A Turner painting depicting the city of Rome has recently sold for £29.7 million, a record amount for eh British artist. The painting Turner’s Modern Rome has been brought by a London dealer on behalf of the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California. It was painted in 1839 and has been described by experts as Turner’s finest view of a Italian city. It has only been sold once before on the open market back in the last 172 years. It was previously owned by a descendant of the 5th Earl of Rosebery,who bought it in 1878 whilst on his honeymoon and before that by Scottish landowner and collector Hugh Munro of Novar who brought it directly from the artists exhibition.

Floppy disks are not really good for much these days but one artist has been putting them to good use.  Nick Gentry uses old floppy disks to create his pictures incorporating them into the artwork itself by using them as a canvas. Anything from 6 to more than 100 disks are used to create each picture depending upon the size. You can see one example to the left here but for others take a look at this article.

According to this article people are increasingly choosing inexpensive pursuits such as painting and drawing during the recession. It seems people are moving away from more expensive hobbies as paint brush sales tripled and sales of A4 sketch books doubled at Tesco last year. They have put the increase down to their customers looking for cheaper ways to spend their free time and expect a further increase this year.