Artist and Founder: Gabrielle Dalsan

‘Maya’ - Ink on Paper.

Hello! It feels slightly narcissistic to be writing about myself, but I’m currently two essays deep for my final year of university, and the thought of researching another person on top of that, makes me quiver in my seat. So, here I am writing an interview I had with myself, about myself.

I guess I should start from the beginning? At the age of 11 I drew my first portrait. I took it very seriously, graphite stick at the ready, manky rubber in hand, and a pile of pencil shaving on the desk because I was / am too lazy to sharpen the pencil over a bin. I drew Peeta from The Hunger Games, my first childhood love, an infatuation that would eventually lead me to cry with my friends about how much I loved him, despite never meeting the Hollywood actor. Anyways, I digress. I was pleasantly surprised by the likeness I achieved, and thus the love for drawing began, as well as my hormones for Peeta Mellark.

Looking back, I have always drawn people and scenes that are beautiful to me. Not just visually, but spiritually and emotionally. Throughout school I painted highly-detailed portraits and landscapes of close friends I admired, models who drew me in and landscapes that pleased my eye. I married visual beauty with emotions, my paintings were always sad in nature, desperate and longing for something. I related heavily to the romantic era, studying artists such as William Turner, Rembrant and … to capture that similar pull between beauty and distress.

As I moved through the final years of school and university, I began to attend life-drawing classes.