The Hidden Gallery

Not doing so well these days and side effects are always challenging.  Not to worry.  Larv is here to keep an eye on things, however, that also means it is because of my inconsistency that he has to.

One of my favourite writers says is for me because I am left speechless.


copyright Kurt Vonnegut


In the meantime, please enjoy some of the links on the left side.

May I also recommend this inspiring talk by Edward Burtynsky who is one of my favourite Canadian contemporary artists.  You will not be disappointed.  FYI 35 mins of a profound message and awe.  This is something to aspire to.




And if you can't see it here, I encourage you to view it here:

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/56

Edward Burtynsky's Homepage



Nickel Tailings No. 34,
Sudbury, Ontario 1996
copyright Edward Burtynsky

It's finished!!!  And the colours are so much more brilliant than this terrible and low quality scan.
My favourite thing about this painting is how the mermaid's expression came out so serene...

Thank you to the wonderful and talented Judy Boardman, who is otherwise known as artsygoddess, for her wonderful mermaid drawing!  It's been a pleasure and an honour to have worked with you on a beautiful piece of artwork.  Thank you Judy!!!

I hope you enjoyed looking at her as much as I enjoyed painting her!

Phew!  I can now go read journals without feeling guilty about not posting art!

OMG... is all I could think when I touched wet brush to paper... I must have been on crack when I was at the art store because I didn't buy a waterproof black marker.  D'OH!

I almost cried...then remembered all the brown ink was indeed done with waterproof ink and felt a tremendous relief!!!  phew!!!  After that, I just decided to work with the bleeding.  It's an underwater illustration anyway so a little watery-ness won't be too bad, right?  That's all I could hope for at this point.  I almost had a heart attack because I thought I ruined the Judy's art!!

OMG!  Raptors took the Nets 106-69!   o____O  wo'hoo!

Next...part V!

Phew!! No major mistakes!  I'm so relieved!  In fact I am almost pleased with the results!  There is no way I could have inked this well if it was not for Judy's gorgeous drawing and her skillz.  Her body proportions are so accurate and the mermaid's pose so graceful.  I can't tell you how much I appreciate that! 

I think I am often guilty of "manga"-ing my illustrated characters.  It's a style I suppose I've developed, however, it has turned into a very bad habit.  I think that was one of the things that really rubbed my life drawing teacher the wrong way.  I mean, not like the time he screamed, "YOU WRECKED YOUR DRAWING!!!!" at me then angrily stomped away kind of "rubbed the wrong way", but still this bad habit of mine must have troubled him quite a bit.  And no wonder.  It has certainly become a curse at times and at others, quite a lovely accident... But I'd still prefer it if I did do life drawing accurately and not so stylized sometimes....

That's what practice is for, right?

Well, now that I'm a little too far away from Toronto School of Art for open Life Drawing, I'm going to have to find another studio or skool that I can maybe bike to.  Has to be less than $10 a session.  Otherwise I might have to resort to doing life drawing self-portraits in the mirror and jeezzz... i sure don't want to have to resort to that...i already don't like posing for reference photos and i don't like painting or drawing from photos...

Our high dollar...oh how it has been a blessing and a curse!  My whole business structure must now re-adapt...

We don't have cable...I didn't care until the Raptors started playing again!!!  Here's the cracked out part...  since when the hells did I start caring about NBA basketball?!?

Next... part IV

I had to think long and hard about what I wanted to with Judy's drawing.  Because she used really heavy paper with lots of tooth, I considered using a more water-downed acrylic paint and try to use it like I do with my paintings on canvas.  But after some thinking, I thought that it would not be a good idea because I tend to layer quite heavily.  With many heavy layers, I wasn't sure if the paper could handle it and I wasn't about to find out.  Instead I went for the good ol' panned watercolours.  I figured the paper could take a lot of layering and the washes may be more brilliant with so many layers.

Painting this with watercolours means inking the drawing as well.  Of all the things related to art, I think inking is the most challenging for me.  I do tend to mess up and I've ruined many a potential painting with my lousy inking skills.  And of course, this also meant I had to pick an inking instrument.  Do I dare go old skool and use the dip pen and an open bottle of ink on this textured paper?  Too risky, I thought.  So I thought a marker would be better.

It didn't take me long to decide how I wanted to ink this painting.  I thought I would go art nouveau with brown and black marker.  So, I started with the brown sakura.  I always start inking on the minor elements of the artwork so I can find my pacing for smooth lines before attempting the figure or the main focus.  I decided to outline in black, but my black marker had died...

One of the most bestest things about my new location is that the art store is just down the street!!!  I can walk there or bike there anytime I want!  No more TTC downtown just to buy something like a black marker!  I also picked up some blank cards and an eraser.  Art supply shopping is about the only shopping I don't really mind too much...phew!

Part III next...

In the past, I've always hesitated to do any kind of artist collaboration because I found that it was filled with conflict but I realize that was a product of our maturity or lack of it...

As with my art, I think I've grown more mature and I think it shows in this collaboration with the very talented artsygoddess  I'm delighted with how it turned out and I hope she is too!



Judy illustrated her beautiful original drawing on a really heavy piece of watercolour paper.  It was very thick like cardboard and was very textured with lots of "tooth".  I've never painted or drawn on such good quality paper before and I think this is why I hesitated for so long before I actually got down to starting my half of the collaboration which is the painting part of the delicate drawing.

I really didn't want to mess this up.  First of all, it's another person's original artwork!!!  I was very nervous that I would "wreck" it somehow with my inexperience.  Second, it's a damn fine drawing!  If I goofed, then the drawing might not even be saved... you can see how concerned I was!  And third, well, it's on nice paper so I certainly didn't want to ruin the investment Judy has put in me.  Both her amazing talent, artwork, generous materials, and most of all her time.

It's hard to tell from the crappy scan but the lines are quite delicate and soft.  There's a lot of movement in the hair and underwater foliage.  I think this compliments her pose very well and I like how her tail's texture contrasts against her figure.  I like Judy's composition too and how the cave's opening frames the whole setting.  Little details like the coral and fish add to the magic and sets the tone for how all the figures relate to each other... it seems like everyone is kinda minding their own business in another lovely day in the underwater fantasy world of Judy Boardman.  All the character's expressions are quite serene and I wanted to evoke that same kind of feeling with colour.  It's like a distant and soft admiration of fantasy.

Anyways part II next...

still trying to catch up...

Sorry if I depressed you with my last post.  We are now returning to our regular programming.


Recently, I participated in a teamwork challenge!  It was very cool.  A group of mermaid artists joined up for artistic collaborations.  One person would do a drawing and another person would colour and paint it.  The results have been wonderful!  It is really cool to see how each artist's style emerges from the art!

Well, I did a drawing and inked some of it.  Then I mailed it over to geckoartist who then painted (and what an improvement!) it.


This was my original drawing.  bah!



This is my drawing enhanced and beautifully painted by the talented Aubry Chapman!



I think she really improved the face.  I like her expression so much more after Aubry painted it.  I love it!  It's gorgeous!  I secretly procrastinated on mailing her my sketch because I was so dissatisfied with it.  WOW!  I think it's beautiful now!

Go visit Aubry's website!

Then you can go check out the art of the Sea Gods group here!

Don't let monkeymindkafka's profile fool you. All I can say is, thank goodness Darwin doesn't have any say in his existence. Just read monkeymindkafka's posts. He is clearly a talented writer and although he might deny his creativity, don't be fooled! I look forward enjoying his poetic writings to be published in the future. His social awareness and conscience is something I admire. His book collection is something I probably envy! Thank goodness he has procreated. If fills me with great comfort to know that people like him are raising their children to be intelligent, sensitive and critical individuals (thank you jenelycam for having some awesome kids as well!). How do I know his kid is intelligent? Take a look at this post. Gawain is smarter than a lot of adults. The fact that he questions an idea is proof that not all of us are growing up to be walking zombies accepting and tolerating everything thrown at us. And for this, I thank you deeply.

Visit zilberkarausche's livejournal. I've been wanting to post about him for a long time now. Why is his art so amazing? It's the kind of expressionism that I totally am in love with. I can't understand most of what he writes because it's in Russian, but I don't mind! His work speaks volumes. Just look at all the movement he creates in a painting with his use of textures and colours. His paintings are alive! He's got a cubist thing going on that makes me feel like I'm looking upon his paintings in two different moments in time - suspended in beautiful imagery and yet living and breathing! I can't explain the beauty I feel when I look upon his paintings. I'm no good with words. My soul just responds to it. That is how compelling it is.

I miss my brother. He's been in Dubai a couple of months on a contract position. He might stay a year, he might be back in a few months. He is the one who generously surprised us with a ps3 for Christmas. How he was able to secure one is still a mystery to me. We couldn't have him this year for Christmas, and although the ps3 is very nice, it still doesn't make up for his absence! He's a pretty funny guy and he writes about his travels and talks about his life in the middle east. His blog makes me laugh. You can't read it unless you sign up for a xanga account, but it will be worth it. His photos alone are worthy of viewing.

I love reading mindme's livejournal. He is a Canadian who lives in South Korea, finances his adventures by teaching a bunch of (probably rich) kids English, and probably knows more Korean than I ever will (how shameful is that?!). His perspective on the Korean culture is so entertaining and informative! I've learned a few things about my culture from him. I love it when he posts pics of Korea and the people. He appreciates the humour of "engrish", voices concern about the world and its events and is loved by his students. He also hosts a podcast called Seoul Survivors that I like to listen to. He hangs around these two hot Korean women one of which he's nicknamed "trucker mom". That alone makes me want to read this journal. "Trucker mom"? How can you resist! Yes, he is a writer and a good one at that! Check out some of his articles here.

I will now try to catch up with all of you!

My Art Collection continued....

As you know, I have a thing for pop-up books and clever paper engineering.  It is absolutely engaging and always filled with surprises. 

One of my all time favourite artists is Maurice Sendak.  Ever since I was a little kid, his illustrations have fasinated and filled me with wonder.  So imagine my profound delight when I found this:



It is a pop-up masterpiece created by paper engineer Matthew Reinhart using Maurice Sendak's illustrations.  No, I kid you not.... It really is a masterpiece....

( More pictures... )

Hope you enjoyed!!

(cross-posted to my journal and storybookland)


( comments )

Well, we've had rain for days and days and finally there was a break in the weather giving me enough light to take some photographs.  I've been wanting to share with you some of my art collection.  It's not much, but I hope to keep adding pieces to it.  I have a few more pieces but they are packed away until we move and have enough real estate to display them all, including the large block print of a tree created by an artist in Cuba (seeing local and museum art is one of the best things about traveling!).

So for the next couple of posts, I will be showing you a vase, a wood carving (also from my trip to Cuba), artist trading cards, a book from one of my favourite illustrators and an awesome laptop sleeve!!



Vase by Diane Creber




Next post...my ATC collection...