Cootamundra calligraphy students Lynnette Angus and Annabelle Sullivan have scooped the pool at the Sydney Royal Easter Show taking out first and second place in the 2016 Western Calligraphy, Novice section.
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The art of producing decorative handwriting or lettering with a pen or brush, calligraphy is one of the oldest art forms and one that is taking Cootamundra by storm.
Both Ms Angus and Ms Sullivan undertake calligraphy classes weekly with Rae Webber at The Arts Centre.
Ms Angus began learning calligraphy when she was a student then put her pen down for many years.
She picked it back up while living in Canberra about 20 years ago but got serious when she enrolled in Ms Webber’s class.
Now into her second lot of Ms Webber’s six-week course, Ms Angus said she can see the improvement in her penmanship.
“We are keeping alive an art that is rapidly dying,” Ms Angus said.
She said people only have to look at the computer-generated fonts designed to look like calligraphy to see that a classic script is still appreciated.
“You really go into the moment (when writing calligraphy), it is almost meditative,” Ms Angus said.
Ms Angus said her first-prize winning artwork took about 10 hours in total to create, over many sittings.
She did several preliminary sketches to design to ‘R’ shape at the beginning of the verse, with the initial letter known as a versal and always decorative.
Ms Angus said there are several keys to becoming a confident calligraphy artist.
“You have to have an eye for line and shape; and you have to have patience,” Ms Angus said.
You have to have an eye for line and shape; and you have to have patience..
- Prize-winning Cootamundra calligraphy artist Lynne Angus
She said she enjoys the personal touch calligraphy can bring to a gift.
“What is fun is making cards for people, choosing a beautiful paper then writing a verse and their name on the envelope; handmade is always special,” Ms Angus said.
She said she was pleasantly surprised to take out first prize at the Sydney Royal and to share top honours with Ms Sullivan was an added bonus.
“It really is thanks to Rae, she encouraged us all to enter a piece into the show,” Ms Angus said.
Both of these works, together with that of other students in the class, will be shown at The Arts Centre in an exhibition later this year.
The Fabric, Fibres, Steel and Stone exhibition will open from the last Friday in July until the end of August.
Anyone interested in putting their name down for Rae Webber’s calligraphy class at The Arts Centre should contact the centre on 6942 4773.
