Have A Fun Week

At this time of year we get rain, sleet, snow and half term. We should be able to keep the kids entertained by making pancakes but perhaps that's cheating as Pancake Day isn't officially until 8th March. So what can you do to keep the kids occupied this week. Why not take them for an arty fun day out? Here are a some family events happening in the north-east. Some are free with others making a small charge.

At Bowes Museum there is a Printing Workshop for Kids on Friday 25th February. Advance booking is required.

More about the Printing Workshop.

In Gateshead, the Shipley Art Galley and Museum has a variety of activities apart from the art shows. You could take them round the Sit Down: Seating for Kids exhibition, on tour from the V&A Museum of Childhood. On Thursday 24th February the kids can make a mini beanbag for their toys.

More details can be found in the PDF leaflet for the Sit Down Exhibition.

Head over to Mima in Middlesbrough for the Half Term Art Trolley event on 23rd, 24th and 25th February from 11am until 12 noon. Use a range of materials and equipment from the gallery's art trolley to make some art.

More on Mima's Art Trolley event.

The Station at Richmond, North Yorkshire is holding a Craft Day on Wednesday 23rd February from 10am until 5pm. Watch the blacksmith and woodturner or have a go at felt-making or pottery. There's always something interesting to see at the Station so if you can't make it on Wednesday, try another time.

More about the Craft Day at Richmond Station.

If you're in Northumberland, why not visit Cragside on Saturday 26th February from 1pm until 3pm where you can explore the forest and help to make a work of art from materials that the forest has provided. The house and gardens are also open free during half term.

More about Cragside House and Gardens.

Vicky,

Love Your Art.

Broken Art

Exposing art to the public can be a risky business as residents of Tullibody in Scotland found at the weekend. On Saturday evening, a car crashed into the steel statue, Man in Motion, which stood on a roundabout in the village.

The statue, now a heap of twisted metal on the ground, apparently received a mixed reception from local people when it was commissioned. However, there is no suggestion that the accident was a deliberate attempt to restore the roundabout to its original appearance, but was simply a traffic accident with unusual consequences.

The problem with putting art objects in open public places is that they will get vandalised, damaged and destroyed. We recently visited Bowes Museum where a display of bird lantern sculptures in the grounds was damaged by vandals late last year. The artist, Laura Baxter, had to spend a lot of time repairing them and replacing some of the parts. And in other places we have seen public art with physical damage or defaced with graffiti.

These risks should not stop artists and patrons producing art for public places. Perhaps methods such as barriers and CCTV cameras can be used to better protect these artworks. It would be a shame if all art had to be housed inside buildings to protect it as fewer people would go to the trouble of visiting those places. Outdoor public art can enhance its environment and if it doesn't, well, it gives people something controversial to talk about.

Read about the accident and related comments at The Scotstman web site or find out about the artist Andy Scott.

Update: 16 Feb 2011
It seems that keeping art inside doesn't help much either. In 2008 a ceramic sculpture by Tatiana Echeverri Fernandez was accidentally knocked over and destroyed by a visitor to a Royal Academy show.

Vicky and Vince,
Love Your Art

Art Revolution

The world of fine arts may be about to undergo a revolution thanks to the Internet. Last week I went on to Google to do some research and found a panel on their home page referring to their newly launched Art Project. Of course, I couldn't ignore this so called Vicky over and we clicked on the link.

It seems that seventeen museums and art galleries from around the world have teamed up with Google to display a selection of their most popular works on the web. Looking around the project pages we discovered many paintings we had heard of (such as the Night Watch by Rembrandt and the View Of The Grand Canal by Canaletto) as well as a few we weren't familiar with.

We were surprised to see some of the pictures in extremely high resolution. By zooming in on these we could see the minute details of the subjects and the condition of the work; freckles on faces and cracks in the varnish.

It didn't take long for us to realise that this is an exciting development for the art world. Although there are only a limited number of galleries on the system at present, the potential is for every gallery and every work of art to be included, all in high resolution. Judging by Google's track record in other projects it has created, we have no doubt that this is what they would like to achieve.

The project means that anyone who has access to the Internet can see these works of art without the expense of having to travel half way round the world. While some claim that this will turn museums and galleries into deserts, we think it's more likely that people will be inspired to go and see the real thing and could use the project to help them plan a trip. Standing in front of a real work of art is an entirely more rewarding experience than looking at a photograph, however detailed.

Far from discouraging people from visiting collections, it should generate a wider interest in art, particularly as Google are likely to incorporate relevant links to the project in their search results listings. This can only be good for art lovers, galleries, artists, the general public and, of course, Google themselves.

We look forward to seeing the project expand and wonder how many art works and galleries will be on view in a few years time. Our next challenge is to decide where to go on holiday this year, a challenge that may be simpler thanks to the Art Project.

Why not take a look yourself at www.googleartproject.com?

Vicky and Vince,
Love Your Art

An Interesting Gift

I had a pleasant surprise last week when Vicky brought home a picture she had been given by friends.

The picture is a black and white sketch of a semi-naked lady draped in a towel revealing her shoulders, back and neck. A black marble-effect mount sets off the picture perfectly but the shiny gold frame may not be quite right for it.

We hadn't been given any information about what the picture is so, as we often do, we opened up the back. Inside we found it was a print of a pencil sketch entitled "Portrait Of Back" by Gilles Sacksick. Neither of us has come across this artist before and we wanted to find out more. This proved a bit of a challenge as he was born in Paris and most of the websites that have information about him are written in French.

Once we had made sense of the translations we were intrigued to find Gilles is a versatile artist. He produces traditional fine art paintings, drawings, illustrations and woodcuts covering a wide range of subjects from portraits and landscapes to animals and still life plus many other subjects. He has also worked on theatre sets and costume designs.

His work has been exhibited in Paris, London, New York and Tokyo as well as many other places around the world. We will now be on the lookout for other work by Gilles.

As for the picture, it would certainly benefit from a more complementary frame to replace the gold one it is in. And we are looking at all our display areas to find an appropriate place to hang it.

Many thanks to Vicky's friends for this interesting gift.

Vince,
Love Your Art