Michelle Wrighton Fine Art and Photography

According to Wikepedia The History of the Papillon is actually traced through works of art! The earliest toy spaniels resembling the Papillon are found in Italy. Tiziano Vicelli (Titian) painted these small dogs in many famous paintings including the Venus of Urbino (1542). Other well known artists who included them in paintings are Watteau, Gonzalez Coques, Fragonard and Mignard. In a painting after Largillierre in the Wallace Collection in London, a Papillon is clearly shown in a family portrait of Louis XIV. Papillons are also in paintings of royal families around Europe and paintings of merchant class families. The breed was popular in England, France, and Belgium which are considered counties of origin by the FCI.

This is the first time this original colour pencil painting on drafting film of a delightful little Papillon has been offered for sale and is your chance to own a little bit of Papillon art history!

“Papillon”

Original Artist Colour Pencil painting

by

Michelle Wrighton

9″ x 12″ on drafting film

"Papillon" colour pencil painting by Michelle Wrighton

Please note that the copyright watermark is applied to this digital image only and does not appear on the original.

This is the final update for the Weimaraner portait.

Weimaraner - The grey Ghost

To purchase a variety of wall art, greeting cards and t-shirts featuring my art and photography, Please visit my RedBubble Gallery. Purchases can be made in different currencies (USD, Euro, GBP, AUD) and shipped shipped worldwide.

A variety of wall art, gift ware and apparel featuring my artwork is available in my GiftShop at CafePress.

Well they say good things come to those who wait, and every cloud has a silver lining and both of these are probably true at the moment. LOL I seem to have trying to find time to get my studio re-arranged and organized for a couple of years and its finally nearly done, thanks (I guess?) at least in part to the flood damage and total house upheaval we had earlier this year!

So while being ill and not being able to do much of anything else at the moment, I have gone through my personal collection in my art folders and have decided to part with some of my art pieces that have not previously been offered for sale – I would rather have them being enjoyed by someone else and helping out a dog in need rather than remaining in my folio!

This profile portrait of a soulful looking tan & white Basset Hound was completed on black Windsor and Newton Acid Free paper using artist quality colour pencils. Created 2005, first time offered for sale. Paper size: 11″x14″ Image size: 8″x8″ approx. $75.00 (includes postage).

Basset Hound profile, artist color pencil on Black Artist Paper. Paper size: 11"x14" Image size: 8"x8" approx

“Grey Ghost”

11″ x 14″

Artists Colour Pencil on Drafting film

by

Michelle Wrighton

"Grey Ghost" Weimaraner portrait by Michelle Wrighton

This colour pencil painting received an Honourable Mention at the 2007 Kelmscott Show, which was quite an honour considering that it was the only non-human artwork in its category!

LOL, I tend to walk to the beat of my own drum and don’t always follow tradition (self taught artist and all that;) I consider much of the art that I produce as ‘portraits’, the fact that they are non-human is not really relevant in my humble opinion, so I went ahead and entered this one in the ‘Portraits’ category (the rules didn’t stipulate which species the portraits had to be of, so I thought it was a reasonable option). LOL the judge either agreed with me, or was also a dog lover as well. I did win a couple of first prizes in other categories with other animal art I had entered, but the ‘Highly Commended – Portraits’ award for this one was pretty sweet;)

I nearly forgot to post an update with the final of my lion, so here he is, Part II of “We Three Kings”, 8″x8″, artist colour pencil on drafting film.

I’m not surprised that more and more colour pencil artists are starting to use drafting film for their work. I am now absolutely convinced that drafting film is the perfect support for use with colour pencils, at least with my style and technique. It is definitely not easy to use initially, and it handles totally different to any other support that I have worked with (it dosn’t take as many layers so you really have to make each mark count!), but the results as definitely worth it, so I will be doing a lot more work on film in the future!

Cards and prints featuring this artwork can be purchased at

Yes, I know this post is out of order:) better late than never, right?

This is the first in my big cat triptych, “We Three Kings”, and my first experiment with using colour pencils on drafting film. I started with a much more detailed sketch than I normally do because I my focus was on learning how to use this support (it handles very differently to any other support that I have tried).

I did find that not all drafting films are created equal:( Although the type I used for this tiger was excellent for the pigment saturation and luminosity it allowed, unlike other types of drafting film, although it erased easily, I could not get much pigment back into the erased areas….making erasing mistakes impossible!

Considering this was an experiment, I am very pleased with how he turned out. Oh and if you are wondering about the title – I didn’t actually start out planning to do a Big Cat triptych, but the night I finished this one I was laying in bed when the title popped into my head (actually, titles for my artwork rarely pop gently into my head, they usually hit me like a sledgehammer;). I knew instantly that the next one in the series would be the lion, but I am still not sure who will be the third king cat. Watch this space to find out!

Work In Progress shot 1:

Work In Progress shot 2:

Work In Progress shot 3:

Final: “We Three Kings part I: Tiger”

I’d love to know what you think of him!

Cards and prints featuring this artwork can be purchased at

I cannot believe how quickly 2007 is flying by! I have quite a few blog entries sitting in my ‘draft’ folder waiting to be finished off so that I can upload them, but life just seems to keep getting in the way! Hopefully by the end of August things will have settled down a little bit around here! Of course, when I finally get to upload them they are going to be out of order, so I might have to rationalize and give some of them a miss!

Meanwhile, to add to my wildlife art portfolio, this is the second piece in the ‘We Three Kings’ series, a square format triptych of three of the big cats, the first was the Tiger, this work in progress is of the second in the series, the lion. I am still undecided on the third one because I would like to do a snow leopard, a cheetah and a jaguar but I can’t decide which one to do first!

After trying drafting film as a support for my colour pencil work, I think I have found the perfect combination of medium and support to suit my style and technique. It is rather tricky to work with initially (definitely different to any other support I have tried) but I am particularly pleased with the vibrancy and luminosity that colour pencils have on the drafting film.

These photos were taken on my easel to avoid camera flash so they are at a bit of an angle.

8″x8″ with a variety of artist quality colour pencils.

Prints and gift items with this image will be available from my RedBubble Gallery and my Cafe Press Gift Shop when the painting is completed.

Michelle

To purchase a variety of wall art, greeting cards and t-shirts featuring my art and photography, Please visit my RedBubble Gallery. Purchases can be made in different currencies (USD, Euro, GBP, AUD) and shipped worldwide.

A variety of wall art, gift ware and apparel featuring my artwork is available in my
GiftShop at CafePress.

Hi and welcome to my new art blog! My name is Michelle, I am a Western Australian artist who specialises in Pet Portraiture and Small Format Art in a variety of mediums, including graphite (black and white), Artists colour pencils, ink, acrylic and pastels.

Small Format Art (SFA) is defined as any type of artwork that has a maximum size of 14 inches (35.5cm) in any one direction. SFA is collectible, affordable artwork that make wonderful unique displays in homes and offices to suit your own personal decor or personality. SFA can be collected by artist, theme, style, color or an eclectic mix to create an eye catching display to suit your own individual taste. They are especially suited for small display areas such as hallways, mantlepieces and desk tops where larger art work would be unsuitable or simply wouldn’t fit.

As an artist with three small chilren, I love Small Format Art because the smaller size allows me to be creative and productive within the limited time that I have available. Although SFA’s can take 50-60 hours or more to complete over many days or even weeks, it is also very rewarding to be able to complete a finished painting in a looser more artistic style in just a day or two!

I love animals and the majority of the artwork I create is animal portraits. As a professional Pet Portrait Artist, my pet portraits are highly detailed and very realistic – if you would like to see examples, they can be viewed on my website http://www.pencilportraits.com.au.

However, with the SFA I create, I find myself drawn more towards less realistic styles that really express my creativity – I really don’t like labels and would prefer at this point in time not to be limited to creating art within the confines of only one artistic ‘style’. Many different art movements inspire me and as a result, the SFA that I create is an eclectic mix of styles that might normally be labelled as abstract expressionism, minimalism, surrealism or modern/contemporary with some representational pieces thrown in for good measure! That is my idea ofArtistic Freedom:)

I’ve decided to create this blog as a separate entity to my original blog http://www.petportraitartist.blogspot.com/ for several reasons – firstly, for myself I like the idea of maintaining a visual diary of my work and at the same time being able to record some of my thoughts and emotions surrounding each piece, and secondly the majority of Small Format Art that I create will be available for sale in different venues such as Ebay, Art Wanted, Art Cards Wanted and Art By Us and by listing each artwork here in one place, it will be easier for me to keep track of everything, plus I would imagine it will be a bit easier for those who like to collect my artwork:) If you would like to join me on this journey of dscovery, please add this blog to your RSS feed to recieve notification when new art work is added (simply click on the second orange button on the right that says ‘Feed’ – or if you use atom click the first button that says ‘Site Feed’).

Cheers

Michelle

‘Tall Poppies’ 4″x4″ art squared, acrylic on canvas, 2006

‘Solitaire’ 4″x4″ art squared, acrylic on canvas, 2006.

‘Ginger Kitty’ 4″x4″ art squared, Prismacolor pencils on blue suedeboard, 2006

Michelle

I finally have a chance to add an entry this week!

This is my latest ACEO of a green tree frog, titled “Frog on A Log” (ACEO #15), which I will be listing on Ebay either later today or tomorrow. This will be the only opportunity to own this cute little frog because if he dosn’t sell, my hubby has claimed him!

This photo is a cropped enlarged version showing some of the detail.

and another landscape “Snow Covered Mountain”

The first lot of ACEO’s I have ever offered for sale (including the Golden Retriever, Siamese Kitten, the pelican, frangipani and Teddy bear) will be ending on Ebay in the next few hours, if you collect ACEO’s have a look as some of them don’t have any bids.

Click here to view current Ebay auctions.

Because of the cost of listing items on Ebay, it seems that many artists don’t re-list items that don’t sell at auction, but list them in their Ebay Stores at a much higher retail price. This makes sense to me – apart from the cost of Ebay fees, I think way to many artists undervalue their work – and is something I am considering on doing with my own Ebay store – I’d love to hear your opinion (as an artist or art collector) on having a policy like this.

If I am lucky I can run to my studio and grab a couple of hours to myself, and hopefully create a masterpiece!

Bye for now

Michelle