Purple Step

Purple Step

12x16 Pastel on Art Spectrum Color Fix

By Tom Willa

$90 matted 16x20

Hi everybody. The tulip series continues. I scouted out some purple tulips growing around town, they became the motivation for a little surrealism. A long time ago when I first started painting, I kept a dream journal (college course assignment) it was fun. Like writers who keep the note pad by the bed you keep your sketch book on the night stand. It was a kick to wake up start drawing subconscious thoughts consolidating them onto a page. I think this is where my habit to wake up start painting immediately and my fine tuning of painting image concept mentally comes from. Well the day has begun to slip away, I have to go the gym for some exercise before the rain storm arrives. Stay dry,stay comfortable and most of all stay happy with you.

Pink Light

Pink Light
8x10 Soft Pastel on Art Spectrum Color fix
by Tom Willa
$65 , $75 framed

April 27th the day after Arts Unlimited art show, it was a very comfortable location at the Taste of the Landing in Renton. We had space in a vacant commercial building with plenty of space. Everyone was most pleasant, the number of people was okay, the reality of showing at a combination event was no sales for us. Our 10x10 space was expanded to 15x10 which makes everyone a lot more comfortable. The hard part about a day like that is getting motivated to paint,again. This made me realize why I paint is to capture the beauty, presenting others with my view of loveliness. So that hurdle seem to vanish quickly and quietly this afternoon. The last couple of days I have been thinking about this painting while getting the framing done. So today I was very enthused about it. I actually did this sitting down on a very small board as an easel. I used a new set of faber-Castell 24 soft pastel Sticks basic colors which I picked up at Daniel Smith while getting framing supplies. I enjoyed painting the blossom on flat surface first because all the pigment stayed on the surface which allowed me to use some nu-pastels to blend them in. I worked the background keeping with the style of my tulip series which turned out pretty good. Finally I need to set up vertically on my easel to make some texture strokes, touch up and additional blending. I may add a few more paintings to the series because I enjoyed doing this paintin a lot and we went for a nice walk and saw some more really beautiful blossoms.

Pink Delight

Pink Delight
4x6 Photograph
by Tom Willa

Today I spent most of the day in the framing workshop preparing The Arts Unlimited Art Show Date: Sunday, April 26Time: 10 am - 4 pm (there will be a 5K race that starts at 9:30 am)Location: The Landing is located off exit 5 on I-405. It's a new urbanvillage development in Renton - just south of Lake Washington.The Arts Unlimited Art Show is scheduled to be located in an empty retail-space on block east of the intersection of N 10th Street and Logan Ave N at the round-a-bout.

I needed to get several pieces into frames. My commitment to painting had to go to the back burner for a couple of days. I have decided to post a photo from my visit to the garden this morning. I will work on turning Pink Delight into a painting once I get all my framing for the show completed.

Royal Reds

Royal Red Tulips
8x10 Soft Pastel on Art Spectrum Color fix
By Tom Willa
$65 matted to fit 11x14 frame

We had another sunny day. Spring may have arrived. Here is number three in the tulip series. I am working on getting my fuchsia recovered beside painting these days. I have decided that I am going to do a give away once I finish this series of tulips. My plan is to post my the details here and on my face book wall. I let you know how to sign up once I get the next two paintings create. Have a great day, stay healthy, be happy.

Floating Tulips

Floating Tulips

9x12 Soft Pastel on Art Spectrum Color fix

$50

by Tom Willa

Today was an uplifting experience. I have been hiding away from the easel, I'm glad to be back. One could consider this my second in a series of painting about tulips. Tulips are huge here in the Northwest, they are short lived but abound around the Sound. My goal is to paint 5 in this series so keep you eye out.

Tom Willa, Graphics

CD Cover

by Tom Willa

It is spring, some days here in the Northwest. I painted a couple of fuchsia paintings last summer. I used the photo as a reference. I applied for a graphics job last week, I am thinking about posting an online portfolio. This creation is a little tidbit I made a couple of days, ago as an asset for that. I want it to be attention grabber also it should represent what I see as beauty. The photo is good, vertical text for effect, with contact info, a basic three layout. I like the photo series a lot. One or a combination of them may become an inspiration for a large studio painting.

Gathering Glass Artist, Cross Processed

Gathering

Photograph

By Tom Willa

This photograph was tweaked to resemble cross processing from back in the days of wet processing. It was a practice which added saturation to the blacks and caused some shifting in other colors. I also am trying to figure how to create a glass blowing photo alblum in Picasa, making them available on my blog or from my facebook. It is kind like driving somewhere knowing where you want to get with any specific directions.