“Always start with the eyes and go from there,” she said.

Neath is currently exhibiting a solo show at The Capital.

The show, Charcoal Portraits, will be officially launched on Friday (August 28) and features a series of charcoal portraits with gold leaf detail.

Neath, who is also a full-time art teacher, has been working with charcoal for about two years.

She exhibited at the Bendigo Writer’s Festival last year. It was her first exhibition since she started working on artworks again.

“I studied painting years ago but stopped doing art until about two-and-a-half years ago,” Neath said.

“I hadn’t been drawing apart from when I was teaching and thought I’d pick up some charcoal.”

Outside of life drawing, Neath had never worked with charcoal before but quickly found her talent for it.

“This is the ting I love, I love working with charcoal hence the second solo show,” she said.

“(Each artwork) takes between 40 and 60 hours to complete.

“The faces are just people I have met or found. I found a lot of these faces at the Castlemaine State Festival.”

Neath said she decided to work with gold leaf alongside charcoal when she was looking Byzantine artwork.

“Those pictures feature a lot of gold arches and is often Mary and her child but I thought why not have everyday women or people in there,” she said.

“I start by photographing them and blowing the picture up to see the fine detail. 

“The last thing I do is the gold leaf, which is fun. You have to wear white gloves and paint the glue very carefully.

“The gold leaf sticks to where the glue is and you use a soft brush over it. When you’re done there is a beautiful layer of gold left behind.”

Charcoal Pictures runs is on display at The Capital until September 25 and will coincide with the Bendigo Festival of Exploratory Music.

“It is great with people coming from interstate and overseas for it,” Neath said.

“I had pictures go to Sydney after (exhibiting at) last year’s writers festival. One went to Blanche d'Alpuget, Bob Hawke’s wife, who was at the festival.”

Neath’s next project will be a graphic novel with Melbourne theatre troupe The Laudanum Project.

It is a much more challenging and macabre project.

“We have signed a contract with Cohesion Press. It will include the book, a performance by The Laudanum Project and an exhibition of the drawings,” Neath said.

“It is fascinating. Spooky, but fascinating.”

Charcoal Pictures is on display until September 25. Its offical launch will be Friday, August 28, at The Capital.

For more information visit http://chloeneath.wix.com/chloe-neath-artist