Artwork by Richard Vander Meulen

Artwork by Richard Vander Meulen

My Love of 53 years

Artwork by Richard Vander Meulen

My name is Dick Vander Meulen, 73 years old, and live in South Carolina. I am an architect by trade but because of the economy have not done any design work for the last five years.

I have not had the opportunity of a formal education in art or architecture but have learned a lot from books and some private architecture courses but no art courses. I have always enjoyed art even as a child. I remember drawing street maps in the third grade and as early as the 5th grade was drawing horses and dogs.

Over the years I have done a variety of sketches but most of my time has been spent in architecture designing houses and commercial structures. I simply have not had the time to do artwork.

Also, over the years I have acquired numerous media, such as pastels, water color and oil colors but have never had much chance to use them to any great extent.

Recently, I have taken more time with the water colors mainly doing greeting cards for family and then some oil portraits for family, even a horse for my daughter, and I want to do much better in the art that I do. My greatest challenge has been time and knowledge of anatomy and in painting get the right flesh tone. Many times when I have been to the doctor I review the anatomy sketches on display and think it would be so great to be able to do those drawings.

Over two years ago I started a seascape for another daughter and it is still only in sketch form. I have always wanted to do oil portraits and that is why I have done two recently.

My wife from a picture taken thirty years ago (the difficulty is that the only photo is 1.5″X3″ in size). The other is a copy of a painting of Jesus that was done by Greg Olsen. I have generally done pretty well in proportions but really need more in depth understanding of anatomy, therein my desire to win this competition.

I have followed the Drawing Academy for sometime receiving regular emails and believe these courses would enhance my artwork tremendously.

I have seen amazing progress in the works displayed by the Drawing Academy students. I would be overwhelmed if only I could do so well. I only work part-time and am on Social Security and simply cannot afford the course being on limited income. I would certainly appreciate all the votes I can get.

Thank you

Categorized: Art Competition Archive

This Post Has 4 Comments

Leave A Reply