Do you price your art on your website / blog? (Poll Results)

More than half of you price your art when it is displayed on your website or blog.

The Making A Mark Poll for May looked at where you priced your art - specifically whether you priced your art on your website or blog.

Having just surfaced from an enormous art materials order, I'm not tangling with Excel to try and produce a chart as I know how long that takes!

However I have copied the results across - see below

Do you price your art on your website / blog? (Poll Results) 

Yes - website and blog	14 (18%)
Yes - website only	24 (32%)
Yes - blog only	4 (5%)
No - online auction site only	1 (1%)
No - other online sites only	6 (8%)
No - B&M galleries only	5 (6%)
No - studio only	8 (10%)
No - I do not price my art	12 (16%)

I only realised after the poll had started that I hadn't provided for an option which is "various places" since all the other options artists only price their art in one place.

Analysis

From the 74 people who responded to the poll, we can see that:

• 55% priced on website or blog
• the majority - 32% - prefer to price on their website only, in what is a more gallery-like environment.  Traditionally, this is where we have been more used to seeing prices.  
• 18% price on both website and blog
• while only 5% price on their blog alone
• 16% never price their art at all - online or attached to the real thing.
• 10% of you only price your art when selling from your own studio
• 9% price on other online sites only.  
• 6% have prices on their art in bricks and mortar galleries only

Pricing on your website or blog:  I think we can safely say that's not a result that would have applied ten years ago - or even five years ago.  As artists have got more used to using websites and blogs to showcase their art, people have become more relaxed about attaching price information.

Notwithstanding this, there's a decided preference for only pricing your art on your own website or blog.  

I was actually quite surprised that the percentage of people who are not pricing their art at all was as low as 16%.  I think I expected there to be more people who were painting for the fun of it without making any attempt to sell.  That suggests to me that more and more artists have grown used to seeing artists marketing their art and more and more are joining in.  However that's pure speculation on my part - even if it fits the poll results!

The studio is obviously a place where people also feel more comfortable about pricing their art.

It's very apparent that other online sites and galleries have not played a major part in capturing artists as clients.  However I do wonder, since people were only allowed one answer, whether those people using some of the daily painting sites maybe said they priced on their website or blog only.  

Which are the best books about oil painting?

I wonder how many would-be oil painters start, like me, by buying books and trying to get to grips with the basics before actually starting to grapple with the paint?

I've been a long time coming to oil painting.  It's not for the want of buying books about it!  I do like to read around a topic before jumping in!

Today over on Four Go Painting in Provence, I will be lisitng the oil painting books I've bought and why - some of which will travel to France.  

Take a look below if you want to see some of the books I've bought.

Books about oil painting and oil painters

Working out which are the best books about oil painting

I'm a huge believer in the wisdom of crowds - when they are speaking from their own personal experience - and I'm very interested in your personal views about which are the best books about oil painting.   

I did a similar exercise on this blog in relation to water colour painting last year - see Which are the best art books about watercolour painting?  It was absolutely fascinating what that threw up as books people raved about (eg Making Colour Sing by Jeanne Dobie - which has just been republished) and ones which people recommended very highly - and yet were ones which could not be found in the shops.

I'd also emphasise that this is about the best books which are available and is NOT about which books are in print.  Many excellent books are available online as used books and are well worth purchasing for their content.

With your help I'm aiming to develop a "resources for artists" listing of:

• 'The Best Books' of instruction in oil painting - for all types of abilities
• 'The Best Books' about artists painting in oils - past and present 

If your recommendation is used, you and your website and/or blog will be accredited with a link which should generate repeat traffic to your site.

Which oil painting books do you recommend?
 

I know I've bought books on the basis of recommendations by other artists when doing similar exercises on this blog.  I'd like you too to be able to share those recommendations - both in terms of giving and receiving

Identifying the best oil painting instruction books

If you would like to share your views, please TELL ME and the readers of this blog the answers to the following questions about books which have taught you about painting in oils and/or helped you to improve your knowledge and skills in painting in oils.

If it helps you, try giving them marks out of 10 to indicate how good they are and how you rank them in terms of value.

1. Personal preference: Which are your personal top three (or five or ten!) books about oil painting.  Ranking is good and reasons for your choice are most helpful
2. Beginners:  Which is the best book for somebody starting to learn to paint in oils - and why?
3. Improvers:  Which is the best book for somebody looking to improve their painting in oils - and why?
4. Advanced:  Which is the best book for a more experienced artist looking to refine their work - and why?

Identifying the best books about oil painters

Please share the book or books about oil painters which you have found most stimulating and helpful

29th May 2011 - Who's made a mark this week?

"Self-Portrait - taking in the sun"
by Ohla Pryymak
selected for BP Portrait 2011
© Olha Pryymak

Many congratulations to Olha Pryymak (Olha Pryymak) who has had her self-portrait selected for the 2011 Exhibition of the BP Portrait Award - see BP Portrait award competition 2011 – shortlisted! on her blog.

That means that Olha is among the 55
selected artists to show out of 2,732 record applicants this year.  That's 0.02% of the entry.

This painting has also been chosen as one of the ones used to advertise the exhibition - and is currently being displayed on the Visit page of the NPG website.  It's also the feature portrait on the front cover of the NPG booklet about exhibitions and events at the National Portrait Gallery over the summer.

I was particularly pleased to hear this news as I've been encouraging Olha in her endeavours for some time.

Last Autumn we translated that into a formal mentoring relationship.  I took a look at her marketing activities and provided her with a report providing specific advice and action points relating to what I thought she needed to do next. Looks like it's working! :)

Maybe I need to think about doing a bit more of this?

That'll be something to mull over while I'm away - and you need to read the message at the end to find out why this is the last "who's made a mark this week" for a few weeks

In the meantime I'm still waiting to hear about the rest of the selected artists and I'm hoping to post the list before I leave for France next week.

Art Blogs

Coloured Pencils and Pastels

• Happy 30th Birthday to The Pencil Museum in Keswick which has been celebrating its 30th birthday this weekend.  Tweets indicate everybody has had a great time!  You can follow the Pencil Museum on Twitter  @pencilmuseum
• Casey Klahn (Pastel) writes about My Palette.  Some really good suggestions for different ways to collect pastel.  (It's a requirement - if you want to be a pastel artist - you have to have this deep-seated urge to collect colour aka pastels!)
• Contemporary Abstract Pastels
• I am so jealous of Vivien Blackburn.  She opened her door to the postman this week to find she had won a complete set of Lyra Rembrandt coloured Pencils! Read Second Prize - Lyra Polycolor set to find out why.
• Which is the most popular brand of Color Pencils?  This is your chance to have your say.  I created the site on Wizzley which is a new information webware site.  

Landscape

• Martin Stankewitz (How to draw a tree) 
• has published The new edition of “How to draw a tree”  I've got the first edition and it comes highly recommended by me.  
• You can also see in this post how he tackles Apple tree foliage – outdoor sketch in gouache colors
• Thanks to Deborah Paris for altering me to the post by Christopher Volpe (Christopher Volpe) on Corot's palette revealed! & notes on the ethereal colors of spring
• I wrote about A view of Box Hill, Surrey and English landscape painting on my landscape blog - and then posted the sketch I did of it at Tate Britain on my sketchbook blog Sketching the First Landscape

After George Lambert - A View of Box Hill, Surrey (1733) by George Lambert (1700 – 30 Nov. 1765)
pencil and coloured pencils in large Folio Sketchbook

 Painting

• Ruo Li is a Chinese artist whose painting “California Autumn” won the Gold Medal Award for Master Signature Members at the 19th National Juried Exhibition of Oil Painters of America.  Charley Parker (Lines and Colors) has reviewed his work - in Ruo Li.  I took at his website and it seems to me he's a master of perspective and tone.  Some paintings very much reminded me of Singer Sargent.
• Nancy Reyner (Nancy Reyner) author of Acrylic Innovation Styles & Techniques Featuring 64 Visionary Artists wrote a post last year about Transparent Layers - Glazing vs. Washes
• Keith Bond (Keith Bond Fine Art) - also writing last year - comments on the process he adopts for Creating a Studio Work From a Plein Air Study 

Plein Air Painting

I've had a major focus on plein air painting this week.  Naturally that has resulted in a few link being dropped into this post.

• Adebanji Alade has written about the Highlights of Peter Browns Solo Exhibition, "Bath Between the Snows"
• David Pilgrim (David Pilgrim Paintings and Drawings) is a p/t landscape artist based in Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire and Valerie Pirlot (Valerie Pirlot - oil painter), a Belgian artist who lives in Bath and works in oil and pastels, have recently been part of a painting party which visited Cornwall.  Here are their respective posts: 
• Plein air adventures from Cornwall
• Cornwall Trip Part 1
• After lots of questions from me re oil paints, Vivien Blackburn (Painting Prints and Stuff) wrote yesterday about what materials and kit she packs for a plein air painting trip .  She also has a few tips - particularly for those of like Vivien and me who mobility difficulties.  Which is why I said she should share her excellent advice



Sketching Artists - P in Spain by Katherine Tyrrell

• Plein Air Painter - the relaunched plein air painting magazine - has a number of articles about intrepid plein air painters
• Artist profile: Joyce Lee which includes commentary on a plein air expendition to Yellowstone in winter
• Going to Extremes is an invitation for artists to send in photos of themselves in extreme plein air painting situations
• Paint the painter is an invitation from Steve Doherty to send in images of paintings done of plein air painters.  I've done a few drawings in my time (see ) but never a painting.  Maybe now is the time to start?

Next time you are participating in a plein air event, include one of the other plein air artists in your painting and send a photograph of the completed work to PleinAir™ Magazine.

• Charley Parker highlighted the blog, titled Judsons Plein Air Journal, inclides short profiles of the featured artists, along with sample images and links to their websites.

Printmaking

• Another new print blog this month - and thanks to Belinda who highlighted it to me.  This one is called Adventures in the Print Trade.  I was sold as soon as a I spotted the post Eric Ravilious: High Street variants

Art Business & Marketing

• Stapleton Kearns (Stapleton Kearns The demand surge and buy switch phenomenon - this is a Highly RECOMMENDED post.  As I commented, it just goes to show there's more to being an artist than painting and there's more to getting people to buy than painting a good painting. 

Art Competitions

• This week I posted the
• 2011 International Print Awards - Entries Deadline 6th June
• ING Discerning Eye 2011 - Call for Entries
• The Plein Air Journal also announced an art competition

Art Education

Tips & Techniques

• A post by Robert Dance about Painting Atmospheric Effects
• Deborah Secor wrote up pointers from the Seascapes class results

Workshops

• It's Workshop Week at the Mall Galleries.  Some have already sold out but move fast and you can still find a place.
  
• Sally Strand, whose workshops I highly recommend has a series coming later this year 
• August 18-21 Richeson School of Art  Kimberly, WI 
• October 17-21 Southern Vermont Arts Center Manchester, VT
• November 9-12  Pastel Society of Southern CA Redondo Beach, CA

Art Exhibitions

Major galleries

• MOCA's 'Art in the Streets' gets the big picture wrong The stylish exhibition mainly showcases the commercial legacy of graffiti, ignoring much of the form's cultural influence and L.A.'s role.
• Rooms with a View: The Open Window in the 19th Century, on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York until July 4, 2011.
• an enthusiastic review of it on his site

Art Societies

• Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers Annual Exhibition 29 April 2011 - 4 June 2011
• Master Circle Exhibition June 1-5, 2011Hispanic Arts Gallery Albuquerque, NM
  

Art Bloggers

• Johnny Morant (Johnny Morant) has consistently exhibited with the New English Art Club and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters.  His second solo exhibition with the Tryon Gallery in St James, London can be seen between 7-17th of June.  He also ahas an interview in Art Of England Magazine.  Johnny is a London based figurative artist concerned with how light and space can be represented in oil.  You can see his work on his website. 

Pizza Chef by Johnny Morant - Tryon Gallery ( 7-17th of June)

Art History

• Many of you like me were fascinated by the Drawings Of Georgia in 1736

Art Supplies

• Stapleton Kearns has a couple of posts about supports for oil painting, what not to do and what he recommends
• an untitled post with a bunch of bullet points and specific recommendations
• priming and sizingwhich talks about priming canvas and boards
• I came across some posts from the past by Nancy Reyner writing about 
• Making Your Artwork Last  and  
• Archival Practices: Keeping Art Looking Great Longer
• Continuing my theme of research around what to take with me to Provence I've written three  posts
• Are Alkyd paints like real oil paints?
• Places to buy Pochade Boxes in the UK  
• My Art Materials - or why it's a good idea to take a car!
• I came across the fact that Gamblin Colors have a table which locates colours in colour space when checking out their alkyd colours
• Just spotted the Paint on AlterEasel - as described by Karin Jurick in Painting New York, NY & Easels.  Looks interesting 
• Patchings Art, Craft and Design Festival is on between 9th and 12th Junr (daily 10am to 5pm; Sunday until 4.30pm).  This has lots of art suppliers there, although I didn't notice a particularly marked discount on prices when I was there last year.
  

Art Books

• I'm going to be doing a post about oil painting books tomorrow.  Get your recommendations lined up please!

Art Videos

I posted a couple of videos from 2008 to The Art of the Landscape blog this morning - see Wolf Kahn - on painting and being a landscape painter

Webware, websites and blogging

• I don't study Google Analytics much, but there are some recent posts about the new beta version of Google Analytics.  You can follow them via the New Google Analytics label  
• The New Google Analytics Available to Everyone
• Custom Reports in the new Google Analytics
• Measure Page Load Time with Site Speed Analytics Report 
• New Google Analytics - Overview Reports Overview.  
• What’s new about Analytics Intelligence?
• Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, reported on  iPad Usability: Year One
• Wordtracker identified 25 reasons why another site will link to yours
• A useful slideshow presentation by Phil Hollows, Founder and CEO of FeedBlitz on list building for bloggers

and finally......

This will be my last "who's made a mark this week?" until July. 

I'm off to France on the 9th June and not returning until the 4th July.  Next weekend involves taking my cats to their holiday destination (my mother's house and garden) so I have half a chance of actually being able to get packed up and ready to go.

However - for those of you interested in such things - you can follow what our painters' house party gets up to in France in Four Go Painting in Provence as we will be blogging while we're there.

• This was the post introducing it on this blog - Four Go Painting in Provence
• Plus here's my challenge for the time away - Learning how to paint with oils in Provence

You can already check out my deliberations about what to take with me as we all start to get seriously geared up (as in lots of art materials) for some very focused creativity!  Sarah tells me she's planning five paintings a day!

I certainly know from past painting holidays that there is nothing quite like a concentrated period without domestic interruptions to make some progress both in terms of creating art and developing skill and style.

Are Alkyd paints like real oil paints?

The challenge I've set myself is to learn how to paint in oils while in Provence in June.  The results will be documented on Four Go Painting in Provence (see Learning how to paint with oils in Provence).

I've spent today finding out more about Alkyd Paint.  The reason for this is I'd prefer to be using a medium which dries more quickly. This is a summary of what I've found out - and some links to some useful sites.

Are Alkyds like real oil paints?  The answer is Yes - they just dry faster.

Manufacturers of Alkyd Paint

• Winsor & Newton - Griffin Fast Drying Oil Colour  
• This is the product leaflet - pdf file
• This is the page devoted to frequently asked questions
• Gamblin Artists Colours - Fast Matte Alkyd Oil Colour

Read on to find out more about how these paints behave.

ING Discerning Eye 2011 - Call for Entries

The Call for Entries for submissions to the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition 2011 has been published. The deadline for entries is 2/3 September in London - and dates in August for regional pick-up points around the UK

The exhibition is in London on 2 and 3 September 2011.  It enables lesser known artists to be hung alongside the work of artists who have an international status.

The ING Discerning Eye Exhibition is a show of small works independently selected by six prominent figures from different areas of the art world: two artists, two collectors and two critics. Work is selected from open submission and also from artists invited by the individual selectors. Each section is hung separately to emphasise its own distinctive identity. The impression emerges of six small exhibitions within the whole.

How to enter

You are eligible to enter if you are an artist born in or resident in the UK

There are two ways to have your work exhibited

• either through submitting work via the open submission (see below for a summary).
• or by being invited by show work by one of the selectors - an opportunity which has been used in very different ways by different selectors in the past.

Read on to find out what you have to do

Drawings Of Georgia in 1736

Every so often I marvel at the way in which the Internet can allow us to see things we would never normally have seen.  Or how we can come across very specialised documents - such as the travel diary of Philip Georg Friedrich von Reck in the Department of Manuscripts & Rare Books of the Danish Royal Library.

The reason it's interesting is that it documents and records drawings of the state of Georgia in 1736 and what he encountered including plants, animals, people and their habitat.

"Top: A young water snake
Middle: (a,b,c,d) A small chestnut
Bottom: Alligator, a sort of crocodile"

This is an extract from the Introduction of VON RECK'S VOYAGE. Drawings and Journal of Philip Georg Friedrich von Reck. Edited by Kristian Hvidt. With the Assistance of Joseph Ewan, George F. Jones and William C. Sturtevant. The Beehive Press, Savannah 1980.

"In 1736, Philip Georg Friedrich von Reck, then only twentyfive years old, sailed with other colonists from Germany to Georgia. One of his intentions, expressed in a letter before he left Europe, was to bring back from America "ocular proof" of what he called "this strange new world." Idealistic and enthusiastic, well educated and blessed with an amazing artistic gift, von Reck kept a travel diary, wrote separate descriptions of the plants, animals and Indians he discovered in Georgia and drew some fifty watercolor and pencil sketches of what he saw. [...]


These drawings, accompanied by von Reck's writings, are important as history, science and art. As history, they give us a new and absolutely unique glimpse of Georgia as it looked when the first Europeans settled there. [...] As science, von Reck's natural history drawings represent the earliest records of several plants and animals. [...]

The Danish site reproduces all the aquarelles and drawings in von Reck's sketch book (36,5 x 28,8 cm) and all other drawings in the collection.

I think they're amazing.

Mind you it makes you think about what people are going to make of our sketchbooks  some 300 years from now!

Below is more information about natural history and botanical artists who travelled to make observations from first hand experience.

Links:

• A History of Botanical Art - Resources for Botanical Art Lovers
• Maria Sibylla Merian - Resources for Botanical Art Lovers
• Sydney Parkinson - Resources for Botanical Art Lovers
• Margaret Mee - Resources for Botanical Art Lovers

Four Go Painting in Provence

You are invited to visit a new blog - Four Go Painting in Provence.  

This is the natural extension to group blogging about art.  Four female group bloggers go on holiday to sketch and paint together - and then blog about it!

In June this blog is going to be very quiet.  That's because, in the main, I'm going to be blogging on Travels with my Sketchbook and Four Go Painting in Provence

As some of you will recall (see My Postcard from Provence) that's because I'm going to be spending three weeks drawing, sketching and painting in Provence - plus another six days getting there and back. So that's very nearly four weeks in France.

I'm in Provence for the whole three weeks - but I'm not alone.  

• Sarah Wimperis (The Red Shoes / Watermarks ) is flying in from Cornwall for two weeks from the middle of June
• Robyn Sinclair (Have Dogs, Will Travel / A Postcard from my Walk) is driving up from Italy for  two weeks at the beginning; and 
• Ronelle van Wyk (African Tapestry /  Watermarks / A Postcard from my Walk) is putting her renovation work at Coin Perdu on hold for a week to join us for the middle week

The aim of the blog is primarily for us to have a record of our holiday - and to have a place where we can post our daily paintings together - to see how four artists can see the same place through different eyes.

However it also struck us that a few people might like to come along for a virtual journey and enjoy the sights and the weather and maybe have a virtual smell of the cooking!  So if that's you - keep reading!

We're getting very excited about the prospect - and today Sarah kicked off our new blog with its first post - about getting down to the packing - see First Things First.

Where we will be based

We're not in coastal Provence.  We're further up in the Vaucluse in "proper" Provence - away from the tourists.

For those of you who don't know already, we've rented "a ramshackle farmhouse in the wilds of Provence" aka the home of popular Postcard from Provence painter Julian Merrow Smith while his wife Ruth Phillips (Meanwhile) plays cello at the Garsington Festival.   

The house is silent apart from the sound of skops owl, woodpecker, golden orioles nesting in the plane tree and the odd wild boar scuffle. 

We're based near Crillon le Brave and Bedoin two small Provençal hill villages at the foot of Mont Ventoux.

From there we'll be travelling around to various places.  You can find some of the places we might get to in Places we Painted - which at present only contains links to and notes about the places we might well visit

The Big Question

At the moment we're trying to come up with "a big question" for each of us which we can then use as individual themes for the artwork we produce while in Provence.  I'm not sure whether it will work - but it's a good place to start.

Mine is probably going to be about learning to paint in oils!  It seems appropriate.  The first time I visited Provence - some 20+ years ago was the first time I got back to my art after something like a 15 year break.  So Provence for me is a place of new starts.

A Postcard from Our Walks

Julian's Cabanon (print available)

Fellow members of our Postcard from my Walk group stand a very good chance of being a recipient of postcards from Provence after our visit.

We'll be out and about walking near the house in the magical light of early morning and early evening  - and seeing how many Postcard from Provence motifs we can spot - such as the Cabanon (see right)!

I keep getting carried away thinking about the colours

• there's the lavender for those of who are there late in June.
• the creamy white of the limestone 
• the green leaves and brown/black trunks of the vineyards
• the orange red of the ochre hills and lots of the roof tiles
• not forgetting the blue of the sky and lots of the paintwork!

Plus there's opportunities to sketch and paint water in a number of different contexts for the Watermarks bloggers.  My favourites are the old fountains in every medieval town and village - my favourite is in Gordes.  However there's river running through L'Isle la Sorgues which always makes me think it's a bit like a mini Venice.  Then there's the highly recommended river in the Vallée du Toulourenc.

So - if you'd like to join us can I suggest you start packing your virtual bags too and then inspect the top of the right hand column of Four Go Painting in Provence so you can "get your ticket" for a virtual painting holiday by:

• either bookmarking the URL of the blog http://paintingprovence.blogspot.com in a feedreader
• or signing up for an email every day (we can but hope!) 

We'll be very happy to take you in our virtual suitcases - but don't forget your sketchbooks!

PS  I had "an Enid Blyton moment" coming up with the title (women of a certain age will know what I'm talking about!) - I guess that means there might be "jolly japes" as well.......

Links:

• MAKING A MARK: Fancy painting in Provence in May?
• MAKING A MARK: My Postcard from Provence

2011 International Print Awards - Entries Deadline 6th June

Tethered (2008) by Rachel Gross

The deadline for entries for The 2011 International Print Awards is 6th June 2011.  The awards are a pivotal part of the 2nd International Print Biennale being held in Newcastle and Gateshead in September 2011.


All about the International Print Biennale

 There are absolutely oodles of "International Biennales", including a number of International Print Biennales around the world.

"Biennale" - for those for those who don't like to ask - means is Italian for "every other year" and is frequently used for events which happen every two years.  If they happen in the UK they're usually referred to as a Biennial - because we speak english not Italian - but, hey, it sounds good in Italian!

I'm not quite sure why but none of the International Print Biennales ever seem to see any need to distinguish which is which in the name of their exhibition or competition.  Maybe it's because of where they're held.  I guess if it's in Venice you want to make it part of the title - but not if it's somewhere like Tokyo or Varna?  Odd.

This one can't quite make its mind up.  In 2009 it was known as the Northern Print Biennale which seemed pretty much like an OK name to me.

Northern Print Biennale was the first major event for international printmaking in the UK since Bradford British International Print Biennale almost 20 years ago. 

Now, in 2011, it seems to want to drop the "Northern" bit and go with plain old "International" instead - which to my mind actually makes it a bit less distinctive.  I think I prefer the tone set by the Bradford one (see quote) but the its got the advantage of a bit of alliteration! 

However use of the word International does reinforce the nature of the submissions they received last time

When devising the 2009 Print Awards, we purposefully didn’t define ‘print’. The call for entries invited ‘all artists whose work encounters print’ to submit. We received a tremendous response from over 800 artists in 32 countries.

Anyway here are the key facts about the International Print Biennale

• sponsored by the Arts Council and Northern Print which is a not for profit enterprise supported by the Arts Council with a gallery and printmaking studio situated in  Newcastle's Ouseburn Valley.  See Facebook,  Twitter, and  Flickr
• In 2009, they had  
• over 200 artists from 32 countries submitted work
• 95,000 visitors to the inaugural exhibition
• a one-day print symposium
• In 2011:
• the first prize in 2011 is £5,000 
• definition of print left open 
• Works in any medium will be considered and is not restricted to 2 or 3 dimensional works.
• the overal aims of the competition and exhibition are laudable

The aim is to reward and promote excellence through showcasing the very best in new British and international printmaking through an extensive programme in Newcastle Gateshead of exhibitions, events, activities and an international symposium.  With over 95,000 visitors this inaugural Biennale was a huge success and we are delighted to announce the 2nd International Print Biennale.
International Print Biennale 2011

Read on to find out how to enter

22nd May 2011 - Who's made a mark this week?

More This week I've been watching one of my favourite sketchers Enrique Flores (4ojos) posting reportage sketches about the amazing peaceful  protests by young people in Madrid within the context of today's elections.  This, in a way, is the Spanish version of the revolutions which have been sweeping through the Arab world since the beginning of the year.

It's always worth recording the fact that those who sketch and blog can also contribute to a much wider understanding of how life is lived in some parts of the world.   It's the drawing version of the cameraphone!

Hundreds of young Spaniards camped out in the Puerta del Sol all last week as a part of a peaceful protest relating to the government's handling of the economic crisis. With nearly five million people jobless, Spain has the highest unemployment rate in Europe.  It's nothing to do with political parties per se - and a lot of those who camped out are still sitting there working out how to get some consensus on what happens next.

Just after midnight on 21st May, around about 30,000 Spanish protesters defied a government ban (to assemble or demonstrate on the day before an election - which is today) and filled Madrid's Puerta del Sol.to protest about high unemployment and austerity measures.

This is Enrique Flores's blog 4ojos and the posts about this week's camp in the Puerta del Sol.  As he said in the email to me the text is all in Spanish but the sketches speak for themselves.

The problem is the system - sketch by Enrico Flores (4ojos)

What I found interesting was how the sketches changed as the week went on - not only were they more numerous, they also began to focus less on the banners and the people and more on recording the practical aspects of being a demonstrator - like how do you put tent pegs into tarmac (love that one!) and the long queues for the "facilities"!  Now that's what I call a civilised society - "facilities" for the protestors - who I understand were also handed brushes to clean up the square after the overnight vigil!  Plus lots about what was being said by various participants - which, of course, I can't read but it looks interesting and it's an important contemporaneous record.  On Sunday it was returning to the question of how to achieve a more participatory democracy.

• acampada en sol - the camp started on Monday 16th May
• acampada sol desalojada
• acampada sol, dia 2
• acampada sol, dia 3
• acampada sol, dia 4
• acampada sol, dia 5 
• público - in which Enrique's sketches make the local paper Publico
• videos 
• acampada sol, dia 6 including observations on the practical life of camping in a public square

• viva la canción/1 (22nd May)
• acampada sol, dia 7 (22nd May)

It's such a  unique record that I guess a book will not be long in the making.  Here are some of the film versions of the same thing

• A minute long video on YouTube of what it was like as midnight changed and the demonstrators commenced an unlawful act  - Spain demonstrations continue in defiance of rally ban - which almost seemed like a joyful event.  Very sensibly the police decided to do nothing.  Enrique's blog has links to a lot more videos from inside the crowds.
• These are the BBC slideshow of what it was like

Today Spain goes to the polls.  The current government is not expected to survive.  I wonder if Enrique will be sending the incoming government a record of his sketching?  I think he should.

Art Blogs and Artists

(After) Self-Portrait c1799
by JMW Turner (1775-1851)

Drawing and Sketching

• This time last week I discovered that I'd lost a sketchbook.  I hoped it might turn up somewhere but the uneasy feeling remained when I woke up in the morning.  
• Lost and found - one sketchbook is the account of how it all happened and what it felt like
• I then gave my sketchbook a treat when I got it back and sketched JMW Turner - and so Turner finished my sketchbook

Botanical Art

• This is an essay on Arthur Harry Church (1865-1937) Botanist and Illustrator by botanical artist Dianne Sutherland (Dianne Sutherland - Botanical Artist).  Dianne completed this essay as an assignment while studying the Distance Learning Diploma Course offered by the Society of Botanical Artists.  You can read her post here about attending the SBA 2011 exhibition and graduation.

Painting

• The Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour now have a new blog called Artists of the RI.  This is their very first post about Naomi Tydeman RI.
• You can now also see all the paintings which won awards ion their recent Annual Exhibition on their website Prizes Awarded at the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours 2011 Exhibition
• I'm toying with taking gouache paints to Provence and have been reading Deborarh Secor's blog Deborah Secor - gouache.  

Photography

• I like good photography and allow an occasional foray into photography on this blog.  I was greatly intrigued by the notion that Taryn Simon is a contender for the title of most important photographer of her generation.  Then I checked out this interview and this article Cow-dung toothpaste? Taryn Simon's book Contraband unloads America's baggage

Simon is currently one of the hottest properties on the international art photography market. Her prints fetch stellar prices at auction and have been acquired by leading institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney in New York, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Pompidou Centre in Paris, as well as the Victoria and Albert Museum and Tate Modern in London. Taryn Simon: the woman in the picture

Sculpture and Installation

• The whole Ai Weiwei issue begins to look a bit more complicated.  This Guardian article Ai Weiwei's company evaded taxes, claim Chinese police indicates the Chinese Police assert that the detained artist's company has evaded 'a huge amount' of taxes and destroyed accounting documents.  Now if there's one thing you don't want to do is annoy the taxman!

More New Art Blogs

• The BBC arts critic Will Gompertz is moving to a new blog site - More from Will 

Art Economy and Art Collectors

• Frieze announces launch of two new fairs Frieze Art Fair has announced that it will launch two brand new fairs for 2012.

Art Competitions

• Who would ever have thought that Three women artists win Threadneedle Prize in first three years - but they did!  The deadline for this year's exhibition closes soon.

Art Exhibitions

Major Galleries

• I had an email this weekend from the Royal Academy of Art to say that booking has now opened for Degas and the Ballet - Picturing Movement which will be in the RA Main Galleries 17 September – 11 December 2011 Nine images from the exhibition are already on display in a slideshow on the website

The exhibition will be the first to present Degas’s progressive engagement with the figure in movement in the context of parallel advances in photography and early film; indeed, the artist was keenly aware of these technological developments and often directly involved with them.

• Martin Gayford reviews Tracey Emin's retrospective at the Hayward Gallery for Bloomberg in Tracey Emin’s Saucy, Egoistic Relics Seduce in London Show: Martin Gayford.  I realised just recently that although i think she's overrated as an artist, what she really is a poet.  Her work is very verbal - and if there's more than one way of making art there's got to be more than one way of creating poetry! “Love Is What You Want” is at the Hayward Gallery, London until 29th August Invented Modernity” remains through July 3 at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris; musee-orsay.fr/en/home.  Here's a review by the New York Times
• After being stuck at home unable to walk very far when it opened, last week I was finally able to write up my Review: 'Watercolour' exhibition at Tate Britain.  After we'd got through the episode of the lost sketchbook!

Art Galleries

• Egon Schiele. Women - 19 May to 30 June 2011 An exhibition of 40 unseen works by Austrian artist Egon Schiele can now be seen at Richard Nagy's Old Bond Street gallery space.  I'm not including links because all though I love his drawing and painting style I'm really not interested in some of his subject matters and this particular exhibition is emphatically not for the prudish!

Art Bloggers

• Recent paintings by Duane Keiser (A Painting A Day) will be on view from June 3-July 1 at an art show at 1211 East Cary Street, Richmond, VA 23219

Open Studios

• The first ever Angus Open Studios event in Angus in Scotland opens next week and runs from 26th-30th May.  Over 70 artists and craftspeople will be opening their studios to the general public, and hoping for lots of visitors over the five days.  One of the artists showcasing her paintings will be coloured pencil artist and blogger Lesley Crawford (Lesley Crawford) whose studio will be open each day 10.30-5.30.  

Art Education

• Bristol Drawing School is a not for profit private arts venue and education facility that aims to encourage and nurture the art of drawing.  They've also had a blog since 2007 but aren't very good at posting to it.

Art Galleries and Museums

• Museums cannot use the sale of art objects for operating expenses.  So says the New York Board of Regents which approved reestrictions on Museum Sales; Museums overseen by the Regents are now expressly forbidden to sell artworks to raise money for operating expenses.

Art History

• Even contemporary art becomes history.  Is there always a point at which the Young Turks begin to look like the old fogies? Next generation turns its back on Emin and Hirst is a really fascinating article which discusses how the YBA artists are now viewed by younger artists and suggests that the notion of concept art might be dead.

Art Studios

• Lori McNee (Lori McNee Fine Art and Tips) had a post last week about Creating Art in Small Studios;- I love the stuff hanging off the wall!  It includes a bunch of photos from other people showing what their small studios look like.  I think we might possibly have a debate about the word "small" in a cultural context - but other than that it is as always fascinating to take a peek!

Art supplies

• Marion Boddy-Evans (Painting.about.com) has a review of Sennelier Oil Pastels.  I keep wondering whether if you wanted to produce "washy" oil paintings whether Zest-It and some decent oil pastels might be all you need.  Any thoughts?

Art Videos

• On Saturday I posted links to a couple of videos about British painters - see Two videos - painting people

Books 

• I bought a jolly nice book about Samuel Palmer at Tate Britain last week - Samuel Palmer, 1805-1881: Vision And Landscape.  I've been looking for a good one for some time and this one looks like it's going to get the right balanace between authoritative and accessible.  It's published by the British Museum and relates an exhibition which was held in 2005.  

Copyright

• Lat week the Hargreaves Report was published.  Digital Opportunity - A review of Intellectual Property and Growth can be downloaded from the website of the Intellectual Property Office.  I'll be reviewing what it means next week.  In the meantime if you'd like to see for yourself, click this link and download the report (1.1MB pdf file) and have a read. 
• What hope has the ordinary punter of understanding anything when the BBC Arts Editor writes an article confusing copyright issues relating to orphan works and the concept of the public domain - see Shedding light on copyright confusion

....and finally

LS Lowry's depiction of one of the streets in Salford which inspired the TV series Coronation Street will go to auction next month.  This BBC news item on Lowry's Coronation Street on sale

Two videos - painting people

Neale Worley is one of the regular exhibitors at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.  This is a time lapse video demonstrating the creation of a portrait painting from start to finish.  The portrait in question was displayed in the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters which finished yesterday. 

This second video uploaded to YouTube by Artist & Illustrators Magazine shows Roger Dellar painting one of his favourite motifs - a scene of people in an interior

Dellar has been a full-time professional painter for more than 15 years. I see lots of his work in the various exhibitions of the national art societies as he works in a variety of mediums. He is an active member of The Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour, The Pastel Society and The Royal Institute of Oil Painters.

Review: 'Watercolour' exhibition at Tate Britain

After JMW Turner - The Blue Rigi
coloured pencils in Moleskine sketchbook

and finally - the review of the Watercolour exhibition!

Oddly enough Turner really did finish my sketchbook as one of the last sketches I did on the afternoon before I lost it was one of the Blue Rigi (see above).  It's the one which was used by the Tate as the main motif for the exhibition.

The strapline to the exhibition is

Watercolour at Tate Britain invites you to challenge your preconceptions of what watercolour is.

The introduction goes on

The most ambitious exhibition about watercolour ever to be staged, with works spanning 800 years, this boundary-breaking survey celebrates the full variety of ways watercolour has been used. From manuscripts, miniatures and maps through to works showing the expressive visual splendour of foreign landscapes, watercolour has always played a part in British Art.

I don't know whether this has ever been attempted by any other museum.  Maybe not?

I think different people will respond to the Watercolour exhibition in different ways.  It's obviously a huge topic and I appreciate the effort that has been employed to try and reflect both the history of watercolour painting and the diversity of artists who have used water to make paint.  It pleased me and disappointed me.