Aurorabearealis
New Arts & Crafts Gallery
Main Street - North Kessock
Susan Phillips
Telephone 01463 731110
e-mail susan@aurorabearealis.co.uk
Listed with
The Bear Section...
"Armadale" Bear in coloured pencil
Commissioned Teddy Bear Portraits...
I have been drawing, sketching and painting in various mediums for as long as I can remember. Bears have been a favourite subject of mine since childhood and my own collection of furry friends provided me with an endless supply of willing models of all shapes and sizes. My own hug consists of around seven hundred bruins, mostly Merrythought but also includes many characterful bears such as
"Roly" Bear in pastels
As well as having my own bears to sketch and paint, visitors arrive on a regular basis to spend time with their Auntie Susan and have their portrait painted in pastels. It’s a great holiday for them as they can make new friends with my lot while they are here and they don’t have a chance to get homesick. I start by getting to know the bear and his or her own character as this must shine through in the portrait which is why working from photos in my opinion is not nearly as good as working “in the fur”. I work with Faber Castell pastels on Mi-Teintes paper building the layers of colour to make the fur as realistic as possible. This can take a long time, sometimes more than ten hours depending on the size of the portrait required and the type of fur that the bear has. Detail is very important and unless time is taken to get the tiny details correct then the spirit and character of the bear is harder to capture. Once the portrait is completed to my satisfaction, it is then double mounted to protect the painting from contact with the glass in an acid free card mount in a toning colour. Frames can be bewildering as there is so much choice, but generally something sympathetic to your home furnishings would be recommended.
4 Magnet Bears in pastels
I am also an illustrator and have supplied artwork to many publications worldwide and I design and print my own art greetings cards, including teddy bear designs. I really enjoy the challenge of working digitally and find that this medium is great for designing cards and that using a good quality art programme can allow me to experiment without the mess and material waste associated with tradition methods. Combining this with a pro quality printer using archive, waterproof ink allows me to print small quantities economically to suit my customers’ requirements.
Polar Bear cub in acrylics for greetings card.
The Illustration Section
Coming Soon.....
Links Section
Please visit Jean Grogan, teddy bear artist who creates lovely little scruffs!