Lynne's gallery is full of fine quality artwork, both traditional and digital, but always painted in either format. Her luminosity of colours, the touch of the Classical, her eye for detail and ability to draw one's eye to the major part of the image in an instant are all wonderful attributes. I became interested to find out more, asked her some questions, which she obligingly answered, and here is a little biography from her.

Lynne's Biography

Beginnings

I have always drawn pictures - when I was a young child I used to draw a lot. My school entered one of my paintings into a National competition (England) when I was 10 years old and it won the section for my age group.

Sadly my father, who was a very talented musician - a trumpeter in jazz bands and having just turned professional, died quite suddenly of a cyst on the brain when I was only 8 years old - I have been told he was very good and was going places .

I haven't had any formal training at all - it was suggested that I went to art college when I left school but finances then wouldn't allow it so I went to work in an office!

Since then I have been self-employed as a portrait and wild life artist over the years - I was doing quite well but then illness meant I had to stop. I am retired now so it means I can please myself and do my art work as much as I wish these days so that is a bonus for me.

Sources Of Inspiration And Personal Favourites

I have always been inspired by other artists work - it fires me up - making me want to improve and learn and just "do it". I have been through several artists "blocks" - the last one has just ended and lasted for at least 10 years when I didnt paint at all - so I have been painting again only since August this year!

The first one to launch me back in was of the Red Fox digital painting - I cried when I completed it as when I am painting I feel at peace with myself and the world if that makes sense. (HERE is a link to the WIP of that painting.

Keeping Cool is my favourite digital drawing - it flowed when I painted it - and although I can see flaws in it I enjoyed painting it very much.

Arab is my first pastel after my long break of 10 years - I enjoyed myself and had forgotten how wonderful chalks are to use.

When I draw or paint I love doing the faces of people or animals - I have always been fascinated by the eyes - they are the window to the soul. I have a great love of all animals - I have always lived surrounded by them - and I am at my happiest painting and drawing them too.

Digital Work

When I draw digitally I use a Wacom drawing tablet and a programme called Corel 11 - the drawing tablet is a must for me - I am pretty adept with a mouse but for fine detail you can't beat it. Digital drawing is great - it is new to me and I have only been drawing this way since August. Before that I was doing a lot of manipulations which are all now stored away in my scraps because as soon as I started painting again I didn't want to do manips any more. A lot of the work uploaded onto my DA gallery is old work that I had stored away - but when I started drawing again in August I think I completed about 10 paintings in 2 weeks - all of the art work was all just bursting out of me!!

Traditional Work

For my traditional work I love to do pastel (chalks) or pencil. I have done oils in the past but I struggle with them and they take me a long time to complete. For years I worked only in pencil and during that time learned about drawing, shading and composition and so of course there had been no colour work at all up to that point. I started with colour and the pastels when I was about 35 and I just took to it like a duck to water. It is a very messy medium to use but I LOVE it!

I have had to up-load most of my traditional art work on to DA using photographs of them taken with my little digital camera because a lot of them are too big for the scanner - also my scanner is now on the blink so it is out of action for now - I think the drawings lose a little in quality when uploaded in this way but I am stuck with it for now.

Advice For Others

If I was to give anyone any advice at all it would be to say practice as much as possible and to enjoy what you do - I am highly critical of my own work - I can always see the flaws in all that I paint or draw - I have many highs and lows when painting a subject - it can be a source of joy but also of extreme frustration!.I probably spend 8 - 21 hours per painting - that is about the norm for me.

To anyone learning to draw or paint I would say take the time to complete it - I see something good sometimes that if it had had another couple of hours spent on it would be superb - there are so many gifted artists about - many on dA and they are a great inspiration - seeing the artwork on DA and being part of it is what got me drawing again and I am so grateful to everyone here.

A Selection From Lynne's Gallery

Traditional Media





Digital Painting





_{(I have carried out a series of interviews, and hope to continue to do so. If you have never seen any of the previous ones, please click HERE and you will see links to all of them listed in my journal. Some were carried out with `DWALKER1047 also.)}

NOTE: Don't Miss This Article with details of a Traditional Art Contest called "Creative Spirit of Traditional Art"! Deadline is 10th November!