Lynda Pedley
I have enjoyed drawing and painting for as long as I can remember. As a small child, my father, who was a self-taught artist, spent hours teaching me about perspective and colour, and I used to watch in fascination as he painted the most fabulous paintings in oils. Throughout my school years I enjoyed drawing and sketching, and doing the odd painting when time permitted. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to take art as an ‘O’ Level subject because in the 1970’s pupils were ‘streamed’ and I had to choose science rather than go down the art route. However, I didn’t lose touch with it, even after a career and two children, and continued to paint as a hobby, first in oils, then watercolour and then acrylic.
Although self-taught, my first paintings on canvas boards using oils were a pretty good effort but very traditional in style. My school friends who were not terribly good at drawing used to constantly ask me to draw them an animal or whatever. I was lucky enough to be successfully chosen to represent my school in a painting competition held throughout the Yorkshire region where I grew up. The winning paintings were displayed for a month at our local art gallery, and I can remember feeling very proud to see my painting hanging on the wall for all to see – well I was only about 12 at the time! More recently, and after my children became independent, I decided that I would try my hand at watercolours and soon became hooked. A lot of my inspiration came from holidays to the South of France where the picturesque villages and wonderful colours and light begged to be painted. A year or so ago I also became interested in pop-art and painted abstracts in acrylic. I have exhibited many of my watercolour and oil paintings at a local hospital over the last two or three years and have successfully sold quite a few in the process as well as gaining commission work.
My acrylics, which are painted on box canvas panels of varying sizes, are generally in a pop-art style and are based on bright colours or retro designs in black and white. On the other hand, my watercolour paintings are more true to life but I try to make them colourful or atmospheric. Most of my paintings of doorways and windows are inspired by the wonderful colours and picturesque villages seen while on holiday in the South of France. However, I do also enjoy painting landscapes and flowers, and have been known to grow a particular type of flower just so that I can sit in my garden in the summer and paint it! All of my watercolours are double mounted in cream and white mount board, and are also card backed for extra strength and protection. I always use artist’s quality watercolour paints and acid free paper. I am thinking of going back to using oil paint, again on box canvas panels, but painting beach scenes in a loose style.