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Val Pettifer
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From as far back as I can remember drawing and painting has always interested me. At the age of seven I received my first set of poster paints for Christmas and can still recall sitting with my father learning how to mix colour. The set contained four pots of paint, the three primaries, red, yellow and blue, plus a pot of white. I soon became confident enough to enter an art competition and was thrilled when I won first prize. I had always harboured an ambition to take up a profession in commercial art, but in the sixties art was not viewed as a ‘proper job’ so in 1965 I moved from my home town York down to London to take up a different kind of career, hairdressing! In 1975 I left hairdressing and took a job in the electronics industry and from that moment on I knew I was doing something that really interested me. As opportunities to draw or paint were few and far between, I substituted it with my interest in photography and inadvertently became the ‘family’ photographer, as I seemed to have a ‘good eye’ for composition, something artists also have! |
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Then in 2006 a chance invitation from my aunt changed the course of my life; I went on a watercolour painting holiday to a wonderful place called Cober Hill, in Cloughton, near Scarborough. I enjoyed every minute and by the end of the week I realised that the old passion for drawing and painting was still in me; what a revelation, I was hooked! The next 3 years was spent attending workshops, painting holidays and reading art books and it was during one of these painting holidays that I was introduced to pastel painting. I fell in love the vibrant colours and the immediacy that soft pastels offer, and I now make them one of my primary painting mediums, often combining them with watercolour or acrylic under-paintings. In 2008 I joined the Royston Arts Society (RAS) and then shortly afterwards the Cambridge District Art Circle. However, it was not long before I was asked to join their committees, and subsequently I took on the role of Exhibition Organiser for the RAS. Although officially retired from work, I now find myself busier than ever, but I love every minute of my new life! In the last 2 years, I have exhibited my work in three galleries, plus numerous local art exhibitions. Summer 2010 saw me putting on my first solo exhibition in the Tavern Gallery, called ‘A Grand Tour’. The work included paintings based on my travels to Cape Town, and other exotic destinations, plus a selection of local landscapes and wild life studies. Other works have included occasional commissions for pastel portraits of people, pets and wild-life, plus a fantasy painting for a book cover. 2011 has so far been a busy year for me. I have recently started painting a series of collage and mixed media works which have proved to be very eye catching! These paintings were the catalyst for my acceptance into the Cambridge Drawing Society (established in 1882) for their annual exhibition in the Cambridge Guild Hall, and the Hertford Art Society annual art exhibition. These paintings can now be viewed and purchased in a new gallery in Royston called the Limeleaf Gallery.
Val |
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