Black on Grey on White

"Complicity" Graphite on paper, 37x26 cm copyright Sheona Hamilton-Grant Please forgive me should this sound off key: not the world's best trumpeter... Two of my three entries have been accepted to this year's Art Show at the Dog Show . It's tremendous news which has brought one beaming smile to a winter trodden morale. "Tall Grace" Graphite on paper, 39x22 cm copyright Sheona Hamilton-Grant Complicity and Tall Grace will be packing their bags (or rather packed into a crate) and flying off to the other side of the water, to Kansas. Yipee!

This weeks circles are beautifully shaped but still displaying a wild side (which interferes relentlessly with any attempt at time management....) I have just realised it's the end of January and I have still not got round to sharing two new books that have "hit" my bookshelf. The first is: " That's 14 in Dog Years " by Kimberly Santini . Described by the artist as and I quote: " That's 14 in Dog Years" is a beautiful summary of the over 360 paintings that were created in 2008. Including almost 120 pages packed with full color reproductions and text highlighting the year’s accomplishments, this is a book artists and animal lovers alike will treasure." It's a wee bit more, I like to think of it as a "treasure trove book" filled with delicious, bright and vibrant dog portraits. Able to capture in simple accurate brush strokes so much energy, affection and precision, the artist's work come alive on the page. I first post...

This last week has seen me spin around in the strangest circles...keeping me both on my toes and at the loosing end of time management. Amazingly, there have been scribbles and crosshatching appearing on the drawing board. My subjects' name is Laureus . He's a rising star. A gorgeous model. An inspiration. These are the first 10 hours into the drawing. I've decided to go big. The tools used: surprisingly only a 2B with a touch of 6B for the very dark areas. Layers, lots of layering. Mellotex paper (in Super white) available from Mike Sibley I'm not sure how many more circles I'll spin this week... hopefully not too many and I'll be able to post an update soon. Now ... what time is it?

Done a wee bit more on the "modeling" front. The big news is that I have an extra room I can use. It's much the same as the first one, bright and spacious. (the model is a guesstimate as it has not been measured yet...) Overview of rooms #1 & #2 All has been scaled to 1/20 including the panels and the mini reproductions. (Printed out my work, laminated it and then cut out each individual image.) Each drawing was assigned a panel and stuck on with sticky tape. As all is still temporary, found it very useful to be able to move everything around. Panels with laminated print outs View into room #2 Aerial view of room#2 Entrance view into room#1 Arial view of room#1 The wee men help to get a better space perspective, as chance would have it they are pretty much to scale as well. Feel a little relieved to have such a clear picture of things to come. All that's needed now is loads more hard work. Off to sharpen some pencils... Ciao ciao.

This year I have a my first solo show in many moons. In the best location. Nordrhein-Westfalisches Landgestüt Warendorf (The North Rheine Westpahlian State Stud of Warendorf.) I plan to exceed expectations. One of the things I am doing (to this effect) is create a scaled model. Here are the first steps. I have had two assistants: both female and both eager to have the last word. Our eldest is sick and off school and thought the idea of helping Mum quite cool and Jess well, she was in-between siestas and took it on herself to do the final inspection... Seriously, before you all think me nuttier than I am, the reasoning behind all this is quite simply to get my head around the location. It is a nice big bright room, but one that has never been used for exhibiting anything never mind pencil art. I believe this will help avoid a lot of complications at the time of hanging. Tomorrow (another no school day) we will make the panels and maybe hang some mini reproductions... stay tuned

"Paula" Pencil on Paper, Sold Sheona Hamilton-Grant. All rights reserved. I would love you to meet Paula. Her portrait was wrapped and placed under a big festive German Christmas tree. Paula is a wee “pup” with curls from here to kingdom come. She's a real cutie, as her collar indicates pocket size would be an apt description. Pass the collar and look into her eyes and you will see she is as kind as she is wise. Paula lives with a brown boxer, a giant Poodle and a yard full of dressage horses. Let me tell you she is very much against the word doll and gives big a definition of her very own...

The New decade is here. Hellooooo to you all, it's nice to be back. I hope you have all had a spiffing festive season. Opened the studio doors, turned on the "puter", paid the bills, read the snail mail and emails, sharpened some scribble friends and got back into steady action. At this end, the year ended with cheap fireworks (some chaps thought they had the real deal and well.... at least they got more laughs than expected) and great studio news. Drawing a Blank and Legacy will be published in what has to be the best book of contemporary equine art: Ex Arte Equinus III. Drawing a Blank came 7th in the Drawing category "Drawing a Blank" Mixed Media, 35x27 cm Sheona Hamilton-Grant. All rights reserved and Legacy was juried to form the Equinus Show . "Legacy" Pencil on Paper, 34x37 cm Sheona Hamilton-Grant. All rights reserved Most excellent news which was quite simply the sherry on the cake, rounding of a great year in style. Have a lot to liv...