Museu Europeu d'Art Modern

In March when we were in Barcelona Spain, I had a chance to visit Museu Europeu d'Art Modern. It is a museum dedicated to realism arts mainly figure/portrait paintings and sculpture. I really enjoyed my experience there. Here are some snapshots.

Alejandro Marco Montalvo

Chao Ma

David Kasaan

Dino Valls

Eloy Morales Ramiro

Felipe Alonso

Jesus Ma Saez de Vicuna

Juan Bautista Nieto

Luciano Ventrone

Luis Alvarez Roure

Richard Chiang

Richard Harper

Portrait of Cat Sheridan

I finished this portrait of my friend Cat Sheridan. 17" x 12" in graphite. These are just snapshots of the final drawing and I am going to shoot the photos properly later with better lighting. I did this drawing on Canson mixed media paper. The surface of the paper was softer than bristol board I had been using and once the fiber of the paper got crushed by the pressure of the pencils, it created a surface that was difficult to lay down another layer on. I had to be more careful about the order of the various leads I used as I worked my way through this piece. If I made a mistake of using a pencil that was too hard in the early stage of rendering, it was very difficult to cover up that mistake later on. When I took the source photo for this drawing in the studio 2 years ago, I was not happy with the shape of the lilies she was holding. Luckily I found a photo of another bunch of lilies I had photographed for a different project, so I switched them. When I see the finished drawing, I am glad that I changed the flowers, but I just wish I had made them slightly larger...

Bronzini finished

The drawing I started in mid April has been finally finished. I kept working on it whenever I had time. The scales were the most time consuming part naturally. I tried to bring out the "look" of the scales rather than photo realistically rendering each and every one of them. Bristol board works well with graphite and it does work with watercolor also but the surface is way more fragile than proper watercolor paper, so I was careful not to damage the surface by overworking with watercolor. I feel this almost monochromatic subject in the monochromatic background and this mixed media technique to add a touch of colors worked very well together.

Wild Art Columbus Auction

On May 2nd, I participated in an art auction for Wild Art Columbus. It was a fundraiser for this local non-profit art organization called, "Wild Goose Creative". My former student Heather Lynn Kyle invited me to be a part of this event. I uploaded several artworks on Instagram prior to this auction date, and submitted the piece that collected the most votes from people. It was a fun and exciting night, and my piece found a new home at my good friends Jeff and Abby Fisher's. It's always wonderful when my artwork sells, but it becomes very special when it goes to my good friends.

Above photo courtesy of Justin Johnston.

A little break from my usual stuff

I have been busy doing a few different projects and just haven't had time to dedicate myself to Vanitas series. So I decided to take a little breather and work on this little drawing just for fun and practice. This is a fish called Bronzini. I got this fish a while ago for a photo shoot. After the photo shoot, I filleted it, pan-fried it in butter and olive oil, and ate it. It was very light and flaky, tastes a lot like cod, but better.

I am working on this piece in watercolor and graphite. I just finished an easier part. The scales will be challenging...