I love to scan a crowd of anonymous people at a public event and catch
glimpses of those little things that make a person unique. Usually when I do
this, the inevitable happens - and I find someone that I just have to draw.
I enjoy observing people - how they look and how they interact. As I capture these candid moments I wonder
what they are thinking about. Something
simple like a person’s body language can sometimes suggest a deeper meaning is
afoot. And then there are those who are
just plain cute!
Backgrounds and colours are usually distracting to my style. I like to isolate my subjects and just focus
on them - the black and white tones in their clothing, their general form and
shape – and of course, those wonderful things that make them special.
Here's looking at you.....
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| Newspaper article by Calvin Daniels of Yorkton This Week |
http://www.yorktonthisweek.com/article/20131127/YORKTON0101/131129804/-1/yorkton/local-artist-finds-faces-fascinating
Local Artist Finds Faces Fascinating
By Calvin Daniels
Staff Writer
Having retired from nursing in 2009, Strendin has found she once again has time to draw. "At this moment I'm spending some time getting back to my art work," she said. And Strendin is becoming much more prolific with her art, which she still classifies "a hobby".
A series of her work currently hangs at the pARTners Art Gallery in the Yorkton Public Library, most of the works created "within the last few months." The works in the show all focus on faces, something Strendin says draws her attention. "It just always has," she said, adding " … even when I was a child it was always faces …"I've always had the urge to draw people and faces. I just look at a person and know I really have to draw them."
Strendin said she can appreciate a landscape or a sunset but quickly added "it's not something I'm interested in personally." Instead Strendin studies faces in the crowd at powwows, and bike rallies and farm auctions. "I like to go out to different places, see different people and think 'I'd love to draw that person'," she said. "I'll go to a place and just look at the crowd. Sometimes I see a person I really want to draw."
At that time Strendin will snap a picture and at some point will sit down and draw the person. "Sometimes I put them in a file for years later," she said. There is an anonymity to her process. "I don't always know who I'm drawing," she said, adding she will try to talk to the people, but that is not always possible.
Strendin admitted that she sometimes draws people she has not talked too "it is a bit of concern …"That's why I have to be very respectful." So Strendin said she tries very hard to be true the face that inspires her."I try not to make too many changes," she said. "I try to be very respectful to the people."
While many faces are in a crowd, Strendin said only a few call to her to draw them. "I like everybody I do," she said of her 'models'. "It's a compliment to them."
That is why Strendin only does people she has seen and been attracted to draw. It is a personal connection to the subject, which means she does not do commissions. Again she said she appreciates those who will draw someone's cute grandchild, or mother, but for her such work adds pressure to the act of drawing, and she does her art for herself.
As a nurse, Strendin said she had to be highly organized, and she is now applying that organization and regiment to her art, making sure to spend time drawing, or studying the craft four, or five days a week. A typical drawing usually takes a day with pencil in hand, "but thinking about it can take longer than a day. I might think about it for a long time (before starting to draw)."
Once drawn, Strendin sleeps on the piece, checking it the next day to see if she wants to change anything. And then she puts her name on it. "Once I sign it's done," she said, adding to maintain that discipline she will spray coat pieces to make it impossible to tinker with.
"It's hard when you're doing a picture for yourself to tell how other people will view it," she said, adding being commercial is not a goal. "… I've done a lot of thinking about it. I'm not going to change … just because of what will sell."
The show at the pARTners Gallery will hang through January 2014.
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| Yorkton Arts Council page |
The News Review http://www.yorktonnews.com/article/20131211/YORKTONNEWS0101/312119989/-1/YORKTONNEWS/pencil-paparazzi-8211-new-at-partners-gallery
Pencil Paparazzi - new at pARTners gallery by Devin Wilger
Some people just have to be drawn,
and a local artist is doing just that. Lynn Strendin’s show Pencil Paparazzi is
currently at the community pARTners gallery at the Yorkton Public Library,
showcasing intricate and detailed pencil drawings of people Strendin has seen
in the community and in her travels.
The images start when Strendin goes
to an event and takes photos of the crowd and people she sees. She says that
she wants to draw people, but that finds working from candid photos much more
rewarding than something more posed, and that she has always found crowds fascinating
at different events.
She says that there are usually
three reasons to pick someone out of the crowd. One, they might tell a story
through what they are doing. She notes that, for instance, with a drawing taken
from a pow wow shows a mix of old and new, tradition mixing with modern
references. Two, she says people often accidentally reference art history,
their candid poses being in classic or dramatic poses while enjoying an event.
The final reason is just that Strendin says some people are just compelling,
and she finds she needs to draw them.
The majority of the subjects are
from events in the Yorkton area, with some from North Battleford and Victoria,
B.C. Strendin says that it represents people at ease, enjoying events and
relaxing, capturing a certain flavor of the community.
She add, that it takes a day to do
the actual drawing, but that the thought process behind it takes much longer,
as she plans what she is going to do and how she is going to execute the actual
work. She says her priority is to capture the moment and the story.
She admits that she cannot always
contact the people in the work, but she says that her goal is to show the
subjects of her work in the best light she can, and she hopes that if someone
sees themselves on the wall they are happy with what she has done.
“If I do somebody it’s because I
like them, and I think they’re interesting, and I hope other people like them
too... I always like the person, and I always feel good doing it.”
There will be an artist reception
for Pencil Paparazzi on January 5. To learn more about Strendin visit
lestren.blogspot.ca.
