Florum Exhibition 2014

Below is a list of the artists who have been invited to show their artwork at the Florum exhibition which opens on Saturday after a private view next Friday night. I'm one of them!



Florum website - my drawing is top right


The aims of the exhibition are:


to create "a colourful and inspiring mix of works celebrating plant life" and 
to raise funds for the Kent Wildlife Trust's Sevenoaks

BBC Four Goes Abstract in September

This autumn there's going to be a series of programmes about abstract art on BBC4.  The programmes are:

The Rules Of Abstraction with Matthew Collings, BBC Four 
(90 minutes) Mon 8 Sep 2014 22:00 BBC Four
The programme examines the development and rise of abstract art and how it became prominent in the art world. The primary argument put forward by Collings is that abstraction is the key

My frames have arrived - I'm waxing tonight!

Sitting on my floor, in masses of bubble wrap and cling film, are seven bespoke tulip wood frames and mounts for the drawing for my upcoming exhibition. Yesterday they left Picture Frames of Shaftesbury and this morning they arrived, via ParcelForce, at my home at 11.30am.  Thanks to both companies for getting the delivery to me quickly!

Which means I'll be having a quiet wax this evening as the

Angie Lewin and the making of 'Nature Table' (video)

Angie Lewin's website

As many people know I'm besotted with the portrayal of trees, plants and flowers in art - and I'm also eclectic in my tastes as to the way in which they are portrayed.

One artist whose drawings and paintings of plants has been catching my eye on a very regular basis in the past few years is Angie Lewin. 

Her delightful graphic artwork and designs are probably familiar

POLL: Photography in Art Galleries and Museums

There's been a lot of discussion about the photography of art in art galleries of late. However today you've got an opportunity to express your views.



Tourists photographing the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, in Paris

This is a POLL to identify what people think about photography in art galleries.

You can vote up to three times to express your views (but be sure to choose all three options at the

'Making A Mark' passes 6 million pageviews - and resource move begins

On Saturday, Making A Mark notched up 6 million pageviews, since Blogger started counting in 2008.

What's even more amazing to me is that the last million pageviews have been achieved in just over seven months.



six million pageviews - spotted in the middle of Saturday afternoon
the redline marks the Blogger statistics

I little realised with I started this blog at the end of 2005, prior to

How pencils are made

This is a very informative video about how pencils are made today made by Derwent Pencils. It tells the story of how pencils came to be made in the Lake District - in Cumbria - where Derwent (also known as the Cumberland Pencil Company) and the Cumberberland Pencil Museum are located.



This is a link to the history of pencil making in Cumbria on the museum website.

Note the reference to "

ING Discerning Eye 2014 - Call for Entries

The call has gone out for the 2014 ING Discerning Eye art competition. 

Unfortunately it came out in July round about the time I was rushed off to hospital followed by enforced break and the last stages of my involvement with final proofs of my book. So there hasn't been a post on this blog until now!  This post seeks to remedy this - especially given the fact the deadline for entries fast

BP Portrait Award 2015 entry goes digital

It could only be a matter of time before the BP Portrait Award switched to digital entries - and so it has come to pass. Next year, in 2015, the entry process for this very prestigious and world renowned portrait competition will be digital.



Main Entrance to the National Portrait Gallery
Banners for the BP Portrait Award either side of entrance


I applaud the move. It makes such a huge

Making A Mark on Art - and the end of Squidoo

Over the last seven years I've created some 160 websites about art (Making A Mark on Art) and artists (About Artists) on Squidoo. Yesterday I had news that Squidoo is closing down. Seth Godin has arranged for my featured sites to be merged with HubPages and the current links to them will become redirects after October.




I don't know if I'm surprised or not - I've been predicting the demise of

Who painted this? #61

"Who painted this?" returns following the break while I wrote my book!   

This week we'll start with a painting which is both seasonal and is a painting I've never seen before. However I could tell who the painter was straight away due to a particular attribute of the painting. I'm thinking a fair few will also make the connection - identify the artist - and go hunting for the title.



Who

Sophie Ploeg and The Lace Trail - BP Travel Award exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery

Sophie Ploeg's BP Travel Award exhibition 'The Lace Trail" can currently be seen at the National Portrait Gallery in London - until 21 September 2014.  It then tours to Sunderland and Edinburgh in 2014-15.



Sophie Ploeg with part of The Lace Trail
the exhibition for the BP Travel Award 2013
at the National Portrait Gallery - 26 June - 21 September 2014


The exhibition follows on from Sophie

The Secret of Drawing

In 2005, the history of drawing was explored by Andrew Graham Dixon in a four part series called The Secret of Drawing.





That series of programmes are now on YouTube.  I'm not sure how they got there - but they're certainly worth taking a look at. It's just such a pity that the website for the series does not include links to the videos within its archive of the programmes - because it should

Selected Artists - Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2014

93 works by 73 artists from across the UK have been selected for the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2014. The first prize is £10,000 and the exhibition opens at the Mall Galleries on 15th September 2014.

Below you can find a list of the names of the artists together with links to their websites where these could be found.  Any errors please let me know (see side column for how to contact

Scott Krohn wins CPSA's 22nd International Exhibition

This is an interview with American coloured pencil artist Scott Krohn who has won the top prize at the 22nd International Exhibition of the Colored Pencil Society of America. 

More details after the interview - which includes images of the work in progress - about

the awardwinners 
the artists whose work was selected for the exhibition - organised by home state within the USA or country of

Companies who can resize your website for different screen sizes

Below you will find a list of companies that Google is highlighting as approved multi-screen vendors.



By dw capital GmbH [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0
or CC-BY-SA-3.0-de], via Wikimedia Commons

That means website hosts that can handle websites which need to resize to be seen across multiple and different sized screens. In other words - these are the screens found on all the devices people now use to

Art Online: How tech savvy are you?

Do you need to be tech savvy as an artist?

I'm delivering a workshop tomorrow about how to get your art online. One of the first issues I'm addressing is how "tech savvy" people are - helped by OFCOM's new research report on how Techie teens are shaping communications

Critical issues relating to getting their art online for many artists include:


how familiar they are with technology and

Bruegel to Freud - Prints from the Courtauld Gallery

Dr Rachel Sloan, the Curator of the Bruegel to Freud - Prints from the Courtauld Gallery - the summer showcase exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery is giving a talk tonight which I'm not going to be able to attend. However here she is introducing the exhibition which spans 500 years of printmaking and including works by Mantegna, Bruegel, Canaletto, Picasso, Matisse and Freud.

I've got to put

Spectra - for seven nights in August in London

If you're in central London this week, you can see a new art installation which is on view for just seven nights.  Spectra is a column of intense white light punctuating the London sky from dusk until dawn for seven nights.

It's located in Victoria Tower Gardens, adjacent to the Palace of Westminster.  The installation has been created by Japanese artist Ryoji Ikeda.



spectra by Ryoji Ikeda,

888,246 poppies - Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red

Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red is the name of the art installation in the moat at the Tower of London which will be officially unveiled tomorrow. 888,246 ceramic poppies spill out into the Moat and encircle the Tower of London.  Each poppy symbolises a British military fatality during the war.



The Tower of London's longest serving Yeoman Warder planted the first poppy
in this major

In praise of the older artist - Mary Anderson Grierson

It would appear that one of the perks of working for the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew for a long time is you get a bench outside the Palm House on your retirement or death. I came across a bench for Mary Anderson Grierson on Tuesday and looked her up when I got back home.



Hylocereus Undatus, night blooming cereus, 1985

pencil, ink and color wash

56 x 34 cm. (22 x 13.4 in.)

by the late

Derwent Art Prize 2014 - Two People's Choice Awards

The Derwent Art Prize offers two opportunities for the public to vote for the People's Choice Award in relation to the artwork selected for exhibition and - this year for the first time - all entries as well.  More about how to vote below.

Yesterday the Derwent Art Prize website published two galleries of images


People's Choice Award 2014 - all works entered in the competition - all 25 pages

28 July 2014 - Who's made a mark?

I've had three weeks off from blogging.


The first week was because I had a bit of a shock health wise, ended up in hospital facing a battery of tests and decided to take it easy for a few days.
Followed by finishing up the final layouts for the book - which was rather more difficult than I'd been expecting.
Then I decided I needed a week off. I fitted in some long walks plus some drawing and

There will now be an interlude.....

I'm taking a break from blogging for a week or so while I give some priority to other things going on in my life - but will hopefully be back soon.

Here's a new drawing.....



City of London from Tate Modern
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils










© Katherine Tyrrell

Edward Sutcliffe wins BP Travel Award 2014

Edward Sutcliffe with Copycat - with Li Wu DaOil on canvas, 150 x 60cm


This is the proposal which won Edward Sutcliffe the BP Travel Award 2014 (£6,000). Any artist who submits work for the BP Portrait Award can also submit a proposal for the BP Travel Award - but your proposal is only reviewed if you are selected for exhibition.

The Travel Award is based on the idea that an artist of merit

BP Portrait Award 2014 Exhibition - review and video

Read about my review of the BP Portrait Award 2014 Exhibition in which I highlight the portraits I particularly liked  and focus on key themes and points to note for those aspiring to enter.
View my latest walkabout film of the exhibition in the gallery. 





A walk around the BP Portrait Award 2014 Exhibition

Followers of my previous videos of the BP Portrait Award exhibitions (see a list of

Video - What the Artist saw

This is another of the films which the National Portrait Gallery have commissioned Lonelyleap.com to make about the competition process relating to the BP Portrait Award 2014. This film - BP Portrait Award 2014: What the Artist saw - The Judging - is about the judging process and features two artists

Alan Coulson - a past prizewinner. He won the the third prize in 2012 for this portrait of

Richard Twose and David Jon Kassan - video interviews with BP Portrait Award prizewinners 2014

Here are my next two video interviews with artists winning prizes at the the BP Portrait Award 2014 Ceremony,  held this week in the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Video interviews below are with:

2nd prizewinner - Richard Twose (UK)
3rd prizewinner - David Jon Kasssan (USA)

All three of the prizewinners have something to teach us about the process of being selected for

A video interview with Thomas Ganter, Winner of the BP Portrait Award 2014

Thomas Ganter, winner of the BP Portrait Award 2014
with his winning portrait "Man with a Plaid Blanket"
oil on vanvas 1600mm x 600mm

Thomas Ganter kindly gave me a video interview about winning the BP Portrait Award 2014, the morning after the Awards Ceremony at the National Portrait Gallery

I'm very grateful to Thomas for giving me an interview when English is not his first language - and

BP Portrait Award 2014 - Video of presentation to prizewinners

Thomas Kanter, winner of the BP Portrait Award 2014with (left to right) Bob Dudley, Sandy Nairne and Nigel Havers

Last night Thomas Ganter won the £30,000 BP Portrait Award 2014 at the National Portrait Gallery in London - and below is a film of the awards ceremony.

I filmed the presentation ceremony with Mini iPad in one hand and my camera in the other taking photographs - hence there's an

BP Portrait Award: From 2,500+ entries to just three artists

Tonight we go from over 2,500 people who entered the BP Portrait Award 2014 to three prizewinners - and just one person who wins the top award. This year the National Portrait Gallery which organises the exhibition has filmed the artists shortlisted for an award.

In a few minutes time I start getting reading to go to the Awards Ceremony at the National Portrait Gallery which is this evening.

Will Cadmium be banned in artists' paints in Europe?

The European Chemicals Agency is currently consulting on proposed restrictions - a virtual ban - on the use of  Cadmium in artists' paints in Europe. Unless a case is made against the proposal Cadmium might be banned in artists paints and other art materials within a couple of years.



Consultation on the proposed ban on Cadmium in artists' paints in Europe



How the proposed ban came about

The Mac after the Fire - an Archive, an Appeal and guess WHO!

News about "what happened next" following the fire at the Mackintosh Building at the Glasgow School of Art (GSA)



The Macintosh Appeal
New Trustees are Peter Capaldi and Brad Pitt
Graduation and Degree Show 2014




The Macintosh Appeal

Last week The Glasgow School of Art formerly launched The Mackintosh Appeal. The aim is to raise something like £20m to allow the GSA to commission the work

The Pastel Society - 115th Annual Exhibition

I got to see The Pastel Society's Annual Exhibition at the Mall Galleries briefly this week. It must be the first time I've not had this review up from the beginning - however it's still worth noting who won what, what the exhibition looked like and which pieces I liked! The artists are, of course around all year long even if their exhibition isn't and you can contact the Gallery if you're

Cochineal and Carmine

One of the really interesting parts of the Making Colour Exhibition at the National Gallery is a wall of clear boxes which contain the raw resources for the Lake colours used in painting.

If you've ever wondered what the raw materials look like this is very definitely an exhibition worth visiting!

Which brings me to Cochineal. This is an insect that produces a brilliant crimson red dye and was

Making Colour and painting with poison

I highly recommend the new "Making Colour" exhibition at the National Gallery and will be giving it a full review very shortly - once I've finished work for the layouts for my book.



Making Colour - The Yellow and Orange Room
Find out more about the paintings in the Yellow and Orange Room in the exhibition on the exhibition website 

Those interested in the history of the development of

An exhibition in aid of The Art Room

Facetime - a fundraising exhibition of artwork by major UK and international contemporary artists in aid of The Art Room - can currently be seen at The Threadneedle Space at the Mall Galleries until Saturday. It's all for a good cause......


With the patronage of HRH The Duchess of Cambridge, The Art Room provides art as therapy to 5-16 year old children who are experiencing emotional and

Jerwood Drawing Prize 2014 - online deadline is 5pm today

Just a reminder that today is the deadline for registration for the Jerwood Drawing Prize 2014. The deadline for online registration: 16 June 2014, 5pm.

You can read more about it in my blog post Jerwood Drawing Prize 2014 - Call for Entries.


Jerwood Drawing Prize - Winners and Selected Artists 2010-2013



Winner of the Jerwood Drawing Prize 2013Apocalypse (My Boyfriend Doesn’t Care)Ink on

RHS Exhibitions: Guidance and Regulations for submitting Botanical Art & Botanical Photography

The Royal Horticultural Society recently gave its website a massive overhaul. URLs have changed and some things went missing for a while - including the Guidelines and Regulations for submitting Botanical Art to an RHS Exhibition!

I wrote and asked what had happened and, as a result, the information has now been loaded. It's also been relocated out of the Shows area and into a section on

Who made a mark in May 2014?

I'm still trying to develop a new way of doing "Who's made a mark". I'm now thinking along the lines of a once a month round-up complemented by more frequent posts of new things to look at via my Facebook Page. This seems to work better for me as it spaces out the effort involved.

That said I still need to work on timing - this was supposed to be published last Sunday - but I ran out of steam

The new BBC Arts Website

The BBC have a lot to do to do to up their game in terms of content and accessibility of the new BBC Arts website. Its aim is to enable much better access to both BBC Arts Programmes, additional material and the archive of programmes held by the BBC.



BBC Monitor Henry Moore November 1960
First transmitted in 1960, Huw Wheldon visits Henry Moore at his home in the run-up to a major exhibition

Winifred Nicholson at Dulwich Picture Gallery

The new exhibition at the Dulwich Art Gallery has an awfully long title Art and Life: Ben Nicholson, Winifred Nicholson, Christopher Wood, Alfred Wallis, William Staite Murray, 1920 – 1931.  I'm not a fan of long titles - but that's by the by.

There's also a story to the exhibition - about how painters influence one another, but frankly the interest of that for me always lies in the impact of

Summer Exhibition 2014 at the Royal Academy of Arts

I visited the 246th Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts today. Below you'll find a photoessay about exhibition plus two sections about
facts about the Summer Exhibition 2014
changes in the Summer Exhibition
I'll be doing another couple of posts - about artwork I liked and who won the Prizes - with the big one being announced on Saturday night.
I wasn't blown away by any of the rooms or

The Art Everywhere Longlist 2014

You currently have a chance to vote on The Art Everywhere Long List 2014 - on Facebook or via an email listing your favourites to arteverywhere@artfund.org before 21st June.

Art Everywhere returns for 2014 to flood our streets with great artworks for a summer long outdoor show voted for by you. Across the UK, tens of thousands of posters from roadside billboards and underground stations, to

The New English Art Club Future Fund Auction

The New English Art Club is holding a silent auction this week to generate money for its Future Fund.  You can see the artwork included in the auction in the online catalogue which can be downloaded. There's some excellent artwork in the auction - and what's on offer includes a portrait sitting for a drawing by Saied Dai!

Plus there's a live auction on 29th May.



Works in the NEAC Silent

Mackintosh Building Fire Fund

Today the Glasgow School of Art has launched the Mackintosh Building Fire Fund.



Glasgow School of Art

Help with the restoration of the Macintosh Building
Plans are in hand to raise the funds to get the building which suffered terrible destruction in the recent fire.
The very severe damage to the building’s iconic library, in particular, is a cultural loss of significant magnitude.The Scottish

OASC for Metropolitan Museum of Art Images

I do like to look at images in high resolution - there's an amazing difference between high resolution images online and those you see in books or low resolution images online.

You can now access some 400,000 high resolution images belonging to the Metropolitan Museum of Art through their Open Access for Scholarly Content (OASC) initiative.

That basically means they are for educational use.

Major fire at Rennie Mackintosh's Glasgow School of Art

It was absolutely awful yesterday to see the pictures and videos of the fire raging through the iconic Grade A Listed Mackintosh building of the Glasgow School of Art (@GSofA)- designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

"The most important work by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, an architect of international significance, Glasgow School of Art is held in the highest regard by architects and the public

Moleskine sketchbooks have changed - or have they?

The new Moleskine Sketchbook wrapper

In a panic about whether Moleskine has changed its paper as well as the wrapper for its very popular sketchbooks - as reported - I ordered some.

The sketchbooks arrived today - and it's interesting

My order included:

a large A4 size sketchbook with the new wrapper (I've previously ordered the Folio Sketchbooks with the dark mauve wrapper) and
a normal '

The layouts are landing in my inbox!

I don't think anything much is going to happen this week.

I've just been sent and have started going through the layouts for the book which means some intense work reviewing the layouts and then work to do as a result of them

I'll be back posting when I can.

In the meantime here's one of my drawings related to 'how to hold a pencil'!

Favourite art instruction books about subjects you draw and paint

Today I propose we all think about the best and/or most helpful art instruction books about the different kinds of subject matter that people draw and paint e.g.

portraiture and people
animals and wildlife
landscape - including urban and marine contexts
still life and floral art
genre art - everyday scenes


Interestingly when I first asked the question about "which is your favourite art book?"

Making a mark - Artists' Favourite Art Books in 2014

It's time to update the list I keep of the favourite art books you like. 

There's no two ways about it - some art instruction books go on and on forever because they have a huge fan base. They get revised and reprinted on a regular basis and some of them sell millions of copies.

Others seem to have the status of a 'best kept secret' where you're only allowed to know about them once you've

Women and Art

Here's a compendium of links to the current wealth of television and articles online about Women and Art.


BBC - The Story of Women in Art

This is a three part series featuring Professor Amanda Vickery, Professor in Early Modern History at Queen Mary College, University of London.

Her programmes explore how there is an absence of female artists on the walls of art galleries and museums. She

"Mr Turner" - a new film about JMW Turner

'Turner on Vanishing Day' by William Parrott

See a trailer and watch a review of Mike Leigh's new film "Mr Turner" - about the life and career of JMW Turner - and see some small excerpts. It's getting rave reviews:

The Guardian Cannes 2014: Mr Turner review – Timothy Spall dazzles as JMW Turner
The Telegraph: Mr Turner, review: 'supremely enjoyable' (you need to scroll down fast and stop the

VAT for non-UK artists and UK exhibition organisers

This post provides an introduction to recent changes in Value Added Tax and VAT registration for both 

artists living outside the UK who want to exhibit and sell their art in the UK; and 
those selling art by overseas artists in the UK i.e. the managers of art galleries and art fairs, the Executive Committees of Art Societies and the organisers of Art Competitions.

Unsurprisingly, there are

The Threadneedle Prize 2014 - what's changed and how to enter

Some important changes have been made to the Call for Entries for the Threadneedle Prize 2014 for figurative painting and sculpture with a prize valued at £30,000

This post 

highlights the changes in process
unpicks and summarises the "call for entries"

highlights the key dates in the processes for submission, selection and exhibition
highlights my blog posts about the Threadneedle Prize last

Certificates of Botanical Merit at SBA Annual Exhibition 2014

Read on to discover the artwork and artists which were awarded Certificates of Botanical Merit in the 2014 Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists

Botanical merit, as we have seen in the RHS shows, is of particular importance when it comes to botanical art.

That's why the Certificates of Botanical Merit are held in such high esteem. It's also no coincidence that winners of CBMs

Prizewinners at the Society of Botanical Artist's Annual Exhibition 2014

Sandra Wall Armitage, the new President of the Society of Botanical Artists led the prize giving ceremony for the deserving botanical artists at this year's Annual Exhibition.

She was assisted by the Speaker who opened the exhibition, Dr Nigel Dunnet, Professor of Planting Design and Vegetation Technology, and Director of The Green Roof Centre, University of Sheffield. He was one of the people

What every art society needs - an exhibition shop

There are lots of people who'd love to buy art but only some can afford to do so. Those who can't afford to buy the original art they like for the price it costs are however happy to settle for the next best thing - the digital fine art print or the fine art card - even if these don't come cheap!

Those who know their customers and markets well make sure they have sufficient stock of both prints

Review - 123rd Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters

Jennifer McRae's portrait "Conversations with Duncan" has won the £10,000 Ondaatje Prize plus the RSPP Gold Medal at the 123rd Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters for the most distinguished portrait of the year. Jennifer is not a member but was invited by the Society's President to submit a work.

In my opinion, it's a stunning work and it's worth going to the exhibition

The Arrival of Spring - David Hockney's latest exhibition

Something like 85% of digital drawings in The Arrival of Spring sold before David Hockney's new exhibition opens tomorrow at Annely Juda Fine Art.  However the stars of the exhibition are a new set of charcoal drawings completed in Spring 2013 - and they're not yet for sale.  I imagine when the time comes they'll either be donated to a major art gallery or museum or they will be sold as a

How do you market an exhibition or open studios?

Here's a reminder of some material I highlighted on this blog some time ago.  This has been prompted by the fact that I've had about four different versions of the same question asked today - which all relate to how do you market art via an exhibition or open studios.

So here are links to my pdf article guides (on my website) about press releases and publicity. The titles contain the link to

4 May 2014 - Who's made a mark?

Society of Botanical Artists Exhibition Invitation


I'm back "on the book" this month - we're now at the editing / design / layout stage and refinement re images.  For those involved I may be getting back to you!

As before this post is a recap of:

recent posts on this blog
things I've seen and highlighted on my Facebook Page. Many thanks to all those who have 'liked' my Facebook Page in the

Van Dyck self portrait saved for the nation by most successful fundraising campaign ever

The Save Van Dyck's Self Portrait  fundraising campaign jointly run by the National Portrait Gallery and the Art Fund has proved to be the most successful campaign run in the last 100 years. A substantial Heritage Lottery Grant supplements funds already raised and the iconic Van Dyck self portrait will now stay in Britain.

It will also be made much more accessible to people around the country

Jerwood Drawing Prize 2014 - Call for Entries

The longest running annual open exhibition for drawing in the UK is The Jerwood Drawing Prize - worth £6,000 to the winner.

The call for entries has been made for the prestigious Jerwood Drawing Prize 2014. Online registration opened last week and the deadline for online registration: 16 June 2014, 5pm.
The Jerwood Drawing Prize exhibition represents and celebrates the diversity, excellence,

The Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2014 - Call for Entries

The Call for Entries for 27th year of the prestigious Sunday Times Watercolour Competition was published today. Artists are invited to submit up to four works.

The Sunday Times Watercolour Competition provides an opportunity for artists across the UK to redefine, celebrate and reward excellence and originality in watercolour and water-based media.  
This post tells you about:


who can enter

Interest Lists: How to make sure Facebook does not filter the content you want to read

Yesterday I posted about recent changes to the Facebook Newsfeed - see This week's changes on Facebook - and what to do next.  (PS I added new content and updated this after I published it - I thought of a more few things - like the need to NOT like and hide posts from your newsfeed)

Today I want to expand on the idea of how to create and/or share Interest Lists as a way of ensuring you see the

This week's changes on Facebook - and what to do next

You know that happy habit Facebook has of changing things without telling you?

They did it again on Thursday - and I think all the changes we're now seeing are linked to two things

their new newswire service see https://www.facebook.com/FBNewswire AND
changes to newsfeeds to get rid of spam and junk content


On the face of it, the first change is nothing for to us to get excited about - it's

Interviews with six RHS Botanical Art Gold Medal Winners (2014)

This year there were six botanical artists who won RHS Gold Medals at the Royal Horticultural Society's Botanical Art Show last week. This post has interviews with all six.


This is a VERY LONG post and is for those interested in the technical aspects of producing a gold medal winning display of botanical art.

So grab your favourite hot drink and a comfy chair and settle down for a jolly good

The One Show Summer Art Competition - another way exhibit at the Royal Academy of Arts

Details of the The One Show Summer Art Competition have been published. This year, if selected, your work could be hung in an exhibition in the Reynolds Room at the Royal Academy at the same time as the 246th Summer Exhibition i.e. between 16 June – 9 August 2014.

Over 700 people entered this competition last year.

12 shortlisted artists in each category (13-17 years old and over 18s) will

Top 10 tips for being an artist

Suzanne du Toit, winner of the BP Portrait Award 2013, has written an article for the BBC on her top 10 tips for being an artist.

They're not just about being a portrait artist. Indeed a botanical artist friend of mine said she could identify with every one!



Suzanne du Toit with the BP Portrait Award 2013(Left: Sandy Naire, Director of the National Portrait GalleryRight: Joanna Trollope,

21st April 2014 - Who's made a mark?

This is the first of my "Who's made a mark" posts in a while.  It's a round-up of my posts on this blog and on Facebook PLUS it's interspersed with other news I've noticed as I get back to more normal life.

During my time writing the book I've had a couple of major milestones



The Making A Mark Facebook Page yesterday - with 2,001 likes


Making A Mark achieves 2.5 million visits came in March

Grayson Perry on television in 2014

Grayson Perry CBE RA - artist and contemporary social anthropologist is set to wow us with more of his fresh insights into contemporary society and the place of artmaking within it with two new television programmes due to be aired later this year. They are:

a brand new three part series about portraiture and identity called Who Are You? and 
a one off programme Grayson's Great Design

This

Shortlist announced for BP Portrait Award 2014

Two elderly women and a homeless man painted by an international shortlist of three male artists are in competition for the £30,000 BP Portrait Award 2014.

These are:

Thomas Ganter (Germany) for Man with a Plaid Blanket
David Kassan (USA) for Letter to my Mom and
Richard Twose (UK) for Jean Woods.



The second and third prizes in the 35th year of this internationally prestigious art

Sarah Simblet and The New Sylva - a video

Back in 2008 I did a drawing class with Sarah Simblet about Drawing Trees at the National Gallery. She talked about a major project she had embarked upon to draw trees.

Little did I realise at the time this would lead her to illustrating a new and revised version of a very old book about trees. The New Sylva - published this month - is an updated book about trees which takes as its starting

More Top Tips for winning an RHS Gold Medal for Botanical Art

Last year I wrote Ten Top Tips for winning an RHS Gold Medal for Botanical Art - which proved very popular with botanical artists around the world.  So this year I'm back with more Top Tips from this year's "crop" of Gold Medal Winners



Gold Medal winning Exhibit of Parasitic Plants in Situ with the Host Plant by Lynda de Wet
The painting second from left with the red spot was bought for the

15 Top Tips for presenting work at an RHS Botanical Art Exhibition

There are two important aspects of artwork in the RHS Botanical Art Exhibition - the artwork and its presentation. The latter is very important - as discussed below.

Poor presentation will certainly lose you marks and downgrade the level of medal that might be achieved by the paintings exhibited.

So here are 15 top tips culled from the Gold Medal winning exhibitors this year (and in previous

RHS Botanical Art Show 2014 - Medal winners

Below you can find a list of the awards made this morning at the RHS Botanical Art Show 2014 at the RHS Horticultural Halls in Westminster.  The exhibition continues tomorrow.



Best Botanical Painting - by Işık Güner


RHS Best Botanical Painting - Işık Güner 

RHS Best Exhibit of Botanical Art - Hye Woo Shin


RHS Gold Medal - Botanical Art

Hye Woo Shin (Korea) - Heterotrophic Plants in Korea

Video: Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours - Annual Exhibition

This is a video panning around the walls of the 202nd Annual Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours



view of the West Gallery at the RI Annual Exhibition 2014

The purpose of this video isn't to give you an in-depth view of all the paintings so much as to give you:

an idea of the overall size of the exhibition
a notion of how big the paintings are that get selected via

Pop Up Studio at the RHS Botanical Art Exhibition

The RHS London Orchid and Botanical Art Show is open to the public on Friday and Saturday this week at the RHS Horticultural Halls (Lawrence & Lindley Hall) in Westminster, London SW1P 2PE. The Botanical Art Show is in the Lindley Hall.


This year there are going to be nearly 30 botanical artists exhibiting and hoping to win a much coveted Royal Horticultural Society Gold Medal.   This show

Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2014 - Call for Entries

Entries for the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2014 close on 1st May.

Last year some 1,800 artists entered the competition and 84 artists were chosen to participate in the regional heats. Below you can find about the competition and how to enter.

Before reading on you do need to think about the implications of this being a competition with a time limit of four hours for the production of

Complete the draft and then upload it.......

one of the images in the bookIt's a 2 minute contour drawing,
done in a life class

Today is upload day - via Dropbox.  My book about drawing and sketching has started its journey to the Editor.........

Not quite sure when that journey is going to end as.....

It's going very slowly.........


Complete draft of book about drawing and sketching (done)
Get all your images in from contributors (

Fridge Magnet Art

This is what the bottom half of my (eyelevel) fridge door looks like - decorated with fridge magnets from various top art galleries and museums.



My Fridge Magnets

There's something of a colour theme coming through - and also an indication of which artists I like. There are more artists I like but who are not as yet represented and that's only because I haven't got hold of any of their fridge

Why social media matters in 2014

Ever wondered whether you ought to be doing more on social media - but didn't know where or how to apply your efforts?


Watching this video about the 10 social media facts and statistics in 2014 will help you decide. It's focused on the USA however the majority of the themes will travel - such as the very heavy gender bias on Pinterest.



You will find your jaw drops when you read some of the