Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Changes

'Anticipation'
Approx. 23cmx19cm, Pencil
Copyright Laura Hardie 2010

Still here – just! Things haven’t settled down as I’d hoped and, quite simply, life in general is a bit chaotic away from the drawing board not giving me much time to draw – lots of things thrown at me that I need to deal with unfortunately. As a result I am unable to accept commissioned work at this time and can't actually say whether or not this will be an option open to me in the future and I guess only time will tell.

I’m not giving up on my art altogether however, and instead I’m going to use this time (or at least what I have) concentrating on my own drawings and paintings and putting together a portfolio of work. It’s something I’ve been promising myself for long enough and I do need to do. What direction I want, and can, go with my art is still at a very early ‘not sure’ stage – I need to wait until things have settled down in my life and I have a clear head to make decisions with.

I needed something relaxing to work on, and of course the perfect subject, so chose to do a pencil drawing of a beautiful Cocker Spaniel called Rodaidh. The beauty of pencils is you can pick them up where you left off without any hassle and I do love to scribble away with my pencils – perfect combination! Rodaidh is not long finished and has now passed the ‘tweaking’ stage so is ready to be mounted and framed. I’m calling this drawing ‘Anticipation’ (thank you to fellow artist Karl Connolly for this suggestion).

My thanks to Nicola McClure for the reference photo.

13 comments:

Sujit Sudhi said...

Wow. Stunning as always. How do you churn out one masterpiece after the other?

I showed it to my five year old and she tells me that its not a drawing. She thinks its a photograph. Would you take that as a compliment?

Lesley Ann Hartman said...

Beautiful work Laura. Your pencil work is just gorgeous. Hope that things settle down for you soon ( I know from experience how stress can affect art.) Putting together your portfolio sounds a good plan right now! Best of luck with it, Lesley

Laura said...

Thank you Sujit - you are too kind:) And thank you to your daughter too, I certainly take that as a compliment:D

Thank you Lesley:) I'm hoping to experiment more with my drawings too so watch this space!

Sue Clinker said...

Really beautiful Laura.

Its great that you are making something very positive out of an unsettled period. Building your portfolio and experimenting is a brilliant idea - just don't try cps on pastelmat (I'm experimenting today and hate it - think its one for the bin) :o)

Laura said...

Thank you Sue and welcome back:)

It's funny you mention pastelmat as I tried it not that long ago after hearing great reviews about it - even with coloured pencil. I couldn't understand quite how coloured pencil could work on it and I have to agree with you in that I too hate it. My attempts ended up in the bin:D

Grahame Butler said...

Beautiful work Laura...as always! hope life sorts itself out soon, want to see more of your work asap...

pett paintings said...

Hi Laura, I think we all struggle to fit "life" around our art at times so i fully understand your decision......... building a portfolio is so much less "invasive" than working on commissions so you should find that you enjoy your pencil time so much more, there will be a long queue of clients waiting for your life to settle back to allowing time for commissions ;-)
Enjoy x

Xan's Art said...

Ah, Laura! Fabulous, as always. I showed my husband, who asked where did I find you. I told him I troll the web for other artists from time to time, and collect the best of the best. I told him that one of the things I like most about your work is that it raises realism beyond mere reporting, that you get a sense of soul in your pieces that so often gets lost. He totally agreed.

Good luck with your stress stuff, and in finding some new directions for your work.

Laura said...

Hi Kay, sadly it is a certain person that is making my life very difficult and I can never understand why anyone would want to see another suffer - it is honestly beyond me.

However,I hope that building up my portfolio will help take my mind of things at least for a while. And they do say everything happens for a reason:)

Hi Xan, that is such a great compliment, thank you:D

Delores said...

Beautiful as always. I'm excited that you are going to be working on your portfolio, I'm anxious to see what you produce when it's something totally for you. Hope things settle down soon. Until then keep your chin up and keep plugging away, you've got numerous cyber friends who are not only interested in your art, but care about you and your well-being too.

Gary Keimig said...

Laura. Just super. A wonderful drawing. I do hope the changes in what you are doing does not interfere with your work such as this. I do hope it is in a direction that will continue to amaze us.

Laura said...

Hi Grahame and thank you for your kind wishes - sorry I missed your post earlier for some reason:)

Thank you Delores - that is so comforting to know:) Must admit I'm a bit excited myself to what direction I go with my work. I will of course blog my journey:)

Hi Gary and thank you - I hope I don't disappoint:D

Yulia said...

(*__*) your art is beautiful! it's hard to believe that this is a pencil!