120th Pastel Society Annual Exhibition - Prizewinners

The Pastel Society is holding its 120th Annual Exhibition at the Mall Galleries.  
The first thing I want to say is "Congratulations!" for two reasons:

• First obviously for making it to its 120th annual exhibition. There's an awful lot of art societies that don't make it that far - or even anywhere near!
• Next because they have all the details about the exhibition, the prizewinners, the events etc on the website right now - and that information has been available since the day after the private view. So big pat on the back for the webmaster!

The Private View was held on Monday (which I unfortunately couldn't attend as I was unwell) and opened by Alistair Burtenshaw Director of Watts Gallery - Artists' Village. (GF Watts was one of the founding members of the Pastel Society in 1898).

However I got to see it on Tuesday - and hope to be back again before it closes.

This year the exhibition is being sponsored by Derwent - and I do like the way the Pastel Society shares around the opportunity to be sponsor!

Tonight is the The Pastel Society Art Event Evening 2019 - but there are still plenty of events to come - and these are listed at the end

Exhibition

One of the best exhibits on this wall I've seen in a while

You can see the exhibition at the Mall Galleries from today until 3pm on Saturday 3rd March 2018.

You can get Free Entry to the exhibition for Two if you mention Making A Mark at the Gallery Desk (normal price £8)

It includes 281 artworks in total, of which 180 are by members (64%) and 101 are by nonmembers (36%) - in pastels, charcoal, conte chalk, pastel pencils, coloured pencils, Pierre Noire pencil, Graphite, oil pastel and mixed media (which should be predominantly dry)

There are LOTS of ways to view the artwork if it's too far or too expensive to get to London to see the exhibition. You can also:

• view on the Pastel Society website the images of the artwork produced by 
• virtually all the Members (not everybody is digital) 
• all the Non-Members (ie digital entry!)
• View the artwork on the Mall Galleries website - below the catalogue
• view the e-catalogue for the exhibition on Issuu. - This shows you images of some of the artwork and also details titles and prices/

The only problem with digital versions of the exhibition is you don't get the sense of scale that you get when you see the work in the gallery.

I'm going to leave a review of the "open" aspect of the exhibition until after I go back (I thinking about drawing plants in the gallery on Saturday morning and then having another meander around in the afternoon)

However I will say it's very well hung - you can see that the small team that hung it got the colour balance right. It's also got more contemporary work which is good to see and a fair few red spots!

Plus the end wall is sensational! I recognised the work by Patricia Cain and Jeanette Barnes (left of centre) straight away - but was greatly intrigued by the vivid green artwork - which came from the open entry!  Apparently Carla Groppi won the The Hugh Casson Drawing Prize at the RA Summer Exhibition in 2015.  David Brammeld is doing a session on drawing trees on Saturday afternoon for those who want to learn how to draw trees in winter.

The end wall with work by
(left to right) two works by Patricia Cain, who won the 3rd Threadneedle Prize in 2010
a very large charcoal drawing of the Crossrail Station, Canary Wharf by Jeanette Barnes (an ex tutor of mine),
an extremely vivid work by Carla Groppi and a suite of four works of trees by David Brammeld

Bookshop and view of main gallery gallery

The shop as always has a fair few books relevant to the exhibition. I rather liked this view

Prizewinners

You can see large images of all these paintings in the Mall Galleries facebook Album for 2019 Prizewinners. Each image links to the "buy" page for that artwork.

You can also see images of all the award winners at the Private View on the website

I found most of the artworks - so you can see them in their frames with the award label next to them.

The snowy painting challenge - the results

Last Saturday, I asked to see the paintings people had been doing during the recent cold spell and snow.

I'm thinking of doing a blog post about RECENT snow paintings.
If you've been braving the temperature and painting snow scenes - or even staying inside and painting the snow outside

• EITHER - leave a comment with the url of where I can find the pic
• OR - send me a pic of your snow painting - preferably with a pic of you painting it!

The ones I'm posting below are those done recently and from observation. I'm afraid I eliminated most of those that appeared to not have been done in the last few weeks.

If you enjoyed the challenge - either in terms of sending/nominating paintings - or just reading the results please let me know on my Facebook page (sorry - comments are still suspended on this blog due to the idiots who post spam)

This is the painting - and entry - which impressed me the post. It's a lovely painting of 'snow on allotments' by Valérie Pirlot (website: https://www.valeriepirlot.com/englandmainlyinbath Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/valeriepirlotart

A better picture of the painting I did at the week-end in the snow. I've painted that view dozen of times, but it looks so different covered in white. So much fun to paint! Now available on my website:https://www.valeriepirlot.com/englandmainlyinbath

Even better - we got the artists's eye view too. So you can see what she was painting.



Best of the lot is we get what it takes to go out painting plein air in wintry weather. Love the comment to go with it!  Truly a British Plein Air Painter of snowy weather!



This is one of the later ones to come in. I like to think I maybe inspired Martin Truefitt-Baker to have a go!

You can see from his post Snowy day tree that this is a favourite tree that he has painted a number of times. Like Valerie it's a view he's painted many times. Maybe this is a tip for snowy paintings - much better to paint a view you know under snow then spend time working out which is the best angle and how to paint structures. You don't want to hang about too long working out

More importantly this is his second oil painting after a break of 30 years. He's been using acrylics for a long time but has only just recently started painting in oils again.!

This is a painting I've just finished in the last couple of days. This is only the second oil painting, I've now completed, after returning to the medium after 30-ish years. 

Snowy day tree

Haidee-Jo Summers sent me some of her paintings done at the weekend. She's a very experienced plein air painter in the snow - and I love her snow paintings.

Hi Katherine, we haven’t had much snow here in Lincolnshire but on Saturday I managed to get out in it and paint these... no photos of me painting them though...

Bothy by Haidee-Jo Summers

The woodman’s bothy at Belton village, this site used to be the woodyard for the whole Brownlow estate.

One of the things I very much like about HaideeJo's paintings is that she always gets the light and tone just right.  You can feel the cold!

Logs by Haidee Jo Summers - providing you don't need a lot to make a snowy picture

These are a few of my favourite things... wood pile in the snow from last weekend 8” x 10”

Where you can see the Leonardo da Vinci drawings

144 of Leonardo da Vinci's greatest drawings in the Royal Collection are currently on display in 12 simultaneous exhibitions of Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing across the UK.

If you want to get to see the various exhibitions around the UK - or even all of them(!) - this is where you can see them.

• They are listed below in alphabetical order of the locations
• PLUS one of the images that can be seen at that location.

From 1 February - 6 May 2019, to mark the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci, 144 of the Renaissance master's greatest drawings in the Royal Collection will go on display in 12 simultaneous exhibitions across the UK.

This is a nationwide event. It rebuffs the notion that all the good art is only shown in London. In fact, it will give da Vinci's drawings the widest-ever audience to celebrate the 500th anniversary of he death of da Vinci in 1519.

12 drawings selected to reflect the full range of Leonardo's interests – painting, sculpture, architecture, music, anatomy, engineering, cartography, geology and botany – will be shown at each venue in Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Derby, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Southampton and Sunderland.

Longer exhibitions will then be held at first the Queen's Gallery in London - followed by the Queen's Gallery in Edinburgh.

The exhibitions include examples of all the drawing materials employed by the artist, including

• pen and ink, 
• red and black chalks, 
• watercolour and 
• metalpoint. 

They also present new information about Leonardo's working practices and creative process, gathered through scientific research using a range of non-invasive techniques, including ultraviolet imaging, infrared reflectography and X-ray fluorescence.

I've also included

• links to BBS news items - with the relevant gallery - which show more images and videos of the drawings on display.
• links to any useful items relevant to particular exhibitions

The drawings in the Royal Collection have been together as a group since the artist's death, and provide an unparalleled insight into Leonardo's investigations and the workings of his mind.Leonardo da Vinci drawings to go on display in Birmingham in 2019 | Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery Blog

For more information

• visit www.royalcollection.org.uk/Leonardo 500
• view this video
• view the listings below for each of the twelve exhibitions

The Nationwide Exhibitions

Exhibitions will be held in the following twelve locations between 1 February – 6 May 2019

Belfast - Ulster Museum

• Venue: Ulster Museum, Belfast
• Admission: FREE (on the basis I can't see any charging info)
• BBC - Leonardo Da Vinci drawings on display at Ulster Museum

Ulster Museum, Belfast

Leonardo da Vinci, The skull sectioned, 

1489, traces of black chalk, pen and ink

Birmingham - Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

• Venue: Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
• Admission: FREE
• BBC: Leonardo da Vinci works on display at Birmingham Museum

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

Leonardo da Vinci, A Map of the Valdichiana, 

c.1503-4, watercolour, pen and ink, ink wash over black chalk

You can download the large print copy of the labels before you go - and you'll get to see the explanations for each of the drawings

Leonardo was an accomplished map maker. This map illustrates the Chiana valley in central Italy, with north to the left of the sheet. The river Tiber can be seen running along the top edge, the river Arno on the left and the city of Siena in the lower centre.

The marshy lake in the valley allowed the spread of malaria. It seems probable that Leonardo was employed by the Florentine government to create this map as part of a civil engineering project to drain the marsh. (Label for exhibit)

Bristol - Bristol Museum and Art Gallery

• Venue: Bristol Museum and Art Gallery
• Admission: 
• £6 adult* | £5 concession* 
• Under 16s FREE
• Tue-Sun: 10am-5pm Closed Mondays except Bank Holiday Mondays and Mondays during Bristol school holidays: 10am-5pm

Bristol are charging people for entry - while most other cities are showing their exhibitions for free. Bristolians may want to comment on this!

Bristol Museum & Art Gallery 

Leonardo da Vinci, Cats, lions and a dragon, 

c.1517-18, black chalk, pen and ink, wash

Anybody else got visions of da Vinci the cat lover - drawing next to a cat who likes to walk all over his drawings?

Review: Connect Art Fair at the Mall Galleries

I visited Connect – The Independent Art Fair on Wednesday (see Two new art fairs in London plus goodbye to a popular old one) - and was rather glad I wasn't there for the Private View on the Tuesday night. By all accounts it was packed out!

Connect in the Threadneedle Space

It's very odd to see the Mall Galleries reconfigured for the Fair. The organiser brought in their own people to make the stand areas and there were lots of odd nooks and crannies which made it quite intriguing and very unlike the Mall Galleries.  It also somehow or other made the place seem even larger! I couldn't quite work that one out - but rather than feeling cramped it felt like there were more and more stands just around the corner!

In fact there are 34 stands in total varying in size and stock. Most were art dealers who don't posses a B&M gallery although there were some smaller art galleries as well.

It made me wonder what an art society exhibition or artists' co-operative art fair might look like if every artist had their own stand!

Blondes Fine Art

The other thing which was normal for the dealers on their stands but again was somewhat unusual for viewing art at the Galleries were all the items of furniture and objects of interest brought in to make the stand look less like a stand and more like a gallery or even a home

At least I think that's what the fireplace surround was about!

Panter and Hall - plus fireplace

The consensus amongst the dealers was they much preferred it to the previous venue for the Works on Paper Fair because the artwork was not having to compete with the colours of the walls or floor. They also were very much in favour of its more central London venue - which makes it so much easier to visit a fair.

Manning Fine Art led by the Fair Director

Artwork is lit by stand spots rather than from overhead which makes the artwork very easy to see - although some of the glazed work was not so easy to see as the spots hit the glazing.  The spots would have benefited from a baffle.

A very attractive wall by Gwen Hughes Fine Art spoiled by the spots

VIDEO: Carl Randall paints Waterloo Bridge, London and 57 people from life

Carl Randall has produced another stunning large painting of an iconic place with lots of people in London. His painting of Waterloo Bridge, London

• measures 6.5 feet wide (200cm)
• includes 57 people who each sat for their portraits to be painted from life
• took 5 months to complete

He's also created a video (see below) which shows how he created this.

This blog post is about

• the creation of the painting, 
• the artists included in it (see if you can spot them
• portraits of places and why we need more painters who paint both people and 'scapes - people in context and context with people
• how Carl creates his paintings
• what I like about his work and his website
• his impressive profile/biography - and where you can find him on line

About Waterloo Bridge, London and London Portraits

Waterloo Bridge, London (2018) by Carl Randall
Oil on canvas, 200 x 93cm

Anybody who knows London during peak commuter times will be familiar with the absolute  HORDES of people who stream at a very fast pace across the bridges over the River Thames. The stations at Waterloo and London Bridge are on the South bank - and the City of London and many tube lines are on the North Bank - hence the rapid transit on foot!

I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if this painting ended up in major office building in the City!

The Artists in the Painting

It's worth going to the website to see a much bigger version and to see if you can spot the portraits of some of the artists who are included in the painting.  They are:

• Jock McFadyen RA - Lead Curator of the RA Summer Exhibition 2019
• Ishbel Myserscough - won the BP Portrait First Prize 1995
• Antony Williams RP PS NEAC - very easy to spot! Won the Ondaatje Prize in 1995 and 2012
• Benjamin Sullivan RP NEAC - won BP Portrait First Prize in 2017 and was the youngest person ever elected to the RP and NEAC.
• Susanne du Toit - won BP Portrait First Prize 2013
• Simon Davis VPRP -  elected Vice President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 2014
• Sadie Lee - won the BP Travel Award in 1996

Oddly enough I thought some of them looked rather familiar before I knew they were included!

About portraits of places

I have been pleading for more artists to create more large scale paintings of people in context for YEARS!

Carl was one of the artists who stimulated this request. His paintings of groups of people in Japan in his BP Travel Award exhibition in 2013 were very impressive - and made me realise what we're missing.

The thing about "places" is they are both structures / scapes AND people. You have to go to some very remote areas to find landscapes without people and cityscapes with no signs of human life!