Some more recent additions to my 'Wine Series' of paintings for Wine Lovers

I took my sketchbook with me to Reykjavik (Iceland) recently. Here are some 'Urban Sketches':

I am honored to have a 3-Month long Solo Art Show at the City of Seattle's Ethnic Heritage Gallery.

For this show I have created an all-new body of work comprising of 15 'intercultural' paintings that stylistically meld contemporary American Pop Surrealism, classical European Tradition and East-Indian Narrative Expressionism, while inviting philosophical contemplation of hope and the human condition. 

Location: Ethnic Heritage Gallery, THIRD Floor (Arcade Level), Seattle Municipal Tower, 5th and Columbia, Downtown Seattle.
Show runs Jan 17 - April 10. Gallery is open Monday thru Friday 8-6.

Many thanks to the team of Seattle City Employees who helped make this possible: Marta Idowu, Bradley Wilburn, Deborah Paine, and Blake Haygood,  Y'all rock! :)

​A few photos:

Here's a video of me talking about the show, courtesy of Seattle's Office of Arts and Culture:
https://www.facebook.com/SeattleArts/videos/10155297851607780/​

And here are images of the 15 paintings. They look even better in person:

All paintings are 20"x20", Acrylic on Canvas, 2016 or 2017 and will be available for purchase after the show.
​Current price: $795+tax (each). If there is one you want, send me a note and I will put you on the waiting list for that particular painting.

Bonus Trivia:
- I created this new body of work over a period of only 10 weeks. It was a slog, yes!
- The titles of all of these paintings derive from lines of poetry penned by Rabindranath Tagore, the Winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize for Literature (and the first non-European to win the Literature Nobel).
- If you know M. F. Hussain's work, can you spot the influence? :)

Following upon the success of my Coffee-themed series of paintings, I am commencing on a series of whimsical paintings for Wine Lovers. Here are the first ten:

Here's what these paintings look like framed, floating on a black mat in a 15" x 15" black frame that really brings out the colors:

The above paintings are currently priced at $275 framed (less if you want to do your own framing). Also available as 8" x 10" paper prints and as 8" x 8" Limited Edition Metal Prints ($75).

Here's a timelapse video of the painting of Drinking Buddies (see prior blog posts for more time-lapse videos):

Here's a time-lapse painting video of an 8"x8" oil painting:

Some time=lapse videos showing behind-the-scenes art-making:

Anubis-Bot: Ink Drawing on Papyrus Paper

sWine: Oil Painting on Ampersand Gessobord Panel

Elly: Inking outlines on a Watercolor on Paper, using a Pentel Brush Pen

The Imp-Master's Disciple: Acrylic Painting on Canvas

Dino-Riders: Inking on a Watercolor on Paper

This summer I will be part of the City of Kent (WA) Annual Summer Exhibit. The Kent Arts Commission was kind enough to feature me in this little video that will run on Kent's TV network over the next few months. Enjoy!

These are the two paintings I have in this show:

For the month of Feb 2016, I have a solo show on display at the City of Auburn Gallery. This show features 15 new works in Watercolor, the first time I have used Watercolor for a formal show. 

I was initially going to show framed prints of my Robot drawings. However, since the Auburn Gallery features less than 10 hand-picked artists every year, I felt I needed to reciprocate the honor by creating new original works for this show. Having always been interested in Watercolors, I thought I would try combining Watercolors with Pen & Ink to create artwork that was both new, and yet faithful to my original ink drawings.

The first step was conduct a few tests, and I ran into problems right away. Pen & Ink requires paper to be really smooth, whereas Watercolor paper comes in all kinds of textures. Since the watercolors would have to be framed, and framing is expensive, I also discovered I would have to work backwards by finding good+economical frames first, and then creating the artwork to size. After days scouring art and frame shops, I found it was practically impossible to find an intersection point between frame, paper, paper smoothness, and paper thickness for my needs. I finally ended up buying larger sheets of paper that had to be cut to size, which was a laborious process in itself.. 

The photo below shows my first few test pieces, as well as my first test of framing a finished piece. Thankfully the end result looked good and made the effort seem worthwhile!

For the actual pieces, I decided to work assembly-line fashion in the hope of achieving a consistent look across the pieces and also be more efficient about their execution. The following photos show this work in progress.

Creating these pieces is a three step process: 1. The underlying pencil sketch; 2. Adding Watercolor coloring; 3. Inking the outlines. This is what the pieces look like before inking:

Here's a side-by-side showing how much difference inking makes to the work:

Here's a timelapse video of Inking in action:

And one more closeup:

Once the works are dry, it's time to frame them. Framing 15 pieces is no laughing matter! You have to take the frame apart carefully, clean it together, attach the piece to the mat, put the whole thing back, add hanging hardware and wires, and do that over and over again.

And finally it's time to hang the show:

Click through the gallery below to see all the pieces in the show:

The show is up till Feb 26th, 2016. All the works are for sale. If you want to catch the show, it's at the Auburn City Hall, 25 W. Main Street, Auburn. Open M-F 8-5

Many thanks to the City of Auburn, the Auburn Arts Commission, and Auburn Parks & Rec for making this show happen!

And finally, it's in the news:

Here is a step-by-step transformation from sketch to painting:

I am now accepting commissions for 2016. If you have a favorite piece from my Robot-Sketch series (or any other idea you would like to explore), I will be happy to paint that up into a painting. The current commission rate (as of Dec 2015) for a 12" x 16" Acrylic-on-Canvas painting is USD $400 + tax, with discounts for multiples. (Prices expected to steadily increase over time). 

I am delighted to announce my first full-color art book: Happiness Is... A Cup Of Coffee

Read More Here.