Japanese Body Painting Artist

I've now been reading camera reviews for three days and feel like I've been reading them almost non-stop for the last 24 hours! So here's where I'm up to!  Comments and suggestions continue to be very welcome. I'd have never looked at the one I think I might get if it hadn't been for comments on the last post I'm shopping for a new camera ! First the general conclusions which have emerged

Yesterday, BBC4 broadcast a film about the story of 17th-century Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi called Michael Palin's Quest for Artemisia. I'm assuming Michael's name figures first in the title as he's beginning to get a bit of a reputation for doing programmes about leading artists. Michael Palin and the Mystery of Hammershoi Michael Palin in Wyeth's World I'm highlighting this

These are some of leading figures in the art world who died this year - plus some leading artists the in the UK art world and a couple I know personally. I've started at the end of the year and have worked backwards. Do please say if you think I've left anybody important out by mistake. December 2015 Ellsworth Kelly (age 93) an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker - see obituaries

I've not heard from Transport for London Lost Property Office so I'm assuming that it's unlikely I'm going to see my backpack again - which contained my camera (plus three sketchbooks and two pencil cases!) So I've decided to make the most of the sales and have started shopping for a new camera By which I mean I've started interrogating all the review sites about which cameras best meet my

Season's Greetings to all those who follow 'Making A Mark'  on my blog and/or on Facebook.  Your 'likes' and comments are always very much valued wherever you leave them Wishing you and yours a happy day today and all the very best for the New Year. This is my colour pencil drawing of the Ice Lake from a special winter day at Sheffield Park in Sussex. I look at this every single day

As usual I have some suggestions as to art exhibitions to see in London over the Christmas/New Year period. Plus the all important details of when the galleries are open and when they are closed. Major exhibitions have their titles in bold Links to the website for the exhibition is embedded in each title Exhibition venues are ordered according to the number of visitors they generated in 2014

Did you know that the world's very first Christmas card was sent by the director of an art museum? Henry Cole, the Founding Director of the Victoria & Albert Museum sent the first Christmas card in 1843 This post covers two topics the Christmas e-card sent as part of your marketing communications plan for your business as an artist the Christmas e-card you might need to send to friends and

I first got to know Robyn Sinclair as somebody who had an enormous talent for leaving encouraging comments and remarks on this blog and my sketch blog. I feel absolutely certain this was an experience that I share with many other artists and sketchers. I'm very sorry to have to share with those of you who knew her that Robyn passed away on Saturday evening after a long illness. Robyn

The process, fees and timescales have changed for the call for entries for the 2016 Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists These are explained below. However the key changes to note are: non-members can submit digital entries this year the fees charged have changed and are now much simpler the timescale has changed - non-members wanting to use the new digital entry process need

Thirty artists have been shortlisted for The John Ruskin Prize 2015. The Prize winners will be announced at the private view on 25 February 2016. This is an annual art competition about drawing - with a theme. The Prize was established in 2012 to support emerging British artists. It aims to uphold Ruskin’s belief that drawing helps us see the world and its fragility more clearly. The theme

Six artists have been shortlisted for The Columbia Threadneedle Prize of £20,000 plus a solo exhibition at Mall Galleries. Exhibition All visitors to the exhibition in February 2016 will be encouraged to vote for their favourite to win the second major prize - the £10,000 The Visitors’ Choice Award. The exhibition will be at  The Mall Galleries including Visitors’ Choice Award: Wednesday

As more and more art competitions and open exhibitions change over to digital entry, it's becoming more and more important to know how to photograph your artwork. One thing I do know from the very many images of artwork that I see on people's blogs / websites / Facebook is that lots of people do NOT know how to produce a good quality image which avoids photographic distortions loses the grey

A lot of artists like to get the letters after their name which mean they are a signature member of a prestigious art society.  For many this also helps them to get a 'proper art gallery' to represent them. However first you need to become a member of the art society - or an associate member. This post is a plea to some of the more prestigious art societies to make the information about how to

Lots of aspiring artists want to sell art from their home. I've been wondering how many have thought through the implications of doing so when it goes beyond simply selling online and then wrapping up and posting artwork done at home. Selling art from home - Things to think about This is Selling Art from Home - a new page on my art business website. It aims to cover all the things you need to

I learned a few new things about framing art while writing this week's blog post Do frames help to sell art? Today's post is also about framing and shares some facts you might not be aware of. You can find the references to articles read in arriving at a wider knowledge of framing and framing choices at the end of the article. The purpose of a frame A frame has four main purposes. It serves

I've just completed my 'end of year' update of this page - UK National Art Societies: Open Exhibitions 2016 on my blog. It provides summary details of all the major open art exhibitions in the UK in 2016 by: national art societies major regional art societies These summary details are: Deadline for online entries - Most submissions are now digital - hence the description. These are all

I was very taken with the new frames being used by a very well established member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters at their annual exhibition last week. So much so that this was the first photo I took.  I really loved the way the frames were neutral and unassuming and enabled eyes to focus purely on the painting. Oil paintings by Roger Dellar ROI red dots indicate two have sold By the

After five years, the Europe Galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum that house the permanent collection of 17th- and 18th century European art and design will reopen to the public on Wednesday. This brings to an end another of the major projects in the programme of upgrading the galleries to the 21st century. To provide all our visitors with the best quality experience and optimum access to

One of the things I love to see is an art society which makes time to celebrate young emerging artists in its annual exhibition AND prize sponsors who believe in backing young artists. At the 2015 Annual Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters at the Mall Galleries, one wall is devoted to the Young Artists who were considered for the Winsor & Newton Oil Painters Awards (for artists

a view of the Main Gallery of the Mall galleries and the ROI Annual Exhibition I visited the 2015 Annual Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters yesterday afternoon - and came away with a theory about framing. That's going to take some number-crunching and another post to reveal however it's likely to be very relevant to next year's exhibition - and those of others who exhibit at the

I'm guessing that there are people like me who have been watching The Great Pottery Throw Down on BBC2 and thinking "must pay a bit more attention to ceramics"! So last week I took the lift to the sixth floor of the Victoria & Albert Museum and walked the whole length of the V&A - from end to end and round the corner - because that's how big the galleries need to be that house the V&A's Ceramics

I'm having a MAJOR problem uploading images to Blogger when using the Chrome browser When I click the picture icon while writing a post - to upload an image - instead of getting the normal 'upload an image' screen, I get this huge pop-up with a completely nonsensical message The message says "in order to select an item from your online storage, please sign in" The problems with uploading

I learned a few new things about the Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron at the preview of the exhibition of her photographs at the Victoria and Albert Museum - which opened last week. View of the Julia Margaret Cameron exhibition There are currently two exhibitions about Cameron in the museums of South Kensington The Julia Margaret Cameron Exhibition is on display in Room 100 (the

The names of the artists and artwork selected for The Columbia Threadneedle Prize have been announced. You can find them below - along with some of the images of the artwork The last Threadneedle Prize awards Dinner - in the middle of the exhibition at the Mall Galleries You will recall I posted the The Columbia Threadneedle Prize - Call for Entries back in July. This week those who entered

Would you like to spend a month in Rome with a studio, room and board provided? This post is about opportunities to spend time in Rome painting - supported by a scholarship or other Funding. The Forum Seen from the Farnese Gardens (1826) by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot H. 0.28 m; W. 0.50 m The RBA Rome Scholarship 2016 The prize is presented with a view to offer an enriching learning

The Call for Entries for the BP Portrait Award 2016 was published yesterday on the National Portait Gallery website - so it's time to write my Annual Guide to how to enter and how to improve your chances of being selected! Many of those who've been selected in the past have told me they've found it very helpful. The closing date for digital entries from artists all over the world is 2nd

A round-up of recent posts about art, artists, art exhibitions and news relevant to art by me and others in newspapers, journals, blogs and Facebook A new exhibition Artist & Empire opens at Tate Britian this week. Mahadaji Sindhia entertaining a British naval officer and military officer with a Nautch c.1815-20 Anonymous Delhi School Watercolour on paper, 222 x 317 mm | British Library The

Ever wondered how Google rates websites to determine how they rank in their search engine? The aim of this post is to: tell you the latest news from Google - it will impact on whether and how often people find your website or blog relate what Google says about how to rate websites to things that artists do on or with their websites. Every so often you will see a TIP. What's New? Google did

ING Discerning Eye - exhibitions by Nicole Farhi and Larry Lamb. Yesterday I ventured out after a week of resting my frozen back and went to visit the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition at the Mall Galleries.... ...and got to meet Larry Lamb, one of this year's selectors and Tony Humphreys, the CEO of The Discerning Eye charity who were both chatting to a well known lady who I very much suspect

I've spent a delightful few hours recently putting together a page About Rory McEwen on my Botanical Art and Artists website. I'm going to develop a series of pages about various famous botanical artists. I started with Maria Sibylla Merian so decided to do a contemporary botanical artist next - and, of course Rory McEwen was the obvious one to do!  For those who don't know him, he's probably

Back in April I launched a new website now called Art Business Info. for Artists.  Since then I've been steadily updating the content, including some that is new rather than transferred from old sites.    You can access this easily from the home page - see image below. This post is about three new aspects to the site a new blog for news about the art business a new page about art dealers and

A Lucian Freud Archive of sketchbooks and drawings has been gifted to the nation by The Estate of Lucian Freud in settlement of £2,940,000 Inheritance Tax following the artist's death in 2011.  The Archive comprises 47 Sketchbooks spanning his career from the mid-1940s up until his death additional drawings;  a collection of 162 childhood drawings and  a collection of letters from Lucian

On Thursday night the prizewinners in the ING Discerning Eye art competition were announced.  The Tyne at Wallsend Study 1 by Andrew Gifford won the main ING Purchase Prize of £5000. The ING Discerning Eye Exhibition of selected works (457 artworks by 197 artists) opened to the public on Friday at the Mall Galleries, The Mall, London SW1 until 22 November 2015. The gallery is open everyday

NPG website page re. the portrait of Camila Batmanghelidjh. Following the publication of the damning Public Accounts Committee Report into the funding and activities of Kids Company this afternoon I asked the National Portrait Company what was happening about the portrait of Camila Batmanghelidjh (its former CEO) I've got a lot of experience and expertise in reviewing applications for

A view of the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize Exhibition 2015 showing three prizewinners First Prize (£12,000): David Stewart Back in 2008 David Stewart created a portrait photograph of five girls about to start their GCSEs titled Five Girls, Four Cartons, Three Cups (subtitle 'United by hair'). Last night he won the £12,000 First Prize in the Taylor Wessing Photographic

The Third New York Botanical Garden Triennial is titled Out of the Woods: Celebrating Trees in Public Gardens. The Call for Entries has been issued by the American Society of Botanical Artists - and I've summarised it below. Entries are eligible for New York Botanical Garden Gold, Silver, and Bronze Medals. The reason for posting it now is drawing and painting trees tends to take a bit of time

I was impressed by some Daniel Smith watercolours I saw last Friday. Today you can enjoy them too! As somebody who has studied geology in the past I'm intrigued by some of the minerals they're using. I love the names of the minerals. What's also impressive is the level of information you get about each individual colour on the Daniel Smith website. Each colour gets an individual page with: an

The 204th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours will be held at the Mall Galleries between 6-16 April 2016. If you're interested in submitting an entry read this post about the Call for Entries! The Private View of the 2015 Annual Exhibition (right click the image to see a larger version in a new tab) How to succeed as a watercolour painter If you want to

The Rijksmuseum has started a campaign - #startdrawing - to get more people drawing. I hope the art museums in this country give the campaign their endorsement too. “In our busy lives we don’t always realize how beautiful something can be. We forget how to look really closely. Drawing helps because you see more when you draw. People who want to draw are always welcome in the Rijksmuseum.” Wim

Last night, at the Awards ceremony for the 18th Annual International Exhibition of the American Society of Botanical Artists and The Horticultural Society of New York, Fiona Strickland was presented with the The Hort’s Best in Show Award. The award was for her wonderful watercolour painting of Rhododendron 'Horizon Monarch'. Rhododendron 'Horizon Monarch' by Fiona Strickland Watercolour 77

I didn't know until yesterday that the Victoria & Albert Museum has one of the foremost and comprehensive collections of Japanese Arts in the world. A view in the centre of the new gallery The Museum began collecting in 1852 - the year the museum opened. As such it played a very important part in raising the awareness of the art of Japan amongst both artists and art lovers in the second half

The fans were out in force last week for the Private View of the 52nd Annual Exhibition of the Society of Wildlife Artists. It continues at the Mall Galleries until Sunday 8th November. The Private View - Opening of the Exhibition You can see the online catalogue on the Mall Galleries website Below you can read and see: my comments and images from the exhibition the prizewinners details

Artists Oil Colours - Cadmium Yellow and Cadmium Orange Due to all the action taken by various art materials people, scientists, art magazines and lots and lots of artists, the European Union have announced they have agreed NOT to proceed with the proposed ban on cadmium in artists' paints. Some people will have read my previous posts on the proposed ban of Cadmium Paint: Will Cadmium be

Julian Merrow Smith of Postcard from Provence has many fans - but few have met him and few have seen him paint - until now. A student perspective of Julian Merrow-Smith doing a plein air painting demonstration One of Julian's recent students, Timothy Joseph Allen, has now posted on YouTube a 20 minute video on YouTube of a painting demonstration done during Julian's last painting workshop of

This is the third post in a series of posts about how to hang a picture using different types of hanging hardware This post considers what a mirror plate is, why use mirror plates and how to attach them to a frame. The previous posts are: How to hang a picture - using D Rings How to hang a large or heavy picture - using heavy duty hanging hardware What is a mirror plate? A Mirror Plate -

The BBC is currently telling The Story of Scottish Art on BBC Scotland - but is not broadcasting this south of the border. However I've only just found out that , very sensobly, all the programmes are now available to all of us who can access BBC iPlayer. I haven't watched them all as yet but the little I've seen suggest they are all going to be fascinating. I'm 'flying blind' when it comes to

The critical factors you need to know when hanging a heavy picture are: what weight the picture is what sort of hanging hardware is best for the job what sort of wall you are hanging it on. 'How to hang a picture' series This post considers how to hang a heavy picture, why use heavy duty picture hangers and how to attach them to a frame. It's the second post in a series of posts about how

I'm going to be doing a number of posts about how to hang a painting. These will consider different aspects of what's involved in hanging a painting and hanging an exhibition. This first post will consider how to hang a picture frame using D rings - using two different approaches for different size and weight of picture - and includes images and videos to show you how to use D rings. A small 

We visited Saffron Walden recently and discovered the Fry Art Gallery which is open from April to the end of October each year.  The gallery provides a home to artwork by artists known as the Great Bardfield Artists who are also the subject of a recent publication - Bawden, Ravilious and the Artists of Great Bardfield.  The book of the exhibition | V&A Publications On display at the

This year's Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Miniature Artists, Sculptors and Gravers has more than 600 works of art - in miniature.  All the works are less than 6" x 4" in size. The exhibition can be found in the North Gallery of the Mall Galleries and continues until Sunday 25th October. The exhibition is open each day from 10am to 5pm. It closes at 1pm on the final day. Admission is

This is about a recent study about the impact of drawing and painting and art appreciation on the mental health and well-being of older people. Left Brain Right Brain A recent post to my Facebook Page has been very well received - and I didn't want to deprive those of you who are not on Facebook! Would you like to generate "a significant improvement in psychological resilience"? Start

The 70th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Marine Artists opened yesterday at the Mall Galleries. It closes on Sunday 25th October. RSMA exhibition in the Main Gallery There are 329 paintings, prints, drawings and sculptures in the exhibition in the Main Gallery and the Threadneedle Space.  For those unable to get to see it, you can view the catalogue of the exhibition online. It's an

The Royal Watercolour Society published their Call for Entries for the RWS Contemporary Watercolour Competition 2016 last week. Webpage for the RWS Contemporary Watercolour Competition RWS Contemporary Watercolour Competition 2016 Call for Entries This is a link to the Application Pack which provides the details about who/what/where and when. Who can enter The Royal Watercolour

A lot of the professional artists and other art business professionals (museums, galleries, publishers, suppliers etc) that I know are members of LinkedIn - which is a network designed for connecting professionals. It characterises itself thus the world's largest professional network with 300 million members in over 200 countries and territories around the globe I'm a member - and this is my

Time for a pause in blogging - for reflection on the life of Polly, my much loved Abyssinian cat. "Pause"Polly sunbathing in the doorway heard me behind her and an ear twitched round - worked up from a 15 second sketch and my memory!14" x 11" coloured pencil on black Stonehenge paper She died this afternoon after becoming very sick with heart failure 10 days ago. Losing Polly would be bad

The names of the artists who have artwork selected for the ING Discerning Eye 2015 Exhibition were recently announced.  You can find them below, ordered by the number of works selected and with links to their websites in their names - where I can find them. I'm very reliant on artists getting their  website on to the front page of Google and actually announcing their good news on their website -

...which is why you really need to practice drawing in pen and ink! 10 reasons to draw in pen and ink When you draw in pen and ink you'll learn... 1. How to observe When you can't erase, you'll find you learn to become much more observant and practice looking more carefully on a routine basis when you're drawing. Drawing with a pen and without an eraser means you slow down at first and pay

Have you ever wondered what the artist statement of famous artists look like? Jeff Koons, Artist, New York City, Studio Portrait by Chris Fanning I've been developing a page devoted to Examples of Artists Statements on Art Business Info for Artists. Or should that be "Artist Statements by Artists"? Anyway, I think it's a great idea to see examples of what famous and successful artists have

A major announcement by Gabi Campanario today - he's stepping down from the Board of Urban Sketchers. Dear fellow urban sketchers, Since setting up the Urban Sketchers nonprofit in 2009, I've been quite involved with most operational aspects of the organization, from filing government forms and dealing with bank accounts to setting up blogs, organizing events and recruiting volunteers. As

I've had one of those weeks with lots of different things going on - all of which have contrived to keep me from writing a 'normal' blog post on Making A Mark However I've learned a few lessons on the way and you can find them below under headings which loosely describe what they are about. Art Societies in the UK The new website/blog for Art Societies in the UK http://

This is the 16th year of The Big Draw - which takes place throughout October in various countries across the world as well as across the UK Last year 414,000 people attended over 1800 events by more than 1000 organisers across 26 countries! Now that's BIG! The theme is announced via drawing Key facts for anybody interested in drawing  ....or knows children, young people, adults or

 Winner of the BP Portrait Award 2015 Visitors' Choice 'Juanito' by José Luis Corella (the portrait on the right of the above photo) oil, 100cm x 100cm © José Luis Corella | Photo © Katherine Tyrrell 'Juanito' by José Luis Corella has won the BP Portrait Award 2015 Visitors' Choice and continues the public's obsession with "big head" paintings with lots and lots of detail. Corella's large

Where does one start - except to say he will be missed. Brian Sewell at the Mall Galleries in 2012 I've regularly highlighted Brian Sewell on this blog and I've got his signature on his biography. I've even drawn him despite also having a video of him being painted by three different people to constant comments from Brian! (see below for an excerpt on YouTube - which reminds us of that

I promised more visuals of the Florum 2015 Exhibition which closes tomorrow at 5pm. Here's a slideshow of the exhibition as some incentive to get down there and take a closer look tomorrow! This is a slideshow of the two parts of the exhibition. I think I've got it all with the exception of the jewellery which I forgot to photograph.  The slideshow works on the basis of walking around the

I've just updated the font I use for text on this blog - and moved from Georgia (which is a Serif font I like) to a Sans Serif font (PT Sans 14 px) The thing is - when both Apple and Google are using Sans Serif fonts because of the rise in viewing via mobile devices it seems sensible to do the same. The PT Sans font from Google Fonts The rationale for using a sans serif font for browsing

Yesterday I visited the first day of the 28th exhibition of Sunday Times Watercolour Competition at the Mall Galleries. If you want to see the exhibition you need to make a date this week as the exhibition is only on until Saturday 19th September. It's open every day (10am until 5pm) and admission is free. Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2015 - Prizewinners Left to right: Left - Winner of

In the summer, I visited the Chelsea School of Botanical Art and was able to see a class in action. This is about that visit and the courses offered by the school. The Chelsea School of Botanical Art - the home page of the website The School is based in a building at the Chelsea Physic Garden, founded by the Society of Apothecaries in 1673. It's located at the Cheyne Walk end of the Royal

It's always a pleasure to go to the Florum exhibition not least because there rather a lot of good drawings, paintings and prints of flowers, plants and gardens on display. The fact that the nibbles at the Private View are rather scrumptious adds to the attraction. However this year the main attraction was the fact this is the best Florum exhibition I've seen  to date. It includes some fine and

This is my second review of the watercolour exhibitions currently on display at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge until Sunday 4th October. This one is devoted to Ruskin's Turners - and is a little later than planned. You can find out more about them below. However the important things to note is that there are very long intervals between exhibitions of these paintings. The last exhibition was

At around 5.30pm today, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II becomes the UK's longest serving monarch - passing the record previously held by Queen Victoria.  Her reign will have lasted 23,226 days 16 hours and 23 minutes Or 63 years plus 16 leap days - during which she has outlasted 12 different Prime Ministers! The image of the Queen is iconic. Her face has been seen around the world by more people

I'm slightly preoccupied at the moment - getting my artwork scanned and into frames for tomorrow's submission to Florum! The exhibition is open to the public at Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve from 12th - 19th September. It includes artwork by a fantastic range of invited artists. This is one of my artworks - my version of 'Nopal de Cerro (Opuntia lasiacantha)' which is a member of the Prickly Pear

It's the first Saturday of the month and JMW Turner's House at Twickenham is open today 2.00 to 4.30pm. Sandycombe Lodge is the country retreat which J.M.W. Turner designed for himself in 1813. The House is open the first Saturday of the month between April and October.  Vistors are advised to use the train as there is no parking for cars. Turner’s House will open for ‘walk-in’ visitors on two

While I was in Cambridge recently I visited the Fitzwilliam Museum to see two exhibitions: Watercolour: Elements of nature (Mellon Room) - finishes 27 September Ruskin's Turners (Shiba Gallery) - finishes 4 October (after last being exhibited 15 years ago!) Below you will find a review of the first exhibition - and review of Ruskin's Turners follows tomorrow. I highly recommend both

An update on my post last week St. Paul's Studios on the Talgarth Road. St Paul's Studios being sold 'off plan' (right click and open in a new tab to see a larger image) My post on Facebook drew this comment from Dennis Spicer - which answers some of the comments about noise. I used to live very near these and got to know Alan Day when he came to my life drawing classes at Hammersmith Adult

The Call for Entries for the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2016 has been published. The Prize has two aims: to encourage the very best creative representational painting and  to promote the skill of draughtsmanship It's a well regarded competition and one which looks good on a CV! An exhibition of c. 100 works selected by the Panel of Judges will be held at the Mall Galleries between 7-13th

The prizewinners in the 2015 Sunday Times Watercolour Competition were announced earlier today. Akash Bhatt RWS RBA has won the £10,000 First Prize for his latest painting of his mother - called Blue Room. Winner of the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2015 £10,000 First Place Blue Room by Akash Bhatt Over the years the artist has drawn and painted both his parents and developed a suite

I went to see the Annual Exhibition by the Hesketh Hubbard Art Society on Thursday. The Society is London's largest life drawing society The Portrait (£175) by John Harper Sutton Charcoal The exhibition is now finished.  This post highlights: my thoughts on the exhibition - and a suggestion for the future the prizewinners  work by artists I liked the artist who had the most visitors - due

Many artists living in London who have ever travelled west will have marvelled at the Artists Studio from the Arts and Crafts era - with the wonderful large north facing windows - on the A4 just before the start of the Hammersmith Flyover. They're called St. Paul's Studios. I've always wanted to know more about them and the sale of one of them means this post includes information about: one

I don't often write about the exhibitions of individual artists - however Rosa Sepple very much deserves to be highlighted on the pages of this blog. Rosa can currently be found in the Mall Galleries with her one woman exhibition "Out of the Blue" - in association with her gallery (Adrian Hill Fine Art, Holt, Norfolk). She's an elected member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colour (

It's been a while since I mentioned the topic of planning for our retirement as artists. I know a lot of people aren't thinking about retiring as artists - but there does come a time for some artists when eyesight begins to fail and arthritis sets in! Today I've published a new page about Retirement and Pensions for Artists on my Art Business Info for Artists website. It includes all the

While I was out sketching in Cambridge on Sunday, somebody took a look at a page on Making A Mark and notched up the 8,000,000th page view - according to Blogger! Magdalen Bridge and Scudamores, Cambridgepen and sepia ink and coloured pencils I got a non-stop commentary from the Punter Guides of the history of Magdalene College as they went past below! Isn't it absolutely amazing that one

There are a very few art blogs which I have followed consistently in the last 10 years. One of them is Charley Parker's fantastic 'Lines and Colors'. It's a really class act! The header for the Lines and Colors art blog - note the quotes! There are very few people on the Internet who write with enthusiasm and real knowledge about an enormous variety of artists and illustrators past and

On 19th September, a major exhibition of work by the leading Chinese contemporary artist Ai Wei Wei opens at the Royal Academy of Art. The exhibition is the first major institutional survey of his artistic output It's been curated in collboration with Ai Wei Wei from his studio in Beijing. It includes  significant works from 1993 - when Ai Weiwei returned to China - after more than a decade

I've noticed on every London Urban Sketchers sketchcrawl that I've organised that we always seem to get people coming along who are temporarily visiting London. Plus we also have a large group of people from around the UK (e.g. Oxford, Cambridge, Northampton, Southampton) who regularly come to the sketchcrawls in London It struck me that maybe other Urban Sketchers groups in the UK and other

I've developed a new page on my Art Business Info for Artists website. It's part of a brand new section I'm developing about selling art. Two sub-sections I've started to develop relate to: selling via art dealers, art galleries and art agents selling art online via ecommerce the starting page for the 'how to sell art' section of my website Selling Art This page provides a summary of

The 23rd Annual International Exhibition of the Coloured Pencil Society of America is currently on display at Oglethorpe University Museum in Atlanta, Georgia - until 23rd August 2015. Every year this exhibition comprises artwork drawn using 100% colored pencil and is based in a gallery in a different part of the USA. I liked the way CPSA announced their prizewinners on the CPSA facebook page -

This week I visited the London's Secret Garden exhibition which celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Florilegium Society at the Chelsea Physic Garden. a corner of the exhibition - with the exhibition banner This is a very long post and comprises: a review of the exhibition - highlighting work by specific artists an account of how the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society works - and

Four years ago I certainly did! I spent an absolutely wonderful time drawing and painting Provence with friends while staying in the home of Julian Merrow-Smith (of Postcard from Provence fame)and his wife Ruth Phillips at the foot of Mont Ventoux.  Lots of really good memories. Paintings on boards from last year's Autumn Course Since that time Julian has started offering painting workshops -

Below you can find the Key Dates for the Call for Entries for Art Societies belonging to the Federation of British Artists - who will be holding their Annual Open Exhibitions in 2016 at the Mall Galleries Art Society Submit Online - DEADLINE Receiving Day in 2016 Exhibition Dates in 2016 Pastel Society 6 November 2015 9 January 23 February - 5 March Royal Society of British

It's always really interesting to see the different approaches - in terms of style and media- used by the botanical artists of another country.  The "Flowering Bulbs and Tubers" exhibition by the Dutch Society of Botanical Artists can be seen in Galleries 2, 3 and 4 at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery in Kew Gardens. It provides an excellent opportunity to view how the Dutch do it - and they do it

The Joy of Spring is coming to an end at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art. The last day of the exhibition is the 9th August after which the gallery closes for the installation of the next exhibition.  It's an exhibition which is well worth seeing... The Joy of Spring features a sequence of glorious paintings of spring flowers, each selected from the contemporary Shirley Sherwood