Pauline Clay
Colored Pencil Artist

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"Drinking It All In"

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A first trip to New York City, a Broadway play and morning coffee before a day of  sightseeing. It's an eye-opening experience and you have to drink it all in.

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"Drama Queen"

I did a 5x5 version of this piece to get back into my art after being out of the studio for awhile. That ended up being sold on the day that I posted it on Facebook so I decided to use that "Pink Perfection" piece as a study for a larger version, which I titled "Drama Queen." I loved trying to capture the delicate petals and how the sunlight affected their colors. My reference photo was one that I shot while in Paris at the Rodin Museum. The rose gardens at the museum were the most spectacular I have ever seen. I shot enough photographs of roses for a lengthy series once I get tired of sunflowers.

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"Childhood Fantasies "

I decided 2021 was the year to finally create a holiday related piece of artwork. I love nutcrackers and decided this one we bought in Germany in 1995 was going to be the star of my piece. But I didn't want a plain background so I found a photo I shot that had our Christmas tree in the background and used filters in Photoshop to soften the colors and detail. From there I had to cut out the nutcracker, ribbon and ball from the white background I photographed them on and put them in front of the tree. It definitely tested my Photoshop skills! I loved working on the detail of the nutcracker and had great fun doing this one. I might make it an annual tradition, but next year I'll try to start before November. Happy holidays!

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"Togetherness"

This is one in the series of sunflowers I've been working on. I love the symmetry of the seeds in the center, and the pattern they form, even though they are challenging to render realistically. There is just something cheerful about sunflowers that makes them a favorite with so many people, myself included. And with everything negative going on in the world, it's good for my soul to work on pieces that make me smile when I look at them.

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"Up Close"

I've always loved sunflowers and when I saw this one while in Cape Cod for a wedding, I knew I had to draw it. I eliminated the distracting background from my reference photos, instead choosing a simple pale blue to keep the focus on the flower. The biggest challenge was the incredibly detailed seed pattern in the center and the tiny individual blossoms surrounding it. When you take the time to look closely, you realize the amazing symmetry and patterns found in nature. I created the entire flower in a previous work, but decided I wanted to try a different crop to give the image more drama.

Sien

Siena

While on a walking tour in the city of Siena, Italy, in 2019, I happened to look down a side street and saw an almost abstract view of the buildings with all their angles and textures intersecting. I wanted to capture the scene in colored pencil, getting rid of the distracting modern aspects, such as the satellite dishes on the rooftops.

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The Contrasts of Hetch Hetchy

While in California a few years ago, we visited Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park where we happened upon this dead tree that had been bleached by the weather. I loved the contrast of it against the colorful orange groundcover that was blooming. I wasn't sure at the time what I wanted to do with the photo, but realized when I stumbled across it again a few months ago that I wanted to try to bring those contrasts to life with my colored pencils. To me the piece is a contrast between life and death -- the blooming flowers and the dead tree.

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Misty Falls of Milford Sound

While in New Zealand in 2017, we visited Milford Sound, which was too beautiful for words. The water was crashing down from such heights that it created a heavy mist as it  cascaded down, but also the most interesting designs in the water at the base. I love the photos I shot, but I really wanted to see if I could capture the waterfall's movement in a drawing. I used colored pencil for the majority of the drawing and pan pastel for the watery mist.

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Intense Gaze

While at a bird sanctuary in Australia, I got to see and photograph a number of different owls and other birds of prey. This bird had turned away from me and I felt like I wasn't able to get a good photo of his face. But what I discovered as I was going through my photos was that the side angle gave me a much more dramatic "portrait" of him. I loved the way you could see the features of his face as well as the lovely coloration of his feathers. He almost comes across as sinister, but to me it's more a demeanor of quiet power. That's what drew me to him.

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Fall's Fading Beauty

I am fascinated by the reflections in a small creek near my home and was determined this fall to photograph the leaves in the water. I was hoping for a sunny day to capture the reflections of the blue sky but a spate of cloudy days and the rapidly dropping leaves left me with no choice but to shoot the reference photos on a dreary day. What I didn't count on was the abstract beauty of the trees' reflections on a gray day. The stark contrast between the brightly colored leaves and the patterns of the trees' reflections created a much more dramatic image that I was able to enhance by using a limited palette on the background.

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Rainbow Lorikeet

While on vacation in Australia, we visited the rain forest town of Kuranda. While walking around, I couldn't help but notice the incredibly colorful Rainbow Lorikeets in one tree. I must have stood there 20 minutes hoping one of the birds would get on a branch low enough to photograph it. One finally perched on an exposed limb and practically posed for me as he devoured the blooms or seeds that attracted the birds. I never could quite figure out what attracted them. Drawing the bird was such fun. Getting the many colors of the bird just right was a challenge but nothing like trying to capture the detail of the flowers.

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New Zealand's Indigenous Maori

While in New Zealand in 2017, I had an opportunity to visit a Maori village. I'm not typically drawn to portraits, but I felt the expression on this young man's face captured the pride and commitment of the Maori, especially combined with the dramatic sunset lighting. The photograph included the entire Maori canoe, but I wanted the focus to be on his expression with just enough of the canoe to convey the long history and tradition of the tribe. 

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