Japanese Body Painting Artist

The Call for Entries for The Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2016 has been published.  This is the 29th year of the largest and most prestigious prize for contemporary watercolour painting in the UK.  This is the one that most watercolour painters want to be selected for as a mark of credibility on their CV. The Sunday Times Watercolour Competition aims to celebrate and reward excellence

Facebook has been messing around with the news feeds of Facebook Pages and totally disrupting workflow for those managing several Pages. I can only assume that they don't realise that people actually "like" the Facebook Pages of others so they can read them. What used to happen I used to log in to my Page from my account - and the profile pic would change from my account profile pic to the

A film about David Hockney on the BBC escaped my notice - perhaps because it was on at 3.30am in the morning! Anyway, all Hockneyphiles with access to iPlayer have until 5.30am on Monday 4th April to view Hockney. (It was shown last year at 9pm 14 Mar 2015 - but true fans always watch twice!) It's a wonderful biography full of his own photographs and videos - I dare say I shall watch it more

Last year, the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of British Artists was a pleasure to review (see Royal Society of British Artists 2015 - Annual Exhibition). It had well and truly bounced back from its nadir in 2012 (see see RBA 2012: An exhibition of Middle England?) This year's exhibition has 445 artworks in the main exhibition and 35 works in the NADFA's RBA Scholars exhibition and 20

I've been fascinated for a very long time by the different organisational forms that art societies around the world choose to take; and how they choose to organise themselves. Indeed being successful as an art society revolves very much around how the many challenges of running an art society and its various activities are managed. I've seen some laid low while others thrive - influenced very

I visited the annual exhibition of the Royal Society of British Artists yesterday. This is open every day (10am - 5pm) at the Mall Galleries until the 2nd April. View of the Main Gallery in the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of British Artists 2016 The Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) is dedicated to promoting the highest standards of skill, concept and draughtsmanship in

Are these the top 20 Universities for Art and Design in the World? That's what the latest 2016 QS World University Subject Rankings for Art and Design indicate. The 6th annual edition of these rankings of 1,376 institutions around the world were published today and you can see the complete listing by clicking the above link.  The methodology which produces the rankings is based on academic

Artists living in and paying tax in the UK need to stay on top of changes to tax and national insurance contributions. There is good news and not so good news. Tax Good news for amateur artists - a new Tax Allowance There's a major boost for the amateur artist! Those making up to £1,000 per annum (after expenses and before tax) from creating and selling art will no longer have to pay tax

The HP surfaces of Fabriano Artistico and Fabriano 5 have changed. (The latter being the paper which is used in the RKB FatPad) . A number of botanical watercolour artists have recently reported that they have noticed changes to the robustness and performance of the surface of their Hot Press paper from Fabriano. This was also reported by Jacksons in its recent blog post Fabriano 5 Paper Texture

The National Open Art Competition opened for entries at the beginning of March. The closing date for entries is 10th July 2016. The 2015 competition attracted nearly 4000 entries and awarded around £60,000 in prizes and mentoring opportunities to 35 winning artists. Th 2016 finalists will be exhibited in NOA’s Winter Exhibition at Mercers’ Hall in October where the prize winners will be

I visited the annual exhibition of the Contemporary Watercolour Competition run by the Royal Watercolour Society on Friday.  The exhibition continues until 16th March at the Bankside Gallery (right next to Tate Modern and the River Thames on the South Bank. You can see a virtual exhibition here on the RWS website.  This has hugely improved in terms of the page of works, and each work also

This is my video, taken late Monday afternoon, of the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize Exhibition 2016. The exhibition for this prestigious prize for representational art continues to be on display until Sunday 13th March at the Mall Galleries (10am - 5pm). Admission is free. You can also read my blog posts about this art competition, prizewinners and exhibition on this blog: Lynn

This is the first of my blog posts about my interviews with 12 of the 13 botanical artists who won a Gold Medal at the 2016 RHS London Botanical Art Show at the end of last month (27-28 February 2016). Best Exhibit in RHS London Botanical Art Show (February 2016) Tillandsia by Mariko Aikawa The painting second from the left was bought by the RHS for the RHS Lindley Library. I've decided to

The £15,000 Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize for 2016 - and a Gold Medal - has been awarded to Henry Kondracki for his oil painting of The Cowgate - in the snow - by The Worshipful Company of Painter Stainers and the Lynn Foundation. This is a prestigious prize for original, two-dimensional works in any painting or drawing media. The prize has two aims: to encourage the very best creative

Do you know what questions to ask when considering what to do about your artist's website - and whether or not it needs improving? Working your way through the 30 questions in this post will give you a "to do" list for improvements you need to work on. I look at a lot of websites while writing this blog. Some of them are very good, some are shambolic and a lot could be improved in both major and

The 2016 Exhibition for the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize - celebrating some of the best in representational painting - opens at the Mall Galleries tomorrow.  It's on from Monday 7th to Sunday 13th March (10am - 5pm) and admission is free.  For those unable to get to London to visit the exhibition you can also view the exhibition online Selected artists Below are the names of the artists whose

"How to get on - online" is the title of my latest talk about websites and social media for artists.  I've been asked by Heatherley's Art School in Chelsea to do a talk on 21st March about how artists can market both themselves and their art online using websites and social media Click this link for more details How to get on – online Marketing you and your art online - using websites and

Once upon a time there was an initiative called Your Paintings. The aim was to digitise and provide a comprehensive online catalogue of all the oil paintings in public ownership in the UK. As yet it does not provide any record of the watercolours, sculpture, drawing and prints also held by public collections - more's the pity. For some reason the website for 'Your Paintings' was hosted by the

The National Original Print Exhibition is run by the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers which is the UK's premier printmaking society Call for Entries Deadline for Entries: 21 June 2016 Who can enter The competition is open to international entries - but the entrant is responsible for getting their work to (and from) designated drop off and collection venues What can you enter

The third article in my series of "Cost effective ideas for artists" - about How to afford to exhibit your art - is now published in the April edition of The Artist. This summarises where you can exhibit and ways to reduce costs plus how to avoid some nasty surprises when exhibiting with galleries or your own account. A sample of the latest article in the April edition The article covers: