Arte y Pico Award

What an honour it was to find that Gayle Mason of Fur in the Paint had selected my blog as one of five to receive the Arte y Pico award - thank you Gail. This is indeed a compliment as I am a big fan of Gail’s coloured pencil work, especially her cats, and highly recommend you take a look at her blog if you haven’t done so already.

For those not familiar with the award you might find the following of interest.

Arte y Pico Award Origin and Rules:
The Arte y Pico Award has arisen from the daily visits that are made to many blogs, by you, which nourish and enrich you with creativity. In them, you must see dedication, creativity, care, comradeship, but mainly, ART, much art. You want to share this prize with all those bloggers that entertain and enrich you day to day. Doubtlessly, there are many and it will be hard to pick just a few.

The Rules:
1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award through creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogger community, no matter of language.
2. Each award should have the name of the author with a link to their blog.
3. Award winners have to post the award with the name and link to the blog of the person who gave them the award.
4. Show these rules and the paragraph (above) explaining the awards origination.

I read many blogs (too many my husband would tell you) but the five artists I’d like to pass this award along to, for various reasons, are ….

Rhonda Bartoe Tucker
Sally Lancaster
Anya Tikomirova
Jeanette Jobson
Cindy Haase

All great artists I’m sure you’ll agree. I for one, thoroughly enjoy reading their blogs and looking at their art.

Thank you again Gayle for nominating my blog.

Black Labrador Pet Portrait

Tarka
12x10 Coloured pencil
Copyright Laura Hardie

I have had a run of Black Labs to draw recently and this is the last of them - for now anyway. I have another to do in a couple of months which I’m looking forward to doing as they’re great dogs and I always enjoy drawing them. Need to stock up on my black pencils before then though.

Black Lab in coloured pencil

Monty
10x8 Coloured Pencil

Copyright Laura Hardie

Schools are back tomorrow so hopefully things will return to normal behind the easel with more work getting done. I never seem to settle into my routine when there are kids around as I‘m always being distracted with one thing or another – I have a daughter who has an aversion to walking and prefers to be chauffeured around, pretty much on a daily basis. When they’re at school I get the peace and quiet I need to concentrate on my work.

I have not long finished this black lab. He has been sat on my easel all weekend to look at and see if there are any areas that jump out at me needing attention before I call it finished. I always find leaving a drawing for a couple of days and giving your eyes a break from it highlights any areas that might need fixed or worked on. All that’s left to do now is to have it mounted/matted before it's shipped off to its new owner.

On Parade

On Parade
Coloured pencil on paper

And yet another horse to add to my series. My reference for this one was taken from the many photos I took at the races back in July and is my first with bridle/reigns included. I spent the majority of my time there admiring the horses as they were taken around the parade ring and the rest of the time wishing I had a pass to go in and get closer to them. There are a few more race days to go before the end of the season so I might yet - provided I can find the confidence to ask around and enquire.

I’ll be taking a break from my horses for a bit while I turn my attention to commissioned work. My summer break is now over – or should I say my break from the easel as I didn’t go anywhere with sun, sea or sand but spent the majority of it stressed on the phone to Microsoft while trying to set up my new computer. For those interested (and if I can compose myself) it is STILL not working and I am no closer than I was three weeks ago to getting my prints.

To make matters worse the Microsoft technicians have apparently gone and added to the initial problems and can’t sort it out - unbelievable. I’m not exaggerating when I say I can be on the phone to them for up to 2 hours at a time and I’ve been on the phone to them numerous times so you can imagine my frustration. Grrrrrrrr, rant over before my blood pressure rises again.

And breath..... next up on the easel is a lovely Black Lab.

Computer problems and another horse

High Spirits
9x12, Coloured pencil

I’ve taken a break from my easel this week and instead spent much needed time trying to move data from one computer (my old one which is currently on its last legs) to another (a lovely new Mac, which lives in my studio). Normally this should be straightforward but, as with all things involving technology and myself, I’ve had nothing but problems resulting in me nursing a headache these past few days.

I really don’t want to bore you with the details but can tell you that I am no further forward than when I started out at the beginning of the week. I even have the experts at Apple Mac scratching their heads in bewilderment. I’d been doing everything right according to them, which is good to know at least - I’m obviously not as dim as I thought I was in these matters. They are now off to have a look at their manuals to see what/where the problem could be and I’m currently waiting on them to get back to me. All I want is to get my printer up and running so I can start working on the prints I’ve been promising to do for long enough. I am getting there, albeit painfully, and it shouldn’t be too long now.

Despite everything, I have managed to fit a bit of relaxing drawing time in and finished another horse I’ve had sitting on the easel for a while. I’m really pleased with this one considering it nearly ended up in the bin half way through it’s making.

Horse in coloured pencil

Coloured pencil
10x14 inches

At the beginning of the year I set myself a goal/challenge to draw and paint more horses - 35 to be exact - quite simply to ‘get to know them better’. Unfortunately I’ve never had the opportunity to draw or paint one to commission and if I’m being honest found the thought of doing so a bit daunting in case I didn’t get it quite right. I’ve listened to far too many stories I think, about how critical horse people can be with portraits, hence my trepidations:) Dogs and other animals I am comfortable with and my aim is to be the same with horses.

So any spare art time I have these days is usually spent working on a horse of some description or other and have to say I love drawing them. This is one I started, would you believe, back in January - shows just how little time I actually find to spend on my own work, though it was put to one side for a bit so I could do other stuff.

Sadly at this stage it is without a title though I have been giving it a lot of thought – any suggestions? I’m also in two minds as to whether or not to add a background - any thoughts? I like it as it is and say no but an artist friend thinks differently. Decisions, decisions - think I’ll need to sit on it for a bit and decide later.

Day at the Races

With summer now here (although at times I find it hard to believe) I find myself out and about more often with my camera looking for some good reference material to work from. Right now I’m drawn to horses - just love them - so took myself off to the races yesterday at Musselburgh and spent a couple of hours happily snapping away at the horses in the parade ring before they were taken off to the course.

I’d have loved to have come away with some racing shots but couldn’t get a good enough position near to the track to take them from, plus I really don’t think my lens was up to the job – not if going by some I saw, they were huge and I mean HUGE.

I can't complain though as I came away with near enough 300 photos – whoever came up with the idea for the digital camera deserves a medal. There should be more than one or two in there that I can use, despite some annoying problems I seem to be experiencing with my camera.