Specialization of Fine artists

Fine artists typically display their work in museums, commercial art galleries, corporate collections, and private homes. Some of their artwork may be commissioned (done on request from clients), but most is sold by the artist or through private art galleries or dealers. The gallery and the artist predetermine how much each will earn from the sale. Only the most successful fine artists are able to support themselves solely through the sale of their works. Most fine artists have at least one other job to support their art careers. Some work in museums or art galleries as fine-arts directors or as curators, planning and setting up art exhibits. A few artists work as art critics for newspapers or magazines or as consultants to foundations or institutional collectors. Other artists teach art classes or conduct workshops in schools or in their own studios. Some artists also hold full-time or part-time jobs unrelated to art and pursue fine art as a hobby or second career.

Usually, fine artists specialize in one or two art forms, such as painting, illustrating, sketching, sculpting, printmaking, and restoring. Painters, illustrators, cartoonists, and sketch artists work with two-dimensional art forms, using shading, perspective, and color to produce realistic scenes or abstractions.

The new landscape

Artists like the convict John Eyre, who produced paintings and engravings in the first decade of the nineteenth century, and the landscape painter Conrad Martens - a close friend of Charles Darwin - produced important works during these early years of settlement.

John Glover
Glover was one of the precursors of an Australian style of painting. He arrived in Tasmania from England in 1831. A talented landscape painter with a strong reputation in England (and France), Glover was never seen as an artist who 'pushed the boundaries'. While he was initially criticised for not paying close enough attention to the 'local characteristics', he did find an individuality in his work through the new landscapes and atmosphere of Tasmania. His depiction of the Tasmanian light as bright and clear, was a departure from his European paintings and gave his paintings a true Australian quality. His body of work made him a pioneer of landscape painting in Australia.

Australian painters

When the first artists arrived in colonial Australia from Europe in the late 18th century, they were confronted by images and scenery the likes of which they had never seen:

...the whole appearance of nature must be striking in the extreme to the adventurer, and at first this will seem to him to be a country of enchantments.Thomas Watling, Letters From An Exile in Botany Bay, To His Aunt in Dumfries, 1794

The traditions of European art and painting did not fit comfortably with this strange and bewildering new landscape. Early artists tended to paint what they saw and the better the representation; the better the work was regarded.

Government Art Collection on-line database

The Government Art Collection includes works in a range of media - paintings, sculptures, drawings and watercolours, prints, photographs and textiles. The majority are by British artists and they cover a wide span, both historically and in terms of subject matter, ranging from 16th-century portraits to contemporary landscape photographs. Works have been acquired by purchase, commission, gift and bequest.

The on-line database currently contains information on over 7000 works - almost all the paintings, drawings, sculpture and textiles in the Collection, as well as a substantial number of prints and photographs. We are adding to these all the time.

The number of good quality images on the website is continually increasing. Whenever works of art displayed overseas return to London, we take the opportunity to have them photographed and reassess their documentation. As research unearths new attributions and other art historical information, our records are updated and the information reflected on the website.

The Famous Artist Motherwell Robert

Over the years, Ken Tyler has worked with the divergent styles of many artists, adapting to the particular requirements of each one. Producing 'painterly prints' for the major Abstract Expressionist artist Robert Motherwell (1915-1991) was a considerable challenge. For Motherwell, who worked in an intuitive automatic manner, the technicalities of printmaking could be seen as a constraint. Yet, in his collaborative work with Tyler, his works maintained the freshness of their expression, despite the rigours of production.

One method favoured by Motherwell was collage, which he considered as an equivalent to a modern still life. 'Collage somehow became my joy, and has been ever since. Also, it has another function: Sometimes I get stuck in painting … and often, after shifting to collage for a time, I may resolve the painting problem when I return to it.' But collage had its difficulties too.

Motherwell's collage prints, such as the America-La France variations series of 1984, reveal the multiple changes made to each image over time. Motherwell proceeded back and forth with the collages, adding, subtracting, altering and sometimes almost beginning again. The process of collage making and proofing was exploratory, with the artist seeking the perfect resolution.
Another of Motherwell's methods of working was derived from the Surrealist theory of psychic automatism, or free association - but working on a large scale using dynamic forms.

From 1948, he began his Elegies to the Spanish Republic, first in painting and later in printmaking. The black images, evoking the tragic past, and the defeat of the democratically elected Republicans by the Monarchists in the 1930s civil war in his much-loved Spain, would stay with him for his lifetime, remaining an 'endless challenge' for the artist.

The final group of works Motherwell made with Tyler at the Mount Kisco workshop reflects his increasing interest in the use of colour, and the printer's keenness for this to happen.

Intro to Government Art Collection

The Government Art Collection is a unique British cultural resource, which operates within the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Works of art from the Collection are displayed in British Government buildings both in the United Kingdom and around the world, playing a significant role in promoting British art and culture across diverse and international environments. More than 9000 works – over two thirds of the Collection

Design and Art Education or Outreach

To increase the understanding and appreciation of contemporary federal architecture and artworks and to educate both federal employees and the general public about the history and cultural heritage of the United States as reflected in the architecture and art of federal buildings, the Center for Design Excellence and the Arts organizes and produces publications, exhibits, films, forums, symposia, and interpretative materials.

Significant buildings commissioned through the Design Excellence process are documented in an award-winning monograph series. An oral history program is underway to interview important public figures, architects, designers, and artists who have worked to inspire and nurture excellence in federal architecture. Plaques are installed and interpretive brochures are produced to accompany works of art and to give visitors to federal buildings biographies of artists and an insight into the meaning of artworks and how they were produced. Exhibits are organized and designed to make the works of art accessible.

To maximize its educational and outreach activities, the Center has established partnerships for the Office of the Chief Architect with various professional organizations such as the American Institute of Architects, the National Organization of Minority Architects, the American Society of Interior Designers, and the American Society of Landscape Architects. It also seeks partnerships and collaboration with museums and schools of architecture and design. The Center is currently working with the American Architectural Foundation in Washington, DC; and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City on an exhibition and lecture series on Design Excellence and the Arts. Every two years, the National Building Museum in Washington, DC, organizes an exhibition on the GSA Design Awards.