PaintersOnline editor’s choice
Meet this month’s editor’s choice winner from our PaintersOnline gallery
Twenty years ago, a friend asked Fen D’Lucie to draw her Labradors in pastel. ‘This resulted,’ she writes, ‘in a series of commissions, but they were always juggled within time constraints of the day job. Early retirement three years ago enabled me to branch out into 3D, build on my art A-level qualification and learn more. I attended several sculpture courses and, to assist with figure work, I took up charcoal life-drawing classes, then weekly portrait classes. ‘This began my move to oil paint. I loved it. I kept motivated during term breaks by hosting get-togethers where a few of the group took it in turns to be the model in my garden studio. This also gave us appreciation of keeping still for several hours!
‘By spring 2020 I felt I was getting somewhere until lockdown stopped play. The only model left was me. My other half doesn’t like his photo being taken, never mind a portrait! And so my self-portrait series began.
‘I approach oil paints, whether human or animal, in the same way. The surface – canvas, linen on board or MDF – is painted with several coats of gesso to build a good base. I then paint a base colour (in this case burnt sienna and viridian mix) over the entire surface. For self-portraits I purloin a mirror from the house for a few days. With a clean brush, I make a sketch, working from the eyes outwards, using the size of the eye as a gauge for all measurements. The sketch works in reverse – ie, lifting the ground off the board I further lift tonal highlights using a clean cotton rag. Once I’m happy with proportions and tonal values, I mix my palette. I usually stick to a few colours: French ultramarine, alizarin crimson, raw sienna, titanium white, alongside the ground colours in this case. The picture is then progressed, wet in wet, initially with dark colours, drying overnight, then moving to lighter colours and fine details.’
Fen was awarded a highly commended prize in the TALPOpen Exhibition in 2020. She is planning a joint exhibition at
The Mission Hall, Sutton Poyntz,
Dorset, from May 25 to June 6. She also hopes to exhibit her bronze sculptures and human and dog portraits as part of Dorset Art Weeks alongside two botanical artists. For more details go to www.dorsetartsweeks.co.uk
Fen will be represented at Purbeck
Art Weeks, from May 29 to June 13, at Rollington Farm, Studland Road, Corfe
Castle, where she will exhibit still life and street scenes. For details visit www.purbeckartweeks.co.uk
More information about Fen and her work can be found at her websites: www.FenDLucieSculpture.co.uk and www.Gundogportrait.co.uk
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