Category / drawing

by Leonie Andrews

Another Sunday night sketch

Our Sunday ritual of catching up with art friends in the UK and Scotland continues. As we had been out and got back just 10 minutes before our meeting time I decided to simply grab my book and colour pencils and sketch my partner sitting at the other end of the table.

Steve

I really enjoyed the marks I used, but when I sat looking at it the following morning I realised that his head isn’t in proportion with his body. I’m happy with the drawing of both, but they are not quite the right size for each other. Oh well.

My sketches outside Old Parliament House

Earlier that day we’d been out with our local chapter of Urban Sketchers at Old Parliament House. As I have sketched here many times I decided to try and find some different angles to capture.

Sketches up close

Top left is the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, which has been occupying the land across from the front of the Old Parliament since Australia Day 1972. So that means that by the end of this month it will have been there for 54 years.

Bottom left is a view from the building from the Senate Rose gardens. Originally that fence kept the prying eyes of the public out, so the Senators could enjoy some fresh air in privacy.

The right hand page shows the first women to be elected to parliament. Senator (Dame) Dorothy Tangney on the left and (Dame) Enid Lyons, house of Representatives on the right.

These were done with watercolour and in the case of the Tent Embassy, I used pencil.

by Leonie Andrews

Starting to draw in January

As Yoda once said “do or do not”. So some days I do and some days I do not!

One thing I do want to do this year is work on reducing the ridiculous amount of art materials sitting unused in my back room, in cupboards and all sorts of other places around the house. Now I have materials I prefer to use, the rest just sit there.

Drawing with colour pencils, trying to change the direction of my marks each time I put the pencil on the page. Also, trying not to be too ‘precious’ with my drawings.

I’m trying some tactics to use things like markers, in particular. I have seen several artists use them to make this ‘window pane’ background to sketch over.

Marker pen window pane background, ready to use

I did a similar preparation using other hot pink markers (forgot to take a reference photo) and this is what it looks like as a base with a finished drawing over the top.

Marker background colour pencil over the top. Still life from our table top.

The fact that I’m using this lovely sketchbook from Leuchtturm 1917 helps. It was part of the ‘goody bag’ I received when I taught at the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Poznan last year. This isn’t the type of paper I would usually work with, but it’s very good for all these dry media.

One of my favourite  ‘goody bag’ items from Symposium 2025.
by Leonie Andrews

Non-dominant hand

I was about to start a drawing session with friends when I accidently got in the way of some steam from the kettle – burning my hand in the process (thankfully not a major burn). It was enough to drive me to use my other hand to draw with while my dominant hand stayed wrapped in a cool damp cloth

I just picked from a variety of markers and pencils already on my table and one of my fountain pens. 

Markers, coloured pencil and fountain pen with collage

I really like the result! Nothing too fussy. My inspiration was this replica of a Roman Owl brooch that was found in the city of Bath in the UK. I didn’t resist adding a touch of collage when I found this tiny scrap on my table as well.

A copy of a sacrifice to the goddess Sulis-Minerva
by Leonie Andrews

Pauline Boty

Pauline Boty, (1938-1966), was an English artist and sole female member of the British pop art movement. Boty came to prominance through unlikely paths. Initially she studied stained glass and then collage at the Royal College of Art. She had wanted to join the painting department but was dissuaded from applying because of the low success rate of applications by female students.

Drawn from a still from the film Pop Goes the Easel by Ken Russell, 1962

Boty’s good looks attracted attention, earning her the nickname of ‘the Wimbledon Bardot’ referring to her likeness to the French film star. Her appearance in the Ken Russell documentary Pop Goes the Easel, in 1962,  gave rise to a series of roles on the TV and stage and one in the film Alfie.

Pauline Boty, 1963 from a photograph by Lewis Morley

In 1959 three of Boty’s works were selected for the Young Contemporaries exhibition and in 1960 one of her stained glass works was selected for an Arts Council exhibition Modern Stained Glass. You can see her stained glass self portrait in the National Portrait Gallery London.

Throughout her studies and in addition to her acting, Boty continued working on her paintings, first showing her work in a small group show in 1961. My favourite painting of hers is The Only Blonde in the World, 1963, a portrait of Marilyn Monroe, is in collection the Tate Gallery.

Pauline Boty, 1964, from a photograph by David Bailey.

Boty married Clive Goodwin in 1963. In 1965 she became pregnant, but during an examination it was discovered that she had an aggressive cancer. Boty decided to forgo treatment as there could be no guarantee that her unborn child would survive. Her daughter, called Boty, was born in February 1966. Pauline Boty died of cancer in July of the same year.

by Leonie Andrews

Nora Heysen, “Girl Painter”

Nora Heysen (1911-2003), was the first Australian woman to win the prestigious Archibald Prize for portraiture in 1938, for her portrait of Mme Elink Schuurman. At age 27 she was and remains, the youngest ever winner of the Archibald Prize. The Australian Women’s Weekly subsequently summarised this landmark achievement with an article entitled “Girl Painter Who Won Art Prize is also Good Cook”.

Nora Heysen, c. 1930s

Despite underwhelming assessments like that, Heysen was more than capable of holding her own when it came to making art. The daughter of one of Australia’s most popular landscape artists, Hans Heysen, she began her formal art training at the age of 15 and by the age of 20 had her work in the collection of three State galleries. 

Sales from her first solo exhibition in 1933 funded further study in London (1934-37).

In 1944 Heysen made another breakthrough when she became the first Australian woman appointed as an Official War Artist*. In addition to her honorary rank as Captain, she was, with persistence and backing,  even paid the same rate as male war artists!

Captain Nora Heysen in Papua New Guinea in 1944. Collection of the Australian War Memorial

One of my favourite portraits of her war service is of WAAAF cook, Corporal Joan Whipp.

Heysen married in 1953, but found her practice was disrupted. She and her husband divorced in 1976. By then her portraits and still life subjects had fallen out of fashion and her work was not recognised.

Later, while researching work on some of her father’s paintings, curator Lou Klepac saw her work, and recognised it’s quality. He mounted a major exhibition of Nora’s work in 1989. In conjunction with the National Library of Australia, Klepac held another successful exhibition of her work in 2000.

Heysen at age 92, at the Art Gallery of South Australia,  standing in front of one of her father’s paintings.

Unlike so many other female artists Heysen did live to see her work regain it’s prominence. She died after a short illness in 2003.

*Both Iso Rae and Jessie Traill documented the First World War in France, but neither were given official status as Government appointed war artists.