Sunday, November 15, 2009

15th November 2009 - Who's made a mark this week?

This week I've been having a bit of a botanical and gardening flavour to my activities. For a start I've been writing about my visit to Giverny last month and also producing very long videos of the two parts of Monet's garden which took ages to get on to YouTube. But I finally cracked it!

Jardin de L'Eau, Giverny
9" x 12", coliured pencils on Arches HP
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Here's:
I thought I'd start by showing you where I've got to with my drawing. I think I'll probably try this again in pastel - and a few more besides!

What I'm also enjoying about having done the videos is that they add to my resource material and help me to remember back to being there - albeit it helps me more if I was the HD versions on my computer rather than the ones on YouTube!

Art Blogs


Drawing and sketching

More blogging about trips to France
I'm enjoying seeing and reading the blogs of people who have been leaving comments on my blogs for the first time this week. These include:
Coloured pencils and pastels
Painters
-spectators - running commentary from behind when a family, with miles and miles of dunes on an empty beach to choose from, chose to sit just above us. 'Look she's using her fingers now' - 'what bit is she painting?' - 'she's using a knife now' - ' you could do that ....'
Photography
Art Group Blogs

Art Business and Marketing

Art Collectors - and the art economy

There is zero tolerance for overpriced or overestimated work now. There is interest in buying, but it is more disciplined.
Lucy Mitchell-Innes, president of the Art Dealers Association of America.

Art Competitions

  • The Philly Inquirer has an interesting post - Art: Serious flaws in prize paradigm - and makes some some very pointed remarks! Do you agree?

    For all but a handful of the chosen, the prize ethos is corrupting. Pitting artists against one another as if they were gladiators is inherently insidious. And every year lots of artists waste lots of time applying for prizes they have little or no chance of winning.

    More disturbing, the prize ethos subtly promotes naked careerism. A prize certainly dresses up one's resumé........But embellishing resumés, while creative in its own way, can become a substitute for genuine achievement.

    Art: Serious flaws in prize paradigm

  • The results of the Lyn Painter-Stainers competition promoting figurative art is to be announced at the Private View tomorrow evening. I went to see the exhibition on Friday and there will be a post announcing the prizewinners and providing a review of the exhibition (and what would have been my shortlist) on Tuesday morning. They opened the exhibition early especially to catch the people in the City of London for the Lord Mayor's Show - and what did we have yesterday? Only a horrendous storm with torential rain and high winds which brought down branches outside my home two miles east of the where the exhibition is being held.

Art Education / workshops / Tips and techniques


Art television
The Modern Beauty Season examines the perception of beauty both in modern and classical art forms through a collection of films on BBC Two and BBC Four, starting Saturday 14th November 2009. This is Matthew Collings and a slideshow of the 10 principles which explain what is beauty in art. This is the link to the BBC iplayer for what is beauty in art? There's a page all about it - but it doesn't explain when it's all on except for?
School of Saatchi. Six people are selected to attend an Art School established uniquely for them where they will develop their work under the tutelage of some of the most innovative names in the art world today on BBC Two.
While a repeat of the Art of Eternity series is very late night viewing
Workshops
  • Anybody interested in learning how to create handmade paper AND how to create paper paintings in Florida should refer to the workshops advertised on Paper Paintings

Tips and techniques

Margaret Ryall (Painting On) has a set of posts under the heading Talking About Art which are about critiques - a topic which doesn't often get an airing so it's nice to see somebody who's taken the trouble to explore it as a subject
Richard McKinley has an excellent post about A Painterly Approach to Drawing

Art Exhibitions


Exhibitions involving artist bloggers

Yesterday I announced that I would in future be regularly featuring a selection of exhibitions featuring artist bloggers - see How to highlight your exhibition (artist bloggers only) for more details
During this ongoing recession I would like to be a bit more constructive and systenatic and do more to highlight the exhibitions of artists who have a blog.
So today's post features my very first artist to respond with a dedicated post on her blog and details as requested!

Buttercup #1 & 2
30x20 | collage on panel
©2009 Elizabeth St. Hilaire Nelson
So - who's got an exhibition coming up?

Exhibitions elsewhere


Art Museums and Galleries



Art Supplies

  • I've been doing some product testing this week - but I'm sworn to secrecy until next Spring!
  • Kate Johnson provides us with a video of what she packs into her purse for sketching - Art supplies - in the bag! Oh dear, that's given me another idea for my newly developed and quite manic videoing habit!


Book reviews



On Making A Mark reviews...... you can find:

Opinion Polls

  • The responses are totting up on this motnh's opinion poll (in the right hand column). Have you answered the question yet - What makes a good art teacher? Try reading what Robert Genn has written this week about The art of teaching art for his perspective.
in its best sense, the teaching of art is guidance away from the bad habits that come so naturally to many who struggle alone. In my experience, the best teachers are often mature part-timers who live in the real world.

Points of view

Social Media, websites, blogging and webware

  • Kirsty Hall (Up all night again) has written today about Finding Your Blogging Style
  • Lori Woodwood implores us to Socialize Responsibly
  • You'll note that I've added the new Google search widget into Blogger (see top of right hand column) which allows me (and you) to search my blog, blogs in the blogroll or the web in general. I'm finding it very useful as it produces a list rather than a selection of complete blog posts which is what you get if you search (top left) within the blog at present . You may do too!
  • Blogger is also improving Communication of Blogger Service Interruptions - you're recommended to follow Blogger on Twitter (because of course the Blogger status blog goes down when Blogger does!)
  • I find I use Google Docs more and more for my jottings - especially as it means I never ever lose a document! Apparently it's now possible to Export your Google Docs data

and finally............

How to Survive a Bad Day by Christine Kane (on Lori Woodward Simons Blog) - we all need blog posts like this from time to time! :)

PS On a more optimistc note, for those of you who are still keeping up with my friend, author and one time artist Maggie Stiefvater's incredible story - her novel Shiver has now made #2 on the Amazon Top Ten Best Books of 2009 for Teens!

6 comments:

  1. Hi Katherine,
    I want to thank you for posting the videos on You Tube .The gardens at Giverny show what a true genius Monet was. Imagine walking out your front door only to be greeted by that fantastic garden!!. Wow!!!- it must be like walking into one of his paintings. I have never seen such beautiful poppies before. I can only imagine what the water lilies look like when the sunlight hits the water. Now when I return to MOMA to see the exhibition I will remember back to your videos.
    Again thank you for taking the time & effort .

    BTW- the green that Monet used on the bridges , the house trim and front porch- I have never seen such a green before. Even though it was an overcast day the bridges over the water popped out because of the green. Perhaps he choose that color as a way to stop the eye and redirect ones vision back to the water lilies? Every time I view his work my admiration and respect for him grows.

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  2. Thanks for the link to my Printmaking Bible review, Katherine!

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  3. Thank you for mentioning my blog (twice)in your post today. Your blog is a wealth of information for visual artists and provides so many excellent links. I am enjoying all the references to Giverny because it brings me back to a great holiday I took the year I decided to switch careers. It was the beginning of my attraction to gardens in my art work.

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  4. THanks for featuring my cows and my links! I truly appreciate it.

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  5. What a pleasant surprise to see my blog mentioned here. Thank you so much.

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  6. Thank you for this great post packed with the useful and the beautiful. It will keep me busy probably until next week:).

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