Art by Victoria

victoriaart — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 22:56:25 +0000

First things first: I got into my first juried art show! It will be at the Pacific Art League in Palo Alto, CA during the month of February. The piece that I’ve entered is a newer edition of my Bonsai Tree linoleum-cut (very similar to the one that can be seen in my April 8, 2010 blog post, only printed with slightly more detail), and it will be up for sale! Go see it and support my work

On another note, there are times when an artist feels so inspired and motivated to work that a lot gets accomplished practically overnight; then there are times when regardless of how awesome and inspired the project was at first, life happens and projects take what seems like an eternity. This half of the “Putah Creek Bouldering” set has been a definite mix of the two. I love the subject matter combining nature with a passionate sport like climbing, but for whatever reason it was taking me weeks to make any progress at all, and then suddenly over the last couple of days I’ve redone a lot of the first bit, and crunched through most of the rest of the piece. It still needs to be polished up, but you can finally get a good idea of my vision. Obviously I haven’t done much work on the focal point yet; human figures take extra focus and with a lot of graphite going over the rest of the piece, I would fear messing up a lot of work with one big accidental smudge, so it’s being strategically saved for later in the drawing process. Look forward to the finished piece, hopefully within the next week. After that, I have the first piece in the next set 2/3 of the way done, so look forward to that soon as well

Climbing Series – set 3 part 1

victoriaart — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 17:58:11 +0000

Now that I’ve posted a couple of sets of drawings from my climbing series, you probably have a pretty good idea of the style. For the remaining posts then, I’m splitting up each set to feature only one drawing at a time. It sets up a little more fun suspense that way. So here I have the larger ink drawing of set 3 called “Putah Creek Bouldering”; it is about 14″ x 17″. This one is from a picture of my buddy Conor, and it happens to be from the set of pictures that inspired me to start climbing in the first place. The idea of having the endurance and strength to practically stick to a steep overhang like a spider sounded really fun. I wanted to show some climbing technique in this set, and this image was perfect because it had a heel hook. For non-climbers, a heel-hook is where you pull on a climbing hold with the heel rather than pushing on it with the toes. We sometimes joke that if you can’t finish a route, you probably missed a heel hook somewhere. (If you can’t see it from the ink drawing, you should be able to when I post the second and more realistic pencil drawing). On the artistic end of things, I’m getting a little more comfortable with attempting to depict rock in the ink squiggles, making this piece a lot more fun to create. It also makes me feel like I should probably go back and redo some of my ink drawing in set 2, just to polish it up a bit. Feel free to click on the image for a better shot of the detail.

Credits: original artwork based on photo by Michael Howland

Miniatures 2011

victoriaart — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 05:24:35 +0000

Tonight was the opening night of Monterey Museum of Art’s “Miniatures” exhibition and fundraiser! Here was my submission for this year. It’s called “Martini with an Olive” done in ink on paper. It’s a miniature based on a previous piece I did of the same image done in blue ink only, and can be found in my April 16, 2010 post. The exhibition and fundraiser can be seen in the main gallery of the Pacific Street site through the end of the year. Go check em out!

(Cellphone pic – I’ll try to bring a real camera to the artist’s reception in a couple of weeks.)

Rock Climbing Series: set 2

victoriaart — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 20:22:29 +0000

Here’s set 2 of my Rock Climbing Series. The set is called, “Pinnacles: Bits ‘n’ Pieces” after the route that my friend Nikki was climbing in the images. Again, there is one large impression piece done in ink on paper (12.5″ x 18″), and one smaller more realistic piece (4″ x 4.8″) done in graphite on paper. I felt that in this case the smaller piece ended up being a little more successful, so I have it featured first. In both pieces I experimented with a few different techniques. In some places this worked fairly well, and in others not as much. Given the opportunity to do it again, I would probably do the larger piece a little different; though, it definitely gave me a better idea of how to expand and refine the style in future pieces. Feel free to click on the images for a little bit of a closer look. As always, if anyone is interested in buying a print of one of my pieces, send me an e-mail or a Facebook message!

*Credits: Original artwork based around photo by Arlo Hitzemann. Guided climbing trip conducted through Sanctuary Rock Gym, Sand City, CA.

The first of the Rock Climbing Series:

victoriaart — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 22:57:43 +0000

After nearly a year off, I am starting up my art blog again! News first: I am doing the Monterey Museum of Art’s “Miniatures” show again, but I will put up my submission in a later post. Second piece of news is that I’m about half done with my “Rock Climbing” series of both ink and pencil drawings. The first set I will feature in this post. I’m still getting a hang of the style in both mediums since it is unlike anything I’ve ever done before. I’m finding that rock is tremendously difficult to depict, but it’s fun to work with.

The set is called “Pinnacles: Corona” named after the climbing route depicted. Both pieces are self-portraits, the first being an a slightly abstract interpretation done in black ink on paper. It is about 11″ x 15.5″. The second piece is a miniature graphite on paper, roughly 4″ x 5″. If anyone is interested in a print of one of my works, send me an e-mail or a Facebook message. Here they are:

*Credits: Original artwork based around photo by Arlo Hitzemann. Guided climbing trip conducted through Sanctuary Rock Gym, Sand City, CA

“Miniatures” Opening Night

victoriaart — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 04:52:38 +0000

“Miniatures” is now on display at the Monterey Museum of Art, Pacific Street until January 3. Opening night was a ton of fun: lots of people, wine, free hors d’ouevres, and best of all tons of art including one of my drawings! We ran into some friends/acquaintances, and got to chat a bit about the artwork. I’d been counting down to this day since last year’s exhibition closed early this year, so it was cool to finally get to take a peek at which pieces we want to try to get though the raffle-fundraiser, not to mention see my second drawing to be displayed in a museum. I even got my picture taken by the museum staff for their Facebook page. Here are a couple pictures of the event:

(Side note: my only disappointment is that the piece placed above mine is not only a giclee, but it also happens to be the exact same piece that its artist submitted last year. While we definitely thought it was a very cool piece, and it was great to see it again, it was a bit sad to put so much time and effort into my own piece only to see someone else submit a mere copy of an already-seen piece. It is a relatively minor complaint, though considering how competitive it is to get a spot in this show, it might be good if the museum practiced stricter enforcement of submission rules in the future.)

Tulip drawing: final product

victoriaart — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 21:18:03 +0000

Here’s the finished tulip drawing. Just a note: photos will never give you a full appreciation for what the work actually looks like, so if you can, you should come see this drawing on display at the Monterey Museum of Art, Pacific Street during the November 18-January 3 “Miniatures” exhibition, and even participate in the raffle if you want (it’s for a good cause). If anyone has any constructive criticism or suggestions on where I should touch-up the drawing before I turn it in, feel free to leave comments here or on my Facebook page!

MMA “Miniatures” Round 2

victoriaart — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 01:57:57 +0000

Every year the Monterey Museum of Art has an annual holiday exhibition and fundraiser in their Pacific Street main gallery, featuring miniature works from several local artists. At the end of the exhibition, all of the art will be raffled off. This year the exhibition will be on display from November 18 – January 3, and for the second year in a row it will include one of my drawings. If you’re in the area, please stop by, check out the art, and support a good cause.

I’ve been working on a few drawings in different styles and will pick my favorite one for the show. Here I’m putting up couple of shots of the progress for my current project (and so far my favorite out of what I’ve done). I guess this one is a bit self-explanatory, so I’ll spare you the commentary except to say that once it’s finished and framed all nice, my goal is that it’ll look like an artsy-fartsy photograph at first glance. I know I have a long way to go, but I will try to smooth out all the pencil strokes a ton more. If there are any questions, feel free to ask them on either my Facebook, Twitter, or b-uncut page.

Scenic Monterey

victoriaart — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 22:15:33 +0000

Currently I’m working on a couple of projects that don’t really fit into my art blog. First off, I’m finally getting around to cleaning up my portfolio, making fresh prints, and making everything look a little more professional so hopefully I can start submitting to competitions and galleries a little easier and more often. My second project is coming up with another “miniature” for this year’s holiday exhibition at the Monterey Museum of Art. While looking for inspiration for the miniatures show, I took some B&W photos around the Monterey area. I don’t consider myself to be much of a photographer, but it was fun, so I thought I’d put some of the photos in another post here. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish up my current projects soon enough so I can do another piece for this blog. We’ll see how it goes.

Protected: Password available upon request

victoriaart — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 06:06:46 +0000

This post is password protected. You must visit the website and enter the password to continue reading.