Both my mother’s parents were artists. My grandfather was a drafts man by trade, and those days it was all done by pencil and paper (unlike today). He use to paint still life’s. After he passed away I inherited his drawing supplies, which is obviously a whole blog post on its own, so I will save those stories for another day =)

This blog post is about my grandma. Who I personally think was one of the most fantastic artists in the world. Her speciality was people, in particular nudes. I was exposed to the natural beauty of the human body from a very young age, and a number of her pieces were hung proudly on her walls (and now mine)

My very first memory is of my grandma. For a long time I thought this particular memory was a dream, but I can clearly remember being in the car as it drove down a really long driveway, I remember looking up out of the window at all the trees that lined it. I then remember looking up and seeing my grandma, I remember her cooing and smiling at me, and then turning away to talk to my mum. I remember art work hanging on the wall behind her. The reason I thought it was a dream was because despite this memory being very clear in my head, it is dull, like someone used a dimmer switch on it, and it is a little bit blurry. like my eyes weren’t working properly. When I told mum this a few years ago she was surprised I was describing Grandma and Grandfathers old house perfectly. They moved out of that house when I was 18 months old.

My grandma helped teach me how to draw. She use to share little tips and tricks with me, and was very excited when she realised I had a similar gift (I say similar because no way would I ever be as great as her). When I was in high school, during the school holidays I would get the bus to the city my grandparents lived in and spend the week with my other set of grandparents (dad’s folks). But during this week a day would always be spent with my Grandma and Grandfather. A day that always consisted of drawing.

I’m going to attach two pictures to this post…

The first is of a sketch my Grandma did of me when I was about 14 years old. I remember siting very still for her to draw me from life (a dream of mine to be able to do myself). As she drew me she also showed me step by step how to do it, and if you look really closely in this sketch you will see the guide lines she used (I do have another blog post planned about drawing faces and the guidelines). She gave me this sketch, and then from it she did a painting of me too.

And the 2nd drawing I am attaching is a drawing I did of her =) so here everything, this is my amazing Grandma.