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 The future may be at the end...... Composition and Design Project - Blog Posts  Below is a list of the various posts and a short explanation of what they're about. Some of the hyperlinks these blog posts contain may be out of date and/or moved on to pastures new. Fibonacci Spiral Wikimedia Commons Composition and Design - An Introduction 14 Jan 2008 Design and Composition - I'm revisiting thi ..read more

I've seen no mention of risk to fine art in the context of the horrendous fires in Los Angeles, California - so decided to see what I could find. It seems to me there are four main risks The Art Galleries housing fine art (eg Getty Museum; Los Angeles Museum of Art) The Security Archives holding art bought as an investment The Archives of individual artists with homes in the area - such as David Hockney The homes of very rich people who buy art - I mourn the loss of the art... This is a resume of what I can find out so far. Art Galleries - appear OK I remember back in 2019, during the last r ..read more

Yesterday, the Royal Academy of Art opened for registration and submissions to the Summer Exhibition 2025.The submission deadline is 23:59 (GMT) on Tuesday 11 February. However read the first "need to know" item below - because it's might actually be much earlier than that! The RA Summer Exhibition is the largest open exhibition in the UK - with well over 1,000 exhibits - so you need to take the statistics around selection into account before deciding whether or not enter. This is about key things you need to know about the Call for Entries aspects worth bearing in mind if you're thinkin ..read more

 Making A Mark was born in December 2005 but first went public on January 7th 2006 Which makes it 19 years old today.  The actual first post Making a Mark said This is a new journal which will reflect on how my paintings and drawings are created. It will also introduce small works of art which will be available for sale from my website from the New Year. That was the idea at the time - but was soon revised! I subsequently decided it was probably a better idea to learn more about art - and my Making A Mark blog started to transform. In December 2005, I started learning ..read more

I'm not sure what I think about this new BBC Art Programme but what follows is what I've found out so far! From Facebook A NEW BBC Art Programme about buying and selling art I've seen other approaches for people to get involved in television programmes which look way more professional than this one. There's  an individual on Facebook called Cara Doré (the name makes me suspicious to start with!)  who posted the following on the Art Teachers UK Facebook Group (why are they asking teachers?)  just before Christmas (who would post anything they want a response ..read more

You have until midday on Monday 6th of January 2025 to submit an entry to the RWS Open 2025. This post covers: what is the RWS Open? why enter the RWS Open? how to enter What is the RWS Open? The RWS Open is run by the Royal Watercolour Society (RWS).  It was formerly known (until recently) as the Contemporary Watercolour Competition. The RWS chooses to invite open entries for an exhibition at the Bankside Gallery via a SEPARATE open competition rather than, as most art societies do, via an annual open exhibition dominated by artwork by members. The RWS has FINALLY stopped cal ..read more

The biennial Self Portrait Prize - sponsored by The Ruth Borchard Collection - opened its Call for Entries yesterday. The deadline for entries is 2nd May 2025. From the artworks submitted the 2025 prize judges will select a winner of the £10,000 Ruth Borchard Prize and a number of distinguished entries will be acquired for the "Next Generation Collection". Below you can find: a synopsis of what I think about the exhibition  a summary of what you need to know to enter. You don't have to be a portrait artist to enter. Just an artist capable of producing an interesting self portrait ..read more

This is the third of my posts this week about annual open exhibitions of leading national art societies and how you can improve your chances of selling your art. This post is about the "other" national art societies: The Royal Scottish Academy of Art and Architecture The Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts and the "other" specialist art societies - also exhibiting at the Mall Galleries in 2025 Society of Graphic Fine Art Society of Women Artists Society of Botanical Artists This follows on from my first two posts which were: OPEN EXHIBITION 2025 REMINDER #1: (Mall Galleries) - about th ..read more

This is all about how to sell the art that gets selected for an open exhibition by a national art society. One of the ways in which artists can promote their art is by being selected for an open exhibition by a national art society.  However, they help their profiles enormously and enhance their case for membership of a national art society if they can also demonstrate that their artwork is not only good enough to exhibit - but it also sells! I personally find it very frustrating every time I visit an exhibition is to see good art which is overpriced - and which I know will not sell ..read more

I'm publishing a list of summaries of ALL the current Calls for Entries for Open Exhibitions by the National Art Societies in the UK and Ireland which have been published to date. #1 TODAY: I'm publishing the first half of the list - about the national art societies based at the Mall Galleries who have exhibitions in the period January - June 2025. #2 TOMORROW: I'm going to show you how well non members do at selling artwork at some of the Mall Galleries exhibitions IF: they get selected they price their work correctly You may be very surprised! I'll be speculating on the reas ..read more