Selasa, 29 April 2014

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,

Senin, 28 April 2014

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

Minggu, 27 April 2014

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

Sabtu, 26 April 2014

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

Kamis, 24 April 2014

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

Rabu, 23 April 2014

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

Selasa, 22 April 2014

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,

Senin, 21 April 2014

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

Sabtu, 19 April 2014

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

Kamis, 17 April 2014

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

Rabu, 16 April 2014

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

Senin, 14 April 2014

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

Minggu, 13 April 2014

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

Jumat, 11 April 2014

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

Rabu, 09 April 2014

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

Selasa, 08 April 2014

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

Senin, 07 April 2014

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 (

Minggu, 06 April 2014

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

Jumat, 04 April 2014

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