In the Studio! SCAL Joan Hellenthal's class

Joan showing and creating a wonderful still life floral piece.

Her website:

http://joanh.fineartstudioonline.com

These are just quick snap shots of the studio

I'm at the PACL Art League in Palo Alto

Finally saw my "Koi" piece on the wall at the PACL Gallery. I had to miss the opening night.

The theme for this show is "Fur, Feathers and Fins".

So you'll see fish, birds and dogs (of course) and other interesting interpretations as well.

Congratulations to Rebekah Sisk's piece "Bonobo" won Honorable Mention!

Visit her site at:

http://rebekahsisk.com

45th Avenue House

This is the house I "mostly" grew up in. Located walking distance from the Pacific Ocean, near the famous "Sutro Park" and "Cliff House" in San Francisco.
The house has been re-painted in a dark clay color, but I wanted to paint it in the pale blue-tinted pink that I remember while growing up there. Alot has changed over the years in my old neighborhood. Too many cars and streets are now over crowded. The house next door, actually has ugly black steel fence around it. I don't know why. The crime rate here has been low or next to nothing, even today.

What is considered a front lawn...has never really been.
For over 50 years, this home never had green grass or plants that lived long enough to be somewhat healthy. So I drew it with sad shrubbery and yellowish to brown for the lawn. Today, it's actually filled with pot holes and random plants stuck in the front.
This is all done in pastel (fyi-duh) （´・ω・｀）

Yay! I got into the PACL Group Art Show....see

There's my "Kingyo" piece on the Gallery's promo postcard!

Yipeeee! 

I guess all my efforts on fish, got some positive energy.

"Fur, Feathers, and Fins"- at the Palo Alto Art League

June 7th through 27, 2012

Palo Alto, California, USA

Only one block away from the famous University Ave.

note* University Ave. leads straight into Stanford University.

"Koi and Sewing Thread"

Diptych- word comes into my mind here. Yes, I created a second piece to go along with my previous goldfish piece (below).

I don't think I ever explained this: all of my hand embroidered on the paper pastels, use machine sewing threads. I don't use traditional hand embroider threads, right now, because they are much thicker. I want the focal point to remain the focus, and sewing machine threads are thin enough to remain more of a visual support and then using something thicker and fear of the embroidery becoming distracting.

Looking back, I have more goldfish drawing/paintings then originally thought...hmmm... 

Okay, the history is that as a kid I got two young koi fish* as pets. My father used to buy these baby shrimps, and made a special spoon so I can feed them on top of their fish flake food. But waking up at 6am everyday before getting ready for school proved to be too much for me. Plus, I was too young to have the responsibility and commitment to grow my koi fishes. So eventually, they ended up in fish heaven :0(

I still admire them and we have relatives that have actual koi ponds in their backyard, where they can grow big. I don't have the space nor do I have a backyard, so I'll just admire them from a distance.

*plural fish or fish·es

"Kingyo and Sewing Thread

Aaaa.... another fish piece! I decided to draw goldfish again, beause I actually had a creative block. UGH! So this time, I wanted to embroider again to make these fishes different. This piece using the kanji in the middle of the subject(s) says, "kingyo", which is Japanese for goldfish. 

Yes! I was hesitant to stab through the middle of these fishes so I can embroider the kanji, but I had threw a tissue paper with this kingyo character outlined beforehand and thought, that this would be a cool and different approach. I still admire the look of paper embroidery with a drawing. For me, I approach embroidery as linear imagery which is a great balance when it is against a solid subjecct matter....that's my take on it at least. It goes back to my love of typography graphic design.

White Egret on Newsprint

I don't why it is...I tend to feel more loose on newsprint paper. I have made several attempt trying to draw this birdie out on ArtSpectrum and on Canson Mi Teintes Touch paper and failed....

badly...so I did this in pastel class alot quicker then thought. I used my box of cheap-o pastels and charcoal pencils and Derwent pencils for the beak/eyes. 

Whew! I'm done. Now off to my next project