Anne Barron
I
am a portrait and animal artist with a particular passion for wildlife,
using mainly pencils and pastels as my medium but with an interest in
exploring different media to express my wide range of interests. Having
spent most of my working life until about 10 years ago working as a
senior secretary in government, industry and sport, I have acquired a
broad spectrum of sources of inspiration as well as the organizational
ability that has led to my being involved in co-organising (on a
voluntary basis) three of the main art events based in Sheffield
throughout the year. I love what I do and have the advantage that some
very talented local artists, who are quite capable of doing pet
portraits but don’t enjoy them, will kindly pass their
clients into my safe hands.
My
aim in finishing a portrait is to create a likeness and then go on to
breathe life into the painting. This is done by combining a talent for
copying accurately from photographs whilst at the same time adding an
element that no camera can capture - passion for the subject and a love
for the process of interpreting what I can see onto the paper or
canvas. My experience of studying animals (particularly my own cats and
dogs) shows in my work according to the people who come back to me time
after time for repeat commissions.
A
recent departure from the norm was my involvement in the About Face
portrait exhibition run in conjunction with the Snooker World
Championships at the Crucible in Sheffield. As an invited artist, I was
asked to produce at least 4 portraits from photographs made available
by photographers who have taken some wonderful shots over the years,
and the portraits here are some of the ones I produced for this event.
The use of the umber pencil was a discovery I made by accident when I
was forced into starting a supposedly full colour portrait for a
Celebrity Portrait competition last year. The subject was Bruce Jones
(aka Les Battersby from Coronation Street) and Bruce chose a beautiful
oil painting as winner but liked my portrait enough to choose it as
runner-up in the competition and also asked if he could buy it.
