Art Show at the Collage Gallery

"Bodhisattva Altar"

©Anahid, 2014

mixed-media assemblage box

Anahid is artist of the month at the Collage Gallery in Potrero Hill

Exhibit runs April 1 - 29, 2014
Opening Reception: Friday April 4, 2014
6 - 9 p.m.

1345 -18th Street, (near Missouri)

San Francisco, CA 94107

(415)282-4401

www.collage-gallery.com

Art making connects me to my soul and spirit

and I hope the viewer can do some of the same.

Contemplation-2

©Anahid 2012 - Acrylics, graphite and inks on wood panel with wooden frame.

This piece is a variation on the first Contemplation collage I posted in November 2011.  This is how this image of feminine contemplation/meditation evolved first from a sketch inspired by a sculpture, to a mixed-media collage and now a simple and understated drawing/painting on wood. This is not a painting though in the usual sense, the acrylics are used like watercolors, very thin and watery so as not to overwhelm the drawing element. I am usually very fond of intense and saturated colors layered on top of each other, but here I enjoy the simple line drawing as an expression of her serenity. We all need some serenity in this crazy world.

I don't know yet if I'll continue this particular series or not, we'll see what the muses bring....

Contemplation

©Anahid  2011- 'Contemplation' 

mixed-media with collage and drawing on textured paper, 
mounted and framed, 30"X16

This piece evolved from a drawing I made in my sketchbook based on a statue of a woman Buddha or (Buddhita as I call them) in the Asian Art Museum. This drawing changed quite a bit when I drew it again on a larger scale as you can see. The process of artmaking is fascinating to me, how images evolve, how they appear in the first place, sometimes as a faint vision which won't quit until you make it visible. It's almost like they have a life of their own, they do.
 

@Anahid 2011

Here's the first drawing I did inspired by the statue, which by the way looked very different from this sketch.

I am now doing another version of this image on a wooden surface with a great wooden frame. I will post it soon, it's a work in progress.

She Who Watches - the evolution of a painting

©Anahid-2011 - 'She Who Watches' -mixed media on wood with shells 28"X24"

(click on image for a larger view)

This piece started with a pencil drawing I had done a few years back of a woman pushing back her covers like she was getting out of bed. One day I was looking through my sketchbook and thought it would be nice to use that drawing in a painting. I had a large piece of found plywood that lends itself to collage and assemblage of all kinds. 

So I traced the drawing onto the wood that had been gessoed white on the top right hand corner; the rest was gessoed with clear gesso so as as to retain the natural wood grain which inspired some of the painting, and the rest of the elements just kind of fell into place one by one.