Congratulations to all here--we've won another award!

Many of you may know of the annual awards initiated by Katherine Tyrrell of the inspiring Making a Mark blog. This year, Sketching in Nature has been chosen to win the challenge up as the best art project!

Thanks to all our wonderful contributors...you make the blog what it is---and thank you, Katherine, we're honored and thrilled. 

You'll see this proudly displayed in our sidebar at right, joining our "Going Greener" award.

Katherine writes:

In the end I decided that the art blog project which was worthy of note is a project led by Cathy Johnson which received Making A Mark's Going Greener Gong in 2009. 

Group blog projects often 'fall over' after a time. People get interested in other things, participation drops off and then before you know it very few people are posting.

Sketching in Nature started in 2009, has developed a linked site on Flickr (with 748 members) where they often identify future blog correspondents, has grown its correspondent base as a result (by invitation only) and every week it generates between 5 and 10 posts. So lots for people to read making a blog worth subscribing too, if you have a similar interest, but not a huge commitment for an individual correspondent. It's also a correspondent recruitment model which tends to raise the calibre of the post. Plus the posts stay on topic and do not drift away from the reason for its existence i.e. sketching nature from observation and at first hand. Moderation also seems to be pretty effective in reviewing output and keeping the comments on topic as well! Bottom line this is a blog which has made a commitment to being both on topic and sustainable!

The 2012 winner of

The Best Art Blog Project Virtual Challenge Cup is

"Sketching in Nature"

Sketching on the spot, outdoors; field sketches;

learning from our sketches; nature observation; exploring with a sketchbook.

See all of this year's award winners on Making a Mark, HERE, and congratulations to all!