June 17th, 2021

Yippee I am back at life drawing classes .  .  .  .

One of the most challenging aspects of being an artist is really observing what you see, and a good way of keeping this awareness up to scratch is by regularly sketching. It doesn’t matter what you sketch as long as you observe well. For instance, if you were sketching a person sitting opposite you, imagine taking a snapshot of them. By looking at this imaginary image, it is possible to learn where their hands join their wrists and where these hands rest on their lap, where their head sits – is it leaning to one side or bent forward? And their ear that is poking out of their hair, how big is this ear in proportion to their head? All these observations go towards making the drawing and they help to train the eye to draw in proportion. Nothing beats life drawing for training the eye. I am, and always will be, working on this, and it is a place of growth for me. Our eyes don’t lie but what happens is that our brain makes assumptions, so we believe that we are drawing the right angle or shape but actually the best thing to do is to truly look at what is in front of you. I spend much on my time while sketching telling myself to draw what is actually there, not necessarily what I want or think to be there. I continue to train myself in this way.

. . . via Zoom 
Sadly I am not back at drawing class in person yet, it is on zoom. Thank goodness for technology.
  







​SURPRISES
Give Such a Feel Good Factor 

 
It is with great delight that I can share these photos sent from Kazakhstan. If you remember, I ran a competition for subscribers to my newsletter to win one of my paintings. I really value my subscribers and wanted to say thank you for being alongside me as part of my journey as an artist. I am grateful to you all, whether your support is by purchasing my work, visiting my exhibitions, celebrating my competition wins, commiserating with me when I am not acknowledged, telling your friends about my work or just being there to have creative conversations, thank you.

Please take a moment to see the amazing place my painting prize has ended up. The winner is a very cultured and interesting lady, and she is going to put my painting next to a few masters of Kazak art.  I feel am deeply honoured and privileged.  
 

---