We went to the Stone Griffin Gallery in Campbell to see what Julie Kitzenberger had there. I really like her photography. Apparently, the gallery moved across the street since last time we were there and is now a much smaller place. It’s a bit crowded too, with a stack (or stacks?) of paintings by the right wall. Julie’s photos on canvases were placed nicely and prominently on a separate panel in the middle of the room. Good for her! My favorites from the gallery:

Another artist whose work caught my attention was Don Dahlke – a series of open windows with fretted tropical tree shadows. His paintings have a convincing three-dimensional quality, to the point that I wanted to look inside the windows and see what’s hiding there. And then there were shadows that looked like they were about to move in a gentle breeze. Very nice effect:

In the front window, there were several really tiny canvases on miniature black wooden easels. They were maybe 3″ x 5″; I don’t remember the name of the artist. Those canvases got me thinking: would it be possible to draw on a primed canvas with colored pencils? If the canvas is small, it probably would not sag under the pressure… Need to try that.

Two blogs by colored pencil artist Leslie Hawes I ran into today: Leslie’s Drawing A Day for her daily art for sale and Leslie’s Art Blog where she posts step by steps for her small lovely pieces. Real pleasure to browse through both.

Leslie Hawes – Carrickfergus, 4.5 x 6.5, Derwent Artists colored pencils on dark taupe colored Alphamat

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!

Artist at Heart is an oil pastel blog that shows oil pastel sketches by Yusuke Katsurada. Very nice work.

My son’s knit cap

Since oil pastel is my newly found favorite medium (going back to it after an almost 6 year break), the title of Tanya’s blog caught my attention. She works primarily in oil pastel, but her acrylic and colored pencil works are just as delightful.

Tanya’s Charming Critters – oil pastel paintings

Patricia the rat drinking baileys on a quiet night out
Coloured pencil on black card, 2.5 x 3.5 inches (ACEO)

Stunning Work of Kate D. MacDowell

Communicable, 20“x15 ½ “x5 ½ “, hand built porcelain, cone 6 glaze, 7/2008

Kate’s skills are exquisite, but it’s not the skills that made me stop and look in the middle of a busy day. It’s what the artist is saying with her unsettling but beautiful porcelains, or rather what she makes me see in them – a beautiful, ever renewing world around us, enduring and fragile at the same time.

Graphite Pencil Drawing Tutorial: Female Eye

A step by step with large images. Yes, it’s photo realism that I am not crazy about, but there is something about that gaze that makes me want to take another look and then yet another one. I wonder: if the whole face was there, would the effect be lost?

The Art of Richard Mayhew: Through Jan. 10. Museum of the African Diaspora, 685 Mission St., San Francisco. (415) 358-7200. www.moadsf.org.

Despite not liking San Francisco in general (especially driving there), I want to go see Richard Mayhew’s bright abstract landscapes. They are so full of mood and personality!

“I feel fortunate that I found an element, a life, that I love,” he said. “I know Toni Morrison, and she told me once that she enjoyed writing whether someone read it or not. That’s how I feel. Although I’m pleased when people share in the experience.” –Richard Mayhew

Colored Pencil: The Only 4 Tips You Really Need

All four tips are what works wonderfully for me: work slow, keep your pencils sharp (and may I add, if you don’t need sharp use Prismacolor art sticks), layer colors, work on colored paper. And the author is a Prismacolor person too

Terri Hill presented her unusual approach to watercolors at the FALC meeting today. She starts with an underpainting – an abstract shape in primary colors that will later shine through the finishes artwork, unifying and complementing Terri’s vibrant colors. What else that underpainting does is suggest very natural highlights and shadows as if created by objects not visible in the painting. The result is nothing short of magical.

Terri painted from her own photos, but what I loved was that she was using them as a vague reference, an idea for the subject and composition, but not as something that should be copied.

In an odd way, watching her working on a background that progressed from an abstract to gently moving water helped me to overcome a creative block with one of my colored pencil pieces. Where nothing seemed to work, to the point of not wanting to even try anything anymore, I now see many new possibilities – so nice to feel free again, thank you, Terri!