Passion for Portraits
An old school friend sparked a flame inside of this artist to rekindle her love of art.
Ihave lived on the Central Coast of NSW most of my life, where we are blessed with beautiful beaches, national parks, abundant in lots of species of birds and animals. During my school years I chose art classes which I looked forward to the most of all my subjects. Caricatures, cartoons and animals were always in my art books. Title pages were masterpieces! I also enrolled in a correspondence course which included sign-writing and I loved doing that with pen and ink.
After leaving school I got a job at Hornsby Council as a receptionist and continued working there for about six years until I married and had two daughters. While the girls were playing
I got into ceramics, which was a great time, painting delicate flowers and designs on jugs, plates, and ornaments, and getting them fired was exciting to see how the finished product would turn out. I even sold a few things which was a boost for me. I enrolled in a folk art course and my dad was pretty handy at carpentry so he would make
We visited an old school friend, Theresa, at Mini Waters, who has always been creative in different ways, and I was so impressed by her artworks adorning her walls. Something inside of me stirred and as soon as we got home I had to start my own journey and have continued ever since. I am remarried now to a wonderful man who encourages me in every way of my life and supports all of my decisions. He has helped me with videoing my art, setting up markets, helping me with my solo exhibitions and he is a whiz at the computer with graphics. Both of my girls are very talented in art also. My youngest draws amazing botanical work, life drawings and has done great animals. My eldest has drawn great pictures in the past but recently has been creating fantastic cakes and decorates them with different themes. She has also found a niche for sewing children’s clothing since having her own little ones. Yes, that makes me a Nana! A proud one.
Which comes to my drawing portraits. I have albums full of photos from which to choose. My nieces have children also, so there is an unlimited supply of pictures. I started up a Facebook art page about two years ago and was blown away by the reception I got from people wanting portraits and paintings. I wanted to improve my portraits to make them more life-like so I found a website called 5Pencil Method and bought their DVDS, studied them and practiced all the time. It is a layering method starting with 4H working to a 2H, HB, 2B and for darkest tones 4B. It creates a smooth finish to your subject and highlights, whiskers and fine hairs can be easily taken out with a kneadable rubber that has been moulded to a fine point. My portraits can take up to eight hours, capturing the person’s character and personality or the animal’s cheeky expression. Testing all sorts of papers, pencils, lighting, even sharpeners and erasers has been part of my ongoing journey to create portraits I am happy with.
My husband encouraged me to do animal portraits. I was a bit hesitant at first... doing fur and whiskers was something that scared me and I didn’t want to go down that path, but after watching the DVDS I kept up the practice and started enjoying drawing them. I love it now and have had lots of commissions over the last year selling internationally and nationally. The warmth I feel from the owners’ remarks when they receive their portraits is the best feeling in the world. It means so much to me knowing others want me to capture their little furry loved ones in graphite to put on their wall in their homes. The walls in my room where I do most of my art are plastered with my drawings of dogs, horses, and different birds including cockatoos, pelicans, pigeons and bower birds.
I have had two solo exhibitions, one in Terrigal and the other in Matcham, which were wonderful experiences for me to grow in self-confidence, and be able to witness people admiring my art. Central Coast Grammar School exhibited my artworks and the feedback was encouraging. In May we have the annual Gosford Show in which I will be entering three of my
paintings, so that is exciting. They are of galahs, kookaburras and lorikeets, done in acrylics on canvas 50 x 75cm. My paintings nearly always include trees, moons, birds, suns, and clouds. I have sold many paintings nationally.
I try not to categorise my art as I love to do different subjects. I might do graphite portraits for a couple of months, change to acrylics, then do some pastels, as I think I would get too burnt out if I did the same thing all the time. My overall goal is to have the owners of my art fall in love with what I have done for them, share it with their friends and spread the word to others so I can generate more work. Each new portrait brings an excitement in me from the very first line to the finished subject and if I can keep pleasing people with my art in the years to come, I will be one happy lady. I feel very blessed and honoured that Artist’s Palette has given me the opportunity to share my art and would like to thank my daughters, my husband and friends for believing in me and supporting me through this journey.
EXHIBITIONS
Group 2012 – Central Coast Gramma School 2013 – Gosford Regional Show Solo 2011 – Matcham Community Hall 2012 – Terrigal Scouts Hall
My artworks can be viewed at http://jansimpressions.weebly. com/ http://www.redbubble.com/ people/jansimpressions Email: janvan85@hotmail.com
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