ROYAL BIRMINGHAM SOCIETY OF ARTISTS

I'm very proud to announce that I've had 3 pictures accepted for this year's RBSA Prize Exhibition. It's an annual open exhibition held at the Royal Birmingham Society of Art's lovely gallery in near Paul's Square, Birmingham. It's about 10 minutes walk from New Street Station, off Newhall Street (where the old Science Museum used to be). Although I've exhibited in this open exhibition before this is the first time I've had 3 pictures accepted and I'm extremely proud and happy.

The pictures I've had exhited are all new works, two pen and ink drawings and the third an experiment with pen and ink combined with colour, it's called Silver Birch - Red, and I blogged about it earlier this year.

This little drawing here is an oldie, unfinished, but I liked the fragment and kept it in my portfolio. I thought it was St Ives in Cornwall, a place I love, both the place itself and the memories it holds for me, but now I think about it the drawing might be of Mousehall in Cornwall. I'll have to hunt out my reference material! I.e. my old photo'!

I've been spending a lot of time at Andrea Joseph's blog lately, I love her wonderful pen drawings, a fantastic blend of skillful observation and imagination. I do like it when she incorporates writing in her images, as combining words and pictures (storytelling to a certain extent) is an interest of mine.

Via Andrea's blog, I travelled across the webosphere to Flikr, and have at last given myself a kick and signed up for an account. I've posted a few artworks there, and was thrilled to find a few comments waiting for me there. Although I don't spend a vast amount of time on-line, I can see what an immense networking resource Flikr is. There are so many groups to join and so many talented artists displaying their work. My only problem is motivating myself to visit as often as I should. I try not to spend too much time on the PC these days as my ol' eyes aren't what they used to be. Also, I'm one of nature's hermits, and I'm afraid that I'm not as conscientious socially as I should be either. Nevertheless, it's heartening and inspiring to see what a wonderful creative place the Internet is these days.