Watten Art and Craft Show

One of my resolutions in my New Year aims for 2011 was to enter an Exhibition. I had a look and found a number of national exhibitions that I liked the sound of but the problem with them was they were all so far away and some required delivering and collecting of work in person, which meant entering would have ended up prohibitively expensive!

So, I've decided to start closer to home and have got details of an Art and Craft Exhibition & Sale of Work at the Village Hall in Watten, which is literally just down the road from me. It runs from the evening of Friday 10th June to Sunday 12th June.

I am currently working on a piece that I'm planning on entering and have a couple of ideas of some equestrian themed pieces I'd like to do. But bearing in mind they also need to be framed I'm not sure how much time I will have so not sure how many pieces I will be able to enter. Hopefully at least two though.

The work in progress of my ongoing coloured pencil Arab Horse study, plus the updated final scan of my latest portrait are both on the Laura's Pet Portraits Facebook page.

A is for Art.....

As you may have noticed, I've not yet produced anything for my art alphabet! However, today I have finally decided on my subject for A - A is for Arabian. I have an image in my head of what I want to end up with and have found a couple of fantastic references to work from, so keep coming back, there will be something to look at soon.

I have also found three National Art Exhibitions that appeal to me for entering this year. I may not produce enough to enter all three but I'll see what I manage. I'll let you know nearer the time what I'm entering, just in case nothing goes to plan!! I am also going to look into local art groups and maybe a local exhibition.

Today, A is also for ACEO (Art Cards, Editions and Originals), 2.3" x 3.5" pieces of artwork. It always amazes me how long these little drawings take, about 2.5 hours! This one is of a Shetland pony and is in graphite pencil. I will be putting it on ebay tomorrow for sale:

2011 plans

Welcome to 2011. I have quite a lot of things planned for Laura's Pet Portraits this year. I haven't been working on my artwork a lot at all in the last year, so this year I am really going to get back in to it and make it a big priority, here are a few of the things I would like to get done:

Website redesign - The website needs a little bit of a re-organisation and change in design I think. I want to produce something a bit more crisp and stylish. I have an idea in my head of what I want it to look like, so hopefully I will be able to create it! This will be an ongoing project so it may be a while before it changes but hopefully in the next few months.

Exhibitions and Societies - This year I would like to join a couple of Art Societies, particularly those concentrated on graphite art and animals. This then should enable me to submit some art for exhibition which I've never ever done but always had a vague sort of idea that I would like to, so this year will be the year it will happen.

Different Subjects - I tend to mostly draw dogs in my commissions and generally they are in pretty standard poses. This year I would like to work on a wider range of subjects, particularly wildlife such as Big Cats, Wolves and local Scottish Wildlife and maybe even some birds. And I'd like to draw domestic pets but in some interesting poses or in action.

A-Z of Art - This is a little project I have come up with to help keep me motivated to draw and also to help with the goal of drawing different subjects and interesting poses. I will work my way through the alphabet and apply a theme for each letter. Then do a drawing for each theme. It can be any subject but they will all be pet or animal related and I will include a variety of mediums and sizes of artwork - I haven't set many rules!! Just that by the end of the year I need to have got to Z!

All artwork will of course go on the blog, of commissions as well as my A - Z project so there should be lots to show you this year. I will be back soon with my 'A' theme.

Happy New Year to you all.