Feature Artist for September: Linda Rempel

Linda is definitively a portrait artist. She can capture the sense of a person with her pencils. She has a unique perception of the subject and can make that portrait come alive. 

Uncle George - Graphite on Smooth Bristol

Here is what has been happening with Linda this summer ….

While at a family reunion in June I spotted a great photo of my husband's uncle, whom I've never met - he died at 59; he would have been 95 this year. His face had such character that I had to put him to pencil ... I was surprised at how many family members I could see in his face as I worked on the drawing and I now feel as if I've had a 'visit' with him:))

Anna - Graphite on Smooth Bristol

This little charmer is the four-month-old daughter of a dear friend. Several years ago I started doing baby portraits of the 'new arrivals' in our church nursery. We hang them on the entrance wall in the nursery and then in a few months give them to the parents as the church family's gift to them. This little sweethearts' mum left our church family and moved away to the Netherlands to get married several years ago, and has happily started her family there;  I have already done a portrait of their first son a year or so ago and have now had the pleasure of doing one of their new little girl. This portrait will wing it’s way across the ocean this week. 

I’ve wanted to capture another big cat on paper for a while now and this fellow is coming along nicely. The drawing is not small  (16 x 20) and because of this is not very portable, so he gets attention when my basement studio isn’t too cool to work in this summer. I originally started it on white bristol but at the 4 hour mark decided that it may be better on coloured paper. I went with Stonehenge paper, which has a nice smooth surface but still plenty of tooth to hold layers of graphite and white pencil crayon. I started with a basic pencil sketch placing the main elements of the image and then work from upper left to lower right laying in the individual hairs and eye detail in graphite and coloured pencil.  I hope to have this completed by the end of the summer to add to the AGL.

Be sure to drop by the AGL this September to see Linda and her work in person.  She will be coming in to the gallery every Friday afternoon during the month.

Hope to see you there!!