Featured Artist in Endangered Exhibit

 I am excited to have been chosen to be the Virtual Artist in Residence for the exhibit Endangered promoted by the non profit group Art4Apes. Link to my bio and information is here. Link to the virtual gallery is here.

Endangered is "a team of art and photography lovers who believe that art, in all its forms, can reach people all over the globe and win hearts and minds for the cause of preserving all forms of life and the environment. To this end, we organize exhibitions, contests, and other events to focus attention on all that is ENDANGERED in our world.

We believe that reaching out to Young Artists and encouraging them to express their concerns for the environment and endangered species through art is important if we are to safeguard the future of our planet."

The Center for Great Apes is a non profit corporation whose mission is to provide a permanent sanctuary for orangutans and chimpanzees who have been rescued or retired from the entertainment industry, from research, or who are no longer wanted as pets. The Center provides care with dignity in a safe, healthy, and enriching environment for great apes in need of lifetime care. Please visit the website to learn more. ALL donations go directly to support the Center. 

I am also thrilled to have won 2nd Prize for my colored pencil drawing Endangered White Rhinos and 3rd Prize for my colored pencil drawing Majestic in the Endangered Exhibit. 

Art Fluent Award

 An artist friend suggested I enter the Art Fluent Animalia exhibit so I sent in a few of my safari drawings. I was really excited when I learned that this drawing Majestic won one of the two Director's Choice Awards!

We met this beautiful elephant in Amboselli National Park in Kenya. We were riding in our safari jeep when he came out of the bushes and stood in a field not far from where we parked to observe. This elephant proceeded to put on a show for us by throwing dirt on his back to cool himself off as well as swaying and moving around. We must have stayed right where we were and watched for at least thirty minutes. I had plenty of time to study and photograph this beautiful creature. 

Image size is 13x14", colored pencil on rag mat board.

My Exhibition 'Into the Wild'

Here are several photos from my exhibit Into the Wild at the Providence Art Club Dodge House Gallery. The exhibit ended in mid April but was so rewarding to me. I spent over a year preparing and pretty much spent the last six months drawing, painting and framing. It was quite a journey, at time frustrating but in the end, very rewarding!

The opening was well attended by family, friends, colleagues and new friends. I was so thrilled to talk to the guests about my work and my safari travels to Africa. 

The last two photos are of my artist talk a few days before the exhibit ended, which was also well attended. Again I enjoyed talking about colored pencil, my work and my experiences on safari. 

I was thrilled to sell eight pieces during the exhibit and I am donating a portion of my sales to Lewa Wildlife Conservancy  Lewa focuses primarily on conservation of the white and black rhinos, Grevy’s Zebra and elephants. Lewa also promotes things like education, healthcare, clean water and youth empowerment for its community.

I thank everyone who came and supported me and my work and also to you reading this post!

 

Spotted Hyena Drawing

I've been working on this drawing of a spotted hyena, my reference photo is from our African Safari trip. As hyenas are scavengers, this hyena was sitting in the dirt and watching a lion with a wildebeest carcass. Just waiting for a chance to pick up the scraps. My reference photo is at the bottom of this post, I was intrigued by this messy looking animal with matted fur and decided to clean him up a bit. I wanted to capture textures of the fur and the determined look in his eyes.

Using Adobe PhotoShop and Lightroom, I was able to lighten his eyes and nose to see the details and distinctions. I chose to leave out the background and focus on the portrait of the hyena. The paper I chose is Fabriano Tiziano drawing paper. I usually don't work on a paper that is this textured but for this drawing I think the background color and the texture lend itself to the fur and features.

I used Prismacolor Premier, Caran d'Ache Luminance and a few Derwent and Faber Castell polychromos colored pencils. In this photo I have also included my color swatches on a scrap of the Fabriano Tiziano paper. I like to try out different colors before choosing which ones I will use. 

Please excuse the inconsistencies in my photos, they were taken with my iPhone but in different lighting during my process!

 

Lioness Drawing from My Safari Trip

In October my husband and I were fortunate to go on an African safari  and travel to to five wildlife preserves in Kenya and Tanzania. It was an amazing trip and I came home with an incredible amount of wildlife photos. Covid made it a little more difficult to travel however we were tested frequently and wore masks indoors. And we were mostly riding in open air safari jeeps in the company of more animals than people. 

We had just landed in the Maasai Mara Wildlife Reserve and were traveling by jeep to our camp when we came across four sleeping lionesses near the side of the road. We pulled up quite close and sat watching them for close to an hour (they are so used to safari jeeps it is possible to get that close). They rolled around a bit, yawned, got up and spun around (just like a house cat), laid back down and went back to sleep. I was taking photos and just happened to catch this lioness with her eyes open looking at me. 

Here are three stages of the drawing that I created from my photo. I worked with Faber Castell Polychromos on Clairefontaine Pastelmat paper, Maize colored (pictured below). The Pastelmat has a textured but velvety surface to softly layer the pencil. The Polychromos are a harder oil based pencil that adhere to this surface and blend very easily. I was able to apply multiple layers of color to different areas.

The Pastelmat comes in several colors and I am anxious to order and try a variety of them.