Wednesday 18 May 2016

18/05: CATCH UP

Its been a busy few days - we were in London last Thursday, Friday and Saturday, then on Sunday we were out all day selling raffle tickets for the Air Ambulance Charity - win a Mini Cooper convertible!

Monday we were busy with Air Ambulance in the morning and then enjoyed a lovely lunch with David's cousin and her husband and just chilled out for the afternoon.

Whilst demonstrating/stewarding at the UK Coloured Pencil Society Exhibition I took along a picture to work on which I started about a year ago and got disillusioned with and abandoned ... you know how it is.     I needed something I could pick up and put down between chatting with visitors so this fitted the bill - in fact I did very little work on it as was chatting most of the time.

Anyway .... first off, just a little bit more fab news:

Senor Molina (as well as being awarded Best Portrait at the exhibition) was voted joint first in the People's Choice vote - based on voting slips completed by visitors to the Gallery during the two week exhibition.   I was really amazed as the Portrait display was on the lower level of the Gallery and it was noticeable that many visitors didn't want to go downstairs - either because they were in a hurry or because they had mobility problems so a lot of the People's Choice votes were being based solely on the pictures in the Ground floor gallery.

Anyway, this is a drawing I started in April last year.   The subject is a saxophonist who is part of a group called 'La Familia Flotante' (Spanish for 'floating family')   They are excellent musicians and regularly play near the Town Beach in Corralejo (where we have a holiday home - in the Canaries).  I specifically chose him as the model because if have a tall, narrow picture frame and wanted a subject who would fit the bill ... and the frame.

I gave up on the drawing halfway through as just wasn't enjoying it - normally I do head & shoulder type portraits which allows me to concentrate on facial features/detail and I'm out of my comfort zone with the saxophone and all its buttons etc.,

This is the last progress photo I showed ... in April 2015



and this is where I got to after the exhibition where I added more detail/colour, and a couple of hours at home today:

The photo is a bit dark as I've lost the light now but I plan to take a close look at the saxophone tomorrow and and try to work out all the twiddly bits ... If I succeed I'll carry on and finish the drawing so I can move onto something new without feeling guilty!



7 comments:

  1. Don't quit on this please! What you've done has really made a difference and I really like it.

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  2. very busy and congrats on the People's Choice award :)

    the saxophonist is looking good

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  3. Thanks Jennifer ....
    David and I both felt that the pictures in the lower floor gallery were disadvantaged because fewer people visited that part of the exhibition so I wouldn't have been surprised if I'd received No votes. It came as a total surprise to be awarded the prize/cheque for equal first. David's now kicking himself as he didn't vote for me (or anyone) and his vote would have tipped the balance in my favour LOL.
    I think Senor Molina needs to retire now, or at least have a rest, as he's done very well in exhibitions over the last year and I think people will get fed up with him keep making appearances :-)

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  4. Hi Jan
    It's entirely due to you cracking the whip that I'm carrying on with the Saxophonist!!!

    I've got a free morning so will do a bit more on him today and see what happens but you know what it's like when you're working on a picture that doesn't really 'grab' you ... hard work!

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  5. One of the local galleries winter show is the same. Art that is upstairs is hardly seen, even after they put in an elevator. Art from upstairs hardly, if ever, wins people's choice or gets sold. People are lazy :p

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  6. Sad but true Jennifer, although to be fair some of the visitors had mobility problems. Previously the exhibition was hung on the ground floor only but that led to adverse comments that too many pictures were hung on each wall. As it was the 15th anniversary of the Society's Int'l Open exhibitions the Exec decided to make it a bigger event and booked both floors. Damned if you do, and damned if you don't it seems! LOL.

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  7. I couldn't have went downstairs to see the art :( Why did they pick a place with stairs that is not accessible to everyone? :( The organizers really need to pay attention to that and I know I would have complained if I had of paid to go all the way down there to see the show and couldn't see all of it.

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