Recent figure drawing

Now in Ottawa, I’m excited to have found the The Drawing Room Studio. Sarah Lacy, the artist who runs the studio, is a classically trained artist. This translates into wonderful long poses with good lighting, and well planned easel and chair spacing so that everyone can see the model.

Though I would love to attend every session, weekend “family-time” prevents me from doing so. Nonetheless, here are some of my drawings from those poses.

I completed this drawing in charcoal on the Saturday	… and this painting on the Sunday, my first figure painting in a LONG time!
Completed this portrait in charcoal on the Saturday	… and this figure on the Sunday, of the same pose.

And not from life, but from a photo, this is a sketch of my son, for a possible upcoming drawing and/or painting.

Group Show

The drawing of my infant son will be in the upcoming Drawing 2016 Annual Juried Exhibition at the John B. Aird Gallery in Toronto. I’d love to see you at the opening!

“I Am Here!”
charcoal on paper
13×19

Latest drawing, Upcoming Show

It’s been a long time since I’ve taken the time to update my blog. I have been drawing and painting but did not have the time to photograph my work.

In the last month, I’ve been working on a portrait of my son. I certainly chose a difficult project — I used five different photos to compose the gesture and expression, each of which had a different light source and captured Raphaël at a different age. Those legs go from skinny to plump incredibly fast within the first few months!

Though it’s a portrait of him as an infant, I wanted to capture his personality as it is expressed at his current preschool age. Moreover, I aimed to portray the exuberance of life slightly coloured by a fear of the unknown and new. I think it turned out well in spite of all these challenges.

“I Am Here!
charcoal on paper
13×19

You can see this portrait of my son in the upcoming Interact Juried Art Salon at the Tett Centre in Kingston, Ontario. The exhibit opens May 21st at 7:00PM and closes June 26th.

Birds…

Winter has arrived to Edmonton. You should see how much snow we have already! It inspired me to draw chickadees. Here are my first two.

SOLD

A few 20 min life drawings from earlier this year.

Three Drawings in a Show

I will try to photograph some of my recent gesture drawings and post them soon.

In the meantime, here are three 3h poses completed from life recently. The bottom two are in the 21st Annual Naked Exhibit currently being held at Harcourt house, along with a 20 min drawing that I forgot to photograph before the show. The top drawing was completed after the submission deadline, so perhaps it will make it into next year’s exhibit.

Paul SOLD

The Young Artist SOLD

Woman I SOLD

I went life drawing!

With Raphaël, I don’t have much time to draw, but I did manage to go to the Harcourt House open sessions a couple of times in recent weeks. Here are some of my better drawings, plus a sketch of Raphaël from when he was around 5 months old (I drew it in January).

Short poses from the Spring

I hadn’t been drawing for over a year, so the blog was quiet. My husband and I moved to Edmonton last June (he’s the new Composer-in-Residence for the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra) and I had a baby in August.

Raphaël
11 months

There are few opportunities to practice life drawing in Edmonton. In the Spring however, The Harcourt House held a session on Monday afternoons which was perfect. Rob stayed home with the baby and I went to draw for the first time in over a year.

I was VERY rusty, but here are some of the better drawings from the few sessions I attended. Poses are from 1 to 20 minutes.

Kingston Prize

My drawing of Kevin, Steady Gaze, is a finalist in the Kingston Prize for Canadian Portraiture! The exhibit will travel to three cities and will be in Toronto at the Institute for Contemporary Culture, Royal Ontario Museum, November 10, 2011 – January 29, 2012.

Steady Gaze
charcoal on paper
13×19

John B. Aird Gallery 2011 Drawing Exhibition

I just received the news that my drawing, Steady Gaze, was selected for the 12th annual juried exhibition of drawings being held at the John B. Aird Gallery in February.

Steady Gaze
charcoal on paper
13×19

Some life drawings

Here are some recent drawings. The top one is of Denis, drawn at Brian Smith‘s studio on Tuesday afternoon. It was a 3h sitting.

These next ones are from the TSA last Sunday morning. I haven’t drawn for a while, so it was a bit rough. Here are the best of the session. The model is Anthony. I had planned to practice drawing the face, but Antony gave me his back view for most of the session!