Acceptance to the CPSA Explore This 8 Exhibition

I was delighted to discover this week that my piece 'What About Me' was accepted into the Colored Pencil Society of America's Explore This! 8 on-line exhibition http://cpsa.org/coloredpencilartists/ET8Show/index.htm. If you get the opportunity to take a look, there are some wonderful artworks, all done with coloured pencils and it is inspiring to see what some artists are achieving with this very exciting medium. The exhibition will run for the next 12 months, so there is plenty of time to check it out! :)

The Big Harvest

The Big Harvest

9.5 cm in diameter

Coloured pencils on wood

Here is another little drawing for the upcoming Miniature Art Exhibition, inspired by my husband's attempts to grow a vegetable garden. Unfortunately our backyard doesn't get a lot of full sun, so we carefully chopped the two tiny carrots he lovingly grew (the only two to sprout) into six small pieces, so all the family could share in his endeavours. It has long been a dream of his to have a fully fledged vegie patch, but I feel it probably won't happen until we move house! :)

Around the World in Eighty Seconds

Around the World in Eighty Seconds

12x16 inches

Coloured pencils on gesso primed wood

This artwork was lots of fun to do, but caused me a few headaches in the end. Initially, there was no writing on the globe and then one of my sons commented that he felt it needed some text on the globe. At this point, I had already sprayed with fixative and so the pencil really wasn't adhering to the artwork. I should have known better, but used one of my finest permanent markers to add some text. All was fine, as you can see here, until after scanning this, I sprayed another coat of fixative, at which point all the letters bled into the surrounding areas. At this stage, all I could do was use a damp cloth and remove that whole section and start again. Thankfully this worked Ok, although the ocean now has a slightly more uneven colouring, which I suspect from miles away is how the earth would look anyway. We live and learn!!! :)

Easter Art

Rebecca Louise

4x6 inches

Coloured pencils and pastels on wood

George - Giraffe in a scarf

8x10 inches

Watercolour pencils, Coloured pencils and Pan Pastels on wood

Firstly wishing a really happy and safe Easter to each and every one of you.

These are the two artworks I have worked on so far over the Easter break.

Rebecca Louise is my brand new niece, born last Wednesday the 20th April. Sadly, I won't get to see or hold her until she is probably walking as we live too far away, but thank goodness for photos and the internet!!!

George was done just for fun, although I did regret adding the scarf once it was all finished :)

My Rock

My Rock

8x11 inches

Coloured pencils, Pastels pencils, Conte pencils & Pan Pastels on wood.

This is the woman who is my rock, my best friend, who first introduced me to art via her own creativity, and who has taught me more about life and love with more wisdom than anyone I know - My Mum ox

CheckMate

CheckMate

A4

Coloured pencil, watercolour pencils and Pan Pastels on wood

Another artwork featuring Muhali, a lovely baby gorilla we photographed at Taronga Zoo a few years ago - by now he is probably a fully fledged teenager (poor parents), but he was very cute at the time! My son has informed me that I have the chess board facing the wrong way (to the front, instead of to the baby gorilla) - he set the board up for me, but I moved it to take the photo. We long ago gave up playing chess with this son, because he beats us every time - I don't have the patience anyway!!!

Back to doing some illustration work this week, so for now the pencils are put aside for some digital work.

What about me?

What about Me?

29cm x 29cm

Coloured pencils on wood

Back to doing commissions this week, but just had time to fit another of these artworks on wood - so much fun!!! This one was inspired by our Siamese cat Dipsy who stretches his paw as high as he can to the bench (fortunately he can't reach) whenever I am chopping up chicken or fish. Some might shoo the kitty away, others might share a sardine or two - which are you?

Looking for a Mate - Coloured Pencils on Wood

Looking For a Mate

19.5 x 29.5 cm

Coloured pencils and Pan Pastels on Wood

I'm actually between illustration jobs, but just wanted to squeeze in a quickie (I am referring to artworks by the way) just for fun. I am going to try to create one artwork on wood per week, even if they are simple ones like this. My husband was fairly unimpressed, declaring that it seemed to be missing something... to be fair I usually do add a lot more detail, but for a change I am looking at doing some Trompe L'Oeil scenes that are quite simple in composition.

The Uninvited Guests

The Uninvited Guests

30cm x 30cm
Coloured pencils on wood

What fun I had with this artwork! This time the wood was sealed first, then an undercoat of acrylic applied to the appropriate areas, and then two coats of clear colourfix primer was applied. I am struggling now, to find plain pine breadboards, and so tried this bamboo and pine combination breadboard. The bamboo is much harder than the pine of course, and even though I gave it a good sand with a fine sander, it still has more texture than the pine and probably more than I would like, but it was a fun experiment anyway. This is my last artwork on wood for a little while, as I now have to buckle down and do some illustration work, but my goal is to do more of these pieces, as I have so many ideas floating around that I could sit and draw for months - sadly there just aren't enough hours in the day!!!

Contemplating Mischief

Contemplating Mischief

8x11 inches

Coloured pencils and Pan Pastels on wood

More experimentation with wood, only this time I primed the wood with Clear Colourfix primer and then sanded it with very fine sanding paper. I think this surface worked slightly better with the coloured pencils than just the acrylic or wood on it's own, although next time I would probably do another coat of primer and sand it even smoother. I do prefer the smoothest surface possible. I miss the fact that you can't really scratch the colour out like you can on drafting film, but there are so many other aspects that make the wood very pleasant to work with.

The reference photo for this cutie was provided by Ainhoa pcb on Flickr and was used with her kind permission. Some of you might remember I used this image before to do a graphite drawing called Whistful.

Goddess of the Sea - Trying out a new surface

Goddess of the Sea

8 1/2 x 11 inches

Acrylics and Coloured Pencil on Wood

As many of you may know, I love trying out new surfaces and experimenting. One of the things I hate most in preparing for exhibitions is the framing process. I stumbled upon a small stack of pine bread boards in a clearance sale the other day, and thought I would use them to try out a different surface, with the idea of possibly hanging them in exhibitions with no frame at all, but just as they are. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the wood accepted the coloured pencils (the softer ones such as the Derwent Coloursoft were more receptive than the harder Polychromos that I usually prefer), particularly on the face where I had done a very light undercoat with white acrylic.

I know there will be some exhibitions, where this type of presentation would not be accepted, but still thought it was worth a try. I was reading about an American artist (I can't recall his name) who draws on wood, then applies two coats of fixative, followed by three coats of gloss varnish.

The other thought I had was that clients might like their commissioned portraits done in this way, which means they don't have to worry about getting their portraits framed, and offers quite a unique gift. Watch this space :)