CP Artist Erica Walker

SHOWCASE GALLERY

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June 2011 Featured Artist –An Interview with Erica Walker

Artist’s Biography/Statement

Out of the Blue

I have always loved coloured pencil, ever since I received a beautiful set of Faber-Castell pencils as a present from my mother when I was a child. I loved to draw but painting frustrated me – it seemed so uncooperative compared to the pencils.

I am self-taught, and coloured pencil has been both a challenge and an adventure. I didn’t know of any books on coloured pencil when I started using them, and indeed there were very few available until quite recently, so most of what I have learned has been by trial and error. A turning-point was a magazine article that I read when I was a teenager on the work of American artist Barbara Edidin. Hers was the first really serious coloured pencil work that I had ever seen, and its oil-paint look was a great inspiration. But I had already developed my own technique. In fact, somebody once told me that I work like a pastellist. I prefer really soft pencils, especially Prismacolors, and I tend to apply pigment loosely and often heavily, constantly blending and burnishing as I go. It also helps to work on extremely forgiving paper (Arches 140 lb. hot-press), and some of my favourite tools for special effects are erasers and razor blades. But my most valuable tool by far has been my collection of art books. I make a point of poring over the works of great artists (Vermeer and Chardin in particular, as well as Rembrandt, Holbein, van Gogh, Ingres, and a host of others). Whenever I come across an effect I particularly admire I simply experiment until I come up with something similar enough to satisfy me – a practice I would recommend to everyone.

People and still lifes are my main subjects. I find the human face so beautiful and fascinating, not only for its endless variety – of feature, colour, expression – but for its emotional depths as well. I am also thrilled at how the simple things we use every day can be transformed into art by a sudden shaft of light or a different point of view. Life for an artist is a visual feast, and I am so thankful to be able to share what I see and feel this way.