Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 34 i Artists Drawing and Inspiration

The painting I have chosen is called Two Spirits on Mars. As I mentioned in my profile, I am quite spiritual. The Gospel of St Matthew says: “Foxes have holes… but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” For me, the fox has a spiritual meaning. This painting is of two Fennec foxes (found in Israel) that represent the spirit of my late father and cousin Jenny. My father passed away in 2007 (brain tumour) and Jenny passed in 2010 (skin cancer). I am grateful for the comfort I find not only from the Bible but also from my creativity. STEP ONE Before I even contemplate creating a composition I always make sure there are several layers of paint on my canvas. Just starting on a…

THE PASTELS I keep my ‘outdoor’ set in a cheap plastic fisherman’s box – the kind with compartments used to keep hooks and lures. I pack the pastels in with cotton wool or rice, so the rougher the journey, the cleaner they get. I use all kinds from the softest Unison, Schmincke, Sennelier, Art Spectrum, Winsor & Newton, to the relatively hard Rembrandt, Conte sticks and pastel pencils, and now the American Pan Pastels. The more colours the better. I never have enough. In this painting I used a wide range of colours, hardnesses and makes of pastels – but the indispensable ones were: Art Spectrum Flinders Red Violet and Flinders Blue Violet; Schmincke Dark Green and Grey Green; Red, Green, Purple and Black Pan Pastels; Rembrandt, W&N and Unison…

STEP ONE After finding the photograph you want to use, use a sheet of tracing paper and a 2H or H pencil to trace the main facial features of the person. This will give you accurate placement of the person’s face and its features. STEP TWO Flip over the tracing paper, so that the traced drawing is underneath and place it on the paper you are using to draw on. Use some masking tape to hold the image in place whilst you use a coloured pencil and go around the lines you can see that you have drawn, and rub them down onto the paper. This will create marks from the pencil you used to trace the image and create an outline of the portrait on the paper underneath. Spray…

Jenny Greentree resides on an ancient red ridge overlooking Gidgee Lake – quite literally out the ‘Back of Bourke’ in western New South Wales. Her home has been a source of inspiration which has helped to unlock her exciting God-given talents. Jenny uses pastels in a style that is fresh and crisp. She manipulates pure colours, line and tone to capture the extraordinary images of the Australian Outback which she experiences on a daily basis. Waking up to a spectacular sunrise, or driving down the road and being struck by the glistening light of the sun reflecting off an approaching storm, cannot fail to spark the creativity of this talented lady. She still responds in wonder at beautiful sunsets, and is still mesmerised by the sight of the moon rising…

Choose your reference photo When you are beginning a drawing you need to choose a subject which excites your interest and preferably one which challenges you. I especially enjoy drawing kids in action, or totally involved in an activity, or just being still and wondering. The range of expressions offered by children at play is infinite. It’s a whole world waiting for artistic exploration! So, take plenty of photos, because kids won’t sit still for hours with exciting expressions on their faces waiting for you to puddle about with a pencil! Rifle through your shots and choose a photo which is suitable for a drawing. This isn’t always easy. For this project, I found myself choosing a photo of Sam looking sweetly at the camera. I sketched it up and…

I was born in Brisbane and have spent a large part of my life here. The sub-tropical climate makes it easy to be outside, consequently I constantly have my camera at the ready. I have travelled extensively throughout our wonderful country from the outback to the coast, and have acquired a deep respect for our native flora and fauna. I have been drawing and painting since primary school, earning the Art Prize in my last year at high school. In Grade 7 I was introduced to Calligraphy, further down the track I gained a Certificate in Advanced Calligraphy from the Maitland (NSW) TAFE, and subsequently studied long distance through the Roehampton College in London. Calligraphy taught me how to write and paint with watercolour and gouache. A great deal of…

Operators of the Lethbridge Gallery believe that a valuable and fulfilling part of making art and exhibiting it is to meet the people who are moved by their creations. This gallery’s philosophy is that meeting the purchasers makes a fulfilling link between the artist and the art lover … and adds to the vital experiences both of creating the art and acquiring the art. The Lethbridge Gallery works hard to achieve its philosophical goals by exhibiting every year in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney – at important venues where the artists take the time to see old friends and meet new ones. The group of artists representing the Lethbridge Gallery has established a studio-gallery in Brisbane, where they are proud to bring to the people a depth and intelligence of vision…

STEP ONE I make a sketch, considering tone and compositional arrangement, remembering that sunlight will be a feature of this painting. I select most colours before I start, choosing colours with reference to photographs. I consider complementary colours and often exaggerate a little for impact. I use Colourfix pastel paper (half a sheet of Blue Haze for this picture) taped to board for stability. STEP TWO I draw in a horizon line with pastel pencil and block in cloud area colours with soft pastels. Straight strokes (often the side of the pastel) are used in distant and streaky clouds. Curvy strokes to help form cloud shapes are used for the fluffy cloud areas. This is done quickly and roughly. STEP THREE With fingers, I blend cloud areas – beginning with…

STEP ONE Firstly I applied a very pale blue soft pastel (gently rubbed in with my finger) to the background immediately around the birds and the very small foliage. This allows the detailed edges to remain clear when colour is applied, I find this method means I don’t have to put back any detail lost when I put in the rest of the background. Next I applied very dark brown soft pastel to the eye and feathers where they are darkest, then a dark blue pastel pencil to the beak and a mid-pink, light yellow and light grey soft pastels to the lower beak blended with the chisel blender, as fingers are too big for some areas. I used the same dark blue pencil to indicate the shadow on the…

I’ve been painting all my life. I can remember as a child in the 1980s my father bringing home reams of used computer paper which I drew on to my heart’s content. One of the greatest things about being a kid is that you do things without thinking and over-analysing. That was my approach to art as a young person and was sadly something I lost as I became a teenager and right through my university days at art school. I am pleased to say though that at age 32 I have recaptured my “inner child” approach to art and like Pablo Picasso, I believe in the importance of creating artwork with an uninhibited childlike quality. I have been told that some of my paintings are a cross between Franz…