Fall & College Campuses go Together!

NC Artist Exhibit - Meredith College; 3800 Hillsborough Street, Raleigh

One of my Climate Conversation Drawings has been accepted into the 2026 NCAE Artists Exhibition! It is the largest juried art exhibition in the state, and is juried by, Allison Perkins, Executive Director of Reynolda House Museum of American Art. The exhibit runs from Sunday, October 11 to Saturday, October 30.

Stag in all Four Seasons Drawings Finished

I finished up the four Stag drawings by completing the fall season. Each drawing and painting combines vivid color with high contrast black and gray pencil. The fall leaves create a lot of action and fill the page. I used many different types of leaves: oak, maple, cherry, etc. I added a chipmunk to the fun! 

The summer Stag is very vibrant in the use of greens. Also the wreath around the Stags neck is filled with daylilies. 

After finishing up all four drawings, I went back into this drawing, which was the 1st completed and added more icicles and holly berries

. 

Also, after completing the summer and fall drawings I went back into this one and added more buds and blooms to the daylily wreath. 

 

Climate Conversation Drawing 17

Climate Conversations:

• I love the gingko tree in our front yard and love to see the leaves turn golden in the fall.

• I love our fig tree – it produces too much to enjoy. Started out as a little stick and now provides shade to our yard.

• Growing up, there was an enormous Japanese magnolia tree in my backyard. Every spring it would burst into full loom and by early summer the petals rained from the boughs.

This tree drawing is on pale yellow paper that is heavily textured, 18 x 24. This cedar tree in the North Carolina Mountains was heavily scarred. It was not dead, but was splitting very badly in some places. I used a full range of light and dark values in the center of the tree, then used less contrast at the edges of the tree. 

 

Climate Conversation Drawing 16

 

This drawing is on watercolor paper. It is the darkest of the series so far.

Conversations:

I last climbed a tree as a child in my parents’ backyard.

My favorite tree was my neighbors’ tree with a tire swing

The future feels bleak, but thanks for trying, trees.

Trees absorb a great deal of water! Drawing 15

Climate Conversation: My favorite tree is the willow oak in our front yard in Fourth Ward. It shaded our home for 40 years. We pruned it and raked its leaves all the time. When it came down, we had to add a sump pump under our house to handle all the water it absorbed [had been absorbing].

Drawing 15, 30x20 inches, graphite on paper

Drawing 15 Complete!

This is drawing 15 in the Tree Series I am working on. It is part of a future exhibit I am calling Climate Conversations. This is 22 x 30 on printing paper. 

The left edge of the tree is almost lost and very light in value. The tree has a very scarred texture. Looks like many nails were driven into the tree in the past. Many circular marks as well that I found fascinating. This was a combination of trees on the Penland Property. 

Tree Series: Drawing 14 Complete!

Here is Tree Series Drawing 14! While I was at Penland School of Arts & Craft in the NC Mountains this summer I began expanding and experimenting with my Tree Series. For this drawing I choose to use a very textured and lightly colored paper. All previous drawings in this seresin had been on white, 18 x 24 sketch paper. 

I took the paper into the woods near Spruce Pine NC and rubbed it onto a tree in several places. Then I went back to my studio and enhanced the natural texture. I decided to show the most detail in the middle of the tree trunk and allow the details to fade toward the edges. 

Penland School of Art & Craft is amazing!

I took an experimental drawing class with Harriet Hoover at Penland this summer. It was an amazing class. Penland has a tremendous reputation for arts instruction and it lived up to it! Here are a few of the pieces I drew during my two weeks there. More to come. 

Experimented with paper, this is parchment. 

A few of the tree drawing together on a wall. The larger one is 6 feet tall. 

Very textured paper. Concentrated the darker values and detail in the center, then there is less value contrast and detail as you move out. 

This is very thin paper. The light areas are full of texture. 

 

Urban Landscape Monoprints

I use a monoprinting technique to experiment with color in these urban landscape sketches. I have done 100s of these over the years. I start with a xerox transfer monoprint, then I layer watercolor, graphite and colored pencil over the top. I try to work very quickly and without analyzing my decisions too closely! 

 

Weight Series: The Figure as Metaphor

Society puts tremendous pressure on its citizens. The pressure to succeed weighs on the public and individuals. There is great pressure to consume as well; we are all pressured by market forces, peer pressure, family obligations, and demanding jobs. Instructors for example, are pressured to be subject experts, industry leaders, class room disciplinarians, administrators and entertainers. If societal pressures are not enough, we also pressure ourselves to advance in our careers in addition to being perfect children, parents, spouses, friends, etc. In other words, we pressure ourselves to “have it all.”

In the midst of this weight, it is important for art and artistic concepts to maintain a place in society at the conscious as well as subconscious levels.  How can art to address the pressure in our lives? How do these demands on me and those around me become art? Does art add to or alleviate the pressure? What metaphor can be used to show the weight on people in society? Who in society carries the most and least weight?   

In this series of drawings, I will explore the figure and its role in the context of today’s pressure-cooker society. Through a series of drawings, I will attempt to address the above questions, reflecting on our society. The series, called “weight,” uses the figure as metaphor to explore the weight that society places on us. The series will be a metaphor for our lives.  

I have drawn and painted the figure throughout my career. However, I have never undertaken drawings of this size and scale. Large scale drawings will hopefully have greater impact on the viewer, but are much harder to execute successfully than small drawings.  

 

I Am Woman Exhibit Reception March 13, 2021 • 12 - 2 pm

I Am Woman Exhibit at Southern Arts Society in Kings Mountain, NC

features two Weight Series drawings by Wil Bosbyshell

Exhibit Runs March 3 - April 16, 2021

Public Reception March 13, 2021 • 12 - 2 pm

Awards announced online & presented to artists in person • 11 am

Southern Arts Society has sponsored their annual I Am Woman art exhibit and competition since 2004. Artists from around the region have entered over sixty works of art dedicated to the feminine or the essence of being a woman. Artists have created works in oil, acrylic, watercolor, photography, sculpture, textiles and mixed media to interpret their view of I Am Woman. Artwork in this exhibit will be judged with prizes awarded for first, second and third place prizes along with three merit awards.

Many pieces in year's show are figurative, showing women in a variety of poses. There are women serenely embracing motherhood and another literally bearing the weight of the world on her shoulders. Some portraits are very straight forward with gazes growing more confident within themselves, showing a combined strength and serenity. Not all the artwork is serious with some light-hearted paintings showing women enjoying life to the fullest. And yet there is some art that makes us question how we judge women, for their “beauty” or their unseen accomplishments. There are works in all media representing women across the spectrum from goddesses to living embodiments of the natural world.

The public is invited to attend a reception for I Am Woman on Saturday March 13 from Noon until 2 pm. Presentation of awards to the artists will be at 11 am to limit the number of visitors in keeping with current restrictions for Covid-19. This is a free event and dress is casual. All visitors are required to wear a mask or face covering. I Am Woman exhibit will be on view in the galleries of Southern Arts Society (SASi) March 3 through April 16, 2021. Photos of the exhibit and a list of the winners will be posted on our social media and on the exhibit page on SASi's website.

Reality vs. Perception or Photography

This is Drawing 13 of my Tree Series. The actual drawing exists in reality somewhere between these two images. The one on top is a high contrast photo or scan. It is a little to dark, but captures some nice light areas. The image below captures the range of middle gray pencil more actually, but is too light in the shadow areas. So which is true: perception or reality? 

 

Commissioning Art Part 5: The Final

 

Here is the final drawing. The bark had such a variety of textures that different parts of the drawing have very different feels. The centerpiece of the drawing is the smooth bark in the center with several key marks. 

Below are several close ups. 

Here are some close up details of the final Drawing. This is drawing 13 in my Tree Series. This is one of the focal points of smooth bark. 

I am balancing the large tree trunk with the small delicate branches to the right. 

The edge of the tree is important to the feeling of the drawing. Here is some of the bark peeling off. Also on the left side are many cuts into the tree. 

 The final drawing is done! This is drawing 13 in my Tree Series. 

Commissioning Art Part 4: The drawing process

Above, I began by using a very light silhouette of the entire tree to set the composition. Next with a very soft dark pencil I put in the big textured areas. I used 120lb paper size 24 x 18. I use a wide range of pencils from 8H to 8B. H pencils are hard and light; B pencils are soft and dark.An 8B pencil is almost charcoal. 

Next I added the large areas of 50% gray. I put in the big shapes of the branch on the right. As a put in teh values, light and dark, I rub them with a paper towel. 

One of the focal parts of this tree is the big section of smooth bark in the middle. I used 8H, 7H and 6H pencils to put in some of the very light areas of bark. 

When I am working on a drawing, I refer to the photograph and also the initial sketch. I added many of the distinct cracks, scars and knots to the tree. All trees have multiple patterns going on, many are cross current to the mail bark pattern. 

I try to work on the drawing as a whole, bring up all the different areas together. 

 Here the drawing is about 90% complete. I added many of the small branches and bark shapes. 

It's Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas!

 

Christmas Trees from Boyd Mountain Christmas tree Farm in Waynesville, NC. 

All these drawings are 8 x 10, graphite on paper, $190.

McColl Center Benefit Silent Auction Begins TODAY!

The McColl Center’s Benefit Art Sale is THIS Thursday! The Silent Auction begins Tuesday October 27th. Your ticket to the sale + auction on October 29 supports artists like me. Get $20 off with my code ARTIST20 now! McCollcenter.org/benefit-art-sale-2020

@mccollcenter  #mccollcenter

 

Trees on a Billboard Let's Hope

The above is my entry to Art Pop for 2020. I hope I get in. Below is the statement I wrote to go with it. 

My art has been informed by climate change, the public’s familiarity with drawing and the universality of trees.

Using graphite drawing, textured rubbing, and gestural marks, which look spontaneous but in fact, carefully placed. Intense texture-heavy areas allow for what a tree feels like. My drawing allows for artistic freedom while stimulating the mind to what branches may even smell like.

Our community sees trees as an abstract concept, and not as important for each neighborhood’s natural space, parks and greenways. I hope my drawings, exposed to thousands of people in the Charlotte area through Art Pop, will diffuse climate and nature into Charlotte’s soul as well as the community’s discourse.

Nature Reconsidered Exhibit Juror's Statement

 

It was nice to win 1^st Place in the Nature Reconsidered Exhibition. The Juror's Statement by Myles Calvert, Assistant Professor – Printmaking, College of Visual and Performing Arts, Winthrop University is very well written. 

Considerations such as warm paper hue, make this graphite drawing / textured rubbing, a stand out work. Gestural marks, which are seemingly spontaneous are, in fact, carefully considered and logically placed. Areas of intense detail allow for a restful area of photographic calm, before moving to texture-heavy offerings of what a tree should feel like. The drawing allows for artistic freedom but does not fall short of pairing a refreshing use of positive / negative space and stimulating the mind to what branches may even smell like. A familiar image ratio combined with unusual cropping, dictates a contemporary expression of a truly explored and historical subject.

This statement reminds me of how my friend Don Michael can write about art!