I started painting local scenes and in 1980 was invited to exhibit with an expatriate art group in Muscat. This led to some commissions from local businesses and then regular meetings at the salon of the wife of the Japanese Ambassador to exhibit and sell pictures. When I returned to London in 1984 I continued to paint and sell landscapes as a hobby, but the demands of work and home meant that after a year or so I stopped, although my dream was always to become a full-time artist one day.
Over 20 years later, in 2006, I finally had the opportunity to give up work and follow my dream. I invested in a refresher course at West Dean College, near Chichester, to rekindle the old skills, and I continue to work at refining and developing my abilities so that I can produce images that are pleasing to the eye as well as being “painterly”. I paint under my maiden name, Hazel Dove, as I previously exhibited and sold under this name.
I paint animals, flowers and landscapes, although animals and flowers are mainly occupying my attention these days. I am an Associate Member of the Society of Feline Artists and am working towards my submission for full membership later this year.
I use hard and soft pastels – each have their useful qualities. I usually paint on fine grade glasspaper and sometimes on Canson or Ingres paper, but my current preference for animal work is velour paper. This is demanding – you cannot erase easily on velour! – but it imparts a wonderful soft quality and depth to fur.
I am becoming more and more interested in the effects of direct, indirect and reflected light and my current inspirations are from the works of the old Dutch Masters, also John Singer Sargent, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Sir William Russell-Flint, Ted Seago and Bernard Dunstan, among others.
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