Postcards for Eastern Open 2013

Mountain Gorilla, pen & wash, 10x15cms

Thought you might like a peek at the two postcards I have submitted to the Eastern Open 2013 exhibition.  Any day now I will receive an envelope to say whether the bigger paintings I entered have been selected or not.  To be honest I am expecting rejection - artists from across 7 counties send in work - and I'm not even sure I have seen animals in the final line up in previous years!  However, the postcards get shown in the Old Warehouse Gallery regardless of whether other work gets chosen.

The one above was from a photo taken at Bristol Zoo.  I did spend quite a bit of time trying to decide how to approach this task.  Should I prime the card first?  Which media could I use?  Should I create actual texture?  How could I create a unique, more contemporary piece on this 10x15cm postcard?  I have seen some very inventive creations over the years...  As time passed this task started to become more and more 'precious' and to grow in importance, but time was running out.  My inability to make a decision and get it done was making me feel increasingly irritated.  Eventually a little voice of reason surfaced - "keep it simple".  So that is what I did.  I grabbed an Edding pen and jumped straight into drawing (no pencil, no safety net) and with the photo before me I pretended I was sketching the live animal.  Using a medium that cannot be altered forces a certain amount of bravura.  I even used my travelling watercolour brush for the loose watercolour washes.  Hooray! One down, one to go...

Ring-tailed Lemur, pen & wash, 15x10cms

This is the second offering.  Again, my reference was a photo taken at Bristol Zoo.  I kept the same brazen approach of swiftly drawing with pen before applying the simple washes.  This little sketch makes me chuckle - the innocence of the foreground character on the left, totally oblivious to the wicked looking creature behind who is about to launch an attack by all accounts! 

I shall keep you posted about my other painted entries and chat about the work once I know what is happening.  Will they be hung in the Eastern Open 2013?  Or (most likely) come back to the studio without an audience?