DA24001 Ray Evans - Sketching V01 150824

Anybody that has followed my blogging on artists and art knows that I have a particular liking for anyone that can sketch. It is an amazing human skill to be able to view any scene or object and instantly sketch it out on a piece of paper. Here is a book dedicated to teaching you how to sketch written and drawn by Ray Evans. (1920 -2008).

Use the link below to view “A Pocket Guide to Sketching” by Ray Evans (1986).

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17lqiy0x4o9q9NoGfK7tnVtfEJO_MkGuk/view?usp=sharing

Significantly not only does Ray Evans sketch examples of objects and scenes he also sketches out all the pens, brushes and paints he advises you to use. It was a lovely A6 size pocket book (10.5 cm by 14.8 cm) until I guillotined off the binding so I could put it through my sheet feed book scanner to create the above PDF. Enjoy. Banno

  

Newbridge, Ebbw Vale  1979

Biography - Ray Evans (1920–2008)

The National Library of Wales

Painter, illustrator, writer and teacher, born in Hale, Cheshire. He studied at Instituto di Belle Arti, Florence, 1945–6; Manchester College of Art, 1946–8; and Heatherley’s School of Fine Art, 1948–50, under Iain Macnab, termed “a great influence”. Evans worked for six months with the advertising agents Colman, Prentis & Varley, 1950–1, then as a freelance. Among various teaching appointments was Southampton College of Art, 1956–66. Did commissioned work for major companies such as British Petroleum, Eagle Star, banks and government. Many solo exhibitions included Thackeray, Furneaux and Canaletto Galleries; Winchester city art gallery; and Ashbarn Gallery in Petersfield. RA and RI, of which he was a member, RBA and RWA were among group show appearances.

Shared a three-man exhibition at The Wykeham Gallery, Stockbridge, 2002, another at The Albany Gallery, Cardiff, in 2003. Among Evans’ books were Travelling with a Sketchbook, 1980, and How to be a Successful Illustrator, 1993. National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, Southampton Education Authority and Winchester gallery hold his work. Lived in Salisbury, Wiltshire.

Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company) 

 

 

 

 Small Print

The Author Copyright of  “A Pocket Guide to Sketching “ is acknowledged as being owned Ray Evans (1920-2008) heirs or dependants or who so ever it willed to by Ray Evans. Whilst the Publishers Copyright, now lapsed, was owned by William Collins Sons & Co Limited. To seek approval of both the Author and Publisher the publisher was emailed but no response has been received as of August 2024.   

DMB Publishing the Digital Publisher of this digitised copy operates on a strictly non for profit basis, whilst it is shared here strictly under a Creative Commons 4.0 Licence defined by CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Deed. The copyright owners are acknowledged and if there is any objection to this digitised copy being shared the content will be immediately removed from the internet. The sole objective of its publication on the internet is to raise public awareness of this publication whilst ensuring its retention for posterity so future generations can have access to its content.

Afterword.

Strangely enough a copy of this book in a PDF format appears to be freely shared by www.scribd.com see below.

 

 

  

  

DA23005 Terry Harrison - Watercolour

I always enjoy looking through the printed Christmas Cards we receive through the post each year. There is always one that stirs my emotions when I look at the image printed on the front of the card. In my case the ones that appeal to me are usually watercolour paintings of some local scene. For some reason these are often seaside resorts. There must be embedded in my consciousness some memory stored imagery that when it matches up with the image on the Christmas Card fires my emotions. Maybe its whilst on holiday I am enjoying myself so much that images are more deeply recorded into the memory banks. Anyway. This year (2023) it was a watercolour called Harbourside by Terry Harrison.

So I did my usual Google search and sadly found that Terry Harrison (1951 – 2017) was deceased. But his legacy was being upheld by wife Fiona Peart who is also a watercolour artist with her painting just as appealing to me. Terry was obviously a very industrious artist both in his paintings sold through his own Fine Art Publishing Company but also in the ideas he marketed in terms of jigsaw puzzles, paint brushes and paints. My interest in art extends into how artists now make a living by making use of the internet based technologies. Many artists are now able to support themselves working at home or in a small studio by using the internet. To me this is the opportunity for artists themselves to win back ownership from the large corporate world that has for too long controlled these sales channels to the public.

So take a look at Terry Harrison and Fiona Peart on their respective websites with links below. Fiona like me also blogs on Blogspot (Google owned) so I have included her link as well.

www.terryharrisonart.com

www.fionapeart.com

https://fionapeart.blogspot.com

 

DA23004 Emma Appels-Riley – Watercolour

I met Emma briefly at her stall selling her artwork on the Shaldon Village Green, near Teignmouth, on Wednesday 23rd August 2023 at an Arts and Crafts Fair. Without a doubt the best artwork representing  my favoured genre that I had seen whilst exploring the local art galleries of Dawlish, Shaldon and Teignmouth. Her work is displayed at Gallery 8, 43 Teign Street, Teignmouth, Devon TQ14 8EA.

She describes her own work below :-

“Vibrant water colours of local scenes. I love painting buildings and all their quirky details with a large measure of artistic licence. Boat scenes are a favourite of mine. Watercolour is a real passion of mine and trying to capture the light is always my aim.”

She explained she did her painting in a loft area within her home. She admitted she did not focus enough on her web presence like many artists preferring to be painting rather than being at a screen marketing her creations. Having looked at her website I was surprised to see it covered her artwork undertaken in South Africa and the style was identical to my favourite Urban Sketcher Pete Scully with my post below linking to his work and digital activities :- 

https://adigitalartist.blogspot.com/2023/03/da23001-pete-scully-urban-sketcher.html

 But Emma's site below showed none of her latest work in Devon so she certainly needs to update her web presence urgently.

https://emmacarl.wixsite.com/emmaappelsriley/about-emma

Now for my usual rant about the state of art in the UK. So once again I reiterate my own concern about the modern art movement and the way it is being funded through the Government bureaucrats incorrectly controlling the funding to large Galleries and Museums. This being undertaken with poor taste and thereby failing to appreciate the importance of artistic education, skills and dedication. Looking at many of the modern art galleries so called modern art requires so little talent or effort. Modern artists have replaced the craft and long hours of practice with an odd desire to often become focussed on shock value or minimalistic or cartoon or abstract like representations rather than true art. This fashion in modern art to place artists like Damien Hirst and Tracey Ermin as being iconic artists of our era on a pedestal whilst ignoring the dedication of the true artists spending hours enhancing their techniques. With efforts focussed upon trying to convince the public that if you cannot see the hidden meanings behind these so called works of art you are in some way intellectually inferior. Whilst this trash sells for millions whilst work created by the dedicated true artists not making hundreds. What has gone so wrong with the art market ? How have we educated through Government and sadly the Media the public to place value on items that fail to represent the artistic skills that we should be acknowledging in our fellow human beings. Modern Art has become a odd interpretation of fashion rather than than something with long lasting pedigree. Is it recoverable? It is only recoverable through education where the next generations are taught to appreciate human creativity, skill and persistence.

In my case I believe that if the artists with these skills could embrace more the use of digital technology they have an opportunity to recover the situation through direct contact with the public. In parallel to this the efforts being made by Local Councils to develop in tourist locations a renaissance of local artists leading to a rediscovery of classical art and culture provides a counter movement to Government failure to lead on any sort of arts initiative. Read my  https://adigitalartist.blogspot.com/2023/04/da23002-cork-ireland-visual-centre-of.html to appreciate what the Irish Arts Council achieved in 1995-1997. The Government of the United Kingdom should consider such an initiative.   

To me it remains a necessity to view artwork ideally in its original state very closely to see the detail brush or pencil strokes of the artist. Unfortunately whilst such work on pure landscapes has become less popular the movements in respect of the inclusion of trains, boats and planes for the enthusiasts of these modes of transport has become inclusive of excellent landscapes. These have become excellent specialist artwork marketplaces commanding their justly deserved high prices paid by enthusiasts. So the inclusion of steam trains in any Teignmouth or Dawlish artwork immediately creates access to a new marketplace. Whilst in the Teignmouth and Shaldon areas the inclusion of boats exploits another transport focussed element and its associated marketplace. Build in vintage cars, buses and lorries to further exploit the nostalgic dimension.

So as the post was about Emma’s watercolours  I have included the one I purchased as a Limited Edition below subject to her Copyright so you get see the style of her latest work although the visual intensity of the colours is lost in this digital copy.

 

                   The Ship Inn & Back Beach, Teignmouth . 162/250 . Copyright : Emma Appels-Riley      

DA23003 Poster Art - American

One genre of visual arts that always appeals to me is Poster Art. In the United Kingdom I particularly like Railway Poster Art whilst in America all types of poster art appeals to me in particular the way they advertise their seaside destinations. This blog post will look at American Poster Art whilst a later post will look at UK Railway Poster Art. Let us look at some of the history of American Poster Art.

Please note the Copyright of the narrative “American Poster Art History” below belongs to :-

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ART 

© visual-arts-cork.com. All rights reserved. 

American Poster Art History

The 20^th Century would be dominated by American commercial illustration, not least because of its powerful publishing and printing industry. The introduction of four-colour letterpress printing technology made possible the faithful reproduction of a full colour painting. Henceforth illustrators could have their drawings and paintings reproduced exactly as created. Soon, publications like Harper's Weekly, McClure's, Scribner's, and The Century began to attract America's best painters as freelance illustrators. New publications appeared, including the Saturday Evening Post, Collier's Weekly, American Magazine, McCall's, Peterson's, Woman's Home Companion, Metropolitan, Outing, The Delineator, All-Story Magazine, Vogue and others, leading to a huge increase in opportunities for illustrative artists, although this did not prevent the use of labour-saving devices like cameras, Balopticans and pantographs. Young talented illustrators at this time included Stanley Arthurs, Harvey Dunn, Edward Hopper, Frank Schoonover and N.C. Wyeth, along with outstanding women-artists like Elizabeth Shippen Green, Violet Oakley, Jessie Willcox Smith, Sarah S. Stillwell and Ellen Thompson. 

World War I led to increased demand for posters and billboards, as well as pictures of the fighting. Eight leading illustrators, including W. J. Aylward, Walter Jack Duncan, Harvey Dunn, Wallace Morgan, Ernest Peixotto, and Harry Townsend, were sent to the Western Front to produce paintings and drawings (now in the Smithsonian Institute) to inform the public and also stimulate more support for the war effort. See also James Montgomery Flagg's famous 1917 army recruiting poster depicting Uncle Sam pointing directly at the viewer. (Famous American World War II propaganda posters include Rosie the Riveterby Norman Rockwell.) 

The 1920s post war boom in America led to even greater demand for commercial images, advertising graphics, and literary pictures to accompany magazine serializations of novels by the likes of F.Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway. Literary illustrators such as Walter Biggs, Charles Chambers, Dean Cornwell, James Montgomery Flagg, became celebrities in the process. Meanwhile Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), whose niche was the cover of the Saturday Evening Post, was fast becoming a household name in American art, with his nostalgic, sentimental pictures of a bygone era. In the 1920s new periodicals emerged, including The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Smart Set and College Humor, all of which recruited new artists to illustrate their contents. 

In contrast, the 1930s was a bleak era of depression and recession. Many illustrators were laid off and publications closed (two exceptions being Fortune magazine, launched in 1930, and Esquire magazine, launched 1933), while photography began to replace hand-drawn imagery. The only bright spot was the increased demand for paintings and drawings to illustrate pulp novels, a genre which attracted newcomer illustrators like Walter Baumhofer, Emery Clarke, John Clymer, John Falter, Robert G. Harris, Tom Lovell, and Amos Sewell, as well as established illustrators like Robert Graef, John Newton Howitt, George Rozen, and Herbert Morton Stoops. 

The 1940s offered new illustrative possibilities. During the war, these included advertising imagery for military products, and magazine illustrations aimed at home front wives and girlfriends of servicemen on active duty overseas. After the war, there was a surge in demand for advertising graphics, point of sale imagery, and magazine illustrations. The post war baby boom also led to increased demand for illustrated books for children. Leading American illustrators of the time included John Gannam, John Falter, Robert Fawcett and Haddon Sundblom. 

The 1950s proved to be a pivotal decade for American illustrators. It began well, with strong demand across the board, notably in advertising and marketing. Unfortunately, the advent of television led to a major decline in magazine advertising, and a consequent reduction in illustrated pages. More photography was employed to introduce greater realism in publishing, and this too led to a drop in demand for illustrative works. Brighter colours and bolder themes failed to arrest the decline, as many magazines went bankrupt. As it was, the 1960s witnessed a mini-resurgence of the medium, with a new demand for music album covers, music posters, and comic book art. (The music poster movement expanded into marketing and merchandizing with free album-posters, as well as promotional concert posters. Demand for this type of fine art echoed the earlier demand for vintage posters during the late 19th century.) In addition, the growing popularity of paperback novels (Penguin Books, Pocket Books, Bantam Books) created a fierce market for attractive front-cover art. Practitioners of this precise form of poster-like literary illustration included James Avati, James Bama, and Stanley Meltzoff. The late 1950s also saw the emergence of famous artists like Andy Warhol (1928-87), and Roy Lichtenstein (1923-97), who cut their teeth on commercial graphic design - including cartoon imagery and screen-printing techniques - before becoming major figures in the 1960s Pop art market. Warhol for instance studied painting and design at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh (1945-49), before producing illustrations for shoe advertisements, album cover designs, and also literay illustrations for Truman Capote's writings. For more, see Andy Warhol's Pop Art of the sixties and seventies. 

During the 1970s and 1980s, the US commercial art market fragmented into a large number of more specialized segments, including: animation and movies, video games, music, book illustration, fashion drawing, "Sword and Sorcery" paperback books, newspaper comic strips, political cartoons and others. It was the last decade in which illustration remained largely unaffected by the Computer Revolution. 

By contrast, illustration in the 1990s was changed for ever by the universal adoption of computer systems and computerised methods of image-creation, editing, replication and communication. The art of illustration became the technique of image processing, as more and more commercial artists produced professional pictures without any traditional art training, or without any ability in drawing. More and more professional illustrators were replaced by novices proficient in graphics software programs like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and CorelDRAW, as well as Wacom tablets and Kai's Power Tools. At the same time, however, this type of digital art has been combined with more traditional methods. Fusion illustration, for instance, is a mixed form of fine art and commercial art involving illustration, graphic design, typography, and photography. Moreover, the widespread popularity of the science-fiction and fantasy genres (books, games, posters, products) has created an entirely new genre requiring both fine art and digital skills. 

 

Types & Styles of Illustration  Here is a short list of selected styles of illustrative art, featuring some of the main types of magazine, book and post illustrations of the 20th century. Listed thematically, rather than chronologically, it is not intended to be exhaustive, and for reasons of space, certain categories (eg. comics and music imagery) have been left out altogether.  Children's Illustrations    Beatrix Potter  The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902)   The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin (1903)   The Tale of Two Bad Mice (1904)   The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle (1905)   The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher (1906)   The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck (1908)  Arthur Rackham  Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (1900)  Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906)   Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1907)  The Welsh Giant, The Allies Fairy Book (1916)  Edmund Dulac  I've hardly closed my eyes all night, Hans Christian Andersen Fables (1912)  Barry Moser  Brer Fox & Brer Coon - Jump Again! More Adventures of Brer Rabbit (1987)    Arts and Crafts    Aubrey Beardsley  The Stomach Dance from Salome (1907)  John Austen  Illustration from Byron's Don Juan (1926)    Art Nouveau    Jules Cheret  Advertisement for La Loie Fuller (1893)  Felix Vallotton  Le Bain (1894)  Theophile Steinien  Advertisememt for the Cabaret du Chat Noir (1896)  Alfonse Mucha  Advertisement for Waverly Cycles (1898)  Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec  Yvette Guilbert    Object Poster    Lucien Bernhard  Advertisement for Manoli Cigarettes (1910)  Max Oppenheimer  Exhibition poster for Moderne Galerie (1911)  Robert Hardmeyer  Advertisement for Waschanstalt Zurich AG (1915)    Expressionism    Thomas Theodor Heine  Cover Illustration for Simplicissimus (1897)  Alfred Kubin  The Ghost at the Ball, The Dance of Death (1918)  Kathe Kollwitz  Die Lebenden dem Toten (1919)  Richard Janthur  Illustration for Robinson Crusoe (1922)  Feliks Topolski  Nuremberg Trial, Topolski's Chronicle (1946)  Antoinio Frasconi  The Fox & the Grapes (La Fontaine's Fabels) 1950    Art Deco    Fortunato Depero  Cover Illustration for Vanity Fair (July 1930)  A.M. Cassandre  Advertisement for Au Bucheron Furniture Store (1927)  Rockwell Kent  Memoirs of Jacques Casanova (1928)  Marcello Dudovich  Advertisement for Borsalino (1930)  Jean Carlu  Cover Illustration for Vanity Fair (July 1931)    Romanticism    Maxfield Parrish  Stars (1926)  Franklin Booth  Advertisement for Butterick Publishers (1926)  Herbert Paus  Cover Illustration for Popular Science (1929)    Surrealism    Rene Magritte  La Reproduction Interdite (1937)  Herbert Bayer  Life Hangs on a String (1937)    Realism    J.C. Leyendecker  Cover Illustration for Collier's Magazine (June 24, 1916)  Norman Rockwell  Time to Retire (1924)  Advertisement for Interwoven Socks (1929)  After the Prom (1957)  Howard Pyle  Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates (1925)  Al Parker  Cover Illustration for Journal (July 1945)  Roy Carnon   Advertisement for Reed Paper Group (1953)  Malcolm T. Liepke  Brochure for Bender Fabrics (1984)    Gothic    Theodor Kittelsen  The Dying Mountain Troll, Simplicissimus Vol.II No.31 (1887)  Heinrich Kley  Betriebsftvrung, Sammelalbum (1938)  Brad Holland  Illustration for Confessions of a Short-Artist, Personlich (1997)    Psychedelic    C.H. Johansen  Poster for Visions (1967)  Victor Moscoso  Poster for Big Brother & the Holding Co (1967)  Alan Aldridge  Illustration for Aldridge's Interview with The Beatles and Sgt Pepper (1967)  Ganesh, Print for House of Blues' Ganesh Festival (1995)    Neo Expressionism    Andre Francois  Illustration for Punch (1960)  Ralph Steadman  Illustration for the New York Times Op-Ed (1962)  Tomi Ungerer  Black Power/White Power (1967)  Jay Beildt  Amerika is Devouring its Children (1970) (after Goya)  Robert Osborn  War (1985)  Bascove  Tales of Apartheid, The Progressive (1985)  Heinz Edelman  Trained Sausage, Seville Catalog (1989)  Marshall Arisman   Silence of the Lambs (1990)  Edward Sorel  Crush Hour, Cover Illustration for The New Yorker (Jan 31, 1994)    Neo Realism    David Mccaulay  Illustration from Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction (1973)  Paul Davis  Three Penny Opera, Poster for the New York Public Theater (1976)  Anita Kunz  Linda Rondstadt, Rolling Stone Magazine (1981)  Julian Allen  Freud, The New York Times Book Review (1998)    Neo Surrealism    Roland Topor  Illustration from Toxology (1970)  Dean Rohrer  Monica Lisa, Cover Illustration for The New Yorker (Feb 8, 1999)  Edward Lam  Clintonmania, The New York Times Book Review (1999)   Guy Billout  Canyon, The Atlantic Monthly (January 2000)  Istvan Banyai  Election Debates Are Missing the Purpose.... George Magazine (2002)  Viktor Koen  Reinventing Physics, The New York Times Book Review (June 2005)    Punk    Bruce Carleton  Mutant Monster Beach Party - Cover Illustration for Punk (1978)  Scott Neary  Illustration for Rolling Stone (1980)    Postmodernist Illustrations    Ron Lieberman  Album Cover for Cathy Chamberlain's Rag n Roll Review (1977)  Paul Reott  Blind Date, The Blue Book (1983)  John Flaming, Steven Guarnaccia  Advertisement for the Dallas Society of Visual Communicatons (1990)  Henrik Drescher  Rakasa, The Gruesome Guide to World Monsters (2005)    Digital Illustration    Cyan  Poster for the 15th Anniversary of Friends of Good Music, Berlin (1998)  eBoy  Temperature Building, The New York Times Magazine (2005)  Henning Wagengreth  Istanbul (2006)    Caricatures    Jean Mulatier  Leonid Brezhnev, Cover Illustration for Stern Magazine (1972)  David Levine  Liza Minelli (1972)  Gerald Scarfe  The Queen, Scarfeland (1989)  Robert Risko  J. Edgar Hoover, Vanity Fair (1992)  Philip Burke  Dick Cheney, Vanity Fair (1995).

 

Note: To use the above table contents effectively “copy and paste” the Artist Name and the Painting Description directly into Google search and it will bring up the details available on the internet. This will normally include the images and supporting narrative.

End of narrative by © visual-arts-cork.com. All rights reserved.

 

 

David Bannister Postscript

As you can appreciate from the above narrative on American Posters this is a huge subject with the many sub-genre within the poster movement. What you like will be your personal preference. With Google you will be able to further research your own preferences remembering to use Google Images to locate posters.

Below I have listed some of the resources I like to use to look at and purchase poster prints.

Fine Art America is the world’s largest art marketplace and print-on-demand technology company founded in 2006. You will not find all artists on their site since artists may not have licensed the reproduction of their work to them. For example you will not find anything by Edward Hopper. But impressively over one hundred and fifty Norman Rockwell painting are displayed and copies can be purchased.

http://www.fineartamerica.com

I have to admit this is a personal choice of mine with these not vintage posters but recently painted ones that capture the atmosphere of American beach towns. It brings back for me my holidays in America.

http://www.beachtownposters.com

This is a really unusual site that sells original metal signs. It is a site offering everything and it is super to browse through the range on offer. Smaller signs can be purchased that are very low priced.

http://www.originalmetalsigns.co.uk 

DA23002 - Cork, Ireland - Visual Centre of Excellence

 With me inheriting some Irish DNA from my father’s mother maybe this accounts for me being an enthusiast for the Irish. Plus both my father and grandfather, who were Bannister’s, were water colour artists so I have inherited some of their artistic DNA. It also appears that the Irish particularly in Ireland have for some reason managed to delay rushing into the full madness of the 21^st Century something I whole heartily celebrate. We are not basing social development on any measures of individual happiness. We are letting the capitalistic commercial drivers define our society in an uncontrolled way. Social development is more random than ever letting any forces take control over its direction of travel. The younger generation are being deprived of many of the opportunities (housing) and security (jobs) that existed in my youth on which you built your life. How can you take out a huge mortgage when your job can be as insecure as they are these days. No wonder mental health is such an issue for the younger generation if not all generations. Survival in a western capitalistic democracy is now extremely tough. Bit of a rant but that’s why it’s a blog!

Talking of the Irish one of my great past pleasures was to spend a night in the Cheltenham pubs when the Cheltenham Races were on in the company of the Irish race goers. Owning a flat in Gloucester Docks, now sold in 2022, this was an annual event. The atmosphere with all those Irish accents and laughter was like being part of the Irish community but in Cheltenham. Then being a plane enthusiast back to the Gloucester and Cheltenham Airport (Staverton) to see them fly off back home to Ireland. I remember a group of four all drinking in the airport café serving alcohol before setting off back home to Ireland in their small four seater aircraft. I could not help but imagine them flying above the Irish Sea in the pitch black laughing and joking about their day whilst hoping the pilot was sober enough to find their way home. So where does art come into this blog?

The Irish Government seems to be a think outside of the box type government maybe not so much now but this was certainly the case back in 1996. The Irish Arts Council put forward a plan for 1995-1997 to create centres of excellence across Ireland with Cork dedicated to the visual arts rather than music or theatre. Not only did they involve the Cork bedrock art institutions but they involved all the local artist collectives. But they were less effective at attracting any of the commercially orientated Gallery’s being too out of the way for their normal customer base of rich London tourist traffic. The important decision was to create a Cork Arts Development Committee (CADC) which has since 1996 morphed into an Arts Office within their Council Services. This supports the Cork City Council Arts and Culture Strategy 2022-2026 which includes encouraging artists to live and earn their livings in Cork. Unfortunately like everywhere Cork is not immune from the cut backs being made to art budgets. By coincidence Cheltenham is very strong on encouraging the arts particularly the literary side inclusive of authors and their books through their Cheltenham Arts Festival. So why have I ended up taking an interest in Cork of all places?

Well it has evolved purely from one of the best websites I have viewed on the History of Art. Written in what I term legacy internet technology the designer has used visual structures to make it a very effective user interface (AX) where it tells me the facts in a simple effective way. I can only assume that its development came out of the original 1995 - 1997 plan to make Cork a centre of excellence for Visual Arts. My only criticism of it as a site now is it tells me nothing “About” who is looking after it now and what the plans are for its future. Too often these days I find an internet resource that I have come to depend upon disappears overnight as funding for it is lost. Some historical archiving is in place to capture these dead sites at their point of demise but this does not always happen and often the site becomes unattractive to use in its archived format. Sadly many of these are the original legacy internet sites “hand coded in HTML” by real internet enthusiasts now being completely swept away and lost. This rate of original legacy website loss is unaccounted for particularly with the generation that created them dying off themselves along with the skills needed now no longer available in the new generation to maintain the sites. Once again no Government will exists nor could be funded these days to try and capture this loss where it really requires a “digital museum” type initiative implemented now.

So let us look at this brilliant Cork Visual Arts Knowledge Base (What I have called it.) We will look at the main site Homepage first from which you can use the options to get around but I will then take you directly to some of the things that impress me within the site.

Cork Visual Arts Knowledge Base Homepage

http://www.visual-arts-cork.com

On the same site directly to the History of Art

http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of art.htm

I particularly like this way this “timeline” through the Visual Arts is displayed

http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/site/timeline.htm

 

There are other sites related to Cork that are worth taking a look at plus I am sure your own exploration will uncover even more of interest.

Backwater Studio

http://www.backwaterartists.ie

National Sculpture Factory

http://nationalsculpture.org

 

I am not going to bother listing any more links here since go to the Links page on the Cork Artists Collective website below where you are absolutely spoilt for choice.

http://www.thecollective.ie

 

 

Postscript

One of the benefits for me having found this site is to get some sort of order into my artistic interests. I definitely have, like most art enthusiasts, particular types of visual art that appeal to me. I can immediately eliminate all abstract art. I have to admit a tendency towards true to life visual representation. Not into impressionist. I don’t want to stand back to far and prefer to look closely at the artist’s detailed work. I like all poster type work due to its simplicity of style but in particular the emotions it can generate by the use of “block colouring”. I Iike large oils, watercolours or acrylics if they have a photographic type representation of things. I like all pencil sketches. I like still life. I, like most people, immediately know when a piece of art fires my inner emotions to want to own it or at least view again.

I shall now be able using the Cork Visual Art knowledge Base to accurately define my preferences in terms of visual art using a standard artistic methodology. This should allow me to focus more on the specific areas avoiding the randomness of my normal approach to art. I must admit looking at the current trends in high street sold commercial art galleries little appears to my eye. This trend for a visual artists to build their collections on some obscure “signature” attribute (eg balloons, kites) fails to impress me. Although maybe using the Cork Visual Art Knowledge Base it might introduce me to a new category that appeals to me.

DA23001 Pete Scully - Urban Sketcher - Digital Innovator

Pete Scully describes himself as an Urban Sketcher and avid keeper of Sketchbooks. Originally from Burnt Oak in North London, United Kingdom he now resides in Davis California, America. Originally it was his sketching style and his unusual selection of subject matter along with his viewing angles that appealed to my artistic curiosity. There was a sense of fun in his style of drawing along with his inclusion of odd characters within his sketches. He sketches both people that tend to be in group settings and places although it is his sketches of places that most appeal to me. He often has very different visual perspectives like showing buildings being demolished or under construction or those accidently storm damaged. It’s a sort of real time, take it as it is, sort of sketching along the lines of instant journalistic photography. He views his sketch books as being Visual Diaries so the same scene can change over time and particularly through the seasons.

Having been a follower for a number of years I have come to also appreciate that Pete is an exceptional digital innovator. He has taken his niche art segment and communicated it so well using a variety of digital channels. It is his clever use of the digital medium that now appeals to me as much as his artwork. He represents the classic example of a gifted artist doing what he enjoys most whilst establishing ways of communicating his work to the broadest possible audience. All this work is the output from a hobby since he earns his living in full time employment.

In his use of digital resources the internet naturally figures as his most important communications medium. But even here he has almost adopted a simplistic approach similar to his style of artwork. He is both an innovator in terms of his style of artwork but also he is an innovator in the way he chooses to digitally communicate this artwork. But importantly he is an artist not obsessed about copyright protection almost encouraging you to print out and use his sketches. He comes across as someone not commercially driven but just wanting his work enjoyed by everybody. This generosity to his genuine followers is commendable whilst I hope he protects himself against those who look to exploit his very unrestricted and open handed approach to sharing his artwork.

Beyond the digital world and in terms of face to face he has also been a keen enthusiast for supporting and organising so called “sketchcrawls” where artists undertake a walk around specific agreed locations undertaking group sketching at various stop off points. Although I suspect reading and hearing some of his latest comments (2023) these consume too much of his already limited time. Exhibitions would similarly prove good face to face events offering the visitors the chance to see the sketches in their original format but these are also demanding events to organise. I may be wrong but he does not seem too commercially driven and does not appear to be actively looking to sell his work.

But he has moved into publishing and selling books on Urban Sketching and other art related subjects. He is active in promoting the bigger community of likeminded Urban Sketchers both in California and the United Kingdom and across the World. He also makes use of any other media resources that report and further the public’s interest in Urban Sketching. He has effectively used video resources to further his digital in roads into communicating his world of Urban Sketching as well as projecting himself as an individual. So as a very gifted artist he still has exceptionally broad communication skills with in my experience these not always being common to one individual. Artists tend to be introverted and communications people extroverted is maybe too simplistic a statement but could be considered quite a commonly held view. Whereas in Pete Scully case it would not be true since he manages both extremely well.

The best way now is to get Pete Scully to introduce himself through what I would term his Digital Knowledge Base. You can view both his artistic and his digital communication capabilities by viewing these internet links.

 

Flickr is an important internet website that acts as an excellent data repository for his work. It looks like he uses Flickr as his main storage repository for his work.

 https://www.flickr.com/photos/petescully/

 

petescully.com is his own hosted website. Very significantly it under the Menu Option “Sketchbooks” allows you to view every one of his sketchbooks starting from Sketchbook 1 in 2007 along with a variety of other sketchbooks. I particularly like “Great Britain in sketches.”  This looks to be another major digital repository for him. 

http://www.petescully.com

 

Blogspot is used as a blogger application with me being an enthusiastic user of Google Blogspot always keen to see it being used this way. Blogspot has a very simple User Inferface (AX) and the way it is hosted it is super super fast. 

http://urbansketchers-london.blogspot.com

 

Instagram. The normal use of Instagram. No narrative just pictures.

 

https://www.instagram.com/pwscully/

 

Twitter. The normal short narratives you associate with Twitter. 

 

https://twitter.com/UrbSketchLondon

 

Facebook. This seems to be broken at present. Needs fixing. 

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/318585898339169/Facebook