“They Let Go” I and II have been juried into the West Linn Arts and Culture Commission fall show at the West Linn Public Library.
Show runs from October 1 till October 31, 2026. Reception will be held on Saturday, October 3rd, from 3 to 5 p.m.
Show address: 1595 Burns St, West Linn, OR 97068.
“Piecing It All Together” I and II will be a part of “My Home Town” show at the Keizer Art Association gallery.
Show will be up September 3 – 29, 2026.
Address: 980 Chemawa Road NE, Keizer, OR.
“End of Day” is a short series of three 6″ x 6″ drawings on clear gessoed wood created for the 6x6x6 Community Art Show at the Alberta Street Gallery. As it often happens, small format lends itself nicely to experiments, and the main thing I wanted to find out here was how well multiple layers of colored pencil on a primed wooden panel would accept ink.
The answer is: not really well if it is a felt tip pen, better if the tip is a soft brush, but an actual brush dipped into India ink is the easiest way. Really, should’ve used a brush or at least a brush pen from the beginning, but I wanted to exhaust all available pen options first. And no, this is not an exaggeration: I went through dozens of different pen brands before one finally sort of worked.
It may be that I didn’t sand the clear gesso enough and that made the texture get in the way of pens. I am going to try the same combination of colored pencils and black pen on clear wood to be sure.
My little drawing has been sold at the Twitter Art Exhibit’s opening night in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The wonderful curator for #TAE20, Debanjana Bhattacharjee, gave it a permanent happy home!
The 10th Twitter Art Exhibit that this year is helping Horry County Disabilities & Special Needs. Watch the opening ceremony here: https://www.twitterartexhibit.org/live.
It’s always takes a lot of work to organize a big art show, but this year is extra challenging because of the pandemic and many uncertainties that came with it. I am very grateful for everyone who volunteered their time and talent to help with #TAE20.
The 2021 call for artists just opened, and a new cycle of creating and helping has began! I can’t wait to be a part of it again.
Got a word yesterday that my 12 x 16 cm drawing made it to the 10th Twitter Art Exhibit that this year is helping Horry County Disabilities & Special Needs.
The show was going to be held in Myrtle Beach, SC but is now in limbo due to the COVID-19 outbreak. I do hope that there still be an option to buy the cards online like in previous years, no matter what the fate of the live show. Then we still do good and all is as well as it can be.
Every volunteer who helped with the show is very much appreciated, as are many artists who sent in their little creations.
Delivered my latest drawing to the Sequoia Gallery today. It is for the HIP 2B Square show that benefits this nice and cozy cooperative gallery and its artist studios. The show opens on April 2nd with a reception and award announcements and runs through May 3.
Sequoia Gallery is located at 136 SE 3rd Avenue, Hillsboro, OR 97123. Hours: Tuesday – Saturday from 10 am – 5 pm.
The gallery provided an option of a 12″ x 12″ Blick canvas or primed and cradled wood panel, and I chose the panel.
After the fiasco with an Ampersand panel it was interesting to try something different. To my delight, the texture of the gessoed wooden surface was strong but pretty even and was almost as easy to work with as good textured paper. I will do more with it, just maybe without cradles. Not a big fan of working edges of those things.
One of my very favorite things to draw after horses are dead trees in different stages of returning back to elements. This one still holds up pretty well, a final testament to how high and wide it managed to reach in its lifetime.
I started with lush lichen I saw here in Oregon during winter, but it ended looking like something that would be at home in the swamps of Florida. Sometimes non-committed sketching takes you to unexpected places.
A kind visitor at the third weekend of recent Open Studios came up with the title, not me. I often draw during SVOS. People like to see how art is created, and whatever I am working on easily becomes a conversation piece. Sometimes I get a free benefit of getting stuff named for me.
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:
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.
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.
Into the Woods (Miniature) – colored pencil on canvas, 3.5" x 2.5"
The original miniature ($35.00) is available in my Miniatures online gallery.
Trying to exercise patient light strokes after dealing with canvas and rough watercolor paper. Somehow I got too heavy-handed for smooth drawing paper and with this little sketch had to stop and remind myself that the goal was to go with light strokes. As in, light on everything.
This is my latest miniature partly inspired by a very cold and snowy winter of 2011-2012 and partly made because right now here in California it’s overly warm and sunny even by local standards. In the process of bringing winter closer to me I found out that a digital canvas can take a fair amount of scraping with x-acto knife which is pretty convenient for putting snow over heavily darkened areas.
The original is available in my Miniatures online gallery for $35.00
About two months ago I received a rather unusual request to create an illustration for a book that was not finished yet and didn’t have a title. All I had to go by was a short foreword and a few more details from the author. The interpretation and medium was left up to me. On one hand, it was very enticing to have that much creative freedom, on the other, it was as reassuring as walking through a thick fog. The temptation prevailed.
To make myself feel a little better, I sent the author a rough sketch of what I had in mind, and to my surprise she enthusiastically approved it. Since I didn’t know which parts of the storyline are going to be the most prominent in the book, I went with the main theme of an abrupt change from a farm teen to raising the son on her own in a city. The shadow in the illustration is the girl’s son in the end of the book, grown up and capable of supporting herself, her concern for years and a final reward. Today I turned the illustration to to the author. Thankfully, she loved the finished work which made me happy. She is till working on the book, hopefully the illustration will give her an extra creativity nudge.
colored pencil on drawing paper, 9″ x 12″
