December 2010 Featured Artist;
Lynn Boivin:
Our first Featured Artist is an incredibly talented young woman. I first encountered her work on allaboutdrawings.com, a wonderful amateur drawing site. Her work was just so impressive to me. We ended up becoming acquaintances, and found each other on Facebook as well.
When I started this blog, I knew I would feature one artists per month. I was stuck on the first one, I knew Lynn was a choice, I thought of her before anyone else. But, my delimna was whether to feature a current artists, or to do one of my favs....Da Vinci. I decided that Lynn would be the obvious choice. So here she is, Lynn Boivin, pencil portraitist extraordinaire......
Lynn's chosen medium is graphite, but she does like to experiment with Prismacolor watercolors.
She has been using professional grade graphite for about 10 years. Like many self taught artists, when she first started drawing she used a regular #2 pencil, and much like me she then moved to a mechanical pencil. Lynn says, "I still use a mechanical pencil in my drawings on very small detailed areas"
Like almost every other artist in history, there is a story behind the beginning, so I asked Lynn what started her on the journey of Art. "After my children hit the teenager age, I then found my love for drawing again and decided to make a business from it so on a mission I went and created a website with business cards and have loved every minute of it".
"The first drawing I done that I was very excited about was for my 4th grade teacher. It was Christmas time and I remember drawing a mouse with a Santa hat on standing beside a mailbox decorated with Christmas decor. I would really love to have that drawing today just because I think that was the beginning of my drawing passion. I remember drawing a lot of images from the Bible after that. I would love to copy a picture I seen in my Bible pages or in Sunday School. Noah’s Ark was one of my favorite that I remember doing back then. My sister still has that drawing today."
What inspires an artist to become an artist in the first place? For Lynn it was, "Darrel Tank. I ran across his site and was blown away at how wonderful his art was. He has been my inspiration to work harder and improve my work." *Darrel Tank is a very accomplished portrait artist who designed the "5-Pencil Method"*
Lynn's preferred subjects are people. She says; "I just love to capture the twinkle in their eyes and hopefully capture their personality too".
Of all the pieces you have done so far, which one is your personal fav? "I would have to say the "Mother and Child", it is a drawing of a mother holding her 6 month old baby up and kissing him. I love the warmth and emotion you get from it."
I asked Lynn, if she could draw or paint anything at all, what would be her "dream piece"? " My dream piece would be of the Native people walking the Trail of Tears. I would love to be able to paint or draw this emotional scene. I feel that people sometimes don’t have a full understanding of what they endured. I would love to capture the pain, suffering and broken hearts they carried with them on that trail so that viewers could then have a clearer image of what the Trail of Tears really was." Being part Cherokee, I certainly appreciate her answer. Many Cherokees died on that treacherous trek. History in schools, don't teach that part of the Native Americans, nor do they tell how they were basically invaded, oppressed, and ran off of their lands, all in the name of "freedom".
Lynn Boivin, our very first Featured Artist. Her skill is incredible. Her talents are at the level that I myself strive for. Please....do yourself a favor, and take a look at Lynn's work...you will not be disappointed.
Visit Lynn's site "The Iron Pencil"........The Iron Pencil
