Silicon Valley Open Studios 2009, weekend 3

The third weekend was the quietest out of all three. There were almost no visitors, very few people even walked by. Maybe it was the heat, maybe something more interesting was going on in the neighborhood, maybe we didn’t do enough to promote the event.

Slava and me were showing at the Great American Framing. Marsha Sims, Kathy Sartain, Cathy Zander from the 1st SVOS weekend at Community School of Music and Arts were here again, and I met other artists that I don’t remember seeing before: Lei Min and Linda Salter.

Lei’s oils are beautiful and energetic. She used to do commission portraits and showed me an prospect from her solo exhibit with awesome portraits of Taiwan, Philippine, and Malaysia prominent figures and of their family members.

Linda Salter paints and draws many different subjects: great portraits, still life, figure drawings, landscapes. She seems to work in every medium available – oil, watercolor, graphite pencil, pastel, ink – and always experimenting. She was doing nice small ink drawings while in the gallery. Made me want to pick up my ink and brushes again.

We still had some guests, some good conversations with them and with each other, and I saw the local University Arts store for the first time. To say that I was impressed would be an understatement. It’s huge, it’s full of great stuff, and what I can’t or won’t use myself is still fascinating to look at. I am not going to their San Jose store, ever.

Got my horse photos, thanks Irina!

    Silicon Valley Open Studios 2009, weekend 1

    This weekend was the first time that Slava and me participated in SVOS as artists. Slava was at the Great American Framing Co & Gallery in Palo Alto (why or why don’t they have a website?), and I was at the courtyard of the Community School of Music and Arts along with Kathy Sartain, Marsha Sims, Cathy Zander, Kushlani Hall, and others. Apparently, Kushlani is in KALEID too – need to find her display there next time I go change my artworks.

    When we were getting familiar with the place a couple of weeks ago, Kathy Zander said that Mother Nature always knows when there is going to be an art show and turns the wind on. It was very windy then, but this weekend Mother Nature decided to be creative and added rain to it. We were setting up under the drizzle and occasional big drops, with a wind gust here and there. Nothing too bad, but not exactly a weather that makes people want to go outside to see some art.

    Still, we had quite a few guests, some with kids who were going to or from CSMA classes. Many of those kids love horses (yes, they are girls mostly, but there were two boys too). Kushlani’s daughter is a horse person herself, and she and her brother draw. Lucky Kushlani. My kids don’t touch art stuff at all.

    Kids are hilarious. Watching them and just enjoying it was one of the best parts of the show. One boy was shouting today after all wondering around the courtyard, “What? Are we leaving already?!!” Another one discussed drawing horses with me – I think he was about 8 or 9. Very serious, no smiles.

    I finally got to see what Kathy Sartain does – it’s glass mosaics, very beautiful. Marsha Sims’ photographs are great, especially the double rainbow and the rock sliding in your face (well, it gives that feeling that it keeps sliding towards you because of the tracks behind and the angle of the shot – absolutely awesome).

    Kushlani painted her daughter from a photo today – a light figure walking into the darkness. She didn’t have time to finish it of course, but I really liked how it was turning out. And she had some kid for a company half of the time. She is doing oil, oil pastel, encaustic art, pretty jewelry, and she’s pretty good at all of it.

    All I mastered when there were no visitors in the booth or around was 1.5 sketches. I can’t draw and converse at the same time.

      Silicon Valley Open Studios, May 2009

      Silicon Valley Open Studios come early this year! Stop by to see my new art at the following sites during the first three weekends of May, 2009:

      May 2 – 3, Site 140:
      Community School of Music and Arts
      230 San Antonio Circle, Mountain View, CA 94040-1276

      May 9 – 10, Site 179:
      Columbus Group
      21471 Columbus Avenue, Cupertino, CA 95014-4972

      May 16 – 17, Site 61:
      Great American Framing
      229 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94301

      You can find maps for all these locations on the SVOS website.

        Spring Fever Exhibit at the Cupertino Library

        New Spring I and New Spring II will be part of the inaugural Art Wall Display with the theme “Spring Fever.”

        Of the 25 FALC members with more than 50 artworks, 8 artists were chosen, and 11 pieces will be shown from March 31 till June 30, 2009.

        Reception: Friday, April 3, 7:00-9:00 p.m.

        Address: 10800 Torre Avenue Cupertino, CA 95014

        More information: http://www.cupertinolibrary.org/foundation/spring_fever.html

        New Spring I - pen and ink on drawing paper, 6.75" x 4.75"     

        Yelena Shabrova ~ New Spring II ~ pen and ink on drawing paper, 6.75" x 4.75"
        New Spring II ~ pen and ink on drawing paper, 6.75″ x 4.75″

          “From the Heart” exhibit with FALC, 2/1/2009 till 2/28/2009

          Two artworks on display at Main Street Cafe as a part of the group exhibit “From the Heart” organized by Fine Art League of Cupertino: Plum Blossoms in Los Gatos Creek Park and a new one, Mom & Son.

          The exhibit is from February 1 till February 28, 2009.

          Reception: Thursday, February 12, 6-7:30pm

          Address: 134 Main Street, Los Altos, CA 94022

          Hours: Monday – Saturday: 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday: 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

          Yelena Shabrova ~ Plum Blossoms in Los Gatos Creek Park ~ Prismacolor colored pencil on Bristol paper, 16" x 20"
          Plum Blossoms in Los Gatos Creek Park ~ Prismacolor colored pencil on Bristol paper, 16″ x 20″
          Mom & Son - charcoal on colored paper, 20" x 16"
          Mom & Son – charcoal on colored paper, 20″ x 16″

            Earth Expressions, 2008 FALC Juried Fine Art Show, 9/12/2008 till 9/14/2008

            I will have 3 artworks (Daydreaming, Bonding, and Running Free) at the 2008 FALC Juried Fine Art Show. The theme of the show is “Earth Expressions,” and I’m glad that my horses will be a part of it.

            Reception and Auction to benefit the Sichuan Earthquake Victims will be held on September 12, 7pm to 9pm.

            The show will be open September 13-14, 10am to 6pm, at the Community Hall, 10350 Torre Ave., Cupertino, CA. 10% of all sales on September 13-14 will be donated to The Shelter Box Project for the Sichuan Earthquake Victims.

              Rose Shenson Show, 9/6/2008 till 10/4/2008

              2008-08-15 – 2008-10-04. Rose Shenson Show

              As a member of the Campbell Artists’ Guild, I am participating in the Guild’s annual show at the Rose Shenson gallery. The gallery is located behind the Triton Museum of Art. The show will be open from September 6 till October 4, Saturday – Sunday, 11:00am – 4:00pm.

              The reception will be held on September 21, 1:30pm-3:30pm.

              Address: Triton Museum of Art, 1505 Warburton Ave., Santa Clara, CA

                Midsummer Art Celebration at Triton Museum

                We went to this event with FALC. Setting up at 8:30 am was not as bad as I anticipated, even though both me and Slava had very little sleep before that. Raja who organized it all for us was energetic and cheerful although he was e-mailing Slava at 3 a.m. last night. He said he felt ok because he was an astronomer, but even astronomers have to sleep sometimes and Raja was at the show the whole day!

                By 10 a.m., when we were almost done with the setup, quickly visited our friends at Campbell Artists’ Guild and some others, it started to get hot. Slava and I went home until our shift in the booth at 4 p.m. and escaped the worst of the heat. When we returned, there still weren’t many visitors and the place felt like an oven even in the shade. There was some wind, and we were told that even a few drops of rain fell while we were away, but none of that brought any relief. It’s a miracle anyone at all preferred a trip to Triton to staying inside or soaking in a swimming pool. A pretty good jazz band was playing, but they had no crowd to support them. Poor guys.

                Other than the heat, the show was great. It was nice to see Joe Decker, Jaya King, Cathy Zander again and to see artworks by many others whom we didn’t get to meet.

                The most wonderful discovery for me was Deborah Matlack. Since she doesn’t have a Web site, I turned to Google for more information about her and found a lengthy article where she says she is impatient and doesn’t do many preliminary sketches because of that. Looking at her portraits, I would never guess that. “I work all over the painting,” she says. “I can start on a figure, a face, or the background. It really depends on my mood. The beginning of a painting is quite conscious. I know what I want to achieve, but not necessarily how I want to achieve it.” Clearly, her focus is on the character of the subject first and truthful rendering of details second, but I would imagine it still takes a good deal of patience to get them right. Deborah also gave me some valuable advice on working with pastels for which I was very grateful. So now I plan to stop further experiments with Strathmore paper and switch to Canson and will try Lascaux fixative too. I can’t quite stop pastel from falling off the paper with what I am using now, and Deborah’s artworks were in the perfect shape despite the wind that occasionally made them flap against the panels.

                We did have some most wonderful visitors who appreciated the art and were great to talk to. The show was also a great opportunity for artists to get to know each other better and share their experience. We posed for a final photo, took everything down, and went home totally exhausted. Happy Summer Solstice to us.

                  Donation Sale and Exhibition for the Sichuan Earthquake victims

                  On June 7 and 8, 2008, the Silicon Valley Asian Art Center hosted an art auction to benefit Sichuan Earthquake victims. The auction was organized by Professor Arthur Kao and raised $6990.00. A print of Plum Blossoms in Los Gatos Creek Park was a tiny part of that result. The whole amount will be sent to Tzu Chi Foundation and American Red Cross.