It’s not just me! Facebook is really down - having been loopy for days of staring at really slow loads of FB pages. Did Mark forget to pay “the lecky”? (Ask a northerner)

Mundane and ordinary can look great when a good artist has a mind to make it so

What a fabulous opening to the Royal Society of Portrait Painters exhibition yesterday! A wonderful array of the best contemporary portraiture on show, including some great invited artists. And we had the incomparable Simon Schama presenting the opening speech! Opens today 8 - 17 May Mall Galleries

I’ve written about me and my sketchbooks for the Jackson’s Art Supplies blog as part of its Inside the Sketchbook series. Find it here: www.jacksonsart.com/blog/2025/05... #Sketchbooks

The BBC is so heathen! No mention of the arts or culture - creates a big gap in the cultural education of a nation! Why does music get a mention and art does not?

#drawtheline This is the “Draw the Line” comic recently created by Nick Sousanis who is an Eisner winning #comics artist and educator. He's also a Professor who drew & wrote the thesis for his doctorate in #comic book form. Download a pdf version for free on spinweaveandcut.com/draw-the-line/

Why does a bigger open #artexhibition mean fewer sales of #artworks? Why do #artists selected from the #openentry sell more #art than members of the #RBA? Is there a price ceiling on spontaneous art purchases? Check the chart! + Check out my latest blog post makingamark.blogspot.com/2025/04/rba-...

Forgot to post my review of Episode 4 of Landscape Artist of the Year. I wasn't a fan makingamark.blogspot.com/2025/02/revi... Profiles of place & artists + "themes of the day" tips from me & a round up of what got shortlisted and who won #artistoftheyear #makingamark #artcompetition #landscapeart

SALES METRICS - The Pastel Society: After my review of the annual exhibition comes my sales metrics post! makingamark.blogspot.com/2025/02/anal... 83% of sales were priced under £1,000 and Open artists sold more artwork than members! #exhibitionmetrics #artsales #pastel #makingamark #pastelsociety

My review of Episode 3 of #landscapeartistoftheyear - including profile of pod artists and shortlisted artist and winner. Plus critique of the location and overall approach to this #artcompetition makingamark.blogspot.com/2025/02/revi... #laoty #landscapeart #landscapeartists #landscapepainting

This is my annual post about how to enter Landscape Artist of the Year. Series 11 will be filmed in June and July 2025 and broadcast early in 2026. #laoty #landscape DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES is Friday 2nd May 2025 Series 10 will start being televised next week. makingamark.blogspot.com/2025/01/call...

This year I'm going to remind people about what I've got in the archives of Making a Mark. I'm going to start with my Composition and Design Project which I started in January 2008 makingamark.blogspot.com/2025/01/my-c... The future may be at the end...... #composition #design #art

The Pastel Society Annual Exhibition 2025 is now ONLINE. VIEW in person at the Mall Galleries 22 January - 8 February (10-5 daily) buyart.mallgalleries.org.uk/ps-2025/ #art #pastels #pastelsociety #annualexhibition #mallgalleries #London #openexhibition #stilllife #interiors #artsociety

Reflecting back on 18 years ago when I did studies of the Iznik ceramics - much loved by William Morris - at the V&A what I did in makingamark.blogspot.com/2007/01/plan... and image produced below #iznik #victoriaandalbert #colouredpencils #botanicalmotifs

What's happening to the valuable #fineart because of the #wildfires in art galleries and museums, archives, artists' homes & homes of the wealthy (with art inside) in Los Angeles, California? makingamark.blogspot.com/2025/01/fire... This is the shocking size of the Palisades Fire

I first practiced blogging in December 2005, before going public 19 years ago today - which makes "Making A Mark" 19 years old! makingamark.blogspot.com/2025/01/maki... I've written and published 4,585 posts, had 6.3 million unique visitors and well over 22 million pageviews #makingamark

In this post makingamark.blogspot.com/2024/12/pric... you will find charts of sales at the 2024 annual #openartexhibitions of the various art societies who belong to the FBA based @mallgalleries - split between * member artists and open entry artists & * analysed by the different price ranges.

Check out my summary of the Calls for Entries for #OpenExhibitions held by national (FBA) art societies #RBA #RI #RP #NEAC at the Mall Galleries between January and June 2025 makingamark.blogspot.com/2024/12/open... #callsforentries #art #exhibitions #artsocieties

Another wintry view of back gardens and rooms lit up as dusk approaches - by Nessie Ramm.

Melissa Scott-Miller is such a very popular artist, she paints her community in her community. It's a good recipe! #islington #melissascottmiller

Today's birthday boy from 1610, David Teniers is here (on left) w/ Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in the latter's world-class picture gallery, 1647. Happy to see a few of my own works among the masterpieces!

One minor computing disaster later, here's the first of my very delayed posts about the Final of Portrait Artist of the Year. makingamark.blogspot.com/2024/12/paot... Two more posts to go re. Commission & Series #portrait #PAOTY #portraitartistoftheyear #artistoftheyear #artcompetition #makingamark

The final of Portrait Artist of the Year starts in half an hour. However this is what you need to know if you'd like to enter the competition next year and participate in Series 12 of Portrait Artist of the Year in 2025 makingamark.blogspot.com/2024/12/call...

This is what the #vangogh #exhibition is like at 11.30am at the @nationalgalleryldn.bsky.social But you can’t buy a ticket as it’s sold out to the end of its run.

The bonus of booking a 10am ticket for the (sold out) Van Gogh exhibition at the National Gallery in London #vangogh #nationalgallery #artexhibition #blockbuster #soldout

Such a shame that Smithfield is closing.

I didn’t know Lowry painted London! #lowry

This is my review of the semi-finals and commentary on what was produced by the artists who were the eight heat winners in Portrait Artist of the Year 2024 makingamark.blogspot.com/2024/12/revi... So what did you think of the results and the finalists? #artcompetition #portrait #portraiture #art

Tonight it's the SEMI FINALS of #Portrait #ArtistoftheYear. I've done a summary for you of all 8 #artists: brief profile plus the two pics painted to date. Can you predict which are the three artists are most likely to be finalists - BEFORE THE PROGRAMME? makingamark.blogspot.com/2024/12/the-...

How many artists have done paintings of a blue sky? #bluesky Here's one of mine. It's a pastel drawing of #TanahLot in #Bali which I visited twice in the 90s and stayed in the Artists' village of #Ubud. An inspirational place to make art then - although I'm guessing it might be very different now.

The End of Year Exhibition of The Drawing Year 2024: * opens at the Royal Drawing School tomorrow * continues until the 19th December * can be found at The Royal Drawing School in Shoreditch Address: 19-22 Charlotte Road, London, EC2A 3SG #drawing #drawingyear #royaldrawingschool #makingamark

Watch out for paintings of Doreen Fletcher if you like what East London used to look like. She makes sure architectural history and important community places are recorded before they disappear! #urbanpainting #urbanart #paintingsoflondon #paintingsofeastlondon

So what do you think of the new masterclass series? To put it bluntly, I can tell who is a regular teacher (Sara Reeves) and who isn’t! #masterclass #painting-portraits

Don't forget. Artist of the Year Masterclass startson Sky Arts tonight at 6pm, with the second programme at 6.30. Here's the schedule from today until Monday 9th December. #masterclass #artistoftheyear #artontelevision #makingamark

My review of Episode 7 of Portrait Artist of the Year makingamark.blogspot.com/2024/11/evie...

If you want to know how to draw plants....

This is starter pack worth following if you like people who paint London. go.bsky.app/AWqNKC It is of course missing Pete “the street” Brown and Adebanji Alade - but I don’t think they’ve moved over here yet

Blue sky on iPad app has changed - as requested - but is still ridiculously small and treating my iPad like a small iPhone. @support.bsky.team Must do better!

An UPDATE: 1) Ive decided blocking accounts in the “Art” feed I’m part of will save me from a lot of the “popular illustration by teenagers / those who wish they still were” stuff (loud colours / fantasy figures/ etc) 2) keep your eyes peeled for relevant starter packs - but sharing is difficult

My critique of ING Discerning Eye Exhibition 2024 at Mall Galleries. makingamark.blogspot.com/2024/11/ing-... While there's a lot of good artwork, this year there's a surfeit which I felt left viewers heading towards visual indigestion #INGDiscerningEye #paintings, #prints #sculpture, #drawings

@miriamescofet.bsky.social Remember when? This is the morning after the announcement you had won the BP Portrait Award 2018 It was wonderful to be able to photograph artist and sitter the next morning at the #nationalportraitgallery #artcompetition #portrait #portraiture #portraitpainting

I can go one better than this

Things Bluesky Social needs: * a MUCH better iPad app * some way of automatically translating words in another language

@michelleheron.bsky.social my pic of your pic! #INGdiscerningeye

This is how many people have liked and visited my blog "Making A Mark" in the last 19 years

Here’s the deal on follow-back: * I have a top art blog for artists & art lovers * this account supports my blog & focuses on #ART, typically in the #UK or about #artbusiness * I follow artists I know/like I don't follow people who don't post showing who they are That doesn't stop you following me!

Would you believe I've never ever seen Guernica by Picasso as just a photo on social media? You can find it here at The Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid www.museoreinasofia.es/en/collectio... #guernica #picasso

This is a post about announcing I've registered for and got @makingamark.bsky.social Plus some thoughts and advice for those who might to do likewise. makingamark.blogspot.com/2024/11/maki... Interestingly Facebook couldn't cope with this and deleted two posts where I tried to say the same thing...

I tried to announce my latest blog post makingamark.blogspot.com/2024/11/maki... on my MAM #Facebook Page FB decided that both posts I did were spam and deleted both - despite the fact the second was worded carefully. So Mark Zuckerburg is obviously VERY VERY WORRIED about Bluesky Social!

This is the painting by Paul Newland which won the Chairman’s Purchase Prize at the ING Discerning Eye exhibition last week.