Bio - Sara Wynne
I have always considered myself as an artist, since I was about 12-13 years old, when my mother, who was an excellent artist herself, told me when we were painting together, "you have talent", after I painted a blue tree. I am the only one of her five children who became an artist.
Of course, I took art classes in junior high and high school and was even going to major in fine art in college, but I dropped out midway and went into the field of broadcasting. I took some painting classes and did several paintings in the ‘80's and ‘90's, and then started doing stone sculptures in the ‘90's and beyond. I also initiated and managed a public art project in Oakland’s Chinatown (CA) from 2017-2022. However, I never considered myself good at drawing and so didn't really enjoy it or do it at all.
But a month into the pandemic, April 2020, a friend I used to work with who also is an artist, asked me to join her in creating something and texting a photo of it to each other almost every day. Being in lockdown, I dug up an old pad of drawing paper and grabbed a graphite pencil and started drawing everything in my condo and out the window. After a month I realized I wanted to bring color to my drawings (my paintings are very colorful), so for my birthday in May 2020, my wife bought me a 72-pack of prismacolor pencils. I had no idea how to use them, but I started drawing, mostly birds and bugs from nature calendars and magazines in the beginning.
That summer of 2020 I watched a very helpful YouTube video. I kept plugging away and did just over 300 colored pencil drawings that first year alone. I took more online coursework a year later in 2021 and that really helped even more. Mostly it seems that my doing so many drawings keeps me trying things and challenging myself, so I have been improving in fits and starts. I really enjoy drawing now! I have now done over 825 color pencil drawings in those almost 5 years (and completed two stone sculptures in that time as well).
Visit Sara on Instagram .
"Quick Self-Portrait"