Sunday, May 06, 2007

Who we are and Chambers Gorge Rock Pool "WIP" eight

There is a get to know you thread in the Talk Pastel Forum at WetCanvas. For the artist that read this blog there might be someone there you know or would like to get to know better. Here is a quick link to Who we are at WetCanvas.

Below is my own contribution along with this photo in todays post. As you can see there is some glare on the painting, especially so in the sky. The sky actually does recede more than this image shows. I am wary about bringing in vegetation too quickly over the sky because I don't want any cracking of the darker paint to occur. I am constantly checking that mixing mediums into my oil paint is done correctly and once more this is where WetCanvas helps me enormously.

Ok enough of the prattle as there is enough to read below.

I have been following this thread with great interest and thought it was time that I added my own profile.

As a child I lived in the Pastoral Regions of the Gawler Ranges of South Australia. As station life meant creating my own entertainment, I spent much of my time doing what I loved most - drawing.

At the beginning of my high school years I moved to Quorn in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia to live with my grandparents. Even though I had visited my grandparents in the past, this was the beginning of a new era, where I would remain living in the Flinders Ranges.

I spent one year with my grandparents before moving with my family to Black Rock and eventually Orroroo. I stayed at Orroroo until I married in 1976, moving onto my husband's family farming property near Booleroo Centre. We still live there to this day. We have three children who are in the workforce.

Life was pretty busy on the farm, bringing up a family and the ensuing commitments. It wasn't until 1992 that I seriously considered taking up painting. Watercolour was the first medium that I ever used followed closely by oils. How times change as I am now primary a Pastelist. Even though pastel is my main medium that I now use, other types of paint and drawing materials and technique do embrace a large part of who I am as an artist. For example at the moment I am studying the Grisaille technique in oils, which is mentally quite taxing but oh am I learning such a lot! I have recently purchased coloured pencils and like other mediums that I have used, I won’t be satisfied until I know how to use them to the best of my ability.

My life does not just revolved around my art. Working on the farm; office duties often are calling me plus play a support role to my husband when the farm is very busy. One of my children is married with another wedding in a few months time. I like to share what I do when it comes to my creative side of my life as I do get so much in return. This is why I like to be involved with WetCanvas as much as I can. Putting all my work in one place and talking about it on my Arts & Stuff blog also enables me to interact with other artist.

Today I tidied up my face and hair ready for church and I thought here was a good opportunity to show you a ‘not so scruffy’ artist in her studio.wink I am still in my daggy clothes that I wear at home and apologise for the uneven light with glare spots. The painting is the Grisaille that I am working on and is taking forever to do but like I said, I am learning a lot.

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3 comments:

Robyn Sinclair said...

Susan - I dropped in to see how your big oil is going and found so much to read, I'm going to have to come back later. I guess I should put that on my 'to do list' that you have inspired me to start. Then again I'm thinking of making my DH a To Do List and that will free me up totally LOL. Great blogging, thank you.

Jennifer Rose said...

The painting looks really good :)

I've learned a lot from WetCanvas about different mediums and met a lot of really nice people. I'm glad it is online. :)

Nice to read about how you have gotten to the stage you are at now.

Susan Borgas said...

Thanks for dropping by Robyn and Jennifer :D

Robyn those DH come in handy at times LOL!!! The oil is coming along. The more I do to it the more I see I have to refine. Yesterday I worked once more over the water. The tricky part is the values that lay against each other, as they are not always what one thinks. I will write more about that on my blog when the time comes for me to do a more detailed post about the grisaille and what I have learnt.

Jennifer I know I wouldn't have gained the knowledge that I want if it wasn't for WetCanvas. There isn't the teachers in my area for the techniques that I have wanted to learn. Being able to learn online is so instant that when a problem does arise with my work, I can get help straight away as you also would be finding.