world. A story of sound, design and performance, the exhibition will chronicle the music, iconic visuals and staging of the band, from the underground psychedelic scene in 1960s London to the present day, illustrating their groundbreaking use of special effects, sonic experimentation, powerful imagery and social commentary.

Pink Floyd will forever be the musical back story (along with Tubular Bells!)) to my time as a student at Cambridge!  Not least because my boyfriend at the time was a huge fan and the band released some of their most iconic albums (The Dark Side of the Moon in 1973), Wish You Were Here in 1975) during my time there.

The fact that my final year digs were also in a don's house in Rock Road opposite the home of Roger Waters's mother provided an added connection! (For those with a penchant for visiting places associated with artists - or bands - the Cambridge Evening News does a very nice list of various places in Cambridge associated with different members of the band!)

Original members of Pink Floyd
from left to right: Roger Waters, Sid Barrett, Rick Wright and Nick Mason

The reason for highlighting the exhibition on this blog is that the exhibition will focus on iconic images, design and photography associated with band as well as the band’s era-defining work in composition, staging, film and music technology,

Pink Floyd have produced some of the most iconic imagery in popular culture: from pigs flying over Battersea Power Station, The Dark Side of the Moon prism, cows, marching hammers to giant inflatable teachers; their vision brought to life by creative individuals such as modern surrealist and long-time collaborator Storm Thorgerson, satirical illustrator Gerald Scarfe and psychedelic lighting pioneer Peter Wynne Wilson.

It will feature more than 350 objects and artefacts and will include

Kathryn Maple wins Sunday Times Watercolour Competition for second time

The artists winning the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place awards in the 29th Sunday Times Watercolour Competition have been announced - and Kathryn Maple who won in 2014 has won again.

the competition aims to celebrate and reward excellence and originality in the medium of watercolour. 

You can:

• see the images which won below
• read about the artists and the paintings they created in this post
• read more about the competition - the call for entries and selected artists - in my earlier blog posts which are referenced at the end of this post. My annual blog posts go back to 2008.
• visit the exhibition in London, Cheltenham and Guildford in the next four months - information about venues at the end of the post.

At the end of this post I discuss whether this watercolour competition can still lay claim to the notion that it is the largest and most prestigious showcase of contemporary watercolour painting in the UK.

It certainly has the most valuable prizes for watercolour (apart from the Turner Medal) - but does it have the most paintings? I've done a count and have the answer....

First Place: £10,000 - Kathryn Maple

Winner of the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2016
Sandy Shoes by Kathryn Maple
110cmx92cm, watercolour

This is a painting of a space in the Southwest Indian Vypin Islands.  Maple says that she has

“… always been interested in interior/exterior places - and parts of India really feel like a green house waiting to explode. Sandy Shoes looks at the filtered shapes and vibrant colours I experienced in the Vypin Islands.” 

Vibrant is not a word which one always associates with watercolours and for that reason it has even more impact. However over and above vibrant, it continues to demonstrate Kathryn Maples predilection and talent for identifying and painting patterns in her surroundings.

She's excellent at recording a place so that you have a real sense of what it's like while at the same time translating it onto paper with her own particular sense of what is aesthetically pleasing - and that very definitely includes the scope for various methods of mark-making.

I said in 2014 that her work reminded me of Doig and I've not changed my mind - which suggests great things for her future career.

With a practice firmly rooted in drawing, Maple is obsessed with the possibilities of mark making and image-making. Her works combine areas of fine detail with those of minimalism, creating tapestries of paint and line that appear compact yet broadly simplistic. She holds a particular focus on areas in her surroundings that are in some way forgotten or neglected. Often, these scenes depict buildings surrounded and permeated by nature – trees thrusting upwards behind wrought iron fences, dense foliage almost merging into brickwork. Profile on Beers London Gallery (Works on Paper exhibition)

Education: BA in Fine Art Print Making at The University of Brighton followed by Postgraduate 'Drawing Year' Programme at the Royal Drawing School
Residencies: India 2014/2015, Dumfries House (January 2014) and The Muse Gallery (January- June 2012)
Competitions:  Won Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2014; selected for the Jerwood Drawing Prize and Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize
Website: http://kathrynmaple.com/ - do take a look at the watercolours and her paintings sketches and paintings of India
Gallery - none listed on her website - although she is exhibiting internationally in group shows.  Somebody out there ought to be making her an offer she can't refuse!

You'll also be able to see a painting of hers in "In England we Dream of Gardens" - an Art For Youth Event at the Mall Galleries 12th-15th September 2016

Read more about her painting which won two years ago in my post Kathryn Maple wins Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2014. Last time I met her she was just about to depart on her trip to India...

Kathryn Maple with her winning entry in the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition in 2014

You can see a video of her talking about her time drawing at the Drawing School

Second Place: £6,000 - Chloe Le Tissier

Art Collectors and Instagram

Art collectors love Instagram.

• In terms of posting - it's a place where they can show off their own art collections - but don't need to write anything much beyond a few relevant hashtags
• In terms of browsing - it offers an excellent opportunity to find art they like and art they want to buy.  

Art Collectors on Instagram

Do you know how art collectors use Instagram?

You might find it surprising that according to an Artsy Survey

Over 50% of collectors have purchased works from artists they discovered on Instagram

This relates to a survey done by Artsy about how art collectors use Instagram. It targeted known art collectors - some with collections of 100+ pieces - who were known users of Instagram.

Results were reported in two articles.

How Collectors Use Instagram to Buy Art RECOMMENDED READ

Key findings from the collectors using Instagram who were surveyed are:

• 73% like Instagram as they believe it makes the art market more transparent. Certain galleries have always limited images and the data that collectors have access to and encouraged mystique - and this is blown apart by Instagram!
• 87% check Instagram more than twice a day 
• 55% open the app 5 or more times a day
• more than half (55%) post on Instagram multiple times a week (I'm left wondering whether these are the same people who actively check and buy using Instagram)
• 30% post about works they're thinking of buying
• 64% said the majority of accounts they follow are art-related
• 61% consistently look at an artist’s hashtag
• 51.5% have purchased work from artists they originally discovered through Instagram
• 31% have bought art they originally saw on Instagram. That's a staggeringly high hit rate!

Charts of Artsy Survey Results

7 Ways to Win Over Collectors on Instagram

This article looks at how artists can seek to engage with collectors.

Key points to note are:

• collectors are more likely to follow the individual account of a gallery owner than the generic account of the gallery
• collectors like to search for an artist by hashtag (the survey speculates that some 94% do this at some point). The hashtag has the advantage of bringing together items from different sources - managed and unmanaged!
• collectors need to know the addresses and hashtags that tell them how to find/reach artist and/or gallery
• collectors like a response to their comments
• collectors like browsing in the evening - between 6pm and 11pm
• collectors unfollow those who post too much - or too much of the same thing (it's just plain boring!)
• collectors love the stuff which goes on behind the scenes - so not just the unfinished product but the story of how it came about.

Note: The articles were written by Elena Soboleva (@elenasoboleva) is a contemporary art Specialist at @Artsy.

Who are the art collectors?

You might like to take a look at two posts that Larry's List published towards the end of last year about their perspective  on the Top 50 Art Collectors on Instagram. I'm guessing it's probably due for an update....

• Top 50 Art Collector Instagrams Part I
• Top 50 Art Collector Instagrams Part I

Note: The choice is as per Claire Bouchara - who used to be content manager for the site.

More about artists and Instagram coming up in the near future.....

(Meanwhile I continue with my staycation with himself / getting ready for an art exhibition!)

Tips on Scanners, Printers and Copiers for Artists

An artist asked me to give her some tips on Scanners, Printers and Copiers for Artists.

What follows are some general principles, considerations and criteria to consider prior to making a purchase - as opposed to recommendations on specific technology.

At the end I ask you for your recommendations as to specific machines you use and are happy with.  You'll see what I use in this blog.

What do you need it for?

Sit down and write out a list of what you want your machine to do.

• What are your priorities in terms of functions? Are all functions - scanning, printing copying of equal importance - or is one more important than another. For example I do very little copying but at times in the past I've used the scanner as much as I've printed
• Is space an issue? Does it need to be an "all in one" scanner/printer/copier? Or do you have the space for separate devices?  There's no question that one device is easier to house - but this tends to come at the cost of performance which fall short of the best that is available in terms of the different functions
• standalone scanners tend to deliver better performance than scanners bundled into printers
• photo printers provide much better colour printing compared to 'normal' printers
• all devices have become better designed and tend to occupy a smaller footprint over time.
• What quality are you aiming for?  Is the printer for personal or professional use? (i.e. do you aim to sell anything using images printed from your machine?)
• What quality does the black and white printing  need to deliver? A machine which is excellent at printing text is not the same as a printer which delivers good quality black and white photos. They are totally different outputs and need totally different printers with completely different printer inks
• Does colour printing need to give you good quality photos?  Colour printing quality varies enormously - from photos to party invites. Some printers are designed to print photos - while others just print in colour - but not to the same standard as a photo printer. If you want photo quality colour printing you have to be buy a photo printer.
• Is the cost of ink tolerable? The cost of ink is never reasonable - but you can decide whether or not ink costs are excessive.  Look at how much ink costs relative to the number of sheets it will print. I discovered when deciding what my next printer would be that very cheap printers are often associated with more expensive inks - so beware!
• Consider the paper that a printer needs to use. Printers are very fussy about the different types of surfaces and weights (gsm) of paper stock that they will use. Many a person has totally screwed their printer by attempting to use the wrong type of paper stock which just gets stuck in the printer and refuses to come out!  So first define what sort of paper stock you want to print on. If you want to print on high quality fine art paper designed for inkjets then you need to check what weight they will take.
• Are standalone scanners better than those bundled with printers. They generally are if they are a decent scanner - and very often have additional functionality (eg scan film). However you need to ask yourself whether you can justify the extra cost for the difference in functionality.  For example being able to upgrade from A4 to A3 size is a big thing for a lot of artists - however A3 printers in the past have either been expensive or not performed well. The first A3 printer which gets ace reviews from everyone will sell well!

After considering all the above, this is the machine I currently use which I got last year.

Why artists need to be business-like with expenses and tax

My latest published article - with more than 40 tips about tax for artists - in the September edition of the very popular "The Artist" Magazine somehow managed to lose its proper title during the process of transferring it from my submission to the printed version.

Article about tax in the Artist September 2016

This is what it should look like - complete with its proper title!  It starts...

You can’t ignore tax if you make an income from your art. You also can’t claim business expenses if you are just a hobby artist.

The article covers what you need to do when you start out as an artist - and how to avoid fines from HMRC! Many of the succinct tips provided relate to every artist. Some only relate to artists in the UK.

They cover:

• when/how to complete a tax form if you sell your artwork
• how you can help yourself without needing professional help
• simple ways of organising paperwork that reduce stress
• simple and efficient ways of creating tax records and completing a tax return
• what an artist can and can't claim against tax - including...
• who can and who can't claim expenses against tax
• a checklist of typical artists' business expenses
• ways in which HMRC make it simple by allowing flat-rate expenses
• how to go about claiming a tax loss
• if you are successful - why you need to "up a gear" and think about a range of issues which are not relevant to smaller operations.

There's absolutely no way it's possible to cover every aspect of tax related to artists on one side of A4. However 

• the article does point you in the direction of various places online, forms and guidance notes you may need to know about! 
• don't forget to seek professional advice in writing if you need to deal with any complex issues.

You can find the article in the latest edition of The Artist (September 2016) which is available in all good newsagents and also online (The digital version now has the right title! :)

You'll find I also update regularly on tax matters in the news blog of my Art Business Info for Artists website.