debra j draws

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About Debra J. Lansdowne

During her high school years painting and drawing were enjoyable and her Art teacher, Mr. Fred Latimer encouraged her to pursue a career in art as he believed she showed talent. She graduated from Homer Central School in the class of 1975.

She then enrolled at Tompkins Cortland Community College (TC3) where Mary Kelly headed the Art department that introduced her to many forms of creation utilizing design, drawing, painting, batik, pottery and more. At this time she also began studying the history of art and was introduced to figure study when she took some classes at SUNY Cortland.

She graduated from TC3 in 1978 with an Associate in Science degree then transferred that credit to Potsdam College of Arts and Science (SUNY Potsdam) where she was strongly influenced by many great instructors. While at Potsdam she majored in "general studio" learning techniques in many different forms of art, such as: drawing, painting, pottery, photography, printmaking (including intaglio and lithography) sculpture and of course history and appreciation. Here she graduated in 1980 with a Bachelor of Science degree and also earned a teaching certification for Art, grades K-12.

Throughout the years since graduating she has continued her education attending Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) where she studied photography for over a year, then pursued a photography career for the next 10 years. That lead to learning graphic arts and eventually a career that utilizes both photography and graphic arts.

She now lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, where in 2008 she discovered two weekly convenient local open studio sessions where she experienced a resurgence with the joy of figure study (and on occasion volunteers to monitor the sessions). Learn more about the sessions at: http://figuredrawing-stpete.com/

Debra also recently retired from a 23 year full time career as Senior Graphics Artist for her local county government.

Artists Statement

I am so loving creating from referencing the human figure using watercolor media (crayons and paints) and sometimes acrylic "squirt tube" paints. It excites me the way I can combine drawing and painting.

The sessions often start with warm-up gestures (about 10 one minute poses, then two 5 minute poses). I usually have several different canvases going, sketching with the lighter colored crayons/tubes. With such little time I make very quick decisions about the colors and juxtaposition, often switching back and forth between pages. Then we move to the longer held poses (anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours). I make a quick visual study, choose the warm-up sheet that I feel will work best with the composition before me and mentally view it on the page. I like to sketch in my basic composition using a crayon/tube, choosing a color that I feel will accentuate the feel of the pose. I then paint in the shadows using watercolor/acrylic paints, usually using the blues or greens and dabbing into reds and bleeding them in for really dark areas. The previous gesture drawings colors often melt into the canvas creating capricious, vibrant compositions. I’m starting to feel a real connection to the paints and definitely want to continue moving in this colorful direction and beyond.
Also, for the past few years I have been experimenting with using a drawing technique called "blind countouring". That is drawing the contour of my subject without looking at the paper, as my eye follows the contour my hand draws it. This technique has added to the humor of my paintings resulting in exaggerated and misplaced looking body parts.

Debra J. Lansdowne

Questions or comments? You can send me e-mail at debrajdraws@gmail.com