Photo Contest Winner
From Lesley’s Webmaster:
I have some beautiful new Guest Artist images to post as well as some fun “works in progress” from several of our existing Guest Artists. I will be posting these within the next few days.
In the meantime, I wanted to share some exciting news…
One of my hubby’s photographs (of our Mini Aussie, Sophie - featured a while back on this Blog) won 14th place out of over 1,500 entries in the Pampered Puppy photo contest. Check it out: http://www.pamperedpuppy.com/contest/201002/winners/index.php .
Several of you requested this image as a reference photo. If I still owe anyone a copy OR if you’d like to request a copy, please let me know.
Published by admin on March 2nd, 2010 Tagged Uncategorized | 12 Comments »Guest Artist - Lisa Cumming
Lisa is our newest Guest Artist. She sent this painting for consideration and I thought “WOW! How gorgeous!” So, I wanted to share it with everyone right away. Lisa writes:
“Lesley has been an inspiration to me since I bought her book quite by accident some years ago. I had never been aware that it was even possible to create such purity and realism with pastels and I found her paintings quite staggering. I still do!
I did Art at school and did a year’s basic course at college afterwards. Then I went into the RAF and didn’t pick up so much as a pencil for years. After my first child was born, I did a bit of painting but it wasn’t until I joined a group of artists (most of them in their 60s and 70s - I was 30!) to get together and paint on a weekly basis, that I really started to feel I had a genuine ability. Three more children followed and so I have been very busy with them, and as they get older they are more work, not less, with homework, classes after school…
I painted my first dog portrait about ten years ago and can probably count the number I have done overall on the fingers of both hands. I only ventured into pastel properly at the beginning of this year. Although I have had Lesley’s book for quite some time, I had never had the courage to try the exercises, still finding it hard to believe that the effects that Lesley achieves in her paintings are actually real! My New Year’s resolution this year was to finally commit to my painting - specifically of animals, and with at last, the courage to try out the pastel. Lesley has been my support - when I get disheartened, I get out the book (in fact, it generally lies open on my desk).
I don’t have a website or blog - it’s one of the things I’m working towards. I simply don’t have enough examples to fill a page yet! I am loving what I am doing though, and am hoping that this might be a resolution that I manage to stick to!
This painting of Lex is the pinnacle of my achievements so far - you can probably tell I haven’t got my head around backgrounds yet! I have called this painting ‘Sight Hound’ to try to describe the way this type of dog (Scottish Deerhound) is constantly scanning the horizon for rabbits to chase. He often does chase them, but they can usually outwit him!”
Image: “Sight Hound” - Pastel Painting by Lisa Cumming
Published by admin on February 19th, 2010 Tagged Dogs and Cats, Guest Artists | 15 Comments »Fate Of This Blog
Hello:
As many of you may already know, Lesley has not been able to make posts to the Blog and probably will not be able to do so in the foreseeable future. I’ve been keeping the Blog going and perhaps someday, when Lesley is ready, she’ll be able to make some comments again. In the meantime, she trusts me to post things in her absence.
Some visitors don’t make comments unless Lesley does, but there are quite a lot of you who do take the time to provide support and encouragement to our many “Guest Artists”. And, I’m sure that our Guest Artists are very appreciative of that!
I would like to add a new feature to the Blog that will allow the Guest Artists - who don’t have their own blog or website - to showcase some of their work. If you are interested, please contact me at altiva@idcnet.com.
In the meantime, THANK YOU to all of the Guest Artists who have submitted their work for consideration and to those of you who take the time to provide feedback and encouragement. I know that it makes Lesley happy to know that you are helping and supporting your fellow artists.
Erin
Published by admin on February 18th, 2010 Tagged Uncategorized | 14 Comments »