All images © Copyright 2011 of the Featured Artist.

Name: Richard Klekociuk
Web: www.artkleko.com
Blog: artkleko.wordpress.com
Location: Launceston, Tasmania until March 14, after that Cairns, Queensland.

How did you get started in coloured pencil art?

My cp art evolved from my interest in drawing as a child, then as a result of forays into oil and chalk pastel in the 1980s. I favoured graphite pencil at first, but then I discovered the joy of producing work in colour.

I have enjoyed the challenge of regularly exhibiting my work alongside painters. There have been times when it has been a ‘handicap’ working in cp, but I am very strong willed and determined to see cp’s status raised to the level it should be, that being the equal of any other art medium.

“Still life with Rocks”

Have you won any awards for you art please tell us a bit about them. Or do you have any exhibitions coming up?

I try and enter about 6 art awards each year and have enjoyed a good deal of success. Last year I was fortunate to win 4 awards, the most notable being the $10,000 City of Burnie Art Prize. In 2009 I was a Glover Prize finalist. I was included in the first edition of Who’s Who Tasmania 2008. Last year I had some of my work published in the US, in an edition of ‘Best of Worldwide Artists™.

All my awards have been won with cp work.
I am being featured in edition 97 of Artists Palette magazine this year, which should be in April.

“Wholemeal Landscape Northern Tasmania”

Source-of-Life

What do you love about using coloured pencils in your artwork?

Coloured pencils are immediate and clean to work with. They are very direct, high in quality and the range of colours is huge. They can be quite labour intensive at times, especially with large work, but they are simply a joy to work with.
It really doesn’t matter where you work, be it outside or in, CPs are very adaptable and are highly flexible. There are many brands, each with their own special characteristics. Because I use so many pencils each day I have found that an electric sharpener (Ledah 333) is by far the best way to keep your pencils in good, working order.

Source of LifeWhat are your favourite pencils and supports you like to work on?

I use Prismacolor, Polychromos, Coloursoft, Albrecht Durer and Verithin coloured pencils.

My favourite surface is Canson Pastel Board although I quite like the range of coloured Canson Papers and heavy Arches watercolour paper.

I work on surfaces with a slight tooth, or texture. Smooth papers make my work look too flat, so I avoid them. I don’t use solvents, preferring a Derwent blender. It’s important to me that my CP work looks like pencil, not paint.

Sureal Chess

What are your favourite subjects and themes featured in your art?

All of my work is thematic. I don’t believe in random art. My work must say something rather than be something. Some of my themes over the past 5 years have included bread, rocks, natural grafitti, Resurrection, weathering, the secular world and my current theme titled Red Line, as series of abstract drawings that are based on a realistic subject interpreted in a non-representational way.

“Still life with sticks and stones”

Thankyou Richard for letting us get a great insight into your work.