6″ x 4″, graphite pencil

4″ x 6″, colored pencil.

This is a rendering of one of my bokeh photos. I think colored pencils lend themselves nicely to this job.

Fortitude is a part of the 2010 From the Heart show at the Main Street Cafe and Books in Los Altos from February 1 till February 28.

The show features wonderful works of 36 members of the Fine Arts League of Cupertino.

Main Street Cafe and Books is located at 134 Main St., Los Altos, CA 94022 and is open Mon-Sat. 6:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Sun. 7:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.:

4″ x 6′, pen and ink *SOLD*

Today was a gallery day. We went to see the Absolute Abstraction show at the Viewpoints Gallery in Los Altos. I anticipated seeing Jane Ferguson’s acrylics which of course were awesome but was surprised to see that Floy Zittin created an abstract too, ant it was a very unusual one with tree branches growing from nowhere. I love Floy’s new pieces done on canvas, they have a wonderful touch of magic to them; not a fantasy art, just something a little different than traditional realism. It’s still watercolor, but it looks so different on canvas, its amazing.

The rest of the gallery was just as much pleasure to see as the featured exhibit: Terri Ford’s glowing pastels, Jean Prophet’s pottery, Berni Jahnke’s watercolors (she had portraits of old people on display, and shared their stories with me and Slava), Diana Jaye’s colorful oils, Kathleen Alexander’s graceful flowers and exotic fruit (at least I think that green thing was a fruit, I loved it more than flowers, and it looked great in watercolor), and so much more. It seems that every time we visit this gallery it becomes better and better.

We stopped at Gallery 9 too, since it is located on the next street. Nice to see what Belinda Lima and Rajani Balaram have there, and I don’t remember if I saw Kiyoco Michot’s ceramics before but those bowls that resemble fruit split in half are very beautiful.

To add to the pleasure of taking in art, it was pouring outside. Such a wonderfully quiet, rainy day!

6″ x 4″, pastel pencil *SOLD*

Outburst – 6″ x 9″, colored pencil on drawing paper

Well, was it a strange journey with this one or what. Never worked on such a moody piece, but I think I like how it turned out.

4″ x 6″, charcoal, pastel pencil

This one started out relatively smoothly until I realized that the background was anything but what I wanted it to be. Several attempts to solve the problem were unsuccessful, and for about a month I used every excuse to work on something else instead in hopes that the solution materializes in my head on its own. Before that happened, help came in the form of a demo by a very talented watercolorist, Terri Hill who gave a demo at FALC earlier this week. Just watching her do her magic got me out of the fog. The background is far from being finished, but at least we are moving again:

I am not sure how I ended up with the painterly background. It certainly was not a conscious decision, but I like the look:

Almost there:

Updated January 17, 2010
And I am going to call it done, nothing else to add to it:

4″ x 6″, pastel pencil, China marker *SOLD*

Today’s small discovery: China marker works way better as a highlight preserver than white charcoal or pastel (I made trunks and branches with it). Also, some Dervent pastel pencils of earthy variety act more like colored pencils then pastel. Since this sketch was done mainly by blending colors with a dry brush, the second discovery was not pleasant. Moral: test on scrap paper first (yeah, fresh idea, I know).