Throwback Thursday!!! – An Ode to the Artistic Past

I remember back when I discovered the wonderful world of chalk pastels.  Yep, I was about 15 years old and I was in Mr. Gravely’s high school art class. One day he just let the class sit and experiment with it on these huge sheets of pastel paper. I immediately took a liking to them and asked if I could borrow a box to take home with me, along with some pastel paper. That was the cool thing about Mr. Gravely – if he knew you were serious about art, he wouldn’t hesitate to let you take a hundred art supplies home (that he often purchased using his OWN money) just to keep a student’s inspiration flowing.

I also remember bringing the pastels home and sitting there playing around with them after school for a couple of days – just drawing lines and shapes – figuring out how they work when certain things are done to them. Then one day I started rummaging through a box of old postcards, greeting cards, and random pictures from magazines that I would keep just for artistic inspiration (I actually still have that box, and I’ve been adding to it ever since.).  I remember looking at this old blank greeting card with a picture on the front of a baby sitting by the ocean, playing in the sand on the beach – it may have been a painting, but I don’t really remember. For whatever reason, I was drawn to it at the time and decided to sit down at our kitchen table at a homemade easel my dad had built for me using spare parts from the garage and draw this thing out. I pretty much just used the card as a reference photo, and copied the whole thing freehand – but onto a 18×24 blue sheet of pastel paper using pencil (only for the outline) and chalk pastel. Here is what I ended up with:

IMG_7086(resized)(marked)

Yep, so again, I was 15 years old when I drew this. I still remember my dad showing some of family this piece when it was still a work in progress – I remember hearing my Aunt say, “Oh my gosh! I always new she was going to be an artist!” haha. My dad still has this hanging up inside his house – that, and LOTS more of my early art (and some of my new stuff too). It’s cool to see this piece every time I go back to visit – And not even because I think it’s particularly good or anything. I think it was the first piece that I really stepped back and took a look at it and said….

“Hmmm…maybe I really can be an artist…..” 🙂

 

 

I hope you enjoyed my little blast from the past for this week! If you would like to participate in Throwback Thursday, just send me an email via the “Contact Me” tab above and click on the “General Questions or Comments” and make sure to include the title “Throwback Thursday” in your request. Then I’ll get back to you asap with an email that you can send your picture into. NOTE: You DO NOT need to be “an artist”of any kind to participate. ;-)   To participate, all you’ll need is a photo of your art project/painting/sculpture/drawing (etc) and a small blurb describing your photo including your age/grade when you created your work of art. If you would like, you can also include any current artwork (if any) or a current website. And if you want to be even more daring – you can even include your current age! ::gasp::!  It’s all in good fun!

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to Throwback Thursday!!! – An Ode to the Artistic Past

Leave a Reply