Wendy’s Artist Statement

Many will say that art 'runs in the family,' but this can be misleading. While Wendy's grandmother was a professional artist and architect in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and her mother and both sisters hold college degrees in forms of art, Wendy had no formal art training as a young adult. Paint-by-number and doodling were her only exposure to fine art. It was just recently that she developed her art skills.

After observing some of her pencil drawings in 2000, Wendy's husband encouraged her to enroll in a Colored Pencil class at Frederik Meijer Gardens taught by a well known Illustrator and Colored Pencil Artist, John Knight. The rest, they say, is history. She loved the Colored Pencil medium and continued to develop her skills by drawing something every day at lunchtime for six years. Classes at Kendall School of Art and Design, the Franciscan Life Process Center, textbooks, and study through nationally known Colored Pencil artists such as Kristy Kutch helped make Wendy the artist she is today.

Wendy is an active member of the Colored Pencil Society of America, The Arts Council of Greater Grand Rapids, and Rivertown Artists' Guild. She also works as a paralegal in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Friends and people who follow my art know that I adore the Colored Pencil medium. It is relaxing to draw a picture and finish it with colors that come out of the end of a pencil. Though not traditional, Colored Pencil is becoming an increasingly more popular medium.

There are several kinds of colored pencils, made with wax, oil, graphite and oil or watercolor pigment. Some artists will combine colored pencil with other paint, typically acrylic or watercolor, but not me. Considered a purist in my field, you will rarely if ever see anything but graphite pencil mixed with colored pencils in my pieces.

Since the colors cannot be mixed ahead of time like oil or watercolor, many layers of pencil help to create a transparent paint, similar to oil or acrylic. It is important to have the right paper and there are many types of paper. Stonehenge and Colourfix are my favorite, because they will hold many layers of pencil without becoming too shiny.

Subjects of my art are usually animals or landscapes. Since my husband John and I like to travel, photos snapped on location provide the fodder for later paintings. My cats (I had as many as three at once) have been my subjects for many years. Friends have given me many photographs of cats and dogs, and I have been commissioned to paint pet portraits with my pencils. Additionally, commissions have included painting sailing vessels, portraits of houses and memorial landscapes.

You are invited to view more of Wendy's work at www.wendygretzinger.com.