How to get | print | use Pascal Anson's lined papers for a still life collage

If you want to download those tonal lined papers used by Pascal Anson for the Big "Cut Out a Still Life" challenge this is the blog post to go to - DRAWING IS DIFFICULT! Perspective, Still Life, Lids and Bananas - they're at the bottom and available to download.

Lined sheets of paper by Pascal Anson - for constructing still life collages

You can then print on plain or coloured paper

RECOMMENDED: Plus he has a video showing you how to use them - definitely worth watching

Tonal paper. Photocopied lines in different density to help you identify light and dark tone. Not colour. Draw with scissors, not with a pencil. Use the direction of the lines to think about paint strokes. See my YouTube for a still life demo. #art #painting #bigpaintingchallenge

A post shared by Pascal Anson (@iampascalanson) on Apr 1, 2018 at 3:17am PDT

You're asking for the tonal paper in the #bigpaintingchallenge masterclass. Tutorial and paper download is here https://t.co/Jw49F0AQ9s pic.twitter.com/PmmhVYYdV2

— Pascal Anson (@iampascalanson) April 3, 2018

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Review: Still Life - Big Painting Challenge 2018

This post is about the First Episode of The Big Painting Challenge - Still Life which was nominally focused on Still Life.

It follows on from my first post about The Big Painting Challenge (2018) - The Issues which highlighted my niggles about this BBC programme - specifically whether this was a talent show or Edutainment - and why it should be better than it is.

This episode is available to watch on BBC iPlayer for the next 27 days.

To recap, what the episode was actually about was:

• introducing us to the new contestants for the third series of this very popular programme
• getting them started with nominally their "signature bake"
• a couple of exercises (the "technical challenge") with the mentors focused on how to portray volume and tone
• finally, the Big 4 hour Challenge - the outcome of which was assessed by the two Judges

The Still Life Episode
all 10 participants - and their two mentors - up for the big challenge

The Contestants / Participants

See my first post:

• they're contestants if this is a knock-out Talent Show
• they're participants if this is an Edutainment show

We got the introductions to throughout the course of the first episode. I'm going to have to make a note of who they are here because the BBC has "forgotten/neglected" to include the profiles of the contestants on the series website.

How you can have a programme about real people artists and forget to say who they are? 

• It's as bad as Sky Arts neglecting to put up the names of the artists as they are introduced on their programme - and excluding them from the list of who appeared on the programme. 
• If we're going to have members of the public appearing can we please at least let them appear in the credits. After all THERE IS NO PROGRAMME WITHOUT THEM!

The programme makes clear that they "have very different experience levels, they were selected for their potential to learn"

Links in their names below are to either their website or Facebook account or Page (where public).

I can even tell you the name of their upcoming Group Show! (see below)

If past participants are anything to go by, I'm sure they'll be posting their paintings and comments as the weeks go by! :) (Note: Anybody who'd like me to remove the link please say and I'll do so immediately - just leave a comment)

1. 90-year-old Raymond Halliday, a former auditor from Gateshead - who loves watercolour and didn't take up painting until he was 73. 
2. Callum Stephen (#interestingbutweird)- who is a 23-year-old Welsh bricklayer who loves photorealism and painting packets of sweeties. His story of how he came to be involved is interesting. Apparently the programme staff saw his Instagram and invited him for an audition and before he knew it he was one of the final 10! (Article in local paper). He now lives in the South of France. Read all about it on his Facebook - given he spent time filming for several weeks I take it he doesn't go soon despite the problems (not looking) in this first episode.
3. Bokani Tshidzu, (art website) a 30 year old Zimbabwe-born tech entrepreneur who lost both parents to Aids and was adopted by her aunt and brought to the UK. 
4. Oliver Freeston -  BA (Hons) in Professional Dance and Performance from the Central Ballet School. Has travelled the world performing in classical and contemporary ballet companies and latterly in musicals. He and his partner live in Texas with two rescue dogs. He began painting while on a tourist visa in the USA. He now does Canine Commissions.  See the article in his home town newspaper A Hertford ballet dancer will be competing in the Big Painting Challenge on TV this weekend
5. Chris Davies - the chap who has a vision impairment (ocular albinism) and uses indoor binoculars to see the still life. On his website he indicates that he loves doing very large paintings.
6. Elizabeth (Tilly) Farnham - the one who's afraid of Daphne and who got the Grrr! She's a self-taught artist living in the Cotswolds.
7. Jane Voss the Life Skills Coach who now owns and is the Creative Director of an Ice Cream parlour called Silly Moos making artisan ice cream in Lytham St Annes. She seems to have a real enjoyment of colour.
8. Susan Farrell - The lady with contemporary and colourful glasses and earrings (love them!) - who started painting as an occupation after having treatment for breast cancer. I've got a hunch she's going to be interesting.
9. Surjit Kali Rai - a Pharmacy Technician from Solihull in the West Midlands - the one who sat to sketch and stood to paint.
10. Anil Patel (Facebook) - a graphic designer who lives in Leicester and is a big supporter of the local footie team, and who won my "fastest painter of the episode" award. I think it's possible he's both got a lot more experience than the others and has maybe practiced painting to a time constraint. 

Their Chapter Ten "after the show" show of paintings - done without the pressure of cameras -will be at 112 St. Martin's LaneLondon, WC2N 4BD next month (May 2018)

The Still Life Challenge

Before we start, for those who want to learn about "Still Life" try my 2007 blog post on What is a still life? in which I examined what the still life is all about and the different types of still life in art history.

The thing is this programme wasn't actually about Still life. It was actually about learning how to see and record shapes, volumes and tonal values accurately.  In fact I do believe we actually heard some of the Elements and Principles of Design discussed very briefly during the course of the programme - without actually mentioning that this is what they are.
See:

• Composition - The Elements of Design
• Composition - Principles of Design

I predict we'll be hearing more about these in the coming weeks!

The contestants were asked to bring an item that was meaningful to them. The mentors then created a still life setup out of five completely unrelated items.

To say that the still lifes looked like the artistic equivalent of a really bad car crash is an understatement. They were so bad that Mariella Frostrup even started making jokes about them.

Speaking personally I have NEVER ever seen a worse set-up for a still life. I cannot believe that the BBC believes that this has educational content!  It was almost as if the mentors were willing their students to fail!

All the meaning that would normally add value to a still life painting of objects chosen by an artist was smashed to smithereens by the diabolical arrangement. Plus where were the shadow boxes or screens behind to make it easier to isolate the items

...and what was that blue material all about???  TOTAL CAR CRASH!

The Big Painting Challenge (2018) - The Issues

This is the first of my series of reviews of the BBC's new series of The Big Painting Challenge.  Each week I'll be reviewing the programme and highlighting what I perceived as:

• issues (with the BBC format) and 
• tips (what they said - and what I think!). 

People seem to have enjoyed these posts previously and I hope you do again!

CAUTION: I'm now going to get Four BIG BBC Format Issues out of my system in one fell swoop - before moving on to the actual programme (tomorrow) - which you can watch on demand on iPlayer - Big Painting Challenge - Still Life

It's a bit of a cathartic process for me!

Issue #1: How many series?

The participants in the BBC's Big Painting Challenge 2018 - a.k.a. Series 3 by me!

The first thing I learned when I sat down to write this blog post is that the BBC can't count.

So we have the programme websites for:

• The Big Painting Challenge (2015)- Series 1
• The Big Painting Challenge (2017) - Series 1
• The Big Painting Challenge (2018) - Series 2

Huh?  Somehow the BBC seems to have decided to have amnesia and behave as if the 2015 series never happened.

I have news for the BBC.

Series reinvent themselves and change programme makers ALL THE TIME but IF you stick to the same title AND keep the same judges (even if you change the presenters) then you count the series consecutively.

Which makes this series 3!  However to avoid the problem with me knowing this is Series 3 and the dimwits in BBC programme commissioning calling this Series 2, I shall reference the year in the titles of future episodes.

Issue #2: Talent show or Edutainment?

The format is officially listed by the BBC as a "Talent Show". Which prompts my next issue with the format....

We know from shows like Sky Television's Portrait Artist of the Year that there are some very talented amateur artists out there.

However it seems as if there is a very BIG divide between the talented amateurs that turn up at:

• the Wallace Collection for Sky and 
• some interesting heritage property somewhere in the UK for the BBC.

Personally I find those on the BBC programme wholly representative of very many amateur artists in very many painting groups around the UK.

As such, I can completely understand that these participants must be much easier to relate to for the thousands out there watching the programme who want to improve their painting skills.

However, if that's the case then should this really be classed as a talent show (which is how it is officially classified by the BBC)? (You can picture my quizzical raised eyebrow as I write this!)

For me it's much easier to make the case for it being actually educational (hence the mentors) - or "edutainment" as I think it's called.  They could as easily keep all ten painters in to the end and then award a prize to the "most improved amateur painter on TV"!

I guess the point I'm making is that this programme is Educational - dressed up as "a talent competition" - rather than a genuine Talent Competition.

In a proper Talent Competition, when we have 10 contestants that means we've got to that bit of a series where we're down to the final 10 after "Judges Houses" and "Boot Camp" and the various Heats around the UK to find the best from the hundreds and thousands who entered.

But it's NOT THE BEST TEN - because we know there is much better amateur talent out there.

So it's neither one thing nor the other.  It's not pure education and it certainly isn't a genuine talent show as such.

The Reductive Drawing Exercise in Episode 1
- a great example of how to learn how to improve your tonal control

Which I think is why I now FINALLY understand why the Sky Artist of the Year Fans have always previously commented on my reviews of this programme to the effect that they much prefer the Sky programme - which does at least have a a better sense of being a talent show - even if the Judges do come up with some very odd decisions!

Having said that the programme makes the point at the beginning that the contestants were selected for "their ability to learn" - which is why this programme is more correctly classified as Edutainment and NOT a Talent Show.

Also why, in my opinion, they should just eliminate the elimination of a candidate each week and move to a notion of just having a Heat Winner each week and then, at the end of the series, have a "most improved painter over the whole series" prize.

Issue 3: Demographics and Diversity Rule

I KNOW the BBC has to be socially responsible and represent every last social demographic and diversity dimension of the viewing public - because it's been told off in the past for forgetting to do so. 

What appears to be a NOT very diverse set of people at the BPC Heats

However I watched Episode 1 last night and found myself starting to tick off the "representative caricature individuals" which somehow seem to get into programme makers heads when they make series like these.

• the one with the disability
• the one with an Afro-Caribbean heritage
• the one with the Asian heritage
• the immigrant who has made a success of their life
• the middle class one from the home counties
• the one who is incredibly old but still going
• the one who has had a major health challenge
• the one who is getting on with life after the death of a loved one

Not forgetting the fact that EVERYBODY always seems to have an interesting back story.

Do people with mundane lives - who get a lot of joy out of painting - never ever get a chance to be on television programmes like these?

The local art group of one of the participants

The thing for me is that:

• it appears somewhat remote from the actual composition of most amateur painting groups around the country - most of whom are pensioners. Maybe the BBC could check the audience profile for this programme?
• the profiles always seem to miss out the percentage needed to address the 'working class' element - for want of a better way of putting it.  This is a VERY middle class programme!
• people who take up painting for a health reason always seem to have a disease or physical  health problem that people readily understand (eg the sight problems of one man and the breast cancer challenge which had been faced by one of the lady participants) - rather than recognising, for example, that art and painting is an activity very much promoted by those who work with people who have mental health problems.  I'm sure the Duchess of Cambridge could enlighten the BBC about her interests in both art and the need to make sure that those with mental health issues are treated equally and receive good support. One way to do this is to recognise their personal challenge when trying to reflect diversity in a positive way.

In other words the BBC's programme makers might be trying to do better in addressing ethnicity and physical disability - but they are still missing the point in relation to the actual reality of diversity within the population of people interested in painting.

Issue #4: The 4 Hour Rule

Why do so many contestants struggle with the 4 hour challenge?

Is it Art? A counterintuitive video

In terms of commentary on contemporary art - and what museums like to show, see how long you can last while watching this video before you laugh out loud! (I didn't last very long at all....)

I posted this on my Facebook Page and after it had reached 6k+ people, 60+ likes and had 68 shares it struck me I really need to share this on the blog too

Is it art?

So this is....

Will Ferrell and Joel McHale join curator Aram Moshayedi for a tour of “Stories of Almost Everyone.” On view at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, January 26–May 6, 2018.

PLUS (below the video - and not available on Facebook!) 

a collection of links to the story behind the exhibition and this video

The Exhibition

First the trad artspeak version.

• The Hammer Museum - Stories of Almost Everyone (JAN 28-MAY 6, 2018) - Stories of Almost Everyone is an exhibition about the willingness to believe the stories that are conveyed by works of contemporary art.
• Listen to an audio guide written and narrated by Kanishk Tharoor for the exhibition.
• Art Viewer| Stories of Almost Everyone at Hammer Museum
• Blouin ArtInfo | "Stories of Almost Everyone" upcoming at Hammer Museum - is really rather earnest
• Frieze.com | ‘Stories of Almost Everyone’: Aram Moshayedi's Museological Mediations

A comment in the Frieze article

The presentation itself is refreshingly un-showy, sardonically allusive of the pragmatic efficiencies of art storage rather than gallery display 

The Video

Next some alternative perspectives

• The Art Newspaper | Will Ferrell and Joel McHale try to make sense of the art at LA’s Hammer Museum - Wonderfully tongue in cheek video, the museum's curator Aram Moshayedi takes the actors on a mock VIP tour of the show Stories of Almost Everyone
• ArtNetNews | ‘Is It Weird? I Want to Eat It’: Will Ferrell Gets a Hilarious Lesson in Cutting-Edge Art at the Hammer Museum - The actor is joined by Joel McHale for a mock tour of the museum.
• AdWeek | Baffled by Conceptual Art? So Are Will Ferrell and Joel McHale in This Museum’s Short Film - Eric Hirshberg directs the Hammer's self-deprecating comedy
• boingboing | Will Ferrell and Joel McHale visit the Hammer Museum

So what did you think?

Review 301st Exhibition of the Royal Society of British Artists

The 301st Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of British Artists is significantly different to previous years. The RBA have noticeably "raised their game" and are all the better for it.

I started off thinking this was a transformation of an exhibition - but in doing some homework prior to writing this post, I now realise its a complete transformation of the society as a whole.

What's different in 2018?

a view of the main galleries

The Royal Society of British Artists has:

1. a new President - Nick Tidman
2. new Officers - these have all changed apart from the Vice President Mick Davies
3. new Council members - again a complete change. They also include Lewis Hazelwood-Horner who was invited to be a member after winning the Threadneedle Prize in 2016.
4. a new Patron in Shao Wei - which looks as if it will lead to exchanges between the UK and China
5. a very specific set of members for the Selection and Hanging Committee - rather than the "President and Council" - including three who are not members of the Council. 
6. a new website - or rather one that's a very noticeable improvement on its previous incarnation. It looks "contemporary"- which is not a word that would immediately spring to mind in association with the RBA in the past.  "Transformed" would be another appropriate word - it's now possible to get a very good look at the artwork in the exhibition.
7. a record number of 174 works from the open submission - which is great news after my comments last year.
8. a much more impressive exhibition - it's got good and varied content with a diversity of styles - both traditional and contemporary - and it's well hung.  It's difficult sometimes to detect what's different - but in the last 10+ years of reviewing exhibitions at the Mall Galleries I know when a society has decided to change its image!
9. a very good record of the RBA Awards 2018 - and associated images - on the website during the course of the exhibition. This is something a number of societies struggle with - and I can never understand why. This is the major marketing opportunity of the year and those receiving awards should ALWAYS be celebrated. So well done to the RBA for doing the decent thing by their prizewinners - and including images of their work!
10. steady and consistent marketing of the exhibition - on Facebook. It started well before the exhibition opened and hasn't stopped. Individual images from the exhibition have been posted each day. I wouldn't be in the least surprised if they've had some really good visitor numbers. I know it was surprisingly busy when I was there on Monday of the second week.

In summary, the RBA has had a makeover and looks all the better for it!

Every now and again, an art society needs a shake-up.   It's simply not possible for the same people to be involved year after year without the society beginning to have a bit of a "same old, same old" look about it. 

It's also really hard work keeping an exhibition looking fresh - because styles and contexts change - and the exhibition looks 'old' if not reinvigorated on a regular basis. However it's a lot easier if there is a change in the people selecting the work each year - and if there is a significant injection of new perspectives from the open submission.

I think the RBA has done a really good job of thinking through what needed changing and putting resources, time and effort into getting the exhibition looking better.

About the exhibition

• Venue: Mall Galleries - The Mall, St. James's, London SW1, UK (link is to Google Maps)

• Dates: 21 March 2018 to 31 March 2018 (closing 2pm on the last day)

• Open: Daily, 10am to 5pm during exhibitions (unless otherwise stated), including Bank Holidays.

• Admission £4, £2.50 concessions, 50% off for National Art Pass holders, Free for Friends of Mall Galleries, RBA Friends and under 18s

This is the painting which people see as they stand at the top of the stairs
It makes a great start to the exhibition!
Autumn in Provence by Nicholas Verrall 
£11,250 but it's SOLD!

Exhibition metrics - and the Open Entry

I'm going to come back and add this in - or maybe even do a separate blog post - because I need to do some counting - and there's not been a lot of time for that this week.

 

The Award Winners

The Award Winners are as follows:

• The de Lazlo Foundation Prize – Caroline Pool – ‘Here I am : Howard’ - this was a painting of her Dad
• The Artist Magazine Award – Sarah Butterfield – ‘Cakes for Tea’ - a VERY colourful artist! Read all about her in a future edition
• Nathan David Award for Sculpture AND The Marianne von Werther Memorial Award – Teresa Hunyadi – ‘My Pleasure’ - I loved this piece - and it had strong competition! Just amazing - I'm not in the least bit surprised it also won the Rome Scholarship. I also smiled when I saw her bio says she got her chainsaw licence last year!

Add caption

• The Davidson Award for Oil Painting – Stuart Howitt – ‘Pandering to the Camera’ - or "Pink Panda" as I found myself calling it.
• The Dry Red Press Award – Barbara Jackson – ‘Make Way’ - lovely cat print
• Frinton Frames Award – Benjamin Hope – ‘St Paul’s from Cannon Street, Afternoon’
• Hahnemühle Fine Art UK Award – Jeremy Galton RBA – ‘Michaelmas Daisies II’
• The Michael Harding Award 1 – Renee Spierdijk – ‘Striped Dress’
• The Michael Harding Award 2 – Lee Madgwick RBA – ‘Merry-Go-Canter’
• The Gordon Hulson Prize – Max Mansbridge-West – ‘Self Portrait’ - he ditched his chef's knives in favour of the paintbrush two years ago and trained at LARA
• The John Ingram Memorial Prize – Isabella Crouch – ‘The Three Lydias’
• The LARA Prize for a Young Artist – Jessica Debba – ‘Self Portrait at Twenty-Four ( Not exhibited)
• The Anthony J Lester Art Critic Award – Robert Truscott – ‘Operation Gericht’ - won the Visitor's Choice Awards at the Threadneedle in 2012
• The Patron’s Prize – Cheryl Culver RBA PPPS – ‘Jumble of Rocks’
• The Stuart Southall Print Prize – Kirsten van Schreven – ‘Airframe IV’
• The Geoffrey Vivis Memorial Award – Jasmyn Frazer – ‘Golden Age’
• The Winsor & Newton Painting award – Timothy Gatenby – ‘Dark Lanes’
• The Surgeons Prize – Ruth Murray – ‘Fish Market, 100 Smirrells Road’ - strong unique style - and likes pink!

The Exhibition

Overall it gave the impression of being a little crowded. I don't have a problem with that so long as the exhibition is hung well - which this was.

Main Galleries

a view of one side of the Main Gallery

I'm beginning to think that the successors to Ken Howard in terms of scope and style - are now outpainting Ken Howard....

a view of the other side

My favourite corner of the exhibition this year is below

I loved this corner - lots to interest the eye and very detailed artworks and yet it's not too "busy"

There's some very strong monochrome work in the exhibition

Monochrome work in various media

Threadneedle Space

I really liked the rather odd paintings by John Whitehill - I like painting which engage my brain and challenge me to think and work out what's going on....

(left) St. Paul's from Cannon Street (afternoon) oil £12,000 by Benjamin Hope
(Right) Souvenir and Souvenir II oil £1,200 each by John Whitehill

I also particularly liked the sculpture on display in this room. In fact the sculpture across the whole exhibition was impressive.

The Sculpture Shelf in the Threadneedle Space

North Galleries

The North Galleries were again dominated by artworks from the Open Submission. A such they looked distinctly more contemporary than the rest of the exhibition. That's not to say there wasn't traditional elements within it.

a much more contemporary RBA

For me it included artwork which I wouldn't have expected to see in an RBA exhibition 2-3 years ago.

I liked the work on the "One and a Half Candidates' Walls" in the North Galleries.  I'm hoping to see the following as members next year:

• Annie Boisseau - has just got something which catches the attention although I've got a niggle that this might be sometimes but not always basis. (Plus she really needs to sort out her website!)
• Alex Callaway RBSA - has impressed me with his work in a number of recent shows. On the face of it traditional still life - but there's just something that gives it a contemporary edge. Plus he's getting selected for a good number of juried shows.
• Susie Perring - an excellent example of an artist who produces good work as a printmaker, knows her audience and knows how to price to sell
• Melissa Scott-Miller - Very steady painter of endless scenes of different bits of Islington. She has a major following. I think she's a really good fit - and will bring a bit of urban London - and colour - to the RBA scene.
• Will Taylor - I'm a sucker for traditionally drawn etchings of topographical scenes drawn in a traditional but not boring way - and he does not disappoint. Or maybe I just like Rye?

Candidates Wall #1
Melissa Scott Miller, Alex Callaway, Susie Perring and Michael Harrison

Candidates Wall #2
Annie Boisseau, Will Taylor and Christopher Knox

Issues which still need to be addressed

Some of the pricing is very silly.  It doesn't help sales at the exhibition and it certainly does not help an artist's career.

I'm beginning to think there ought to be a guideline offered with the information for artists submitting via the open entry.  On the other hand some of that advice could do with being proffered to the members as well!

Some artists would do well to study who sells the most art consistently year after year after year. Annie Williams is a good example of an artist who consistently sells 75-80% of her work at most exhibitions and who has never ever been silly about prices. She knows her audience.

Annie Williams RWS RBA - count the red spots
- top seller numerically in the exhibition on Monday

Those who can price high are those who know they can price high and still sell.

For example, I have no doubt that Lewis Hazlewood-Horner will get a buyer for his very impressive LARGE painting in the Threadneedle Space. That's because he's had an exhibition in the Threadneedle Space and filled it will large paintings which sold.  He's also one of a very few painters I know who knows how to paint a group of people and create a painting with a narrative.  It's a rare skill these days....

Last Orders by Lewis Hazelwood-Horner RBA
Oil £25,000

Threadneedle Space - just to give some perspective on the above painting

My challenge to the RBA for 2019 is to at least equal the number of sales from the open submission in numerical terms!  If they get their pricing right, this should not be difficult....