Congratulations to Gwen Roberts for earning her place as a Finalist in the Boynes Artist Award 9th Edition [Emerging Artist category]!

Who are you?

I am Gwen Roberts, a second career artist. I was born in England and I am 49 years of age. I started my working life in the financial industry in England before emigrating to Spain and have now lived in Australia for 9 years.

When a challenging contract was fulfilled I was able to return my attention to my enduring love in life; for the first time in twenty years I picked up my pencils and started to draw again.

As a child I was always absorbed in drawing. I was preoccupied with drawing accurately and achieving a perfect likeness. I remember practicing drawing free-hand circles. In my young mind I believed that if I could draw the perfect circle, I could draw anything. Looking back, I think that simple exercise stood me in good stead.

It is a cathartic experience to indulge myself in something I’ve loved for my entire life. I’ve never been in a position to be able to dedicate a lot of time to art until this stage in my life. It is bliss.

What inspired you to utilize drawing as a medium?

Drawing was my first love. I was comfortable with its familiarity. When I eventually returned to making art it was like being reunited with an old friend. I stayed faithful to graphite as a medium whilst I honed my skills and figured out my voice. Then, one fortuitous day, a friend introduced me to the work of Annie Murphy Robinson. I was astounded by her virtuosity and fascinated by her ‘sanding’ technique. I got to know Annie and she kindly gave me guidance on her method, which utilises sandpaper in the rendering of a charcoal drawing. I adopted her technique and cultivated it to suit my own hand.

How would you describe your artwork?

I am a representational artist. My intention is to establish a truthful depiction that the subject justly deserves. It is my belief that an artist should convey their message through every component, which is why I include as much detail as I can with the materials of my choice. My objective is to formulate a connection with the viewer in which the subject pervades the constraints of the frame.

My art is also created with a feminist leaning. I hope to make ‘Women of age’ more visible in the art world and acknowledge them as beauty ideals.

‘Women of age’ needs a higher profile, a culture change.

Can you discuss the inspiration and thought process behind your winning work?

I created this piece in honour of 'Women of age’. In general, I want to urge the viewer to reflect on the natural process of ageing, accepting it as a part of life's journey rather than to fight it with Botox, fillers and crazy gadgets.

In this piece I focused on the notion of “following”: The model follows her own intuition symbolised by the black and white image gazing back at her from the shadows. Her back is turned to the viewer, so we have a sense of following her as well.

In these current modern times, the word “following” is often used in the context of our social media accounts.

To have a large ‘following' substantiates our popularity. But how is this large ‘following’ achieved? Perhaps by social media exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology.

Yes I do believe the young are beautiful, but so too are ‘Women of age’.

Can you walk us through the technical steps of creating your winning work?

It all starts with a relaxed, informal photoshoot conducted by myself. I have a rough idea of what I want to achieve, but I allow for a lot of freedom of expression at this stage.

I will then spend time contemplating the photos, editing them and looking for the attributes that best convey my ethos. I work from multiple reference photos because my aim is not to replicate just one image. As I work on the drawing, the meaning becomes more intense as the piece starts to speak to me.

As for the technical steps of the drawing process, I render an ‘under-drawing' in charcoal similar to the grisaille under-painting technique. I use small pieces of sandpaper as a blending tool, then I apply multiple layers of pastel to add colour and additional detail. I know when the piece is finished when I spend less time stepping back to deliberate the improvements.

What do you hope to communicate to an audience with your work?

I set out to challenge our perceptions of modern beauty ideology. We live in a society obsessed with anti-ageing. Women are constantly beset by indoctrination of how we should look. In my opinion 'Women of age' are under-represented, overlooked and dismissed too often, especially in art.

My objective is to change attitudes towards ageing. I am anti-anti-ageing. ’Women of age’ are, and always have been, under immense pressure by society to stay looking youthful. We need to challenge our presumptions that to be beautiful is to look young.

We are all part of society and human history so we have a duty of care to one another. We need to embrace ageing as normal and beautiful.

Can you talk about your biggest learning experience during the process of creating your work?

Learning Annie’s ‘sanding’ technique has to have been the most valuable and gratifying

addition to my skill set. It has enabled me to produce perfect detail, tone and texture. In addition I have gained a precious friend.

Can you discuss your biggest success since starting your artistic journey?

I think the small successes are important and certainly they all combine and contribute to the big ones. I never underestimate the little successes that inch me towards a satisfying outcome.

My biggest success is my current body of work celebrating 'Women of age’

It has enabled me to convey a positive and empowering message to enhance the lives of women of age and promote the questioning of social media’s validation feedback loop.

It has allowed freedom of use of my full pallet of colour both verbally and visually.

My artistic goals are met. My perseverance is rewarded by acceptance to this competition. Now if only the viewer pauses before my work and ponders, I will know I truly have success.

Can you share with us the best piece of advice you have received so far?

A very eminent artist once said to me “work hard and success will come”. I have always been a hard worker, there was never any doubt about that, but sometimes you feel like you’ve hit a wall and you’re not making progress. That’s only natural, especially as a creative. It’s peaks and troughs. So I always recall my friend’s words to help me stay positive and focused on my goals when I’m in one of those troughs. I’m pleased to say my hard work is now paying off and today I’m having a peak.

Can you give us a piece of advice you wish you had known at the start of your career?

Another piece of advice I was given is “be authentic”. Make art for yourself and don’t create work that you think others will like. In the beginning I wasted time focusing on what will get me more ‘likes’ and followers. I should have dispensed with the notion that to be successful was to have a large social media following. When I started to dig deep and work from my intuition, the more interesting the work became and I was able to find my voice.

Nina Simone once said “it is an artist’s duty to reflect the times”, but I would add, don’t neglect to reflect your beliefs and your personality.

What projects are you working on currently? Can you discuss them?

I have recently diversified into painting in oils. Working with pastels has been a great stepping-stone into working in colour so it feels natural to include some paintings in my oeuvre.

What is your dream project or piece you hope to accomplish?

I would love to do something gargantuan in scale with lots of tiny details. I don’t have the facility to go large at this point in time. Nor can I afford the time to spend on such a project, I’ve got so many ideas to bring to fruition first. But, it’s on my list of “things to do”. It will happen.

Lastly, I like to ask everyone what advice they would give to their fellow artists, what is your advice?

You’re the master in your own studio. You’re in charge, not the graphite, not the pastels, not the paint. You must tell ‘it’ what to do, not the other way around. You know you’re good at this so just create.

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