I try as much as possible to make art a daily presence in my life

Artwork by Lynda Naske

I am a colored pencil artist in rural, upstate New York. I began my fascination with colored pencil as a young mother waiting for my daughters at sports practices. As I sat with my drawing board propped on the steering wheel and a box of Prismacolors by my side, I quickly became fascinated with the possibilities to be found at the tip of a simple pencil.

Many years later, I try as much as possible to make art a daily presence in my life. To surround myself with an “art structure system” for accountability and motivation, I belong to an artists coop with a gallery space and enter juried and non-juried art competition to ensure that deadlines keep me productive, focused and aware of the works of my art peers and art mentors.

My art challenges are STILL HAVING A JOB, as well as grandchildren and aged parents nearby. I have to strike the balance between time demands, significant relationships and my passion for art. I also expect a high level of rendering expertise of myself which also adds time to my process.

I love drawing with colored pencils but it is SUCH a time-consuming medium that I want to also develop the same level of expertise in oil painting and/or pastel. The gradual buildup of subtle colors and values in colored pencil still is very exciting, as is the beauty of line that pencil can provide, but increasingly I long for the parallel skill to do bold strokes and stronger colors and values that are more accessible in paint or pastel.

I struggle for art time already for my pencil work and it is REALLY challenging to “teach” myself other mediums in the same spaces of time. I have set up an area to paint small paintings from real objects and am working away at oil painting with “school” on youtube.

The Old Masters Academy attracts me with the idea of a higher and more comprehensive level of technical expertise so that I can in turn be set free for a higher goal of expressing the art that I want to create.

I am a senior citizen who must still work for “art money” and like many senior artists, I feel the clock ticking on my healthy/useful years. I like the life membership aspect because the art challenges have more chance to be worked around with an open-ended amount of time to learn.

I am not more worthy than other contest participants. We all have interesting stories and I am sure the winners will be very worthy.

I am attaching pictures of my pencil work and one small painting. I love the play of light and shadow on interesting “things”.

lyndanaske.blogspot.com