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