Sunday, November 02, 2008

2nd November 2008 - who's made a mark this week?

Urban Sketchers 1st November 2008
Drawings (header and post) by Pete Scully

This week I'm featuring sketching in the 'top spot'.
Art Blogs
Artists
Art Business and marketing
More on the art economy and the recession:
  • Reuters reported on Friday that Sotheby's reduces art price guarantees. An art market guarantee is when an auction houses offers a guarantee to the vendors of a painting that they will get a certain price for their artwork at auction - irrespective of the price achieved at auction. In effect the auction house either finds a gallery/dealer in advance at that price or buys the piece in and adds it to 'stock' (effectively becoming a dealer in the same way as a gallery is). They offer the guarantee to get the business and the associated prestige of selling particular pieces. Auction Houses then reduce prices when they want to reduce their exposure to risk even on prestigious pieces!
  • ...and yesterday, Reuters reported that the Art world dreading declines at upcoming key NY sales
  • ...while the New York Times reported that anxiety is the dominant mood in Tapped Out? by Carol Vogel on Wednesday including a report that the wife of the former CEO of the Lehman Brothers (a credit crunch casualty) is going to max out on the guarantee of $20 million for 16 postwar works on paper already provided by Christies.
.......there are two schools of thought in the art world -- that "there is still great wealth out there and it will find its way to art, which is truly precious" or that the market's growth "stems from these excesses in the financial system."
Baird Ryan, managing director of Art Capital Group - quoted by Reuters
What is the silver lining in all this cloudiness? Perhaps a return to the importance of museums, critics and alternative spaces for validation and the introduction of new art.
Art Collectors
Art Exhibitions
  • Alyson B Stanfield (ArtBiz Blog ) has some thoughts about Ethics and juried exhibitions. It's clear from the comments that there's a fair degree of frustration (and in some cases anger) with the way some shows are run - and the people who run them. See if you agree. I have had a post in mind on a similar topic for some time and would be interested to know what people think.
  • On Monday I reviewed two recent exhibitions at the Bankside Gallery - by the Royal watercolour Society and the Society of Wood Engravers - in Bankside Gallery - Watercolour and Wood Engravers
  • The Mall Galleries is currently hosting the Annual Exhibition of the The Royal Institute of Oil Painters. (due to finish next Sunday). This is the virtual version - and I'm hoping to get to see it this week. It includes two paintings by Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco ()
    It includes two paintings by Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco (Ilaria's News)
Art History
Art Groups
  • On Tuesday I wrote about the scope and sophistication of Ning network software to help with online communication in Artists, Art Societies, Art Groups and Ning. This is way beyond Google or Yahoo Groups folks - check out the features in my post - and it's free!
  • Vivien, Lindsay and I are greatly enjoying our exploration of Ning and the only problem I've hit so far is that it only likes IE7 for uploading photos to the gallery for the slideshows!
Book reviews
Recession proof - tips

This is a new section for passing on tips to help us all address the recession. Add your own tips in the comments for this post or contact me by e-mail and I'll feature them next week.

  • Shipping (distribution) and advertising are two areas expected to offer major discounts if pressed. I was listening to a Radio 4 programme yesterday which suggested we shouldn't be paying the quoted cost price for anything at the moment where there is
    • either a choice of suppliers
    • and/or you are buying large quantities or paying significant sums.

Tips and techniques - art process
Chelsea Green Tomatoes
10" x 8", coloured pencils on Arches HP
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Websites, blogging and software
......and finally

I had to have a photo taken for my introduction on Urban Sketchers Meet the correspondents: LONDON > Katherine Tyrrell.

Easier said than done! You can read the story here in Meet a correspondent for Urban Sketchers

Photo of a fusspot with a cold
by "he who must not be bored while I sketch
and is never
taking another photograph - ever!!!"

9 comments:

  1. See that walkway down at the bottom in front of the Queen's House? Goes off to the right? End of the park: I live there. Next time ring and I'll treat you to a coffee. :)

    Thanks for another great weekly round-up.

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  2. Thanks for the Andy Goldsworthy link. I watched Rivers and Tides earlier this week and instantly became a fan of his work.

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  3. That would be great Tina - but maybe when I'm not with the bookworm and when I also need to cater for what he charmingly refers to as his "nosebag" requirements!

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  4. Annie - you can see more about Andy Goldsworthy on one of my information sites Andy Goldsworthy - Resources for Art Lovers

    I had somebody from Canada contact me just today. He was in England for a week and really wanted to try and see some Goldsworthy 'up close and personal'.

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  5. Yes! The Andy Godsworthy link was great. I missed this.

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  6. Thanks Katherine. I can't believe how fast that 38 years have passed. And I only wish I had that much hair now even tho the Big Do would have to go. Took a lot of time getting all those rats in that hair. But once I sprayed it, it didn't move all day. Just the combout was bad.

    I like your photo even if you don't.

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  7. Katherine, thanks for the mention this week! And as always, lots of other good links here to follow up on.

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  8. Katherine - thank you for the lovely unexpected boost for my early printmaking efforts. I do hope my future efforts will be deserving of your link. You also deserve thanks for turning me on to printmaking in the first place.

    I think He Who Must Not be Bored did a splendid job of photography on your new portrait. I expect he got quite a lot of direction. ;)

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  9. Great tomatoes and loads for me to browse through for the next few days! Loved Andy Goldsworthy's spire too. Terrific photo of you as well :)

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