User:MeganDarling/Alison Burchert

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Alison Burchert (born Feb 28, 1963) is an English portrait artist based in Tiptree, Essex, England known for her photographic portraiture technique.

Life and Career
Encouraged as a small child by an artistic mother, Burchert sketched family members and pets, able to capture a good likeness. Her ability to draw became apparent and subsequently honed.

Taking to pastels after becoming frustrated and disillusioned with watercolours, the transition to pastels was quick. "With watercolours I couldn't keep the smooth texture of the skin and the more I worked at it, the rougher the 'skin' got. I picked up a box of pastels that I'd had from college and almost closed my eyes as I chalked over the face I'd been working on for hours, cringing with the fear of having to throw the whole picture in the bin. I smudged it over with my finger. The result was amazingly smooth and definitely 'skin' like. I put away the watercolours and invested in many shades of quality pastels".

In 1997 and keen to enter into the art world, Burchert offered her services to organisations to produce promotional portraits which came with good media coverage and helped catapult her reputation quickly. She was offered a place to work alongside Royal portrait artist Richard Stone who had admired her work through the local Colchester press. In 2003, she commenced teaching art within local clubs and private classes, holding exhibitions and encouraging 11 to 16 year olds to develop their artistic talents with workshops using a variety of mediums.

Listing of selected works


"Horsedrawn" was the winner of the annual Hahnemuehle Fine Art Award in 2006, "Horsedrawn" was inspired by the Burcherts young daughter.

Katavi

Mesmerised

Other works
In 2003, Burchert was commissioned to complete a book jacket image. The image, a distinct change from her detailed portraiture became the cover for Grant Galls' "Koh-Eet-Senko".

In 2009, Colchester Zoo appointed Burchert with the position of Resident Artist, one of only 3 such positions in the country. Other Zoos with such programmes in place are Edinburgh Zoo (Holly Suplice); Newquay Zoo (John Dywer) and Chester Zoo (Kay Hollinshead)