Sunday, May 24, 2015

Who's made a mark? #265


Art Competitions

Call for Entries


Selected artists



Other art competitions


You can keep up to date with the major art competitions on my Page (see top menu) - Major UK Art Competitions

I've had it confirmed that:
  • the Threadneedle Prize has changed dates and, as such, there will be no exhibition in 2015. Here's the announcement and online submission opens on 13 July 2015, 12 noon
The 2015 Threadneedle Prize exhibition, normally held in September/October each year, is moving to the beginning of February 2016. Online submission opens on 13 July 2015, 12 noon. This change in date will give The Threadneedle Prize even greater visibility. We also plan to tour a selection of the 2016 exhibition to Europe. More details will follow.
  • the Derwent Art Prize is not being run this year but you can expect it to be back in 2016. The Call for Entries will go out in January 2016.

Art Exhibitions


Open in London



Open in the rest of the UK


The idea of ‘Provincial Punk’ is an oxymoron but it encapsulates creatively some sort of spirit in my work that still goes on to this day. It is a very creative force, a willingness to turn things over, to not accept the fashion and to have a bit of fun. It is a kind of teasing rebellion; it is not a violent revolution.”
Grayson Perry
  • On the topic of Grayson Perry, there are now traffic jams in Wrabness as the world and his wife and kids turn up to try and see Grayson Perry's house for Essex in Wrabness - see BBC Grayson Perry house: Congestion problems in Wrabness and my blog post about the television programme Grayson Perry's Dream House - tonight on Channel 4 - which was really interesting both in terms of the structure and its content and the way people responded to it. I'm not surprised it's generating crowds - although I guess once the novelty has worn off it will become like Antony Gormley's 100 cast-iron, life-size figures of Another Place on the shifting sands at Crosby Beach.

Open in New York



Closing soon


Plate 6: The After Party (2014) by Henry Hudson
varnished plasticene on board, 183cm x 245cm


Already closed


These were the exhibitions which opened and closed in the last two months

Opening next month

  • The RA Summer Exhibition opens on 8th June and lasts until 16th August
  • The Not the Royal Academy Exhibition opens on June 9th at the Llewlleyn Alexander Gallery at the Cut in Waterloo. This is the annual exhibition, inspired by the original Salon des Refuses, which features works originally rejected by the RA Summer Exhibition Selection panel.  
  • I'm not quite sure where that leaves the accepted but not hung works - and I know one friend has one of these this year.....
The BP Portrait Award website looks a bit different this year

The exhibition includes works by great masters of the medium from its origins to the 20th century, with portrait miniatures by Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver, flower drawings by Pierre Joseph Redouté, as well as a series of stunning landscape watercolours by John Constable, Peter de Wint, John Sell Cotman, Samuel Palmer, J. M. Whistler, John Singer Sargent, Paul Cézanne, Camille Pissarro and Paul Nash.

Announced for later in the year


The National Portrait Gallery announced a new exhibition will be opening in September - see Simon Schama's The Face of Britain - and selfies

Art Books


  • Paul Riley and the magic of watercolour flowers - For those who'd like a different perspective on how paint flowers - this is about a new book, video and exhibition - about the magic of watercolour flowers - by one of my old tutors.

Art Business



Art Materials


  • Artists and Illustrators has a great article - 7 steps to better pastels - I've been wanting to read for a long time. It's all about how Pastel Society member Sarah Bee uses acrylics, charcoal and gesso can help you get the most out of your pastel art

Botanical Art


  • My new website about Botanical Art and Artists has been up for just over a month - and it's changed quite a lot since I first published it
    • It now also has a news blog and this post explains how I will use in future to highlight news from botanical artists as well as changes to the website
A news blog for Botanical Art and Artists - featuring news from Botanical Artists
as well as changes to the website
  • Last week I also created a new page about Blogging about SBA Diploma Assignments - which has been very well received by ex-students.  This post details which artists have had their past blog posts highlighted alongside the relevant assignment
  • For the record, these are the blog posts about last month's annual exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists

Drawing and Sketching



Obituaries



Odds and sods


Here are a variety of posts which I can't think of a heading for!
Cosmo - drawn using pastel sticks in Sketchbook Pro app on my Mini iPad.
  • Celebrate a visual artist on the next £20 note - interesting responses to this post on Facebook - but I fail to see why some of the suggestions for female contenders have quite the weight of male visual artists who might be in the running.  Anyway - at the end of the day it will all depend on who gets nominated!
  • The Royal Academy of Arts is getting a multi-million pound major overhaul with the help of a Heritage Lottery Grant - A major overhaul for the Royal Academy of Arts campus - and I got to do a Press View with Alan Yentob and a TV crew from the BBC.

Techie stuff 


Photographing artwork

  • How to photograph your artwork is a very good article in Artists & Illustrators about photographing artwork which goes beyond the normal stuff that gets written. So far it's been shared 24.5k times!


 Videoing artwork

Google and websites

Statcounter Analysis and Review of Search Traffic by Browser

  •  Surprisingly Google now generates less than 75% of search stats- see this post by Statcounter  Yahoo gains further US search share in January.  Remember when we thought the world would forever be dominated by Microsoft and Internet Explorer?

Responsive websites



I'm still trying to update websites and I'm still trying to fit in a proper break. It's not working too well so far.

and finally......


As I indicated in 14 good years my cat Cosmo, who starred in Sketching 365, is coming to the end of his life. It's day by day at the moment - with every day after the end of this month being a bonus. Early this week he was really down and today he's been (relatively speaking) quite perkie - and I'm up and down with him also....

If I disappear for a while you'll know why.

Cosmo asleep - drawn using a pen and ink app on my iPad Mini

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