East Valley Artists Thursday's demo

Robert Dvorak was the demonstrator at my art club last night.  He writes books and gives workshops and demos concerning travel drawing and painting.  He's going to Greece, Yosemite, the California Coast and more this year.  I did this little sketch from one of his travel photos that he brought to the club meeting.  He handed out paper, non permanent ink pens and water and brush so that we could put into practice what he was showing us.  I love it!

Below is a photo of his demo:

There were 25 of us there and each of our paintings turned out completely different.  But I think everyone did a great job. 

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

Zendoodle Doo!

Zendoodle Doo is the name of my art class.

This is our next project. Before and after photos will be published of their work too.  But, we won't finish until February.

Pics from my first Zendoodle class in Sunnyvale, Ca. Student work at the bottom.

 Before adding shading. It looks pretty good, but flat.
















Here I've added shading and a frame.  Shoulda taken the photo
before inserting in the frame, but I think you can tell what a
difference shading makes. 

Photo of students work. We all got to frame our finished work. 

I think it's done.

Originally I had planned to fill in the entire page of this 8x10 zendoodle.  But I like it this way and am not planning to fill in the rest of the spaces.  Space is just as important as shape I think. 

Lately I'm doodling a lot.

I've been working on this for hours!  It takes quite a while but I practice a technique and refine it before applying it to the drawing.  It's so fun!

 Today I made my son this Ichigo Kurasaki mask, an anime character from "Bleach".  I bought the cardboard mask, or paper mache, from Michael's and cut it out and colored it in with Sharpie Markers.  Fast, fun and looks pretty cool.

 It's 3D and the cardboard makes it stiff and durable and easy to color.  I used a pencil to shade in the teeth to give them a more 3D look too.

I'm posting this pic because of the shadow mainly.  Kinda looks like a bird of some kind.

SoFA Art Walk

I belong to East Valley Artists, an art club with about 54 members in San Jose.  It keeps growing lately that's why I say about 54.  We've been invited to exhibit in a gallery in the downtown SoFA district.  "South First Area" is what that stands for since the 1990's. Here is what my invite looks like on Meetup!


Opening Reception to be held in Downtown San Jose at Art Ark Gallery as part of the South First Fridays Art Walk. This is our first show together as a club in such a beautiful gallery. There will be music and refreshments and of course, lots of member art. The art walk is a downtown tradition that Art Ark has been participating in monthly for 9 years now. There are 20 participating venues and Art Ark is at the southern end of the art walk. Start there and make your way through the SoFA district and be part of the tradition.

"The South FIRST FRIDAYS art walk is a self-guided evening tour through galleries, museums, and independent creative businesses featuring eclectic art exhibitions and special performances. All art venues are FREE & open to the public." www.southfirstfridays.com


Meetup is a cool site that has been helping our club grow.  Check it out.

Art Shows and Home Parties

Handwoven baskets and rainsticks

Handmade art glass beads, gold filled accents and magnetic clasp. Pewter dragonfly.

Pottery

East Valley Artists is a 55 member strong club that enters and puts on art shows and now some of us want to have a chance to be part of the home party scene.  Like a Crystal party, or Tupperware, we are looking for Hostesses to open their homes for an all handmade unique experience.  We'll be handing out brochures with more information at our next open studio show.  Here are pics depicting some of the talent of our members.

Student Art (a collaboration with me)

 One of my students gave me this drawing and then I colored it in.  Hop on over to my other blog  here to see more of my kids art projects that they have been working on.

Another old post from 2012 that never got published.  Hmm.....

4x6 Original Oil: Palm

I painted this and a few others for a small shop by the beach. I have no idea why the previous sentence has a blue underline. ??? Anyway, I have sold a couple already. Very vacation paradise looking. I wish I had taken pictures of all of them before they sold.
I don't know where this will show up in my blog.  This is a test.  I was going over my posts and saw that this one never got published.  It is 1/20/15 and I am finally publishing it.  

I found my mom's button stash!  So I went a little crazy making rings from them because some of them are so different and I don't think I'll be able to find a match for many of them, so RINGS it is!  I also used some art glass and stones too.

I wore this one all during December!

My favorite!  Goes with so many things.  It's wood, faux leather and a Mother of Pearl button.

My entries to a jewelry challenge.

1950's Copper Chain paired with new Large Turquoise bead.

My Aunt's old broken turquoise necklace and a new focal jasper pendant.

An old butterfly pin from Reta's collection and old purse handle chains, the new parts are the beads and charms that I added as dangles from the butterfly.

Jewelry Making Journal has challenges periodically that inspire jewelry makers to try new things.
Challenge #8 was asking entrants to try mixing old and new.  These are my entries. Click the link to see more from their site.

Royal Blue Art Glass Necklace

     I just finished this one today.  It's a custom order and going out in the mail next Monday.  Lots of handmade beads and sterling silver Bali beads with glass seed beads and a button clasp.  Strung on a 49 strand steel cable (Beadalon brand).  

Summer Fun!!

I'm having a blast getting ready for all of my summer shows.  Next I'll be at the Triton Museums Midsummer Art Celebration June 22 in Santa Clara, Ca.  In the photo above: A large Turquoise Donut with a wire wrap hook through the donut, turquoise and shell beads.  With it is pictured a sandstone triangle piece with magnesite, wood and turquoise beads.  Sterling silver clasp and matching earrings for both.  (not pictured)

This asymmetrical 16" necklace features a handmade art glass focal bead, cultured fresh water pearls, czech crystals, gold filled wire and clasp.

I loved making this beautiful bracelet.  I'm partial to anything with this turquoise color.  This bracelet has a strong magnetic gold filled clasp, so it's easy on and off.  Included are dichroic glass beads, gold lined czech crystals, more art glass pieces, gold filled accent beads and chain, and there are a few drops too as you can see!

This Dragonfly Bracelet has an assortment of handmade beads: Borosilicate focal bead, art glass beads, gold filled clasp, chain and accents.  There is also a pearl and a tiger eye bead on there too.

Oh!  Here is one pair of those matching earrings I was talking about before.  Displayed on one of my many Earring Stands that I make and sell in my etsy store. Which is pretty empty right now because of my summer Art Shows.  

Each one is different in height and facial features because I make them individually by hand.  My Earring Stands are made from a strong bus wire and her curls are soldered and wire wrapped for added strength.  Set in an acrylic cube, she comes in heights from 2 1/2" to 6".

Almost done!!

Broken wrist ~ all better

I haven't posted all summer because of a broken wrist.  but, Yay! the cast is off and I'm feeling a lot better.  Although my muscles aren't as good as new yet.  I have a hand therapist helping me through the process of getting my right hand back to its original working order.  Ouch!  It takes longer for those of us that are a little older.  I did take a road trip with a friend to Washington and back at the end of July.  Lots of fun!!!!!

Castle Crags is in Northern California off the I-5

Somewhere along the Oregon coastline.

Breakfast with old friends

      I love flamingos!  I have never decorated my lawn with a plastic one, or my walls with a painting of one though.  I just think they are beautiful and graceful creatures. 
   
      I had breakfast with old friends who are also my best painting buddies yesterday.  It's been a long time since we all got together and we decided to do a watercolor painting.  I was on a roll and couldn't stop myself.  So, 5 hours later..... Here she is, or he.  She will be 20x24 after I crop her.

I like to take classes to see how others teach.  This snow scene is from one of those classes.  I'm teaching K-3rd graders art and so I keep up on the lessons myself so that I can see good and not so good methods of teaching.  Below I really played with color and used tissues to blot, lifting some color while also leaving some white.  Dramatic, eh?  It's even more so in person. A very fun class!

I scanned it in two halves .

Reminds me of Hunger Games.

Currently working on...

This is a really tiny photo, taken from my phone.  This is what I am working on right now at Deb's.  That's Spanish moss growing on the branches above and vines are climbing up the foreground tree.  I'm having a lot of fun with it and I'm going to try to get it finished for a show I'm doing in Morgan Hill in May at the Guglielmo Winery for their annual "Bottle Your Own Wine Event".

Last two poses from the life drawing class.

For this 20 minute pose I decided to work quickly with sketchy lines.

This was such an interesting view and I took the whole 20 minutes trying to be more precise.  I wish we had more time. 

We started this day with a contour drawing.  I drew from left to right, in one continuous line.  The woman on the left is wearing a glove, because the charcoal is so messy.  That's why her hand looks so funny.  We had to work quickly and when the time is up, we have to stop. Therefore, no legs. :)

 This model was strong, and even though he only had to hold this pose for 1 minute he was shaking toward the end of that minute.

Look at that!!!  Our teacher made us draw with our left hand, if right handed, and right hand if a lefty.  Everyone did a pretty good job.  I was amazed.  She said that drawing with your 'other' hand helps your creative right brain to kick in.  She was right.  After this exercise many of the students in the class did the rest of their drawings with their left hand.  Including me when I felt that I got stuck.