~~~Merry Christmas Everyone!!! ~~~

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Some Great Handmade Art Gifts

Had some health issues here, so I've been slow to post. I like to look at all kinds of art on the Web and I came across this nice hand crafted glass bowl. It is one of a kind by artist Renato Foti and you can see it online by clicking the image below. I hope that you are all having a wonderful Christmas holiday season.

A VIEW FROM THE RED BLUFF ART GALLERY

The other day, I was looking out the front window of The Red Bluff Art Gallery, where I hang out three days a week in the afternoon. I noticed a house way off in the distance that had an interesting fence, so I made a drawing of it. There was lots of traffic going up and down Walnut St. and some busy train tracks between the gallery and the house, so it was a bit of a challenge to get it done.



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- A Portrait in Pencil -

I did this drawing last week at The Red Bluff Art Gallery from a small color photo. It's of an artist that shows at the gallery. She is close to 90 years and commutes by car from California to an Eastern state, a couple of times a year. Pretty amazing! I used a 6b graphite stick (wood-less pencil) on smooth bristol board paper, with a felt stump and kneaded eraser.




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FUN WITH ARTFIRE

As an artist, or artisan, you can set up a free store on ArtFire.com and sell up to 12 items. They give you a domain name and don't charge any listing fees or sold item fees like eBay does. You can also instantly import your Etsy items if you happen to have an Etsy store. Here is a link to the store that I set up in about an hour and 1/2. Have fun with it!

Visit johnsminigallery's ArtFire Shop

MR. FRANK KITCHEN - REVISITED

Using the same photo reference, I tried a new type of pastel set. It looks like makeup in shallow wide mouth jars and you apply it with chammy covered plastic palette knives. The board is masonite that is coated with a tinted sandpaper finish that really grabs the pastel. I spent about five hours on this one, but am pretty happy with it. Let me know what you think of it. Thanks.

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~ MR. FRANK KITCHEN ~

There is an interesting gentleman that comes into The Red Bluff Art Gallery where I hang out 2 or 3 days a week. He always arrives with his wife Daphne and when they come through the door, the room lights up. Frank always says that he is half blind, but whatever is left visually creates better photographs than most. So much so that the gallery has just published a book of his photos. Click Here to view Frank on his gallery page. If you would like to purchase a copy of his book you can contact the gallery by Clicking Here.
Frank gave me permission to do this drawing of him from a photograph....as he put it "I don't mind being an "Object d'Art". I used a 6b woodless pencil and a felt stump on 140 lb. Canson paper.

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~ LEAF SERIES WC ~

In the late '90s I was doing a lot of what I called "Leaf Series", small watercolors and I fell back into that mode a couple weeks ago. Here's one of the later ones.

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- DRAWING IN A CLASSICAL MODE -

Every once in awhile I get the urge to sketch or draw in a more classical mode. I sketched this in pen and ink from an old engraving in a book from the early 1800's. It was quickly done and I tried to not over work it. It measures 8.5 x 11 and is ready for framing. I'm offering this one for sale at a very practical price.

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MONTANA MORRISON - "THE ART SPIRIT"

We lost an important artist and friend this week, Montana Morrison. She embodied "The Art Spirit" that Robert Henri wrote about in his 1923 classic. She was a driving force in the arts in Chicago, and then later in our local town of Red Bluff, CA. I was fortunate to have met and talked with her on several occasions, and the conversations were full of laughter and reminiscences of Chicago, artists that we knew, and ideas for various art projects. Montana always inspired me. She always wanted to have her own museum and was able to realize that dream in Red Bluff, a couple of years ago. This video is choppy, but gives a good walkthrough of her gallery/museum, and will give you an idea of her range of works. Her personna was always "bigger than life" and her memory will be a "Celebration of Life".

Find more videos like this on www.truveo.com.

RETHINKING A WATERCOLOR

This is a watercolor that I did in 1999 and posted on this blog in 2006. Today I pulled it out and decided that the "Fantasy Forest" needed more "Fantasy", so I added some creatures and faces and even a ghost. I put it on my Etsy gallery page HERE.

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~ ILLUMINATING A BIBLE ~

For the past couple of years, I've been doing some pen and ink sketches in one of my bibles. My goal was to have something drawn on every page. These range from tiny 1/4 x 1/4 inch simple ornaments to 6 x 4 inch drawings. None are pre-planned, but are "improvised" on the spot. Some look like mandalas and all are self contained ornaments. I've been using a .005 Micron pen for most of these. The first drawing is at the end of 2 Chronicles. The second is at the end of Ecclesiastes. The third is a loose drawing that I did a couple of days ago. The sizes are actual.


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ROAD WARRIOR

I had worked on this drawing for a couple of days and was pretty happy with it. I was picking up a large framed watercolor at the framers and put this drawing (which was done on a watercolor block) on the roof of my car, while I was loading the framed watercolor. Halfway home, about 12 miles up the highway, I realized what I had done. I pulled over and checked out the inside of my SUV, just to make sure. It wasn't there, and I felt really stupid. When I got home, I called the art gallery that represents me, and Anna, (one of the owners) luckily was still there. She jumped in her car and went to the frame shop, two blocks away, and saw nothing on the road. She drove to Main Street, retracing my drive home and drove about a mile. She saw a flicker of blue off in the distance, which turned out to be the outside cover of the drawing's cover. It was, and the drawing was lying a couple of lanes over. Way to go Anna!!! It was still intact and I was able to restore it. Hence the name "Road Warrior".


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- A SELF PORTRAIT EXHIBIT -

The Hawkman Studios (Troy Hawkins and Adam Mankoski) are having a month long group self-portrait show called "Me, Myself and I". It's going to be held at The Vintage Wine Bar and Restaurant, 1790 Market Street in Redding, CA. ( A Reception for the artists is on Tues, July 14 at 6:00pm. You are all invited!!! Artists involved are: S.A.Barone, Troy Hawkins, Gini Holmes, Steve Bischoff, Chuck Prudhomme, John N. Stewart, Irina Stroup, Mickey Theobald, Tami Watson and Dejon Weldon. There will be Live Music!

I met Troy and Adam last week and was amazed at what they've done in promoting the arts in Northern California. Their dream is to create a cultural explosion in the Redding area, and with 40+ art venues it seems to be happening.

I did this self-portrait in 2006 and it will be showing in this exhibit for the first time. It is a very personal painting and contains most of the people that influenced my life (i.e.: family, friends, associates). It's a large full-sheet watercolor, done on 300 lb paper.


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~ A MICHAEL JACKSON EXPERIENCE ~

I first saw Michael perform at Disneyland, when he was the youngest member of "The Jackson Five".

Later on, as an artist, I worked on four projects for Michael Jackson, one Pepsi Commercial, two music videos, and an experimental project. He always managed to get a lot of heavy-weight celebs into his projects. Eddie Murphy was in one of the music videos and Cindy Lauper was in the Pepsi commercial. (I put it on my blog). Michael had a stand-in decoy that came around the set, so you never knew if it was the real Jackson or not.

We had to sign a contract that was several pages long. Contract clauses included not approaching MJ, not directing any jokes towards MJ, never speaking to MJ, and a long list of strange, almost child-like rules. We (the crew) all signed it, in order to work. Strange to have worked on four projects and never really having a verified MJ sighting. A good friend of mine did some mural work in Michael's home and told me that he was very nice and treated her well. His father treated her strangely, but that's another story. With all of his excentricities, MJ obviously had a lot of talent, energy, and a need to succeed. Sorry that he left at such a young age.

WATERCOLOR PORTRAIT OF A BOY

I took a photo of a friend's little boy and was stimulated by his expression and the surrounding forms and colors that were happening in my wife's salon. It's a small piece: 9 x 12 inches and I painted it on a watercolor block.


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HAPPY "DRAWING DAY"

As you probably know today is National "Drawing Day". Here is a post of a unique artist doing his thing:


CLICK HERE TO SEE....

"SHARDS" Watercolor

Just finished this abstract watercolor a couple of days ago. It started out looking like a seagull's view of a sail boat race and then became something else. It wasn't pre-planned and I worked out the composition as I went along.

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~ AN INVITATION TO MY ART SHOW ~

Consider this a cordial invitation to come to my art opening on May 1, 2009. You can view or print out this invitation by clicking HERE.

- RANCHO TEHAMA CREEK BED - Watercolor -

Finished this painting today and plan to include it in my art show at The Red Bluff Art Gallery. It's from a field trip last Friday to Rancho Tehama with artist/gallery owner, Phil Dynan. I called it a Cow Safari) and these wild beasts were everywhere.

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~ SPAGETTI ABSTRACT ~

I got this image the other morning, while I was taking a shower. I still haven't decided whether or not I'm happy with it. It was a little bit tricky to paint with watercolor. It measures 9 x 12 inches and is on 140 lb. paper.



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~ AVENUE OF THE GIANTS - WATERCOLOR ~

Here is a smaller watercolor that I painted for the show in May. The Avenue of The Giants is a huge grove of redwoods about an hour south of Eureka, California. When you walk among these trees there is a sense of peace and awe, and you realize that you are in the presence of God's amazing creations. I used a brush-on masking liquid to preserve the lightest areas in the painting, and then slowly built up the values, saving the darks for last. The God-rays were actually made by using a kneaded eraser next to a straight edge. I did this very carefully, to avoid lifting the paper surface. I put in some of the foreground grass details by lifting the color with a small wet brush. The figures were the last thing that I added.
I went back to this location last weekend with a photographer friend and we got some great new shots. Also went to photograph the rugged coastline at Trinidad, CA. Great weekend.





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Painting of "The Backside of Mt. Lassen"

This is a plein air watercolor that I started on location on the backside of Mt. Lassen, a volcano that is about an hour away from where I live. Although I painted it in October of 2007 with a group of Redding artists, I finally got around to finishing it today. I plan to put it in my May 2009 "California Landscapes" show that I'm having at the Red Bluff Art Gallery here in Northern California.

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~ LAGUNA BEACH DRAWING -

I did a drawing today using charcoal pencil on a full sheet of very soft charcoal paper (20 x 23 inches). I did it as a possible study for a watercolor, although I might do it in acrylic. The location is a favorite spot of mine in Laguna Beach, California and there is a painting that I did on that subject several years ago, on this blog (somewhere).


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~ A SELF PORTRAIT ~

I think it's a good thing for an artist to do a self portrait from time to time. Some do it more than others. I've done three or four in my lifetime. This drawing was done in 2004 while I was sitting on our co-op gallery in Ferndale, CA. I used an Eagle draughting pencil on a very unforgiving surface of rough watercolor paper on a block, only because it was the only thing that I had with me at the moment. All you need to do your own is a pencil, paper, and a free standing mirror.....have at it!!!


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~ OUT OF THE PENS OF BABES ~

My granddaughter Grace is five years old and loves to draw. She did this one this morning and calls it "The Beauty Jewell". It's been said that artists go through several phases: (1) drawing as a child (2) developing art skills (3) formal training (4) process of un-learning or breaking the rules, and finally (5) drawing as a child. I guess that could be true.....

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~ CRUCIFIXION DRAWING -

Although I've done drawings of Jesus before, I've never done a drawing of the actual Crucifixion. I did this one today using Corel IX with the pencil, smudge and eraser tool. Did a little bit of touch up with the oil brush also. This one is out of my imagination, since I didn't find any suitable research other than a straight-on view from an old Spanish painting.


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~ A CHARACTER STUDY ~

Old men's faces fascinate me, probably because I own one. I borrowed this guy from a photograph and he reminds me of one that Leonardo did a study of.....you probably have seen that one. I did this drawing in Corel Painter IX using their pencil tool with slight conte tints. Let me know if you do or don't like it..........

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~ A VALENTINE'S DAY DRAWING ~

Maybe it was because of the Dali posting below or maybe it was because I've been sick with the flu all week......but here is my attempt at a Valentine's drawing..........


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- MR. DALI -

I wanted to share this video with you from You Tube. It's one of the best that I've seen on Salvadore Dali. I saw of book of his work in the Glendale, California library when I was very young. Later in 1977 when I was working on a Bette Davis film in Mentor, Ohio, I met an artist Louis Pennfield who asked me if I'd seen the Dali Museum. Turned out that it was a collection of Dali's work that was in a factory in Willoughby, Ohio, just 30 minutes or so from Mentor. A wealthy factory owner had managed to get over 200 of Dali's best paintings and kept them in a special climate controlled, and very large gallery. It was open by appointment only and we arranged to go there. It was a great opportunity to see the paintings that I had only seen in books. A very nice memory. Later on I heard that the factory owner had a falling out with Dali and sold the entire collection, which ended up in Florida.
Louis and I ended up having a two man art show at Lakeland College a year later. Check out Dali's video below. He was one of a kind.

MORE ZAZZLEMANIA!

Since I obviously haven't been posting "a drawing per day"......it's because I've been designing five products per day for my new Zazzle store called "Java_Mod". It's basically different kinds of cups and mugs with "Art" on them. Here's what some of them look like. Again, I've been having way too much fun.......darnit!


make custom gifts at Zazzle

~~~ ZAZZLEMANIA!!! ~~~

This is a fun website and for an artist it's a great tool. If you have jpeg or Tiff images of your work you can set up a store in minutes (or hours) and it's fun besides. You can set up your commission rate (usually 17 to 25% of the listed price) and you don't have to stock anything or deal with customers at all. You can check out Zazzle by clicking hereHERE

Here is a flash panel that they created for my store:


make custom gifts at Zazzle



Their software has been glitch-free and very user friendly. My cousin has had a couple of stores with Zazzle for awhile now and he has been selling his products very consistantly.