​Sharon Ellis
Since retiring from a successful career in graphic design and publicity spanning more than thirty years, Sharon has focused on portraiture. She enjoys the challenge of capturing a likeness. Using a variety of approaches, she can produce a faithful rendering of people or animals using the medium of oil, pastels or pencil. Should you wish to commission her, she would require a good quality photograph or, if distance is not too great, she will work from life.  
See Open Studio below.
More information on the website  http://sharonellis.net/
Copyright © 2009 Sharon Ellis

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Sharon Ellis

Sharon Ellis at Swindon Open Studios
I have re-discovered my love of clay modelling sculpture. I have found a wonderful group of semi professional artists who share the cost of a model to paint. sculpt and draw. Our studio is a converted outbuilding on a farm a few miles from where I live.There are usually about six or seven of us which is an ideal number. It's a jolly group - we all get on but know when to stop chatting to concentrate on the work in hand!We help each other with advice and encouraging comments.I have been using air drying clay which dispenses with the extra task of casting. 
I am currently working on a nude figure loosely based on the sculpture, so well-known, by Degas of a young ballerina.
I am having a few problems with the stability of the figure. The original Degas sculpture is of a 14 year old girl. Our life model is a little more voluptuous than her but she is useful as an anatomical reference.I am hoping to have a few sculptures to exhibit at the Summer Exhibition in Lechlade in August and also in September as part of the Swindon Open Studios. It will be a very exciting few months. Swindon Open Studios will be running for a couple of weekends in September. Our group of twelve Artists from Lechlade Art Society have elected to be included on Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 September 2019. We will be working and exhibiting on those days in the Pavilion. We are quite a diverse group and I am sure visitors to the Open Studios will realise that the trip out from Swindon will have been really worthwhile!
Parking at the Pavilion is free and so is entry. Wonderful cake and coffee will be available on both days.

This is my second attempt at using air-drying clay.  Because there is no need to cast it, I have to give some thought to the armature which, in a way, is like the skeleton to a figure. It is preferable to be able to remove as much of the armature as possible once the sculpture is completed and the clay has dried.

There are a few alternative ideas about the different types of armatures one can use, on the Internet, however, which I am exploring!

My first attempt with this clay was a life-sized head which has now dried and I am currently thinking about painting it to achieve an authentic looking stone sculpture.  Any constructive ideas would be very welcome!
I hope to have completed both by the time of the Swindon Open Studios on September 21st and 22nd in the Pavilion in Lechlade. There will be close on a dozen artists at work on those days. Visitors are very welcome to come and see us, perhaps “pick our brains” or even buy a few souvenirs of the visit!
 
Last two pics we are pictured here at a critical stage in the casting of my ballerina. It was a dramatic moment with everyone holding their breath, a bit like midwives at a potentially difficult birth! We  opened up the mould very gingerly. This time, due to cracking of the mother mould when we tried before, we had reinforced it - a real “belt and braces” job! But we needed to make sure that the inner silicone rubber was well supported. The moment had come - the two halves separated easily due to our having applied
copious amounts of something ft soap as the release agent. The  next stage is a thorough cleaning to remove all traces of the original clay figure from the mould. After that, as a trial we’ll cast the figure in plaster. 
I luckily was able to salvage the clay torso of the ballerina which I will repair and adapt. You can see it in the front of some of the pictures.