A new piece at the Art Under $200 exhibit at the Pacific Art League

I am pleased to announce that both my pieces submitted to the Art Under $200 exhibit at the Pacific Art League have been accepted.

You probably saw this one already:

Open Space - pastel pencil on drawing paper, 5" x 7"
Open Space – pastel pencil, 5″ x 7″

And this is a new artwork that was not shown anywhere else yet:

River of Light - pastel pencil on Canson drawing paper, 5" x 7"
River of Light – pastel pencil on Canson drawing paper, 5″ x 7″

The opening reception for the exhibit will be a part of the Palo Alto First Friday, on December 6th, 2013, from 5:30 pm till 8:00 pm.

The exhibit will stay open till December 24th.

Pacific Art League is located at 668 Ramona St, Palo Alto, CA 94301.
Open Monday – Friday from 9:00 am till 5:00 pm

River of Light

This is another piece in the “small landscapes” series that was started long time ago, survived a two year interruption, and is finally getting done. It’s always difficult to pick the pencils again when you almost don’t remember what you had in mind in the beginning. But as a nice exception to the rule, this little drawing was finished relatively easily. It was almost all about playing with colors and almost no struggling through the process.

The first piece in the series was Open Space, and if all goes well there will be three more.

The original ($140.00), greeting cards, and prints are available in my Pastel Pencil online gallery.

Running Free – finally done!

Yelena Shabrova ~ Running Free - pastel pencil on colored paper, 12″ x 9″Running Free - pastel pencil on colored paper, 12″ x 9″

This one was in the works since 2000. I vaguely remember being excited when I just started with it, but then life got in the way with moving and traveling to Russia, and when I’ve picked the pencils again I hit a creative block. No matter what approach I tried, no matter what part of the drawing I chose to work on – nothing felt right. So I would walk away and work on something else, come back, felt that the creative block was still there, and put the stubborn artwork away again. I am not sure what’s changed recently, but “Running Free” was completed with just a few short sessions. Maybe it happened because last time I’ve left it alone for the longest period ever.