Pascal Dangin is arguably one of the most powerful men in fashion + behind-the-scenes premier retoucher of fashion photographs.
Useful links:
www.boxstudios.com
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/05/12/080512fa_fact_collins
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Santa Fe Symposium
The 22nd annual symposium on jewelry manufacturing technology will be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, May 18 - 20, 2008.
Useful link:
www.santafesymposium.org
Useful link:
www.santafesymposium.org
Portugal Gemas
A quarterly gemological newsletter in Portuguese has been launched by LABGEM gemological laboratory in PDF format.
Useful link:
www.labgem.org
Useful link:
www.labgem.org
Goldheart
Goldheart is an interesting jewelry store: the metamorphosis from a traditional store selling gold to a large branded jewelry operation with innovative designs and good customer service should be a good business model for aspiring jewelers.
Useful link:
www.goldheart.com.sg
Useful link:
www.goldheart.com.sg
Art Market Update
Souren Melikian has an interesting update on Christie's sale of Impressionist and Modern art @ http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/07/arts/w-melik8.php + what's amazing to me is the state of the art market: it is still active despite economic uncertainities worldwide.
Useful link:
www.christies.com
Useful link:
www.christies.com
Wind Power
I found the article on wind power @ http://www.economist.com/science/tq/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11323401 very interesting + insightful + it's really exciting to see innovative entrepreneurs venturing with technocrats to create alternative energy sources.
Useful links:
http://sway.no
www.bluehgroup.com
www.nrel.gov/wind
www.capewind.org
Useful links:
http://sway.no
www.bluehgroup.com
www.nrel.gov/wind
www.capewind.org
The Art Of Today
(via The Outline of Art) Frank Rutter writes:
3
Since Pettie and Orchardson Scotland has always been strongly represented in the Royal Academy. The younger Scottish school originated in Glasgow, whither about fifty years ago a very large number of fine pictures by the French romanticists found their way into public and private collections. In the appreciation of Corot and his contemporaries, Scotland was far ahead of England, and since Whistler also found favor more quickly in the north than in the south, the Scottish painters were, generally speaking, more advanced than their English confrères during the latter part of the nineteenth century. Of the group of painters known as the Glasgow School, it may be broadly said that the figure painters were chiefly influenced by Whistler, the landscapists by Corot and the French romanticists. Among the most distinguished of the figure painters are Sir James Guthrie, born in 1859 and elected President of Royal Scottish Academy in 1902, who adds much of the robustness of Raeburn to a Whistlerian elegance and color harmony; Sir John Lavery, born at Belfast in 1857, who has developed in his own way the graceful style and dainty coloring of Whistler, whether in portraying manly dignity, feminine loveliness, or in painting landscapes; Mr E A Walton, equally at home in portrait and landscape, Mr Harrington Mann, Mr George Henry, and Mr Edward Hornel, who with thick, enamel-like paint, has invented a new style in which children are usually seen decoratively disposed amid flowery gardens of a semi-tropical luxuriance. In this school a place apart was held by the late Joseph Crawhall, whose animal paintings, and particularly his watercolors on brown holland, had an inevitability of line and simple grandeur of design which related his work to that of the greatest oriental artists.
Among the Glasgow landscape painters, most of whom, like W Y Macgregor and David Gauld, followed either the Barbizon or Modern Dutch Schools, the premier place has now been won by Mr D Y Cameron, R.A. Born at Glasgow in 1865, Mr Cameron has made a foremost place for himself as an etcher, rivaling Mr Muirhead Bone in his masterly interpretation of architectural and landscape subjects, while he has also developed a most personal style as a painter, depicting the hills and lakes of Scotland and the picturesque houses in her cities with a fine simplicity of design and clear, translucent color. While in his use of delicate hues, harmonised with subtelty, Mr Cameron shows more than a passing acquaintance with Impressionism, in his emphasis of line and tendency towards simplication he exhibits in a mild and restrained form that reaction from Impressionism which ran to excess in Paris.
While there has never been a definite Edinburgh school, several modern painters of distinction have been associated with the Scottish capital, among them being Mr James Pryde, one of the most original and gifted artists of our time. Born in 1869, Mr Pryde is the son of the late Dr David Pryde of St Andrews and subsequently of Edinburgh. Though nominally he received his training, like so many others, at the Atelier Julien in Paris, very little French influence appears in his work. He learnt the decorative value of the silhouette from Whistler, something about the effective disposal of masses, perhaps, from the brilliant French poster-designer Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901), and a good deal about dramatic composition from Hogarth. In other words, Mr Pryde made his own choice among the masters and built up his own art by affinities and observation. It was by poster work that Mr Pryde first roused the attention of the public. He had a sister, Mabel Pryde, who married another artist, William Nicholson, and the brothers-in-law, working under the pseudonym of ‘Beggar staff Brothers’, produced a series of posters in the ‘nintees which electrified London by their outstanding artistic qualities.
The Art Of Today (continued)
3
Since Pettie and Orchardson Scotland has always been strongly represented in the Royal Academy. The younger Scottish school originated in Glasgow, whither about fifty years ago a very large number of fine pictures by the French romanticists found their way into public and private collections. In the appreciation of Corot and his contemporaries, Scotland was far ahead of England, and since Whistler also found favor more quickly in the north than in the south, the Scottish painters were, generally speaking, more advanced than their English confrères during the latter part of the nineteenth century. Of the group of painters known as the Glasgow School, it may be broadly said that the figure painters were chiefly influenced by Whistler, the landscapists by Corot and the French romanticists. Among the most distinguished of the figure painters are Sir James Guthrie, born in 1859 and elected President of Royal Scottish Academy in 1902, who adds much of the robustness of Raeburn to a Whistlerian elegance and color harmony; Sir John Lavery, born at Belfast in 1857, who has developed in his own way the graceful style and dainty coloring of Whistler, whether in portraying manly dignity, feminine loveliness, or in painting landscapes; Mr E A Walton, equally at home in portrait and landscape, Mr Harrington Mann, Mr George Henry, and Mr Edward Hornel, who with thick, enamel-like paint, has invented a new style in which children are usually seen decoratively disposed amid flowery gardens of a semi-tropical luxuriance. In this school a place apart was held by the late Joseph Crawhall, whose animal paintings, and particularly his watercolors on brown holland, had an inevitability of line and simple grandeur of design which related his work to that of the greatest oriental artists.
Among the Glasgow landscape painters, most of whom, like W Y Macgregor and David Gauld, followed either the Barbizon or Modern Dutch Schools, the premier place has now been won by Mr D Y Cameron, R.A. Born at Glasgow in 1865, Mr Cameron has made a foremost place for himself as an etcher, rivaling Mr Muirhead Bone in his masterly interpretation of architectural and landscape subjects, while he has also developed a most personal style as a painter, depicting the hills and lakes of Scotland and the picturesque houses in her cities with a fine simplicity of design and clear, translucent color. While in his use of delicate hues, harmonised with subtelty, Mr Cameron shows more than a passing acquaintance with Impressionism, in his emphasis of line and tendency towards simplication he exhibits in a mild and restrained form that reaction from Impressionism which ran to excess in Paris.
While there has never been a definite Edinburgh school, several modern painters of distinction have been associated with the Scottish capital, among them being Mr James Pryde, one of the most original and gifted artists of our time. Born in 1869, Mr Pryde is the son of the late Dr David Pryde of St Andrews and subsequently of Edinburgh. Though nominally he received his training, like so many others, at the Atelier Julien in Paris, very little French influence appears in his work. He learnt the decorative value of the silhouette from Whistler, something about the effective disposal of masses, perhaps, from the brilliant French poster-designer Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901), and a good deal about dramatic composition from Hogarth. In other words, Mr Pryde made his own choice among the masters and built up his own art by affinities and observation. It was by poster work that Mr Pryde first roused the attention of the public. He had a sister, Mabel Pryde, who married another artist, William Nicholson, and the brothers-in-law, working under the pseudonym of ‘Beggar staff Brothers’, produced a series of posters in the ‘nintees which electrified London by their outstanding artistic qualities.
The Art Of Today (continued)
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
The Sospiro Programme
I just came across The Sospiro Programme via Global Business, BBC by Peter Day. It was an extraordinary experience. I enjoyed it immensely.
Thanks to BBC + Peter Day.
Useful link:
www.sospiro.com
Thanks to BBC + Peter Day.
Useful link:
www.sospiro.com
The Best Advice
(via Fortune) Some of the best advice I ever received was unspoken. Over the course of my IBM career I've observed many CEOs, heads of state, and others in positions of great authority. I've noticed that some of the most effective leaders don't make themselves the center of attention. They are respectful. They listen. This is an appealing personal quality, but it's also an effective leadership attribute. Their selflessness makes the people around them comfortable. People open up, speak up, contribute. They give those leaders their very best. When it comes to specific advice, the best was from a former boss, who told me, "Don't view your career as a linear progression." He advised me to take horizontal rather than vertical steps: to try out situations that are unstructured, to learn different ways of working, and to get outside of headquarters and experience different cultures. I've applied this advice many times - most notably, taking a decidedly unstructured job at IBM Japan and then joining the fledgling IBM services business. After those experiences, I had the confidence that I could manage pretty much anything.
- Sam Palmisano
Chairman and CEO, IBM
Very inspirational. I have learned a bit more today.
- Sam Palmisano
Chairman and CEO, IBM
Very inspirational. I have learned a bit more today.
Alltournative
I really liked Alltournative's right combination of off-track adventure travel, nature and Maya culture. Brilliant idea!
Useful links:
www.alltournative.com
www.globalreporting.org
www.wri.org
Useful links:
www.alltournative.com
www.globalreporting.org
www.wri.org
The Online Way
I really liked Telling Stories the Online Way @ http://www.newsweek.com/id/130188. The impact of seeing real-world places in their context is a unique experience. I think they were brilliant.
Fine Jewelry News
Fine Jewelry News website is a great place for consumers + jewelry industry + it's educational and insightful.
I liked it.
Useful link:
www.finejewelrynews.com
I liked it.
Useful link:
www.finejewelrynews.com
Random Thoughts
In human affairs excesses provoke corrections, and the momentum of the correction carries on to provoke a new and different excess. So it is with politics, so with religion, so with art, and so with tides of opinion generally, including the stock market.
- John Train
- John Train
Diamond Pipeline Update
I found Chaim Even Zohar's Diamond Pipeline 2007 update @
http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullNews.asp?SID=&id=30244 educational and useful.
Thanks, Chaim.
Useful link:
www.kimberleyprocess.com
http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullNews.asp?SID=&id=30244 educational and useful.
Thanks, Chaim.
Useful link:
www.kimberleyprocess.com
The Art Of Today
(via The Outline of Art) Frank Rutter writes:
2
Glancing briefly at the number of British artists who have attained eminence by the character and individuality of their work—a number so great that it excludes any possibility of doing justice to them all within the space of this chapter—it is not without significance to note how few of them have received their training in the Royal Academy schools. In recent years the most fruitful forcing grounds for British Art have been the Scottish schools and the Slade School in London; other painters of distinction have come from the Royal College of Art in South Kensington or have received their training abroad.
It has often been said that the rank of a living artist can most fairly be gauged by the esteem in which he is held by foreign countries. By this reckoning a high place must be assigned to Mr Frank Brangwyn, R.A, for few British artists have been more feted than he on the Continent and in America, Paris, Munich, Vienna, Brussels, Madrid, Holland, and Italy, all have showered honors and distinctions on this artist. Born at Bruges in 1867, of Welsh extraction, Mr Brangwyn was from boyhood familiar with the splendors of Flemish tapestry, and though he first obtained notice by his power of drawing as an illustrator, his real bent has always been towards decorative art. In his early boyhood he worked with William Morris, executing designs for tapestries, etc; but when he was only sixteen he left Morris and went to sea, and the knowledge of shipping and seafaring life which he thus gained stood him in good stead when he again returned to London and the practice of art. All his most important early pictures were of subjects he had seen at sea; among them may be mentioned ‘Ashore’ (1890), ‘Burial at Sea’ and ‘Salvage’ (1891), and ‘The Convict Ship’ (1892). The sturdy drawing, glowing color, and spacious design in these works marked out the decorative painter of the future, though at this time the artist was earning his living principally by seafaring drawings, executed for the Graphic and other illustrated papers. In addition to his drawings and paintings Mr Brangwyn also devoted himself to etching, and his plates of the working maritime life on the lower reaches of the Thames were among the earliest of his works to attain a wide popularity.
Influenced to some extent perhaps by the Belgian painter and sculptor Constantin Meunier (1831-1905), whose vigorous art illustrated the industrial and mining life of the ‘Black Country’ of Belgium, Mr Brangwyn soon made his reputation as a painter by his unique gift of basing heroic decorative designs on typical scenes and episodes of modern industrialism. In 1895 his ‘Trade on the Beach’ was bought for the Luxembourg, Paris, and a few years later his panel ‘Commerce,’ in the Royal Exchange, London, made his decorative gifts widely known to his own compatriots. His decorations for the Skinner’s Hall and the series of panels illustrating typical modern industries, originally designed for the British pavilion in the Venice International Exhibition and now in the Leeds Art Gallery may be cited as brilliant examples of the decorative mural painting which this artist has done so much to revive.
Though latterly gigantic projects of decorative painting in the United States have taken up much of Mr Brangwyn’s time, so that he is now a comparatively rare exhibitor in London, he has been a prolific producer of pictures, watercolors, and etchings in addition to his mural painting. He is limited neither in method nor in subject, but whether the latter be a scene in Italy, an impression of Pittsburg, or a table laden with the rich fruits of a sumptuous dessert, the presentation of the theme is invariably decorative and grandiose. ‘The Poulterer’s Shop’, which was bought for the nation by the Chantrey Trustees from the Academy of 1916, is a glowing example of the sense of opulent splendor which Mr Brangwyn’s imagination and executive skill can extract from dead poultry, a heap of vegetables, and commonplace utencils.
The Art Of Today (continued)
2
Glancing briefly at the number of British artists who have attained eminence by the character and individuality of their work—a number so great that it excludes any possibility of doing justice to them all within the space of this chapter—it is not without significance to note how few of them have received their training in the Royal Academy schools. In recent years the most fruitful forcing grounds for British Art have been the Scottish schools and the Slade School in London; other painters of distinction have come from the Royal College of Art in South Kensington or have received their training abroad.
It has often been said that the rank of a living artist can most fairly be gauged by the esteem in which he is held by foreign countries. By this reckoning a high place must be assigned to Mr Frank Brangwyn, R.A, for few British artists have been more feted than he on the Continent and in America, Paris, Munich, Vienna, Brussels, Madrid, Holland, and Italy, all have showered honors and distinctions on this artist. Born at Bruges in 1867, of Welsh extraction, Mr Brangwyn was from boyhood familiar with the splendors of Flemish tapestry, and though he first obtained notice by his power of drawing as an illustrator, his real bent has always been towards decorative art. In his early boyhood he worked with William Morris, executing designs for tapestries, etc; but when he was only sixteen he left Morris and went to sea, and the knowledge of shipping and seafaring life which he thus gained stood him in good stead when he again returned to London and the practice of art. All his most important early pictures were of subjects he had seen at sea; among them may be mentioned ‘Ashore’ (1890), ‘Burial at Sea’ and ‘Salvage’ (1891), and ‘The Convict Ship’ (1892). The sturdy drawing, glowing color, and spacious design in these works marked out the decorative painter of the future, though at this time the artist was earning his living principally by seafaring drawings, executed for the Graphic and other illustrated papers. In addition to his drawings and paintings Mr Brangwyn also devoted himself to etching, and his plates of the working maritime life on the lower reaches of the Thames were among the earliest of his works to attain a wide popularity.
Influenced to some extent perhaps by the Belgian painter and sculptor Constantin Meunier (1831-1905), whose vigorous art illustrated the industrial and mining life of the ‘Black Country’ of Belgium, Mr Brangwyn soon made his reputation as a painter by his unique gift of basing heroic decorative designs on typical scenes and episodes of modern industrialism. In 1895 his ‘Trade on the Beach’ was bought for the Luxembourg, Paris, and a few years later his panel ‘Commerce,’ in the Royal Exchange, London, made his decorative gifts widely known to his own compatriots. His decorations for the Skinner’s Hall and the series of panels illustrating typical modern industries, originally designed for the British pavilion in the Venice International Exhibition and now in the Leeds Art Gallery may be cited as brilliant examples of the decorative mural painting which this artist has done so much to revive.
Though latterly gigantic projects of decorative painting in the United States have taken up much of Mr Brangwyn’s time, so that he is now a comparatively rare exhibitor in London, he has been a prolific producer of pictures, watercolors, and etchings in addition to his mural painting. He is limited neither in method nor in subject, but whether the latter be a scene in Italy, an impression of Pittsburg, or a table laden with the rich fruits of a sumptuous dessert, the presentation of the theme is invariably decorative and grandiose. ‘The Poulterer’s Shop’, which was bought for the nation by the Chantrey Trustees from the Academy of 1916, is a glowing example of the sense of opulent splendor which Mr Brangwyn’s imagination and executive skill can extract from dead poultry, a heap of vegetables, and commonplace utencils.
The Art Of Today (continued)
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Alex Metcalf
I really liked Alex Metcalf's Tree Listening Installation concept + the designs + the interactive mode. Brilliant!
Useful links:
www.alexmetcalf.co.uk
www.touchmusic.org.uk
Useful links:
www.alexmetcalf.co.uk
www.touchmusic.org.uk
The Government Art Collection
The Government Art Collection, in the care of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, U.K, has thousands of works of art, and now members of the public are invited to celebrate museums and galleries month by visiting the spectacular national art collection they never knew they owned.
It's a real treasure trove!
Useful link:
www.gac.culture.gov.uk
It's a real treasure trove!
Useful link:
www.gac.culture.gov.uk
Winza Tanzanian Ruby
Industry analysts believe highly saturated + transparent untreated rubies from Winza, Morogoro, Tanzania, may become the choice locality for ruby connoisseurs. There are many Winza Tanzanian rubies in the market and I hope they are not sold as Burmese. As always, if in doubt, consult a reputed gem testing laboratory.
Useful links:
www.gemburi.co.th
www.multicolour.com
Useful links:
www.gemburi.co.th
www.multicolour.com
Green Business Network In India
New Ventures India has launched Coaches Network to help SMEs go Green + the Coaches Network would also include top investors, business leaders and successful entrepreneurs who would devote time to nurturing seed and early and expansion stage green companies.
Useful link:
www.newventuresindia.org
Useful link:
www.newventuresindia.org
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