Royston scratchboard artist Sharon Lennox has earned another award for her work - this time at an international show.
Lennox was presented with the International Artist Award at the International Society of Scratchboard Artists’ (ISSA) Eighth Annual Exhibition, in Berea, Kentucky, May 17.
| Royston artist Sharon Lennox won the Internatinal Artist Award at the International Society of Scratchboard Artists’ Eighth Annual Exhibition in Berea, Kentucky, May 17. The award was for the creation on the right - "Fishing on stilts." Photo by Terry Farrell |
Lennox, who has been scratchboarding for the past six years, was featured in the Record in 2017, after winning the Juror’s Choice Award at the Sidney Fine Art Show for a second straight year.
RELATED: Comox Valley scratchboard artist wins Juror’s Choice Award
While the awards at Sidney shows were special, this latest one is more so, in that it came at a show featuring nothing but scratchboard artists.
Scratchboard is a panel coated with white clay, and a layer of black Indian ink on top. Using a sharp object, the artist scratches the image out of the black ink.
Traditional scratchboard productions are black and white. Lennox takes the extra step to colourize her works.
“When you [colourize] you have twice as much work; you double your time.”
The larger crerations, such as the ones entered into shows (11”x17”) can take up to 75 hours to create.
Lennox began painting in 2002 and switched to scratchboard in 2013.
“I started out in oils – that’s how I was trained,” Lennox said. “I am a detail painter. I wanted to do more intense detail, so I started searching around for another medium, and I came across scratchboard.”
She’s proven to be a quick study. Just six years into the meduium, she has now been recognized among the best in the world.
“This was my first time entering the (ISSA) exhibition,” said Lennox. “This whole experience was unbelievable. They even used my piece in their advertising.”
The creation for which Lennox was honoured was of a great blue heron, titled Fishing on Stilts. And this is not just any great blue heron.
“This one, and the other one I put in [Great Blue Preening] are of the same bird - just a different stance,” she said. “The bird is well known with photographers at Airpark Walkway. They [local photographers] even named this bird. He loves getting his picture taken.”
| Great Blue Preening is another creation by Royston scratchboard artist Sharon Lennox. Photo supplied |
Most of Lennox’s work involves widlife. Her subjects of choice are predominantly birds, and the great blue heron is her favourite feathered subject.
“This prehistoric looking, long feathered, breasted bird on incredibly long stilt legs - how could I not love them!” she wrote in her exhibit submission description.
Fishing on Stilts is not her first award-winning bird. Perched Barn Owl (see below) won the 2016 Juror Choice Award at the Sidney Fine Art Show.
Lennox returned from the Kentucky show this week - just in time for the Central Island Studio Tour, running May 24-26.
Related: 2019 Central Island Studio Tour features artists from Parksville to Campbell River
The Sharon Lennox Studio is at 610 Eagleview Driove, in Royston. She will be showing approximately 50 scratchboard creations at this weekend’s studio tour.
For more information on Lennox, check out her website at www.slennox.com
terry.farrell@blackpress.ca
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
