For the horse lovers....

[Miss Z]

Oh my gosh, that is one FINE piece of art. One day, I would love to be as good as you!

You can see a few (old) samples of my work here, I don't have any of my better stuff on the computer yet. Of course, I don't have much experience on my side, but I'm working on it!

[Canis-Lupess]

You'll gain experience, you're only young yet.

Don't worry about not taking it at GCSE. I did but it isn't what helped me to get better. I'm still almost entirely self taught. I also did A-level and thats where I realised that art education wasn't for me. They wanted the abstract stuff which I don't like. I wanted to do realism. I didn't go beyond A-level.

I see you are in Lancashire. I'm in Yorkshire, lol. We have similar accents, haha...thats if you speak broad. Still, one of my most inspirational artists lives in Lancashire. His name is Steven townsend. Google him and take a look at his stuff. You really can't tell a lot of it from photos. You always need your inspirations in order to get better.

[Miss Z]

I love Steve Townsend's work, I think we have one of his paintings printed on a plate somewhere.

Heh heh, I guess we must have very similar taste in art. I am exactly the same, when I saw the syllabus for GCSE art I was quite put off. I wanted to mainly sketch with a little painting, but no forms of anything abstract at all, but apparently that makes me not varied enough. My friends who did take art evidently enjoy what they're doing, but they are mainly doing stuff like drawing with their eyes closed, symbolism and textured art. Blurgh! The art teacher still cannot comprehend why I cringe at abstract art, lol. Anyway, at least art is one of those subjects you can keep doing and develop by yourself.

I expect we do have very similar accents, I'm fairly broad, even though my ancestors are Welsh, and my parents are southerners!

[Canis-Lupess]

Haha, yes, that does sound more usual for art education these days.

I like my art to speak for itself....grades don't really mean anything.

My mum is actually french Canadian, lol. Her parents were both english though but she spoke only French up until 6 years old when they moved back over here but she grew up down south and so doesn't have the normal Yorkshire accent. She has still been influenced by our accent though over the years that she has been up here. Although she sounds posh to the likes of me, I do hear her say a few things that have that Yorkshire twang, haha.
My dad is a pure Yorkshire bloke and speaks like one. His parents were born and grew up in the same area that I still live in now. My friends at school and much of our family spoke broad so I do too.