I am gradually making friends with Painter Mobile Pro. Most of it happens on the Galaxy 5 phone because the screen on my tablet responds to a stylus a little erratically. The phone allows to draw surprisingly precise thin lines, it does not mind blending, smudging, or multiple layers. Well, for the most time. Every now and then it needs a little time to show me the result. Very handy for sketching on the go but still does not exactly a replacement for real tools and paper.
Trying out new artist pens that I got for the New Year. They are Sharpy Stylo and Pigma Micron pens. So far, Micron ones win with a little finer lines and more steady ink flow (that’s the left and center leaves).
About a dozen of my artworks will be a part of the Silicon Valley Open Studios preview exhibit at the Art Ark Gallery.
Art Ark Gallery is located at 1035 South 6th Street, San Jose, CA 95112.
Gallery Hours: Saturday, January: 17th, 24th & 31st 11-4 pm.
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 10th 6-9 pm.
Closing Reception: Friday, February 6th 6-9 pm.
I will also be sitting in the gallery on January 31, 1:30 pm – 4 pm.
Stop by if you are in the area, it will be great to see you!
Other participating artists: Lisa Babbitt, Rebecca Bangs, Leanne Bouwer, Trudi Burney, Jerry Carpenter, Gabriel Coke, Angela Cunningham, John Ediger, Marianne Eichenbaum, Liz Fennell, Yvette Head, Yvonne Head, Marilynn Host, Susannah Jackson, Leslie Lambert, Jim Lee, Alyssa Levitan, Oleg Lobykin, Stephanie Maclean, Daniel McLean, Dana Nehdaran, Dariush Nehdaran, Christine Oliver, Karen Olsen, Mohana Pradhan, Christine Rasmussen, Sally Rayn, Bill Sarnoff, Edwin Simon, Anthony Stenberg, Janet Trenchard, Nancy Woods, Helen Yang.
This preview is an opportunity to see some of the art and meet the artists prior to the Open Studios held in the first three weekends of May, 2015.
I wanted to finish this one yesterday and make it my last horse drawn in the departing year of the Horse, but of course that didn’t happen. So let it be the first horse of the new year with many more to follow.
I want to thank you all for following me and supporting my art and wish you all the very best in the new year 2015!
The fourth piece in the “Gathering” series got no horses, it is dedicated to the beauty of many rock patterns.
I think I will do the final piece the same way, without any representative images. Most comments that I get about this series is about the beauty of rocks themselves it seems fitting to get back to the original idea and focus on that.
As usual, the ATC exchange at CAG today was a lot of fun. Here are my contributions to the event:
I love how the fall edition of the ATC exchange happens around my Birthday. This year it’s on a day before, so I got four early Birthday gifts:
I will have a few pen and ink pieces in this show:
If you are in the area, stop by for the opening reception on December 5th, starting at 7 pm.
HARK! 9th annual holiday exhibit & sale is open from December 5th, 2014 through January 16, 2015.
KALEID gallery is located at 88 S 4th St, San Jose, California 95112
Corinthian House in Campbell has a new exhibit now, and several of may artworks are a part of it:
Corinthian house is located at 250 Budd Avenue, Campbell CA 95008.
The exhibit is open from 9:00am to 4:00pm, Monday through Friday till January 18, 2015.
The reception will be held on Sunday, December 7, 2014, 2 – 3:30 pm.
My mixed media creatures were accepted into the Silicon Valley Small Works exhibit at the Vargas Gallery on the Mission College campus:
Mission College is located at 3000 Mission College Blvd, Santa Clara, CA 95054. The gallery is in the Gillmor Center, room 102. See the map of its location here: GC-102.
The exhibit will be on from Wednesday, November 12 till Wednesday, December 10, 2014.
The opening reception for Silicon Valley Small Works will be held on Wednesday, November 12 from 4-7 pm.
The Vargas Gallery is open Mon. 3-6 pm, Tues. 1-5 pm, Wed. 3-6 pm, Thurs. 1-5 pm, Friday 1-4 pm, Sat. 12-2 pm. Closed November 27 – 30 for Thanksgiving.
Just let the pencils have their way with the paper to take the mind off a rather detailed pieces I work on. Not sure if the result qualifies for an abstract since there is definitely a figure in it.
Here is my newest tiny digital canvas. I haven’t done any for a few months and completely forgot my past experience with colored pencil on this kind of surface. It is a bit slippery and does not allow to build up really dark darks unless you carefully plan for them from the beginning and use very sharp pencils all the time. Unlike with paper or traditional linen canvas it is not possible to start with lighter colors everywhere and then go darker in as many layers as necessary. Darker colors on a digital canvas start to chip off relatively quickly if you are not careful.
So with a refreshed memory, I am now going to use digital canvas with soft graphite pencils only and leave colors to linen ones. Or maybe it’s worth trying to gesso a digital canvas and see if it becomes more tolerant to dark colored pencils.
The original miniature ($35.00) is available in my Miniatures online gallery.
Updated: October 26, 2014
It’s finished. I like how it turned out more than the first two pieces in the series.
Updated: October 17, 2014
So most of my ideas are not suitable for small shapes and have to be put aside for now. I think there is a larger rocky piece in my feature; meanwhile this one continues to take shape.
Updated: October 2, 2014
I have more ideas for rock textures that are going to fit into this small piece, and not all of them are going to play nicely together. Decisions – they are very time consuming.
Original post: September 9, 2014
For the third piece in the “Gathering” series I decided to start with the horses instead of smaller rocks. Apparently it is easier to complete more critical parts of the drawing first than worry about ruining the entire thing if something in the horse does not look right. Who knew! So, outlines are done, one foal is completed but may need some touch-ups when I get to its rock, the other one is not giving me problems so far.
You can see the first two drawings in the series here and here.
Just learned that one of my pieces in the Bay Area Wildlife art show, Explorer, was featured in The Epoch Times newspaper. Nice surprise. Thanks Teresa Silvestri for letting me know!
Newborn won the Best Realism Award at the Fall Festival Art Show
And it’s done! I don’t think there is anything to add to it, but if I were to do this piece all over again I would approach it completely differently. It was a nice detour from fully realistic colors and a few purely technique-related things I usually use.
He looks more like a living creature now and almost ready for darks to be added. The white stripe will need some gentle work first.
Well, it’s been a while since I started this portrait, several different small projects got in the way, but finally I am back to the little foal.
In the end, he won’t be nearly as colorful as right now (or at least I hope for that), but it will be interesting to see what bright violet and yellows will be able to add to regular coat colors.
I think it’s been a terrible while since I drew a horse that fits on piece of paper bigger that 4″ x 6″. Time to change that, so here’s the beginning of a very young foal’s head. Because for some reason I chose rough Bienfang watercolor paper, it may take a while to build up colors in this one. And it’s not just rough, it’s somewhat slippery too. But we will see. So far it was mostly working on the background to get a better feel of the paper that is new to me before adding much detail to the foal.
I will have several artworks in this show including the newest one:
Reception: Friday, September 12, 2014 – 7 PM
Show: Saturday, September 13, 2014 – 10 AM to 5 PM
Location: Cupertino Room, Quinlan Community Center, 10185 N.Stelling Rd, Cupertino, CA 95014
I will be sitting in the FALC booth (M01) outside of the Quinlan Center with my fellow artists the entire Saturday and will be glad to chat with my old and new friends.
The exhibit is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Cupertino and Fine Arts League of Cupertino.
Judge: Dr. Nancy Canter, Dean Creative Arts, De Anza College
Very quick, less refined than the previous horse head, an “I can see you, you can’t see me” kind of a horse.
I will have three small pieces on display at Filoli from Tuesday, September 9 through Sunday, October 26, 2014:
The exhibit will be held in the gallery at the Visitor and Education Center of Filoli. The address is 86 Cañada Road, Woodside, California 94062
Open: Tuesday – Saturday 10:00 am–3:30 pm (last admission 2:30 pm), Sunday 11:00 am–3:30 pm (last admission 2:30 pm)
General Admission: Adults $18 / Seniors $15 (65 & older) / Children $8 (ages 5–17)
Meet the Artist’s Weekend: October 11 – 12. Hope to see you there!
“Truckee River” earned the 1st place at the Campbell Artists’ Guild 16th Annual Art Show in the Drawing category.
“This is a little gem. I like the composition very much, focusing as it does on a small pocket of water off the Truckee River. The colors are delicate and exquisite showing good variation and are very convincing.” ~ Jeff Bramschreiber, juror
We had a wonderful reception today, thank you everybody who made it to the Rose Shenson Gallery.
The show will stay open till August 31 on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, 12 pm – 4 pm at the Triton Museum of Art, 1505 Warburton Ave, Santa Clara, California. Stop by if you are in the area, there is a lot of wonderful art to see.
“Plum Blossoms at Los Gatos Creek Park” and “On the Way III” were accepted into the Summer Exhibit at the San Jose Bridge Center 2014 that will be held from July 29 till October 28, 2014.
There will be no reception for this show.
The San Jose Bridge Center is located at 1300 White Oak, Suite 103, Campbell, CA.
A few of my works will be on display at the Rose Shenson Gallery of the Triton Museum of Art:
The show will be open August 1-31 on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, 12 pm – 4 pm.
Reception is on Sunday, August 3, 1:30-3:30 p.m. There will be festive music, a plethora of delicious finger food and libations, and an opportunity to meet many talented artists.
The Rose Shenson Gallery is located behind the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, 1505 Warburton Avenue.
I was asked more than once why I don’t draw owls, and given the fact that they are my next favorite animals after horses it really begs the question. My explanation so far was that it’s far easier to obtain my own horse reference which is always preferred over free and inexpensive options that can be used by somebody else too.
However, the time keeps marching by, and my own supply of owl photos stays at zero. I do see owls every now and then which is very nice, but the lighting conditions are such that even the best camera in the world will not help my shaky coffee hands to make even a semi-decent shot. So I finally looked for other options.
So now I have my very own owl peaking out of a crumbling wall. Thank you, Lynton Bolton, for a great reference photo.
An observation: if an owl has light, fluffy feathers they will do everything they can to turn out a mess. They observe no rules, no order, nothing of what fur usually does.
pen and ink, graphite, colored pencil, 6″ x 4″
