"Ruby Throated Hummer," scratchboard © Judy Lavoie 2020
  • MEDIUM:  Scratchbord™ with Inks
  • SIZE: 14" x 11"
  • STATUS: Sold
  • ACCOLADES: (1) One of just 68 scratchboards by 48 artists, chosen from worldwide entries for the 9th Annual Exhibition of the International Society of Scratchboard Artists, 2020
    (2) Exhibited in the 2021 ONLINE Spring Show of the Tellico Village Art Guild, where the Gallery Talk narrator Kimberly Winkle said: "This is a really interesting technique… I’ve never used scratchboard, so I’m kind of intrigued by the material itself. What I liked about this particular work is the intensity of colors, which works perfectly with the subject matter. She did a great job of showing the textures, really delicate lifework in all the little feathers which make up this hummingbird’s body. We can imagine that little bird and its wings moving so fast. Just look at the little feet curled up there - nicely done.
    (3) Juried into the 53rd Annual Oak Ridge (TN) Open Show. In accepting this entry for the exhibition, juror Andrew Glasgow gave it the following critique: "Nicely done. Well rendered and well executed."

"The tiny ruby-throated hummingbird has been a subject of several of my paintings in the past, both in watercolor and acrylics. This is my first attempt at depicting one on black scratchboard.

I incorporated a few techniques in this artwork which are a bit unconventional for scratchboarding, drawing from my decades of experience painting on white paper and canvas with water media pigments. I created a fuzzy background to look out of focus by using tools which softly removed the black ink layer. I also chose to frame the image with a border design which reflected the colors within the artwork. The border stripes are a modern version of "French matting," a traditional decorative application of fine lines and marbled papers in the border of a matboard opening. It is a technique used over centuries for exquisitely enhancing the matting of botanical paintings, old master's drawings and other artwork."