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