( A-level Art Revisited  -  Coursework  -  at Swindon College )

        In the early 1980s, I was further influenced by a number of contemporary artists, with whom I had regular contact, and amongst other things, I visiting their studios and places of work.   Notably, Boston School of Art trained, Rachel Schiaro, who provided her spacious studio for life work on a weekly basis, editorial cartoonist, Vic Runtz of the Bangor Daily News, mural artist Tim Sample of Waterville, Maine, ceramic sculptress, Jane Burke of Augusta, Maine, and location painter William Landmesser amongst others.   There existed in this group, a strong background influence in the wake of American Post Impressionism.

Pittsfield Library Dome, Maine          Tim Sample                   Self Portrait Norman Rockwell       The Reader      Edouard Vuillard          The Bather         Edgar Degas              Sleepy Baby         Mary Cassatt

Project Two: Tone, Light and Colour

        The first project naturally progressed into the second, where I undertook to explore, and experiment with noting the additional information of colour.  The progression took me from graphite, charcoal and chalk, to soft colour pastels.   In the second project I looked for dominant colours on the surface of the model, allowing the colour to be somewhat exaggerated.   Looking at the work of Degas and Cassatt, I explored and experimented with oil pastels, a medium with which, I had little prior experience.  My aim; to establish on a working surface, passages of detailed information observed, and an analysis of light, form and colour direct from the model, given the inevitable time constraints of a life class.