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The winner of the £20,000 First Prize - and the other prizes - will be announced tonight.
Very oddly there's absolutely no tweets about it online.
Selected Artists
The Judges for 2019 comprise 3 artists and 2 gallerists.
Christopher Green, artist and former prize winner
Tom Hewlett, Portland Gallery
Robin Lee-Hall PPRP, artist
Jennifer Scott, Dulwich Picture Gallery
Ben Sullivan RP, NEAC, artist
Below is the list of artwork they have selected (+ price of the artwork) ordered alphabetically by surname of the artist.
I do wish people putting artwork online in a digital gallery would remember that we have no way of appreciating the size UNLESS THE PROVIDE DIMENSIONS. (Yes - I am shouting to be heard!). Details of media would also be much appreciated.
There aren't enough hours in the day for me to search for all the websites of selected artists. However I'm very happy if artists want to contact me and let me know what their website URL is - and I'll embed it in their name.
Below you get my sporadic comments - very much first reactions as I worked my way through the digital gallery. Note - these were all written prior to the announcement of the prizes. I've added in the tweets - of artists with their paintings - by the Painters Company afterwards.
This is about a new pencil storage system for his art studio - devised by Jeff George CPSA, one of the the USA's leading coloured pencil artists.
Like others, he got inspiration for a new system when viewing what was on offer in IKEA.
If you're not a coloured pencil artist you need to understand that pencil artists have a habit of acquiring a huge number of pencils - plus back-ups for if they run out - but they present a real problem when it comes to storage.
I got inspired to revise my studio pencil storage system while recently walking through an Ikea store. Meet Skadis. My new pencil storage system with removable metal trays.Square metal cups and other attachable containers were also an option for this system, but I opted for the trays.
The trays hold the pencils and hook onto the peg board
I have labeled and lined each of the 20 trays, and will install small rubber picture frame bumpers (or felt) on the tray bottoms. (Note: I modified the welded hooks on two of the trays to be able to hang 7 trays to a panel instead of the normal 6.)
The trays shown contain the largest set of each brand listed. Luminance 76 set used 2 trays. Prismacolor 150 set used 4 trays etc. The brands I use the most are on the bottom half. (The Lightfast trays at the top are empty placeholders as I await Derwent's release of a larger set.)
Three Skadis peg boards and 20 Trays
The hundreds of extra replacement pencils which I have are organized and tucked away nearby, ready to quickly replace any of these pencils as they wear down. The goal is to always keep a full set available in the trays.
I'm happy with my solution. It was low cost, fits an out of view nook of my studio, and I can change out brands, and add more if I need to. Cheers.
However the system Jeff has come up with could actually be used for other art materials (tubes / jars of paint etc). What I like about it is that it both allows for simple and accessible storage - with everything sorted - and the storage doubles up as the container when the pencils are in use. They just unhook from the peg board.
About Skadis
I'm not sure of the dimensions of Jeff's system but took a look at the IKEA UK site - and there are lots of options for useful ways to store art media "stuff"
Skadis is pegboard by IKEA. It costs £31.50 for a 76 x 56 cm (various sizes are available ) steel board with Epoxy/polyester powder coating
The trays cost £3 each. They're also made of steel with Epoxy/polyester powder coating and hook on to the peg board.
PS. My new Raskog kitchen trolley from IKEA is about to be made up for for storing my tubs of coloured pencils - so they can be wheeled around!
About Jeff George
Jeff studied at the Otis Art Institute and School of Design. He retired recently and moved from California to Las Vegas, Nevada. In 2002, he joined the Colored Pencil Society of America and since then he's been very busy winning prizes almost every year including the following top prizes
I know that there were a lot of people around the world who engaged with #LifeDrawingLive Challenge at the Royal Academy on Thursday evening (or whatever time of day it was for you).
Nobody was expecting that we would have be extremely challenged by
a very agile life model you can see the first "quickie pose" (!!!) in the YouTube screen below
a very small horse at the end
Romeo - a Welsh Mountain Pony for the Finale of the session
This is an invite to send me your best drawings for this challenge which I'll display on this blog later this week. Send me them by Friday 8th March - you can contact me using this email address(see right hand column)
That means that if anybody wants to still have a go they can.
Just try watching the video of the Live Streaming Event - see below (which you can watch full screen on YouTube and see exactly what we saw on Thursday night)
No pausing of the video though - you have to sketch real time!
I decided that I'd try drawing on my new iPad Pro with my new Apple Pencil 2 - and used the Art Set app for that purpose. It wasn't a good idea since I'd not practiced in advance which is why you're not seeing the early ones - but I persevered!
These are some of my sketches. Plus some brief notes of some of the things Sarah Simblet said. It's worth watching the video just to hear her talk about drawing - and drawing anatomy
Three of the paintings in Lydia Bauman, Looking for Georgia - Painting Georgia O’Keeffe Country
- the central view is of the Ghost Ranch landscape
Yesterday morning I saw one of the most impressive solo exhibitions in the Mall Galleries that I've seen to date. It has large and small landscapes which are visually stunning, has a big theme and a story behind it and the painting is splendid.
I wish more people were inspired by an exhibition about an artist and take themselves off to find the countryside where a painter painted and then find the places and spaces and paint them again.
I guess one of the reasons it appeals to me is that I'm an inveterate seeker out of places where people painted. I guess it's something that either appeals to you or it doesn't. For me I learn something about the painter by being able to see what they see - although it doesn't always work out. Trees have a habit of growing in front of views as I found out on my Van Gogh trail in Provence! However back to the exhibition....
Lydia Bauman, Looking for Georgia - Painting Georgia O’Keeffe Country
The feature wall - The Road to Mesa Pedenal Triptych
I highly recommend a viewing if you can get there - it's very impressive. Indeed it is by far the most impressive exhibition of landscape painting that I've seen in the Mall Galleries after many years of visiting. The big Main Gallery can overwhelm wimpy painting and needs bold painting to draw you down the stairs. Bauman's larger paintings 'read' well from 100 feet away and get better as you get closer!
This is a woman who really knows how to paint big landscapes in an appropriate way - and how to use mixed media to give a 'grounded' and spiritual sense of the landscape. Her colour palette is slightly exaggerated and yet remains true to the place. Her tonal values are spot on so that all the zones in terms of distances and changes in landscape read really well - despite the fact that for many people the New Mexico landscape will be something they've never experienced.
I'm guessing it was unclear to others as well as me who was going to win the Heat. Unlike previous episodes where the shortlist could more or less be identified by how much camera time each artist got, this time it seemed the cameraman and/or Editor got somewhat distracted.
Add caption
I'm not going to repeat what I've said in other reviews of this series other than this post includes:
a list of the professional and amateur artists participating in Episode 3 of the series
my commentary on themes which I spotted
who got shortlisted
who won the Heat and goes through to the Semi-Finals.
More about the competition and the judges in my first blog post - listed at the end.
The winner of the competition is commissioned to paint Tom Jones for the Museum of Wales.
The Artists, Self-portraits and Sitters
You will find links to:
the artist's website - embedded in their name - click the link to see more of their artwork
artists' social media accounts if I can find them online.
the speeded up time lapse video of each artist working on their portrait
Please contact me (see side column or via Facebook Page) re. any inadvertent errors of spelling or links ASAP
Libby Fellingham(Facebook | Twitter) - video - trained as an architect with a First Class Degree at the Bartlett School, UCL and Diploma at Cambridge University. Based in Sussex. Tends to work with a palette knife from photos to produce portrait commissions of people, dogs and horses.
Milo Hartnoll (Twitter | Instagram) - video - a painter currently living and working in Brighton. Studied Illustration at The University of Brighton, graduating in 2013. The internet (but not the programme) suggests that in 2013 he was a finalist in Sky Arts TV Portrait Artist of the Year. He apparently does livestream painting on Instagram - which puzzled me given the speed with which he painted in the heat.
Milo is a figurative painter who mixes classical and modern techniques. His work is process driven, searching for progression through a balance of control and chance.
Mario Ramirez - video - an art history graduate from Seville. I could not find him on the Internet
Michael Sheppard (Facebook | Instagram) - video - Graduated with a Fine Art Painting and Drawing degree from Northampton University in 2017 and subsequently an MA at Nottingham Trent University. He has autism and works in pen and ink and just switches off when he draws. Uses mj the art traveller as his brand name. I found this good interview with him.
“I left university a much better artist,” he said. “The course gave me confidence in my ability. I was taught all the different ways and styles of drawing. We had lots of life drawing classes, workshops and studio time with our tutors and I was surprised to see what I was capable of creating.
Robbie Stuart (Facebook | LinkedIn) - video - Graduated in 1993 from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art Dundee with a BA (hons), Fine Art. Based in Walthamstow. Paints commissions and does arts and crafts workshops with adults and children.
The Amateur Artists
Sara Lavelle(Twitter | Instagram) - video - Foundation Diploma in Art and Design (Distinction) at Falmouth University and then went on to study Illustration BA (Hons) at the University of Brighton. As a final year graduate she had only recently taken up painting. Now based in London.
Drawing upon a deep fascination with human psychology, philosophy and spirituality, my work has a predominant focus on portrait painting and figuration. I move freely between commissioned pieces and self initiated projects.
Megan McMullan (Facebook | Twitter | Instagram) - video - born in Leicester in 1989, she studied at De Montfort university where she achieved a first class honours in her fine art degree and also gaining a masters the year after. Works shifts as a porter - which she finds mixes works really well with the long drying time of oils(!) - and stars in a brilliant video made by Leicester University - see below
Sile Walsh (Facebook) - video - Born in Dublin and now based in Tramore in Waterford, Ireland. She's painted the long distance sea swimmers of that part of Ireland. Has always drawn and has attended life drawing classes for many years. Portraiture is very new to her. This is a radio interview with her about her experience
The Self Portrait Review
I do wish they'd give us a much clearer view of all the self-portraits together. One gets a much better sense of who is the good painter. We need to see them from further away. I know the problems they have with the space - but they managed it in the last series but not in this one for some reason.
On the whole the impression gained from the self-portraits was that this was a strong set of painters - with some who displayed some 'quirky' approaches to portrait painting.
They all liked Megan's self-portrait - an artist painting herself as an artist. Sara's was much admired also - as was Libby's.
I had high hopes of Robbie Stuart and Mario Ramirez based on their self-portraits - however in the end there was an inconsistency between the self-portrait and the portrait painted in the heat.
The Sitters
The three sitters were:
Eddie Hall - former professional strongman who is the world record deadlift holder and who won the World's Strongest Man 2017 competition
Jodie Kidd - fashion model, race car driver, and television personality
James Purefoy - an actor - and the most portrait sitter who moved least ever!
