"Tall Grace",Graphite pencil portrait of Great Dane Miss Gracie.

"Tall Grace"

Graphite on paper, 39x22 cm

copyright Sheona Hamilton-Grant

This is my self-portrait -well not literally- I do look a little more human. The rest however, could be me right down to the silver watch band.

I love jeans: wear them daily and know them inside out (literally I wash them reversed) and have them in different shapes and same size. I love them so much I not only keep them for decades but have also been know to spend a little too much "dinero" on them. (I find a great pair close to "irresistible"!)

Jumpers: (as I have recently discover also referred to as pullovers in the US) I would be a very sad artist indeed should they be removed from my wardrobe (referred to as closet). As opposed to my jeans I have them in all sorts of different shapes and sizes (can't beat the baggy-curl-up-beside-the-fire-woolly-jumper).

Back to the portrait: This is Miss Gracie, Erin Vey's big girl. I discovered and (cyberly) met both ladies, through her blog Bark! last year and have been captivated by Erin's photography since.  Erin is a canine photographer who's work subtlely merges fine art into canine photography. It's beautiful. 

I was drawn to this photograph to the composition I could see, to it's powerful simplicity. I really liked the way the lines swerve and leave a great negative space yet keep the attention on Gracie's presence and elegance. 

I now have another goal: acquire such an excellent subject, shoot the perfect reference pic and then get up to the drawing board (big goals mean big rewards...right?)

Comments

April Jarocka said…
beautiful drawing Sheona.
You can't beat a goog wooley, eh? Mine is an ugly green cardigan...so warm.
7:48 pm
Nothing to See said…
This is a lovely self-portrait.

Miss Gracie is beautiful.

You did a great job.
8:23 pm
Anonymous said…
Aww what a face....such a regal lady.

Great job :))
9:36 am
Jeanette Jobson said…
Beautiful dog and wonderful composition. You're got a lovely touch drawing animals.

And I agree, jeans and a sweater are pure comfort!
3:00 pm
Anonymous said…
This is absolutely beautiful! Such lovely work!
6:13 pm
Anonymous said…
I came here from Erin's blog. Your work is just lovely.
9:05 pm
Unknown said…
Thank you all for your great comments.
April, I know what you mean when our jumpies are comfy and warm, colour becomes so irrelevant...
Anna & Elizabeth, thank you. Gracie is gorgeous and such a character. Regal is the perfect description.
Jeanette, years of practice. I've tried my hand at this weeks VSD (mandarine) and it looks ill...not sure it's fit to be seen. Much practice still needed.
Susan & Danielle, thank you very much and a great big warm welcome to Black on Grey on White.
All your comments are very much appreciated.
9:00 am
Ruthie Redden said…
Hello Sheona, thank you so for visiting & for leading me back to your site! It always amazes me this how this blogging world works. I love your work, so delicate,just beautiful. *ruthie*
4:10 pm
Ruthie Redden said…
Hello Sheona, thank you so for visiting & for leading me back to your site! It always amazes me this how this blogging world works. I love your work, so delicate,just beautiful. *ruthie*
4:11 pm
Unknown said…
Hello Ruthie, a great big warm welcome. Love your blog. Inspirational
6:40 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Frederic Edwin Church THE 19th Century American landscape artist.

Image
Mid-term has set in and my drawing board has been cleared away until Monday next week. The time for drawing and creating seriously diminished. The time for discovering and relishing in what others have done with a mastery strangely enough increased. I'm not one for landscapes...well not until I  (virtually) saw Churches' 7 foot wide Aurora Borealis. This masterpiece is anchoring the To the Ends of the Earth, Painting the Polar Landscape  at the Peabody Essex Museum. (Runs from 8 November through 1 March, 2009.) I had to dig further. I did and... found a master.  The purpose of this post is not to bore you with my interpretation of his work, or the impact it has on me, or even to tell you that he was born in Connecticut on May 4th 1826 and died 74 years later in New York his reputation  firmly established and incredibly well respected.  The purpose is rather to let you enjoy in silence the magnificence of his work. However, before I bring on this silence, let me just throw i...
Read more

Mathieu Kessels: le Deluge.

Image
One of my vivid summer memories comes in form of a neoclassical sculpture. Discreetly posed ( in Brussels' Royal Art Museum ) between Jacques Louis David's Death of Marat and the grandiose works of Rubens , "Le Deluge", by Matthieu Kessels, stopped me in my tracks. Hypnotised, I circled this work of art. Encompassing every detailed fold, hair and muscle. Desperately trying not to intrude on the intimate pain so present. Unable to look away. A sculpture so powerful and beautiful its image burned my memory . The strong balanced composition, the fluidity of the lines, the interwoven movement, the raw pain, the simple drama all quite simply... set in stone. Mathieu Kessels was born in Maastricht on the 20 May 1784, he died in Rome in on the 3rd of March 1836. A sculptor with a low profile but incredibly hypnotic works. ( b Maastricht, 20 May 1784; d Rome, 3 March 1836). Flemish sculptor. He gave up his apprenticeship as a goldsmith in Venlo to attend the Ecole des B...
Read more

Rien Poortvliet, Dutch artist and illustrator well worth remembering.

Image
I proudly present Rien Poortvliet (1932- 1995) Rien was born in Schiedam, Holland. (His name may not ring a bell straight away but mention the word Gnome and bells sound, resound, loudly, happily...) Rien's "shortish" Biography His parents were strict Dutch Reformists. They had Rien's future firmly mapped out and were quite opposed to the idea of their oldest son going to study art. Rien's talent was apparent at a very early age. After finishing his primary education he went to work for an advertising agency. (Where he was able to let his talent mature and learn the "in's and out's" of the publishing world.) Poortvliet's heart really lay in illustration and it was by the end of the 1960s that he felt it was time to resign from publishing and change career. He became an independent illustrator. Not having enough work when starting out on this new journey (rings loads of loud bells for many of us out there!) he made ends meat by publishing a ...
Read more

Rembrandt's drawings and sketches: powerful strokes.

Image
"Elephant" . Albertina, Vienna. Black Chalk, 230x340 mm by Rembrandt in 1637. "A woman Sleeping". Brush and Wash in Bistre, 245x203 mm by Rembrandt in about 1655. Have you ever wondered who this lady actually is and (now) what the link could be with the elephant? Both are rendered by Rembrandt back in the 17th century, and through pure coincidence, I discovered who Rembrandt sketched sleeping back in 1655. This beautiful figure is very likely Hendrickje Stoffels, Rembrandt's second wife and mother to his daughter Cornelia (born in 1654). The original can be seen in the British Museum in London. Last week, a nasty virus (our youngest was its victim) kept me away from crossing my studio's threshold but luckily not from catching up on some long overdue reading. One of the books I picked up and couldn't put down was: "Rembrandt Drawings - 116 Masterpieces in Original Color" . 2007, Dover Publications, Inc. Mineola, New York. I loved it. This hardc...
Read more

Grey as in grey stallion

Image
Sometimes (well actually most of the time!) my mind will ponder and "sit-on" an image, a concept for years, waiting until the time is right. Nothing different with this drawing. I shot the references back in 2011... After 5 years of pondering, my pencils have been on active duty for the last 2 weeks, working hard to get this big-new-in-between-commissions-drawing of Cornado NRW (super good German Warmblood show-jumping stallion) out of my head, on and off the board and into the world. The hard work and the strange facial expressions have paid off! All of us here in the studio are relaxed and grinning with the sweet sense of a job well done. Think I'll go and start another one ;) Grey 40x34 cm graphite on paper
Read more