Joan Batty
Joan Batty, is a ‘spare time’ pencil artist, living in Queensbury set high on a hill between Halifax and Bradford.
She has lived here for over forty years. Although she has never had any formal training, drawing has been a major interest of hers since she was a child.
Buildings and stone feature quite a lot in her work. She finds the colours and textures fascinating.
One of her other interests is in maps and their creation. She has devised two local, pictorial maps. One featuring Queensbury, its many pubs and snippets of history, the other - a similar one of Halifax.
She uses a variety of grades of pencil to get her results, none of them expensive, indeed Rexel ‘Office Pencils’ are ideal for certain tones. She generally draws on to white mountboard but occasionally use a smooth cartridge paper.
People often ask her how long it takes to complete a picture. She doesn’t know. Much depends on the amount of detail involved, the colour blends required and, most important of all, her enthusiasm! Only once or twice has she struggled to summon up the excitement of creating a new picture when commissioned. She tries to remember at such times that the particular view or building asked for, means something special to her client. Normally, though, when she embarks on a new project, she is eager to get started. Commissions greatly accepted.
Joan is currently working on some new projects – the images will be on the website in due course.