Expanding and Finding New Directions

by Lynn Fuller

Greener Pastures by Lynn Gillespie
68cm x 40cm
Faber-Castell Polychromo, Albrecht Durer and Caran d'Ache on Clairefontaine Pastelmat. Photo’s from Pixabay

This piece was about practice for me with being very new using this medium. Being completely blown away by what other artists were achieving with different types of artist pencils, I went out and invested on a few different brands. The idea being to have another medium to use other than paint which I have been using for around 13 years, and one that was also portable and easy to use while looking after grandchildren before and after school or even taking away with me on holidays.

My first dog portrait two months earlier lead to a few commissions and in between those I practiced on dogs, horses, cats. Having an exhibition coming up that I was entering my Acrylic paintings in and this being my second year at exhibiting at this event. I thought why not try and enter a pencil piece or two alongside the Acrylic paintings. With only three weeks for entries to be in, and always challenging myself I decided to go all in and see how many puppies I could get in a row and liked the idea of having them peeping over a fence to showcase their curiosity, and who doesn’t like looking at puppies. Pixabay was a great source for these pics on short notice. I must say I have plenty of offers of puppies now for the next one. My second entry I drew one of New Zealand beautiful native birds the Tui which is my favorite bird to paint. I took both to the framers but walked out without the Tui as it was sold in store before I had the opportunity to frame it. So quickly back I went to the drawing board, to do another Tui.

Star - 1st Pencil Drawing

With family in tow on the show’s opening, we went and saw all the wonderful artworks on display. Thrilled at having picked up three awards this year. up one on the previous year plus I was ecstatic at one of them being for the Greener Pastures art piece, (Puppies on Fence). Walking around I bumped into the President of the A&P show he asked how I had gone for my second year. Great three ribbons and two sold including my first Coloring Pencil piece. He asked if I would like to know who brought the puppies, then with a grin on his face, proceeded to inform me that the President of A&P is allowed to purchase one piece from the art show each year to add to their A&P gallery collection and this year they chose my drawing of Greener Pastures.

For a newbie at Coloring Pencil this was the icing on the cake. Better than winning three awards. Having a piece of your art going into a gallery collection knowing that it most likely will be here for years to come is something special and especially as it is Colored Pencil.

Tui on Guard

The native Tui posed another challenge for me as it has white feathers around its neck plus a white tuft on the front of its neck. White is not as giving as some colors so certainly was challenging to make sure it stood out. Once I posted the piece on colored pencil group it got positive feedback. My eldest granddaughter wants to be an artist when she grows up, so this is very inspirational to her. She draws every day at my house and has plans to share nana’s studio when it gets built, plus she is planning to enter with her first piece next year.

About Lynn:

Lynn is a part time Acrylic artist who is new to colored pencils having only picked up this medium last November. With over 10 years experience as an artist, this has helped with understanding blending, color matching, and layering.  Lynn volunteering around 20 hours a week, where she runs a representative sports organization for school aged children. She also enjoys photography.

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