I always enjoyed expressing myself creatively as a child and loved drawing and painting, but as often happens when we grow older, my day-to-day responsibilities became my main focus and artistic pursuits were soon put to the side. It wasn’t until my two children were much older that I even considered looking into art again.
I remember that initially I tried watercolour classes with Alan Ramachandran, an award-winning artist based in Adelaide. Though I learnt a lot and still love the delicate look of watercolour, it’s a medium that can be difficult to control and being a beginner at the time, proved too much a test to my patience.
Sticking with the brushes, I then joined Splashout Art Studios to explore oil painting instead. Again, I enjoyed the classes, although I noticed that I was reluctant to put brush to canvas. I employed all manner of procrastination techniques to delay the daunting task of creating something that may not live up to expectations.
Feeling a little lost but still enjoying the process, I kept going, and eventually found myself moving in the right direction. At one point there was a weekend workshop on painting your pet with acrylics. Perhaps it was this that prompted the next part of my artistic journey. I realized I wanted to add animals into my paintings, and though this wasn’t the class topic the wheels were set in motion in my mind.
A pet portrait from the acrylic workshop
Not long after, I was in an art supplies store I like to frequent and saw a flyer about learning to draw realistic animals in charcoals. This sounded perfect! I signed up for all the classes that were on offer and met some lovely artists who were also using soft pastels in their work. This was to be the next part of the unfolding journey. I practiced using these soft pastels to portray animals and found myself really connecting to both the medium – and the subject! Now I was only interested in animals and nothing else.
The first drawing from the charcoal classes A dog in soft pastels
From there, I found Singapore-based artist Ivan Hoo on Instagram and was in awe of his amazingly realistic pet drawings produced with pastel pencils, which allow plenty of precision but with way less mess.
And that brings me to the present. I’m still using the pastel pencils, but also experimenting again with other mediums (coming full circle) such as acrylics and watercolours now that I have more confidence in my abilities.
I have always loved animals and perhaps they were meant to lead me in this direction. I see my portraits as a celebration of the unique and unconditional love between pet and owner, something I experience daily and am honoured to transfer onto canvas for others.
I know that every pet I have the honour of drawing is truly cherished, just as they deserve to be, and I’m grateful that I have found a way to tie together my creative abilities with something that means so much to me: my love for the animals in our lives who adore us even when we’re lacking direction and struggling to find our place in the world.
