Ron Dawes
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Artist Statement:
I have been drawing, in some fashion, for as long as I can remember. As a child I would sketch pictures of cartoon characters like Popeye and the Flintstones. I drew my first real portrait - a sketch of my younger sister - as a gift for my grandfather when I was about 16. Over the years I would draw an occasional portrait for a friend. I also dabbled briefly in oils, and acrylics with some degree of success. As a newsletter editor/illustrator in the early days of home computers, I resorted to pen & ink sketches, due to the limitations of copy machines in reproducing gray-scale pencil sketches. I had fun extending the pen & ink medium into a brief venture into caricatures. My pencil portraits really took off in 2008 when I drew one of a friend and her fiancé as a birthday present. They loved it and since then I've produced 60+ portraits of friends, family, and their pets. I've come to enjoy the challenge of rendering as close a likeness as possible with the simplicity of a pencil. The reward has been recognition in several art competitions including a first place and best-in-show at the Georgia National Fair and the honor of displaying my works as "Artist-in-Residence".