Sunday, October 26, 2008

26th October 2008 - Who's made a mark this week?

Paint for the Planet
1st prize global winner (2007) Charlotte Sullivan
age 13 from England


This week I'm starting with a focus on children and an exhibition of really great children's art with a very powerful message. It's a privilege to be able to view this art - children see so very clearly and are so very creative!

The International Children’s Painting Competition on the Environment is organized annually by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Japan-based Foundation for Global Peace and Environment (FGPE), Bayer and Nikon Corporation. It's been held every year since 1991 and in that time has received over 190,000 entries from children in over 100 countries.

The image at the top is the painting which won global first prize last year by Charlotte Sullivan from England who was then aged 12, the image below is this year's global first prizewinner - Gloria IP Tung, 14 years old China.

Paint for the Planet is both an exhibit and an auction of children's art to launch the global United Nations campaign "UNite to Combat Climate Change". 25 original winning artworks from across the years have been selected from a total of over 190,000 entries from over 100 countries for this exhibition .

Yesterday, a selection of paintings were auctioned at the Harvard Club of New York City to raise emergency funds for UNICEF for children affected by climate-related disasters. The exhibit will also travel to various climate-related events around the world including the climate change talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 2009.

I found this exhibition via this Guardian slideshow of nine of the paintings - Child's eye: Paintings offer unique perspective on climate change. You can also click here to view the children's videos about climate change. Plus there is a video of all the paintings in this very impressive exhibition - in Paint for the Planet auctioned paintings.

If you have or know children or grandchildren aged 5 to 13 you can read more about the 18th International Children's Painting Competition on the Environment on the website (click link) or in Scholastic News (see below). The closing date for entries is 15 January 2009.
There is still time for children to get involved in the 2009 competition. The theme of this year’s competition is ‘Climate Change. Our Challenge’. Children, aged between five and 13, from all around the world, are being invited to submit a painting that focuses on things that we can do to combat climate change, such as using renewable energy, energy saving light bulbs, car sharing and using public transport, planting trees, and so on.
Scholastic News
Paint for the Planet
1st prize global winner (2008) Gloria IP Tung, 14 years old China

Staying with the theme of children, Congratulations to...........
  • to Duane and Mrs Duane (A Painting a Day) on the arrival of the very beautiful Julianna Keiser - see My Masterpiece - who was born on Monday I'm now expecting baby items to creep into the still life paintings!
  • Laura (Laurelines) on becoming a grandmother for the first time. Laura drew inbetween supporting her daughter in the delivery suite and has produced some really gorgeous drawings of young master Jonas who arrived on Thursday, October 16th.
Art blogs
Art Business and Marketing

Recent posts have focused on the the Art Economy and its implications for artists - including who really buys art. First, continuing from last week, the news from the auction houses doesn't get any better...........
between midway through 1991 and midway through 2008, contemporary artwork rose in value at a rate of 132 percent, or five times the appreciation of Old Masters, 19th-century, and modern and postwar pieces.
In fact, it is the people who treasure art and the friendships that form with an artist which motivates them to save their pennies and invest in their favorite artist. It is not the high toned elite or the self made millionaires who are helping artists to survive, but rather the middle class who really cares about beauty and original art, though they can't really afford it.
Linda Blondheim
Art Calendar has
  • an article by Bob Bissett on How to Self-Publish a Book of Your Art At Lulu
  • a list of 42 publishers accepting ongoing artist submissions in Get Your Art Published which accompanies an article on what publishers are looking for and how to apply in "Working with Publishers: How to earn royalties from your prints and reproductions," in the November issue of Art Calendar
  • a digital subscription offer - great option for those don't want to cut down trees or people like me who don't live in the USA. But is Art Calendar relevant for people living outside the USA?
Art competitions
  • People who are interested in learning more about portraiture should take a look at my post about The Bulldog Bursary - an apprenticeship in portraiture
  • There's just over 5 days left until the deadline for entries to the 2008 Pet Portrait & Wildlife Art Competition run by Melanie Phillips. I like the countdown clock!
  • Art Calendar also has a magazine cover contest with no entry fee (now there's a novelty!). In the past art magazines would produce a cover from artwork from an artist featured in the magazine. It cost nothing and was a fair exchange. Now when I look at some of the entry fees asked by certain magazines for cover art competitions I begin to wonder whether this is really an exercise in income generation. I'm therefore delighted to see a magazine which has cut out the entry fee. The closing date for submitting an entry is 23:59 on October 31, 2008, Eastern Time (USA). Note the format requirements.
Art - Copyright
  • Alyson B Stansfield (ArtBiz Blog) had a newsletter item titled Play nice (artist ethics) and a follow-up on her blog relating to the question of use of other people's photographs Ethics and using other people’s photographs.
  • Update on the AWS gold medal/copyright controversy: the very long threads on both Wet Canvas and Shutterstock have been removed from the public domain following a request from the artist's attorney. There's no indication yet as to when this matter will be resolved.
Art Exhibitions
Art History - Artists and artworks
Since the list was compiled, I've lost count of the works I can't believe I didn't include. But you are bound to have enthusiasms for art and artists that never came near our considerations. Perhaps entire cultures and traditions have been left out. I don't want to sound too apologetic here. I think the Guardian's 1000 artworks to see before you die amounts to a newspaper doing its own world art encyclopedia, and I really believe we have made a good job of it.
Jonathan Jones - 1000 greatest artworks: Do you agree with our choice?
  • You can also see an online exhibition The Best of the MFAH: An Online Exhibition on the website of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. This was stimulated by the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die, a guide to the best art around the world.
Art Information
Art News

The artist plans to create a gigantic face of Obama sculpted from gravel and sand, which will cover nearly 2.5 acres (1 hectare) of Barcelona beachfront before the U.S. elections. "The size of the piece is intrinsic to its value," the artist, Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada, said Saturday. He hopes it will be big enough to be seen on Google Earth.
CNN World News

Art Project - Creating a Series

Stacks of wheat (end of summer) - after Monet / Stacks View (after Monet)
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

There's just under a week left to vote on my poll What's your MAIN reason for working in a series? (see right). I did two posts this week for my Making A Mark project on understanding series paintings better before the brain cells were struck down by a nasty head cold.
Art supplies
I saw today where you mentioned art supplies getting cheaper and I wanted to tell you that here in the states some of the big suppliers are cutting their shipping costs. Right now Art Supply Warehouse (aswexpress.com) and Dick Blick (dickblick.com) have both lowered shipping to $5.95 no matter what size order. Also, they both have other deals now. ASW has 10% off every order, and Blick has $5 to $20 off each order, depending on size. Jerry's Artarama ( jerrysartarama.com) has 20% off all orders now, and I have an email saying they are going to do something about the shipping soon. So all of that makes a big difference!
Deborah Ross
Illustration - Practice Notes
Websites and blogging
  • According to Wired the era of the blog is over - Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004! I do agree with Paul Boutin about one aspect. I know the blogs I enjoy reading tend to be the ones written by those people who - like me - write all their own words for no pay!
Writing a weblog today isn't the bright idea it was four years ago. The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge............Scroll down Technorati's list of the top 100 blogs and you'll find personal sites have been shoved aside by professional ones.
Paul Boutin - Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004.
and finally...........

I added this video about Rembrandt Self-Portraits to my information site Rembrandt - Resources for Art Lovers. It's absolutely fascinating watching him age and his style develop at the same time.

PS This weekly post has got far too long again!

4 comments:

  1. I was just thinking how timely this post on children was for me when I saw the mention of my Jonas drawings---thank you so much, Katherine. I'm also so happy that you'll be one of the Urban Sketchers, too. Gabi has, indeed, done a masterful job of creating the Urban Sketchers blog----I predict great excitement and fun for all of us, participants and viewers alike! Finally, thank you for another stimulating, informative Sunday roundup!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Katherine,
    I glanced at an article while on the Metro which discussed the value fluctuation in an article about contemporary art sales vice traditional (ie Rembrandt et al). Apparently the value of the traditional masterpieces are not subject to types of changes that seem about to hit the com temporary art market.

    I will try to find the link and post it here, it was a great read.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Katherine,
    many thanks for the congratulations. I noticed a sudden stream of visits from your page after I had come back from a short break. What a nice surprise. I am also looking forward to the group endeavours to follow.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I had trouble commenting the last time - so I am late....!
    Thanks for visiting - it is great to be included in such an amazing resource for artists.
    Linda's article was definitely what inspired a different look at art and its reflection of how we perceive.

    ReplyDelete

COMMENTS HAVE BEEN CLOSED AGAIN because of too much spam.
My blog posts are always posted to my Making A Mark Facebook Page and you can comment there if you wish.

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.