Sunday, March 13, 2011

13th March 2011 - Who's made a mark this week?

It's difficult to start without reflecting on "what" has made a mark this week - the earthquake in the sea off Japan which generated a 10 metre high tsunami and resulted in Japan moving eight feet.

I was very pleased to hear that Russ Stutler (The Sketching Forum) and his family are shaken but OK in Tokyo 

Meanwhile Google has posted satellite images of the "before" and "after" photos of the areas affected on Picasa.  Click the slideshow and then do what I did and make a donation to one of the appeals. It really is one of those events when pictures are so much more articulate than words.  It is good to know that such technology will assist with the rescue and recovery effort.

Back to the art:
The BIG news of the week - before the earthquake happened - is that three months today I'm going to be drawing and sketching in Provence for three weeks.  I'll even be breaking out the pastels (I'm taking the car!).  I'm having a "paintout in Provence" with friends and you can read some of what's happening here My Postcard from Provence.

I'm certainly looking forward to seeing to ochre quarries again and to finally seeing the lavender at the right time of year!

The ochre quarries at Rousillon
Art Blogs


Drawing and sketching
  • On Saturday afternoons between 12 March - 18 April, the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney is hosting a free Great Garden Sketchabout.  Many congratulations to Liz Steel, Wendy Shortland, Annie Mcm and Alissa Duke for helping to organise this and getting featured In today's Sydney Morning Herald... in an article titled Drawing attention to nature.  This publicity helped to make the first Garden Sketchabout in the Botanical Gardens in Sydney a huge success.  
    • On the Saturday mornings, artist and teacher Wendy Shortland is also teaching a 6 week class at the Gardens about Sketching and Bookbinding . 
    • There's also a Great Garden Sketchabout Competition! Participating sketchers can enter a sketch capturing a favourite sight or moment in the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney for the chance to win the $1000 Derivan Sketchabout Prize and People’s Choice Prize of $500 of Derivan art supplies. The winning entry will be printed on a Garden Shop item. 
    • Short-listed and winning competition entries will also be exhibited in The Paginated Garden exhibition at the Gardens between 29 April and 1 May
    • More details about future sketchabouts in the Autumn of Arts brochure.  
    • Plus The Gardening Sketchabout journal will be featuring more about the sketchabout on Saturday in the coming days.
    • All in all - well done to the Gardens and the artists for making this happen.  Now all we need to do is persuade Kew Gardens to do something similar!
Garden Sketchabout #1, Botanic Gardens. Sydney, Australia
Coloured Pencils and Pastels
With the multitude of pastel brands offered today, it is easy to accumulate thousands of individual sticks. Keeping them organized and readily available takes considerable effort.

Painters and Painting

Squint at your subject – paint what you see when you squint. Ignore what you think you see. Step back a few feet after every single stroke – oh yeah, stand to paint! Remember that value is the most important thing to be accurate with. Your color can be completely off, but if the value is off your object(s) won’t look 3-dimensional. 

Art Business and Marketing
Art Exhibitions and art fairs

I'm losing count of the number of exhibition previews and, indeed, whole exhibitions I'm missing while stuck at home with the foot that won't work.  It's now been a month with minimal improvement (see Walking is still a problem)
Here’s How Not to Get Reviewed
. Don’t allow photography in the galleries
. Don’t provide installation shots to the reviewer; in fact, don’t photograph the installation at all
. Don’t leave a press packet for the reviewer, as your PR person promised.

Art Education / workshops / Tips and techniques
Art Galleries, Museums and Art History
Art Studios and technology
  • On Monday my iMac had its first birthday - see Happy Birthday to my iMac which reprises, for those who may not have read them before, the process which led to the purchase of my lovely iMac and me becoming an official Apple fan and proselytiser!
Art Supplies and computer kit
Art Videos
Colour
  • Many thanks to Lorraine Khachatourians (RedBerry Art)for telling me about Dick Nelson's website.  It is a repository of information he's used in his workshops and classes. 
While no portion of this website may be reproduced for commercial use without permission, we encourage you to print copies of the lessons for your own use, and practice, practice, practice.
  • James Gurney highlights on his blog Gurney Journey that the latest issue of International Artist contains an article by him on Atmospheric Perspective 
  • Two of my posts this week focused on Colour and generated some expert comment.  I've still got to follow up on these - but if you've got any more comments keep them coming!
ebooks
Websites, webware and blogging
  • Check the page rank of your blog here - the higher the number, the better the page rank eg Google = 10!
and finally........

A thought for you.

One of the things I enjoy about finding a good blog or discovering a new one is the blogroll.  I get to find a lot of new art blogs which will be good quality!  I find that one of the bellweather indicators of what a blog is like and whether it is any good is the list of artists in the blogroll.

Inevitably there are always friends - but who else is there?

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