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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