Drawing a line in time: A test, a competition, a question: or, what is in ...

A link to a favorite artist's blog and a competition...

Drawing a line in time: A test, a competition, a question: or, what is in ...: When I visit schools I take with me a number of 'props'. One is a necklace that I wear most of the time anyway, a silver bottle with red s...

Finished portraits and thoughts on the new term

I have been fiddling on and off with this for a little while but it is now finished, and although far from perfect I am quite pleased as it is my first colour pencil portrait (or colour pencil anything really)

approx A4 on pastel paper

I have also recently finished a memorial picture in graphite pencils on watercolour paper

I have continued with the portrait experiments and once again using my grand-daughter Leah as the model have completed another pastel

Although I feel my technical skills with this medium are advancing I am not totally happy with this one. I'm not really sure why, but it seems to have an oldy worldy children's story look about it and I don't feel it captures Leah's true character. I am not a lover of full colour work and am much happier with monochrome or limited palettes, but I don't think this is totally the problem. so I have put this away for now and started another, same subject but different medium and a pose that is much more appropriate to Leah's true character.




This one is being worked in colour pencil, a medium that I have dabbled with on and off but never really got to grips with. Instead of using the popular (coloured pencil artists books ) instruction, that I normally try to do, this time I have just gone straight in using the same methods I use for my graphite work and so far it seems to be looking ok. Still some work to do, but here is where I am at...

The pic is a little washed out as I have scanned it instead of photographing.

But this is certainly the Leah that I know and love, whereas the one above seems a little alien somehow.

I am also working a background of sorts (just an illusion of foliage in the same colours) to avoid the 'floating head' syndrome, but with all that hair it probably would not be a problem anyhow.

I think my time spent at Uni is now kicking in somewhat and I am much more critical about my own work and before I offer portraits as commissions I really want to find an angle, a slightly different perspective than a straight forward portrait.

Alice in the Park

Just thought I would add a few pics of our summer 'Alice in the Park' exhibition, organised and run by
HaBA (Highbridge and Burnham Artists)
In the photographs Alice is my grand-daughter Leah and Kev (my husband ) the Mad Hatter.

It has been so long since I posted,  I will just cover the most interesting (hopefully) stuff.
My major exhibition at college went well, and I now have a Foundation degree in Applied Art and Design, I have been accepted for the BA Hons degree course in the same subject so have one more year to do.
The local summer Arts festival was a bit of a wash out due to the weather, but we did manage one and half days (details and pictures on my Facebook page if anyone is interested)
I am currently taking some time doing some of my own art  (as opposed to school stuff) and updating my website www.geraldineboley.com, with new work. I have discovered that I like human portraiture as well as the animal kind and have been playing around with charcoal and pastel.
Something that my course has given me is a new perspective on my own work, and having experimented with lots of subjects and different media, I have come almost full circle back to pastels, although I now also enjoy dabbling with water colour, acrylic and collage. I am looking at other ways of using pastels as I have become slightly bored with my style of working, and have become very enthusiastic about using their inherent properties to the full, and also looking at a wider scope of subjects, so this will be my next step.......

Kev (my husband) charcoal and pastel pencil on pastel paper

charcoal on wc paper

Leah and Sam (my grandchildren)
pastel/pastel pencil/charcoal pencil

update

`its been a while since I  posted on here, but the easter weekend has given me some breathing space to catch up on a few things and the beautiful weather we have been having means an earlier start to the day so I can fit more in;-). I am  busy preparing for my assessments for my degree, all due in the next three weeks or so and also for our major exhibition. I am currently working on three large (5' x 4') trees in charcoal on heavy rough water colour paper and these are currently the strongest contenders for my exhibition pieces. I have spent a day at Bristol Zoo (with grand -children) taking photos hopefully for future reference and also the last two days have been visiting the Secret World wildlife rescue center. Both these enterprises work very hard for conservation and the rescue center is entirely dependent on volunteers and donations. See link on this blog/facebook for further info. I have some seriously good photographs of some of our local wildlife and am hoping to get some of my own work underway in the summer..........

Well it has taken me till the 1st of march to get round to my first blog of 2011! It has been a busy few months, we had our 'Transition ' exhibition in January, and the 'biggy' summer exhibition is just around the corner in May.
This one is marked towards our degree so is very important!
I have been working in my sketchbooks and also have done some random artwork, including some linocut, but have once again come back to drawing. I have recently drawn several trees and these along with the crows are becoming a bit of an obsession. I am currently exploring charcoal, mixed media and oil pastel  (separately, not all together) and so far have not come up with any concrete ideas for the show apart from the fact that it will probably be tree and /or crow related. Anyways for the moment a few pics of current work.

This one is in charcoal & mixed media approx A0, and still has a way to go.

Another ongoing project, this is oil pastel approx A2

and lastly coloured pencil on thinned oil paint  A2